One role down, four to go; in this series continuation of the season 6 breakdown we head down south to understand the role of the o-so vital support. Did Riot make mediocre changes? Or were they worth a Zilean bucks?
The Support
The 5.22 Marksmen update left half the botlane in dynamic disarray. However much like yin and yang, a change in the marksmen garnered a change in their fundamental partner, the one and only support. Throughout most of league history, barring the double bruiser botlane, the role of support has been critical to the success of their ad counterpart the marksmen; albeit much less appreciated, the entirety of a botlane’s success could be traced back to the heavy impacts supports had in the game. In the words of famous Youtube Comedian Sky Williams, “Attack Damage Carries? More like Attack Damage B**** Until Late Game I Guess” to be sure any attack damage carry wouldn’t be worth their salt without the support at their side.
So how has the new season impacted the Moms of botlane? Often the least desirable role in solo que, many a player can relate to the last pick (which may soon be a thing of the past due to dynamic que) instantly typing “can’t support”, “fill but no support”, “if I support I feed” or any one of those combinations of words, people simply didn’t want to play support because it just wasn’t Fun; it was left to, and I check my privilege and social appropriation when I say this duo bot couples, my “GF” (lets be real) or someone with a knack for Stockholm syndrome to tack on those heals, stuns and snares whilst living with the abusive ADC rhetoric that started with “this noob support”, and cumulated with an instant AFK if you simply took a single piece of farm. Support mains were far and few in between and most of them only played Thresh because he was cool and Blitzcrank for the MLG highlight reels and even then, high level support players weren’t generally found until you reached the apexes of the solo-que ladder. More often than not, lower elo players might find themselves paired with a “support” Nidalee who just happened to “accidently” buy Deathcap first.
In a game like League of Legends and indeed any multiplayer game at all, why would you play a role where your goal is to Save people when you could have so much more enjoyment sending them back to the fountain?
With this in mind, it’s unarguable that Riot throughout the years has tried and to a certain extent, succeeded in innovating the botlane, something to make the role or support more attractive, and season six is no exception.
Masteries
A Mutuality for almost every role, the S6 Masteries were created to spice up the mix. Supports who had long relied on the utility mastery tree, which generally focused on things such as move speed, gold gen, experience, were now presented with, like every role, a choice of a keystone mastery. Gone was the utility tree of old whose focus was never to be the aggressor; in place came the unique, and most popular cunning tree and at the very top it’s keystone fruit “Thunder Lords Decree”. Coupled with its root the precision mastery, Thunder Lords Decree is irrefutably the strongest mastery at season six’s introduction period. The versatile burst can be blended with burst supports, tank supports, Shaco supports (please don’t) and simply proves to be such an effective trading tool in lane. However that’s not all. Supports now have the opportunity with the intelligence mastery to go beyond the 40% cdr cap with a 5% boosts, which when reminded that most supports have hard CC spells, shields or heals, is a MASSIVE bonus. Mastery variety is also furthered with the introduction of Wind Speakers Blessing, which grants an armor buff and heal buff to the shields and heals a support provides, single handedly making Soraka one of the most disgusting champions in the game second only to Rengar. Lastly Bond of Stone in the resolve tree, which not only grants percentage damage reduction to the player, which in itself is absurd, but also transfers damage from a nearby ally to you, turning supports from simple squires to Big Shield Gardna. Coupled further with vision changes supports have been given an expanded field of play and these advances will only bring further revolutions to bot lane play.
Spooky Ghosts
As mentioned in the Marksmen article, the release of new items has also made an unprecedented impact on many game mechanics. Moreover, although a massive impact to the marksmen meta was established, support changes have occurred to a lesser extent. The three new “eye” items have now been introduced as an upgrade to Ancient Coin, Spell Thief’s Edge, and Relic Shield. These items, eye of the Oasis, Watchers and Equinox respectively, offer one bonus warding charge to the now nerfed sightstone, along with similar stats such as cooldown, health and maintaining its gold gen passive. Although a neat introduction, these items are relatively lack luster in comparison with its higher-end active effect counter parts. However an item that has certainly proved to be snow joke is Frost Queens Claim, colloquially known as “YES I LIVED! OH GOD NO SPOOKY GHOST!” or the most obnoxious item in the game. Riot taking a page out of DOTA’s book, combined this item with the now defunct twin shadows, giving it one of the strongest actives in the game, a whopping 40% slow for a maximum of 5 seconds and a reveal… that goes through stealth, barring you reveal them before they stealth. Built on midlaners and supports alike, FQC has dominated the opening stages of the season due to its utility and simple gold efficiency. Retaining its passive of gold generation per five seconds as well as gold for damaging and opposing champion the item has crested in popularity and remains one of the most impactful yet.
iPod, iPhone… iVision
Season six also brought along sweeping reforms in the department of vision. Introduced originally in Season 4 and the preseason, trinkets have been a pivotal part of the game in providing vision for those who more often than not “forget” to buy wards. Vision of the map is one of the most important mechanics in League of Legends and can often be the deciding factor of many games. This impact was felt in the 5.22 preseason patch when stealth wards or green wards were simply removed from the game, vision items aforementioned in replacement, as well as charges granted on trinkets and a reduction on the price of pink wards. The subsequent changes have led to a much larger macro vision game with focus on controlling objective points and scouting using trinkets, as well as early game vision and lane security found within the yellow trinket charges. From the lens of a support, the early vision changes have now shifted their weight to be evenly divided amongst the team as well as eliminating the “pink wards are too expensive” excuse, ensuring the responsibility of vision to be a mutual one.
Champion Diversity and Conclusion
To be brutally frank, if, at the midpoint of Season Five anyone told me that Trundle or Poppy support would be a thing, I’d probably voluntary admit myself (and them) to a sanitarium. It was simply so ludicrous to think Trundle the troll or Is-She-Even-A-Champion Poppy could be played anywhere let alone a role crucial as a support. Nonetheless, a short rewind to the closing days of the EU LCS came the introduction of Trundle support. Concocted by the one and only Bora "YellOwStaR" Kim formerly of Fnatic, Trundle support would soon become a staple of the meta game with him stealing resistances, altering terrain and generally existing as a great nuisance. Moreover, as frustrating as it is to deal with the king of the trolls botlane and even worse the new reworked Poppy, the diversity that it brings is only a good sign for the future of Summoner’s rift. With a steady beating heart of innovation, its unquestionable that Season Six has more surprises in store; perhaps this will be the fated season in which a role so long shunned will see the light of love and play, maybe your next game be filled with a want to play the role support. And perhaps not, but hey you’ll never know if you keep sitting here reading this wonderfully written article. So what are you waiting for? Like this post, send it to your friends and… I mean hop on to your computer, laptop, or toaster of choice, pick your favorite support champion, or even invent a new one (AP Xin Zhao support) and get prepared to pen another page, chapter, another year, of League of Legends.
