Hello again,

I remember way back in early 2010, one of my favorite champs to play was Taric. He was the complete package in the Heal/Poke Meta: a bulky tank-ish character capable of quality heals and stuns for the entire team to enjoy! Taric these days is still enjoyable to play, and still consistent in the upper tiers of play, but what has been shown recently by Riot themselves is an abundance of AD carries and AP bursts, stacking the 6300IP scene and raising havoc across Summoner's Rift. For fellow players like me who enjoy helping other Summoners carry the team to victory, is there any future to see more Support characters join the ranks? I wouldn't count on it. Here's why.

Reason #1: Riot likes Money

The sad but truest statement I'm going to make here is that in the world of Montages, live streams, and Solo Queue masters: High damage champions are going to sell out the wazoo in the League Community. I can safely say out of every team, at least three players are going to want to take the carry role, usually the AD position down in bottom lane. Why? Because AD carries have the ability to get multi-kills at ease compared to other roles in lane. AD carries can go out and auto-attack champions for ridiculous amounts of damage per second and demolish players' chance of victory in a matter of moments. The most amount of damage with the least amount of player skill: who doesn't want that role? The problem is Riot knows this, and when they would like a little more money in the Vault, push out another cookie cutter AD champ with some kind of gap-closer and obnoxious super damage move (Here's to looking at you Caitlyn, Graves, Vayne...), and watch the RP fly! It's a sad realization knowing that Supports are not tailored to this kind of popularity though their sustainability in lane and general consistency throughout a match is one part of a team that should never be left out. I mean, if you need more proof: Look at the skin count between Carry champions and Supports. Yeah.

Reason #2: Riot Likes the Current Meta

With the rush of Tanky DPS characters to emerge, along with the newer AD carries with gap-closers to the newer AP bursts that have much higher range: the meta currently in play is one that remains a steady, yet profitable one for Riot. Most games will play out accordingly, running the same team load out with slightly different characters in their standard roles in lane. With the small amount of choices for Support roles in League, it gives less opportunity to experiment new types of combinations of Champions, allowing the newer AD carries to run the bottom lane by themselves with Supports like Soraka or Sona to sit and heal the duration of the match away. It's almost as if Riot has a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality for the Support class, in almost a fear that if more Champions enter League with the ability to heal great amounts or buff a character or two enough to turn the tides of a battle, that it would tip the balancing scale too far for Riot to want to risk. Which comes to let me believe...

Reason #3: Riot Likes to Play It Safe

Why put in a character that could change the balance of a game that is almost solely based on how much a character can do physically? Why give another champion the ability to heal, so when the Burst champions and Auto-Attack kings come barging in, they can't be out-healed and be punishment for dumb play? With Carries' cooldowns shorter than Supports, why bother playing a champion that will only help a certain amount of times a game then picking another champion that could potentially double the damage done? I see no love for Supports because Riot is not sure where they want them to stand in the current system of League. Give them too much flak and they change the tides of games, but leave them underwhelming and have them be situational heroes once in a blue moon?

But as it stands, almost every type of genre of character in League could exponentially change a game in one or two good moves, Tanks can CC the right carry for the team to focus, Assassins could spill in quickly to kill the opposing team's carry and dip out just as quickly, Carries can catch a Support or AP Burst or AD Carry off-guard and supply ample damage in supersonic times. I could go on, but when have you heard of the Support Alistar or the Support Taric changing an entire battle for a team? Especially when these Supports are left to fend for gold through items and are left to watch the team fight for the one moment they're needed, then must sit back and do nothing for 10-20 seconds to only hope to repeat before they are focused to Oblivion. Supports almost feel like the laughing stock of League as more and more characters continue to emerge with better kits and flashier moves and harder-hitting combos while we haven't seen a new Support champion since Karma back in February of 2011.


For what League offers to the masses: flashy, hard-hitting, cookie cutter champions, I still await the next Support to hopefully make a just stand in Summoner's Rift. Until then, I guess we'll just have to see who Riot feels is more needed, and I feel I already know the answer.