they could also experiment around making shields more distinct from each other. if you look at it, most shields function the same. they all ofc shield you for a similar amount, they all have a **ludicrously long durations **and the only thing that differentiates them from each other is the effects they give which are btw all passive stats, that are given to your adc. maybe they could look into:
- how shields are applied ( travel time / skillshots / single target vs aoe )
- how strong the shield should be in reference to its duration
- what unique effect shields can have that are not just passive stats
- if shields could have deeper interactions with the support´s kit
for example, I really like how taric´s shield links you to your ally, which is a unique mechanic that goes beyond just giving your ally more effective health and enables room for synergy and skill expression. you might get that shield onto your ally 100% of the time but it´s not guaranteed that you will manage to line up your E perfectly and it´s therefore very rewarding when you manage to cover a huge area with your E and stun multiple people at once.
enchanters in general:
enchanters have always faced multiple problems one of them being that their kits are simply too reliable and don´t offer much room for failure. this reliability creates another problem namely that enchanters can´t have great offensive capabilities without them immediately becoming overbearing ( the lulu phenomenon ) . therefore enchanters are mostly focused on defensive playstyles, which still doesn´t solve the issue, and giving passive stats like health, shields, ad, on-hit dmg to the carry while leaving the correct use of cc as the only determining factor for performing good or bad as a support. But looking deeper into it will reveal that even that aspect is limited since applying cc is reduced to mostly reactive rather than proactive playstyles, which further undermines the skill expression of enchanters and also the enjoyment a support player can get by playing enchanters. which leads to the next problem that the support-role, even when adjusted and improved upon, just isn´t fun because the game itself does not support the core mentality behind the support role of helping others. in a game where it´s all about killing the enemy and destroying buildings, it´s just logical that the role with the least amount of dmg will be the most undesired. the more supportive your playstyle is the less dmg you end up having and enchanters are just at one end of the spectrum, where everything they do is centered around winning the game no matter how boring the act of acquiring said victory may be to the player.
i will now give a quick rundown on most enchanters:
**Soraka:
**
pretty much everything you said. removing the center from here q, reducing its range and making it so that she can´t heal from multiple hits was a terrible mistake. It added reliability where it wasn´t needed and removed a large portion of skill expression from her kit. they then also raised the W cd which resulted in players stopping putting points into the Q which made her playstyle even more passive since there is now no (less) incentive to poke in lane anymore.
Janna
you also made a good point there and your suggestion would be surely a welcomed addition. i would say the big problem with janna is that she plays very reactive even for enchanter standards. it is very hard and not worth the effort trying to land a fully charged tornado in an attempt to engage with it. most of the time you will poke or engage with W and while you keep your Q to stop engages and in this case, you will use it almost instantly. Maybe she could get more range to set her Q so it becomes easier to cut off escape routes with it and hopefully encourages her to use her Q more offensively.
Lulu
is probably the definition of "putting everything on my carry and then leave". you are basically a walking item for your carry with all the stats your giving him. even though it´s not like there is no skill expression in her kit. it is just that it is all in situational awareness and when to use which spells and nothing in the actual execution of your skills. lulu really suffers from the fact that all her skills are point and click and that her gameplay relies mainly on latching onto your carry and infusing him with passive stats. the problem is i actually like pretty much all of her skills on paper. they can all be used aggressively or defensively and have a multitude of synergies with different champs. but they are all instant and targeted which leaves next to no room for error, which makes her boring to play.
sona
i have to admit i haven´t played her that often. nevertheless, i noticed that even though your passive encourages you to cycle through your skills for additional effects it takes really long till you can actually do that in quick succession. I found myself using the empowered auto-attack in lane most of the time because i didn´t want to "waste" my passive on anything else, since it took so long and ate so much mana in the early game. maybe additionally to making her Q a skillshot they could lower her cds and mana costs (lowering the power accordingly) and put more emphasis on her passive, make her empowered abilities stronger to make her more "arcady" to play.
All in all, there is a lot that can be done to make enchanters more interesting to play, but the problems don´t only lie in the kits themselfes, but also the role in general and i don´t know if riot will ever be able to fix this isssue sufficiently.
