Vyn I wanted to ask you a bit about some of the "weirder" supports we see in worlds; 
Kennen and Shen. I main Shen in soloq and I thought playing him support would be a good alternative to flex or if someone's being unreasonable and demanding top after Ive locked him in. And I've tried Kennen support and I actually really enjoyed his style (Never liked him as a solo laner, but did like him as an ADC).
How do they fare in soloq and are they worth practicing?
Kennen and Shen. I main Shen in soloq and I thought playing him support would be a good alternative to flex or if someone's being unreasonable and demanding top after Ive locked him in. And I've tried Kennen support and I actually really enjoyed his style (Never liked him as a solo laner, but did like him as an ADC).How do they fare in soloq and are they worth practicing?
Both are situational picks but are worth practising for the right situations, sure.
Shen support requires a certain level of communication as his laning phase isn't as strong, and you can't just use your ult reactively and leave your adc 1v2. You need to first set up your own wave so that your adc won't immediately get punished either through a freeze or a dive, or you need to have an ADC that is an expert at 1v2 lanes (Ezreal, post-6 Corki, sivir).
Kennen can work with any aggressive lane but only really excels with Kalista as it gives an extra gap closer/defensive mechanism. Without it, he is incredibly susceptible to all-ins.
Shen support requires a certain level of communication as his laning phase isn't as strong, and you can't just use your ult reactively and leave your adc 1v2. You need to first set up your own wave so that your adc won't immediately get punished either through a freeze or a dive, or you need to have an ADC that is an expert at 1v2 lanes (Ezreal, post-6 Corki, sivir).
Kennen can work with any aggressive lane but only really excels with Kalista as it gives an extra gap closer/defensive mechanism. Without it, he is incredibly susceptible to all-ins.
I can't say which supports will end up dominating, but from my experience on the PBE, here are the issues that may cause changes for people to think about:
1. The gold generation, mana regen, and health regen on talisman of ascension, Frost Queen's Claim and face of the mountain and their Sightstone upgrades have dramatically increased. This means fewer times having to go back to base to refill the mana bar and with the reduction in the amount of money spent on wards means that supports will have a lot more gold to work with than they did before.
2. You can only own one gold generation item, so if you choose to build a tier 3 support item (e.g. talisman of ascension, Frost Queen's Claim, or face of the mountain), then your only choice for a Sightstone upgrade is the rather lackluster Ruby Sightstone (now gives 500 health and 10% CDR on item actives). I think that most people will eschew the tier 3 support items and just get the Sightstone upgrades. However, the new Frost Queen's Claim is terrific and obviously talisman of ascension has its wonderful active. In low ELO games, supports might not build the Sightstone's at all and just choose to build the tier 3 support items, but I think this will be a grave mistake. Stealth Wards are if anything more valuable since they're going to be rarer.
3. The new masteries are going to change things. I already talked about how the new masteries are going to positively affect Soraka. But there are lots of other mastery combinations for tank supports, healing supports, and mage supports.
4. The additional gold that supports are going to get will make a lot of other characters more viable. I've liked playing Zyra support for a long time, knowing that she starts off weaker but having the hope that if the game goes long, she'll turn into a massive hypercarry. Well, now, she gets so much gold that she scales at almost the same rate as laning champions. I'm sure other damage focused mages will find a similar benefit from all the gold. Also, tanky supports are going to get *more* tanky with all the gold they'll have to use on items.
5. Kind of related to #4, but I do think that some other characters may find a profitable return to the support role. I just played a game as Lulu and with Pix proc'ing an extra Tribute charge on her auto-attacks, she deals quite a bit more harassment damage and gets quite a lot more gold. It wouldn't surprise me if Karma makes a return to the support role because she'll have more gold to work with there than she used to.
1. The gold generation, mana regen, and health regen on talisman of ascension,
Frost Queen's Claim and face of the mountain and their Sightstone upgrades have dramatically increased. This means fewer times having to go back to base to refill the mana bar and with the reduction in the amount of money spent on wards means that supports will have a lot more gold to work with than they did before.2. You can only own one gold generation item, so if you choose to build a tier 3 support item (e.g. talisman of ascension,
Frost Queen's Claim, or face of the mountain), then your only choice for a Sightstone upgrade is the rather lackluster Ruby Sightstone (now gives 500 health and 10% CDR on item actives). I think that most people will eschew the tier 3 support items and just get the Sightstone upgrades. However, the new Frost Queen's Claim is terrific and obviously talisman of ascension has its wonderful active. In low ELO games, supports might not build the Sightstone's at all and just choose to build the tier 3 support items, but I think this will be a grave mistake. Stealth Wards are if anything more valuable since they're going to be rarer.3. The new masteries are going to change things. I already talked about how the new masteries are going to positively affect Soraka. But there are lots of other mastery combinations for tank supports, healing supports, and mage supports.
4. The additional gold that supports are going to get will make a lot of other characters more viable. I've liked playing
Zyra support for a long time, knowing that she starts off weaker but having the hope that if the game goes long, she'll turn into a massive hypercarry. Well, now, she gets so much gold that she scales at almost the same rate as laning champions. I'm sure other damage focused mages will find a similar benefit from all the gold. Also, tanky supports are going to get *more* tanky with all the gold they'll have to use on items.5. Kind of related to #4, but I do think that some other characters may find a profitable return to the support role. I just played a game as
Lulu and with Pix proc'ing an extra Tribute charge on her auto-attacks, she deals quite a bit more harassment damage and gets quite a lot more gold. It wouldn't surprise me if Karma makes a return to the support role because she'll have more gold to work with there than she used to.
@MungoGeri
I don't have much time to type out an in-depth response (because it's 7 am here and I have to leave for uni), but:
* Frost Queen's Claim is still terrible, can't see much reason why one would prefer that over Eye of the Watchers (or why one would upgrade it to begin with)
* More gold income will not suddenly turn weak champions into strong ones. Zyra will stay mediocre because of other factors (i.e. her terrible mobility and base stats).
@OTG: I'll get back to that later, will require lots of theorycrafting and playing so I can't provide any response to this till I've had at least one day to play on this patch.
I don't have much time to type out an in-depth response (because it's 7 am here and I have to leave for uni), but:
*
Frost Queen's Claim is still terrible, can't see much reason why one would prefer that over Eye of the Watchers (or why one would upgrade it to begin with)* More gold income will not suddenly turn weak champions into strong ones. Zyra will stay mediocre because of other factors (i.e. her terrible mobility and base stats).
@OTG: I'll get back to that later, will require lots of theorycrafting and playing so I can't provide any response to this till I've had at least one day to play on this patch.
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