3 supports, the new metagame?

[quote=Daanowntje]Hello ladies and gentlemen! A while ago, me and some friends were bored and decided to try something new. We queued a normal game as 5 man and picked 5x supports. It went so well that we won the game within 20 minutes! I got so enthousiastic about this new setup that I decided to write a guide about it, while bringing the setup down to 3 supports and 2 ADs. However, I'm even more enthousiastic to hear other people's opinions and some theorycrafting about this setup. On my guide's page people aren't commenting very often (about 4 out of 1000 views), therefore I decided to address the forums to temper my everlasting curiousity. In the following text I'll do my best to summarize the information necessary for discussion so you don't have to read through my guide. [color=#1589FF]The setup[/color] Mid lane: AP Soraka ([[exhaust]] and [[flash]]) and Sona ([[clarity]] and [[flash]] with blue at the start) Bot lane: Taric/Alistar ([[Clairvoyance]] and [[flash]]) and Graves Top lane: Garen Now, for the average LoL player this would seem ridiculous and they would stop reading right here. But please, believe me, I know what I'm talking about and I'm able to argument as to why it works: Also keep in mind while reading, that we'll have the element of surprise on our side. Nobody knows how to anticipate on this setup, giving us an advantage that you shouldn't underestimate. [color=#1589FF]As you can see from the setup, Bot lane and Top lane will be fighting the usual metagame. This means that the strength of this setup lies in getting mid turrets down in no time with [[soraka]] and [[sona]]. While being almost ungankable. But how is this possible?[/color] [b]1)[/b] [color=green]Crazy pressure[/color]: AP soraka eats minion waves for breakfast (about 2 starcalls will kill them), causing constant pressure to the mid turret. [color=red]REMEMBER:[/color] Soraka gets [[starcall]] at level one. [b]2)[/b] [color=green]Unfair advantage:[/color] We will be 2v1 against an AP carry trying to harras us but only going out of mana and getting twice the damage back by doing so. [b]3)[/b] [color=green]Ungankable:[/color] If their jungler comes to gank you it will end up in a 2v2: We (the 2 supports) vs them (the jungler and the low HP low mana AP carry). We'll easily win this. [b]4)[/b] [color=green]Insane durability:[/color]The supports will be full hp and mana most of the time due to Sona’s blue, Clarity, Infuse and the heals. [color=red]REMEMBER:[/color] Sona should get [[Aria of Perseverance]] at level one! [color=#1589FF]How can we afford to overextend so much?[/color] This is simply because ganks by their junglers will end up in a 2v2 fight: our 2 supports versus their jungler and AP carry. Our two supports will easily win this fight. First of all supports are very strong early game. Secondly, the supports will be on full health and mana while their AP carry will most likely be low on mana and HP by then, due to the continuous harassing. This makes it a 1,5v2 instead of a 2v2, in our advantage. We'll also have exhaust to prevent the jungler's damage and we'll have 2 flashes. [color=#1589FF]What about ganks from other lanes?[/color] As long as they will be called by our team they shouldn’t cause a threat to our overextending supports at mid. Remember that if there’s only one missing and you know where their jungler is (probably dead :P), you can keep pushing since it will end up in a 2v2 again. [color=#1589FF]How do we get turrets down so fast?[/color] Because of Soraka's insane pushing with [[starcall]], she kills minion waves in 2-3 hits while not going out of mana. Therefore, the mid turret should be down within the first 5 minutes. Just keep autoattacking the turret eventhough their AP carry tries to damage you, you’ll probably outheal him anyways and he will end up getting out of mana. Also keep in mind, that the rule to success is to make sure you don’t get hit by the turret and lose all your momentum! This can slow down things severely. After the first turret is down, keep pushing to the second turret unless there are people missing from other lanes. Once the 2 mid turrets are down start helping other lanes and [color=yellow]Mid game[/color] will begin. [color=#1589FF]But what if the opponent decides to put 2 champions on mid as well?[/color] This is probably their only chance at prolonging the game. If they decide to do so, our 2 supports will simply play a bit more defensive while getting soraka farmed and harassing them (sona and soraka can harras like a boss). Eventually the 2 supports will outlast mid lane cause of infinite mana/ health and proper harrassing. The second advantage we have if they put 2 champs mid, is that their other lanes will be unbalanced. Their jungler will have to stop jungling to compensate for putting 2 champs mid (or he himself will have to help mid). If he doesn't do that, they will have 1 person bot or 0 persons top, depending on the lane that helps mid. [color=#ff8000]Now that we understand the basics of this setup, I’ll be explaining you the concept that this setup is based on, which is the most important part of discussion:[/color] [b]Our [color=#ff0000]potential[/color] disadvantage from the normal metagame would be:[/b] [b]1)[/b] Sona and Soraka sharing experience on mid lane, while their AP carry gets the full experience. [b]2)[/b] Sona getting 0 farms due to Soraka, while their jungler would normally get properly farmed in the jungle. [b]However, the only way for them to prevent mid getting destroyed at the start (eventhouh this will happen eventually anyways), would be having their jungler put on lane. This [color=green]turns the tides[/color] completely:[/b] [b]1)[/b] They will now be sharing experience in the mid lane AS WELL. [b]2)[/b] They will now BOTH have low farms due to their turrets stealing the last hits, versus Soraka getting full farmed. [b]3)[/b] We’re rendering one of their summoner spells useless: [[smite]] [b]4)[/b] Sona can perform well without farms because she's a support, whereas their AP carry and jungler will get smashed mid game due to low farms. [b]And if their jungler continues jungling, we'll have the following scenario to our advantage:[/b] [b]1)[/b] Mid turret will be down in no time due to the 2v1, giving us gold and map advantage. [b]2)[/b] We can almost completly deny their AP carry from last hits, while AP Soraka gets pretty much all last hits with her starcall, giving us another gold advantage. [b]3)[/b] And lastly, from experience, I can also say their AP carry will die at least once or twice during the turret pushing process at mid, denying himself from experience and giving us a third gold advantage. [h1][color=yellow]Mid game[/color][/h1] [color=#1589FF]How are things looking by now?[/color] [b]1)[/b] We will have 2 mid turrets down, giving our 2 supports plenty of time to push other lanes. [b]2)[/b] Their AP carry will have close to 0 farms. The turret got most of his last hits. Bet he won't even dare to get in last hit range after he sees how hard you can harras ^^ [b]3)[/b] The opponent's jungling will be completely messed up. Betting you a 100 bucks he tried to gank our 2 supports at mid and failed. He also won't have his blue from the start. This altogether gives us a huge advantage, assuming our bot and top lane played the normal metagame defensively and haven’t failed. Now that we have the advantage, we should be able to finish the game with ease. But our setup is not only strong early game, it also is midgame. [color=#1589FF]So what makes our setup so powerful midgame you wonder?[/color] One answer: AP soraka. Mid game AP soraka will still be one of the star-players of the team. But why is she so good in this setup? The strength of AP soraka in a teamfight comes from being able to hit as many opponents as possible with [[starcall]]. Normally this would mean soraka has to stand almost in the middle of their team if she wants to hit all of the opponents, which would be suicide. But since there’s 2 other supports healing soraka, while soraka having 2 of her own heals, including the life gained from spellvamped starcall, it is now possible to overextend like that and take full advantage of AP [[starcall]]. There will also be sona and taric’s stun, alistar’s knockups or her own silence for protecting Soraka. This, and Soraka’s half-defensive gear will make her able to take damage, while doing a lot more damage in return. Do not go in first as soraka though, try having garen/alistar/taric going first. Our other 2 supports and our full-farmed AD-carries will also be doing massive damage, while being tankish enough. The only real squishy target will be graves. That's all the information we need for discussion! I understand that this may all seem very unrealistic, but you'll only understand the true extent of what I'm saying if you've tried the setup yourself. Any criticism, theocrafting, suggestions and what not in the comments below, thanks for reading![/quote]

[quote=caucheka]i had a game once where we had twitch, janna, taric, sona, soraka. twitch nevar die pentakill all day.[/quote]

[quote=Wintermond]3 Supports metagame would kill LoL, please don't even come up with such ideas. It would easily be countered by double ap.[/quote]

[quote=omagma]So getting my friends to try this![/quote]

[quote=Daanowntje][quote=Wintermond] 3 Supports metagame would kill LoL, please don't even come up with such ideas. It would easily be countered by double ap. [/quote] Not very rational what you're saying there: I shouldn't be pointing out a flaw because it would ruin the metagame? I'd say this would be Riot's fault rather than mine. Even if this setup ends up being very powerful it will most likely get fixed, or people will learn how to anticipate on it, and meanwhile it would still be possible to ban Soraka from ranked. As for double AP, in normal games you'll hardly see those. But in draft pick (ranked) it would indeed be a very decent opponent. I'd still say the supports have the advantage early game though, plus they have more sustainability, but i'd have to try it out some time to see how it goes^^[/quote]

[quote=The_Nameless_Bard]My personal idea for a new metagame: Tank (someone like Shen or Leona) + AP carry/Support bot (someone like Karma or Soraka who deals a lot of damage but also has decent sustain) AD or AP mid The one that didn't go mid top Jungler EXAMPLE: Karma & Leona bot Vayne Mid Morgana Top Udyr Jungle[/quote]

[quote=JEFFY40HANDS]Issue with supports is their lack of overall pushing power IMO. If you can't win team fights against 3 supports then you just split push all day long. Force them to chase you all around the map and just have your best pusher BD when they want to fight. It's really that simple, which is why 3 supports is a troll meta and not the "current" meta. Or that's just my opinion.[/quote]

[quote=Joobieo#41288]I've seen two supports work nicely , but three ? Meh no.[/quote]

[quote=TheJohn]I've already won many matches with 2 supports bot. Janna and Sona rock hard, they have a great harass, shield, heal, slow and stun.[/quote]

[quote=Vort]Pre-season 1 korean style. But in all seriousness, I've been going the duo support bot with a Taric Nidalee combination. The stun/spear/shatter combination is devastating, the sustain is ridiculous, and at level 6, the pushing power and followup burst is also really really strong. Not to mention traps, stun, and brush movement speed make the lane almost ungankable.[/quote]