Report from a Support in S3

[quote=TRoosevelt]Just wanted to share some of my experiences as a support (primarily Sona) in S3. #1 Games are longer. I don't know if this is a long-term change or just people being unfamiliar with new items but my games are lasting about 10 minutes longer than previously. Games against AIs are going to 30 min, a decent SR game goes to 40 and a hard fought one goes to 50. We're also leaving the laning phase much later and going for dragons much later. #2 I've never felt so rich as a support. I've come close to competing my build quite a few times and that almost never happened in S2. Some of that is surely do to the longer game lengths I've seen but I'm starting to think about full builds as a support. Heck, I feel richer as a support than I do as a jungler in S3, who I've never gotten beyond 2 main items. #3 My ward coverage feels worse. Don't get me wrong, Sightstone works great for the laning phase and for marking key objectives. I just can't saturate an area like I used to, say before a dragon fight or a baron fight or watching the sides during a big push. That ability to get complete vision of a critical area isn't there anymore. #4 Sustain in lane is weird and poke feels very strong. I've been running Faerie Charm-Rejuvination Bead-2 Wards and I'm staying in lane longer than I used to but my pokes also feel a lot harder to recover from since Philo's HP regen got nerfed and ADs no longer have access to Vampiric Scepter. I'm getting the feeling that Supports with heals won't find their sustain affected much but everyone else just got their sustain nerfed. Whatever it is, Sona's W-W-Q poke feels so strong now. #5 Forget Boots. Wow, just going 21 in utility will take you to 335-ish MS and if you have any kind of MS buff or decent disengage (Sona, Janna, Lulu, etc) then boots become like the fourth item. Which I love, since I can rush Philo-Sightstone-Kages without taking 350 out of my limited budget and slowing my gold income. It does make me worry for Zyra though. I loved Zyra support but that speed boost really seems to be messing with her pokes. I'm sure people will adjust but it feels like skill shots just got nerfed a bit. #6 Kage's Pick upgrades are weird. Ok, there's a lot of love for Shard of True Ice and I love the concept put it's really confusing me from a positioning perspective. I'm looking to activate it on my tank or initiator and as a support I'm usually in the back, positioning skill shots and staying out of harm's way. I can't figure out how to reconcile that with the range on Shard because if, say, my Ammumu or Hecarim initiates on the enemy team he'll be way out of range of the Shard's active. Maybe it's the champs I'm using, Sona positioning for her ult is pretty important, but there does seem to be a massive gap between the support's position and the initiator's position. It's frustrating me. And Twin Shadows is just weird. The active is awesome but confusing and the stats are just...not what a support needs. #7 I've been taking Heal over Exhaust. Exhaust feels like it got a huge nerf because most of debuff is now focused on attack speed instead of damage (If I've got my numbers right it used to decrease attack damage by 70%, now it decreases spells by 30% and attack speed by 50%). Maybe later game it's still good but I don't see it shutting down AD's like it used to. And the new summoner's mastery on Heal, along with the fact that it heals everyone evenly, really helps squishy supports. I'd love to hear some of your experiences as support in S3 as we all try to figure this new game out.[/quote]

[quote=astrolia]Instead of looking at [[Shard of True Ice]] as an initiation tool, look at it as a way to peel people off your carry. You'll always be near your carry, [i]right?[/i] And I don't know what you mean about [[Twin Shadows]] stats. The AP is "whatever", but supports are low mobility, and ranged supports don't get mres per level. Btw, there's [[Morellonomicon]] which is kinda ??? on [[Sona]] but on other supports it's pretty easy to apply the passive. Useful versus healers. As for [[Exhaust]], it reduces attack speed now, which is harder to buy. Early game you probably won't feel the effects because people have molasses aspd anyway, but in later team fights when people have aspd items, it can make a difference.[/quote]

[quote=wRAthoFVuLK]Yea, Shard is broken OP. Free peel =o And imo games are shorter -- cheaper items, more ambient gold, 500 gold on 4 killing sprees.[/quote]

[quote=NicknameMy]Well, but you gain less gold from farming even with the ambient gold increase, which makes the farming time until champs get stronger longer. Also last hitting was made harder, I think.[/quote]

[quote=TRoosevelt][quote=astrolia] Instead of looking at [[Shard of True Ice]] as an initiation tool, look at it as a way to peel people off your carry. You'll always be near your carry, [i]right?[/i] [/quote] Thanks, I'll give that a try. [quote=astrolia] As for [[Exhaust]], it reduces attack speed now, which is harder to buy. Early game you probably won't feel the effects because people have molasses aspd anyway, but in later team fights when people have aspd items, it can make a difference. [/quote] This is something that confuses me because I'm not 100% on how AS mechanics work and how big that AS debuff is. As I understand it, all champs have a natural AS which is then boosted by 20%, 60% etc by items. I'm not sure whether the Exhaust debuff affects their total AS or just reduces the multiplier. Let me provide a simple example. Take a champ who's natural AS is 0.5 or attacks once ever two seconds (bad, I know, but just an example). Now say that same champ gets 100% AS from items, so they should attack once every second, right? Lets use the equation 0.5 (native AS) * (1 (for itself) +1 (100% increase from items)) So when I use exhaust on this target, does the equation become: 0.5*(1+1)*0.5 meaning exhaust affects their total AS? Or does it become: 0.5*(1+1-0.5) where it just reduces the bonus from items? Because that's a pretty big difference in effectiveness. And wRAth, I'm surprised to hear you say games or shorter. Is this in normals, ranked? I'm trying to find out why your experience has been different than mine.[/quote]

[quote=wRAthoFVuLK]Uh ranked mostly. Kills happen so much in soloq that a little bit lower gold from CS doesn't matter at all.[/quote]

[quote=astrolia]Unless there was an undocumented change for s3, attack speed reductions take a chunk out of your "final" attack speed with bonuses factored in.[/quote]

[quote=Anastasios]Also, correct me if i'm wrong, but i think AS reduction stacks like tenacity, multiplicatively (for example if you have [[Ice Blast]] + [[Exhaust]] + [[Frozen Heart]])[/quote]

[quote=Banishedd]I blame [[Pickpocket]], the new mastery, and also the reduced costs, for the richness feeling when playing supports.[/quote]

[quote=A Chubby Baby]yea, shard is broken.[/quote]