Rather than utility scaling with AP, it should scale with a completely new stat

Mister Support·Jan 18, 2017·6 votes·725 views

I don't have any ideas for an exact number for ratios or items (that's for riot to decide). But the general idea is having both damage and utility scale with ability power creates a risky situation for certain champions to be too powerful in both categories when ahead, but dangerously weak when behind. With a new stat for utility to scale off of, the former would be little to no worry since it would be difficult to get excess amounts of AP and this new stat. It will also allow for much more dedicated utility itemization that will be good for supports, tanks, and utility mages that doesn't overlap too hard with damage dealers.

Thoughts?

14 Comments

Big LincolnJan 18, 20172 votes

utility shouldn't scale at all.

I think, barring heals and shields (maybe not even those) it should all be level dependant. CC, speed boosts, debuffs - all of it.

Dark NephthysJan 18, 20172 votes

[{quoted}](name=Big Lincoln,realm=NA,application-id=A8FQeEA8,discussion-id=Flp4AETa,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2017-01-18T20:04:20.601+0000)

utility shouldn't scale at all.

I think, barring heals and shields (maybe not even those) it should all be level dependant. CC, speed boosts, debuffs - all of it.

Then you probably won't see utility supports anymore and the support role would be nothing but mages. Well...not that support isn't already mostly mages now anyways Annie Lux Morgana Velkoz Zilean Zyra

Big LincolnJan 18, 20171 votes

utility supports suck because they need items and XP to scale

only requiring XP makes it easier for everyone

LostFr0stJan 18, 20172 votes

You think the most exp-starved role should scale with exp? To what end would that work? It would just make them completely useless if behind.

Big LincolnJan 18, 20171 votes

as opposed to being even more worthless when behind because they need levels and items and have neither?

AlzonJan 18, 20172 votes

That's why it's good for supports to have a one-point wonder, like Taric's W. Unfortunately, most supports don't have this. Riot might want to change that.

Illâoi Evê SiônJan 19, 20172 votes

What if Utility scaled with the target's level?

LostFr0stJan 19, 20171 votes

Hmmm... Windspeaker's already does this, so I don't see why not for allied utility abilities. Would be worried about targeted on enemies though. Maybe it would balance out with their allies' increased utility?

ArakadiaJan 19, 20171 votes

Well than utility supports, and supports in general, need more access to xp.

SpoofghoulJan 19, 20171 votes

utility scaling with a stat, any stat is fine

however

as far as supports are concerned there is a problem with utility scaling with stats in general

and that is, stats cost gold, and supports don't have any, this is why utility champions have always been played as support, because said utility did not scale other then with ability ranks for the most part, but mostly in the cooldown department and cdr has always been plenty available in sup itemization

for this reason they were not reliant on gold and only mildy reliant on xp, and therefore the perfect ''class'' to put botlane with another class whos mostly reliant on gold only

making utility scale with stats for which gold is required brings all kinds of problems

for example supports wont have enough utility untill they get their items, if one side snowballs one sup has utility while the other sup lacks

not only will life be more difficult for them in general but once they fall behind they fall behind twice as fast

so before we do a utility scaling with stats implementation of any kind we need to address support resource income

Mister SupportJan 19, 20171 votes

The thing is, if a new stat is made specifically for utility, it can be given a very high gold efficiency since it would be hard to abuse by damage dealers with excess gold, and could be tailored for support gold-income specifically.

SpoofghoulJan 19, 20171 votes

I see your point and it might very well work, but might just take a lot more work then fixing the support income problem, either could fix it and a special uility stat can be implemented after anyway and be worked on more slowly through new champs and reworks

My only issue with a utility stat is that it could still cause balance problems when supports are played outside of the support position Lulu is a great example of that, and personally ive played champions like Braum, Taric and Alistar in top and jungle as well . How would you see that work out, supports would gain their gold much quicker in such positions and with greater gold efficiency they could maybe snowball through utility or something

I had a game recently where an Ivern did this by building Redemption, Locket and Athenes, while the rest of us had 2 items at best and most of the carries only had one and a half item every time the Ivern ganked it was tower diving for days with the shields and heals and all the cc and slows

He had a lot of defensive stats and sustain for the gold spent and utility out the ass buffing everyone up and there was little our enemies could do to stop this

So that is something to consider, i am not at all against a utility stat, but i think it is an unlikely idea considering the need to do so much work on so many champions and then redoing and inventing new items, testing them and balancing them, that is preseason material ^^

However fixing support income is something which might be achievable before then after which it is much easier to fine tune the utility they have around stats they would already buy, and slow and steadily implement a new utility stat through reworks etc

However besides all this there is one other problem, build diversity for some of those supports could suffer.

Also Riot has been exploring ''utility'' stats, like % healing and shielding increase for example already exist

So this is something we will probably see more of in the future alongside new forms of utility

Which is something i would really like to see

Mister SupportJan 20, 20171 votes

I feel like an overall stat would be better than the current % healing and shield increase mentioned, just because that also effects items (see Redemption & Locket having scaling potential).

In terms of a support going to other lanes and over-saturating on the new stat, that option is already an issue with AP. The thing is, since AP increases both Damage and Utility, they lower the ratios for the utility end so it isn't too high. But with a new stat, it would be a decision between Damage OR Utility. They could choose to be really strong in one or the other, or in the middle of both with a mixed build

Does that sound better?