@FantastySniper: Not to credit, nor discredit anything that's been said in this post (I'm actually far too lazy and indifferent to bother reading most of what's been said), the problem is, more often than not, the player, not the champion. There are ways to play many champions that deviate from what 'the meta' dictates to be correct, that can still be very effective in many cases, if played properly.
Of course, that there is the kicker. "If played properly." I noticed that you're not yet level 30, and while I'm not going to pass individual judgement on your skill as a player, or your ability to understand the ins and outs of the game without the thousands of hours of experience that some of us more ancient players may possess, I will say that many players, especially in normal games -- and even moreso in the lower brackets of MMR -- and relevantly at lower champion levels, misunderstand the purpose of the 5th player role, which we have decided to label the support.
First of all, some history. As you've likely noticed between last season and this season, the ability to generate gold via means other than jungle camps, lane minions, and champion kills has been greatly increased. This is not exclusive to this season -- these changes have been incremented in several phases, across multiple seasons of the game. Initially, somewhere in the midst of the first season of the game, the general role 'meta' was settled upon. Two solo laners, a jungler, an ADC, and a 'support.' (Prior to this, people weren't certain if a jungler was necessary, and ran two duo lanes, or once in a while, tri-lane). The philosophy was simple. Have three characters get as much power as possible, as quickly as possible, have one character do what they can for the team off jungle income alone, and have one character do as much as possible for the team as they can, taking nothing but shared experience in a lane. Naturally, the ideal champion picks for a role like this were ones that could maintain some sort of usefulness without a need for much gold or experience. Champions that fulfilled this requirement had some sort of strong "utility" built into their kit. These champions are the 'support champions' which most of us are well familiar with.
Multiple seasons later, this general concept is still our meta. The three most notable changes to the state of the game are that passive gold income and gold income through itemization has been greatly expanded, durability (tank stats) has been lessened in effectiveness (and as such, damage has been increased in effectiveness), and the duo lane laning phase has graduated to become much more aggressively oriented, as people have become more familiar with the game, and how to abuse it's various elements.
tl:dr supports now deal more damage than they did, have more gold, and aggressive lane play is more valuable than ever.
Because of these factors, we've seen the 'general' downfall of many older supports, who's benefit was through their utility, and their ability to keep people alive (Janna, Taric, Sona, Soraka, etc), and a rise of more aggressive supports with the potential to push the enemy lane around, or easily set up kills (Thresh, Leona, Annie, etc). That isn't to say that the healing or utility supports aren't strong anymore. Many of them certainly are. It's just a matter of which champion you pick into which situation, and how you play them according to that situation.
Herein lies the problem as well, however. Many of these champions, though more rewarding, are much more difficult to play, especially without good coordination. Take Leona for example. Leona must be able to engage to be strong (she doesn't need to engage, she can zone without casting a spell if she has lane control). This, however, demands response from the carry as well -- from both players simultaneously. If Leona engages, but the carry doesn't follow up, she'll lose that trade, 95% of the time (or die). If she, however, doesn't engage when she should, or doesn't counter-engage if the carry is engaged on, the lane will lose that trade as well -- where they could have likely won the trade. This goes for many champions of this nature, and is the inherent difficulty in playing a duo lane.
At lower calibers of play, it's much more common to find players who do not understand how to judge situations properly, and these higher risk-reward champions, will often end with the risks, rather than the rewards.
I hope this will motivate you, rather than dishearten you, to keep playing, and to try your hardest. Trust me, the higher up the ranking system you get, the less this will become an issue. But to do that, you need to win games. So to this end, I wish you the very best of luck, and most of all, don't forget to enjoy a good game, a good lane, or even just a good play, regardless of victories and defeats.
Best of luck,
Colin
PS. Karma is an amazing support with way too much free damage and utility to be frowned upon in this role, but I do agree that Nidalee support is way too inconsistent a pick to be worth anyone's time. Cheers
Of course, that there is the kicker. "If played properly." I noticed that you're not yet level 30, and while I'm not going to pass individual judgement on your skill as a player, or your ability to understand the ins and outs of the game without the thousands of hours of experience that some of us more ancient players may possess, I will say that many players, especially in normal games -- and even moreso in the lower brackets of MMR -- and relevantly at lower champion levels, misunderstand the purpose of the 5th player role, which we have decided to label the support.
First of all, some history. As you've likely noticed between last season and this season, the ability to generate gold via means other than jungle camps, lane minions, and champion kills has been greatly increased. This is not exclusive to this season -- these changes have been incremented in several phases, across multiple seasons of the game. Initially, somewhere in the midst of the first season of the game, the general role 'meta' was settled upon. Two solo laners, a jungler, an ADC, and a 'support.' (Prior to this, people weren't certain if a jungler was necessary, and ran two duo lanes, or once in a while, tri-lane). The philosophy was simple. Have three characters get as much power as possible, as quickly as possible, have one character do what they can for the team off jungle income alone, and have one character do as much as possible for the team as they can, taking nothing but shared experience in a lane. Naturally, the ideal champion picks for a role like this were ones that could maintain some sort of usefulness without a need for much gold or experience. Champions that fulfilled this requirement had some sort of strong "utility" built into their kit. These champions are the 'support champions' which most of us are well familiar with.
Multiple seasons later, this general concept is still our meta. The three most notable changes to the state of the game are that passive gold income and gold income through itemization has been greatly expanded, durability (tank stats) has been lessened in effectiveness (and as such, damage has been increased in effectiveness), and the duo lane laning phase has graduated to become much more aggressively oriented, as people have become more familiar with the game, and how to abuse it's various elements.
tl:dr supports now deal more damage than they did, have more gold, and aggressive lane play is more valuable than ever.
Because of these factors, we've seen the 'general' downfall of many older supports, who's benefit was through their utility, and their ability to keep people alive (Janna, Taric, Sona, Soraka, etc), and a rise of more aggressive supports with the potential to push the enemy lane around, or easily set up kills (Thresh, Leona, Annie, etc). That isn't to say that the healing or utility supports aren't strong anymore. Many of them certainly are. It's just a matter of which champion you pick into which situation, and how you play them according to that situation.
Herein lies the problem as well, however. Many of these champions, though more rewarding, are much more difficult to play, especially without good coordination. Take Leona for example. Leona must be able to engage to be strong (she doesn't need to engage, she can zone without casting a spell if she has lane control). This, however, demands response from the carry as well -- from both players simultaneously. If Leona engages, but the carry doesn't follow up, she'll lose that trade, 95% of the time (or die). If she, however, doesn't engage when she should, or doesn't counter-engage if the carry is engaged on, the lane will lose that trade as well -- where they could have likely won the trade. This goes for many champions of this nature, and is the inherent difficulty in playing a duo lane.
At lower calibers of play, it's much more common to find players who do not understand how to judge situations properly, and these higher risk-reward champions, will often end with the risks, rather than the rewards.
I hope this will motivate you, rather than dishearten you, to keep playing, and to try your hardest. Trust me, the higher up the ranking system you get, the less this will become an issue. But to do that, you need to win games. So to this end, I wish you the very best of luck, and most of all, don't forget to enjoy a good game, a good lane, or even just a good play, regardless of victories and defeats.
Best of luck,
Colin
PS. Karma is an amazing support with way too much free damage and utility to be frowned upon in this role, but I do agree that Nidalee support is way too inconsistent a pick to be worth anyone's time. Cheers
You think it's the champ winning the game?
LAWL
One day, I'm guessing a few months/years from now, you'll actually discover it's the player that wins the game.
Just a hint, to make it months in stead of years: watch some streams of high elo players. You'd be surprised by the champs they pick. And what they can do with em.
LAWL
One day, I'm guessing a few months/years from now, you'll actually discover it's the player that wins the game.
Just a hint, to make it months in stead of years: watch some streams of high elo players. You'd be surprised by the champs they pick. And what they can do with em.
The_Nameless_Bard wrote:
Kayle is a waaaayy inferior Soraka clone.
Shen is pretty much Leona except he has less CC and looks completely stupid in low Elo when you cant land your taunt.
Maokai is what Leona players use if they're REALLLLLYYY into trees.
And Gangplank is just like "Oh you're dying I'll just heal myself TROLOLOL now watch me buy an infinity edge so I can be effective." But pretty much a Janna clone.
Basically MOBAFire.
Omnislash GG wrote:
We already have a shortage of supports. Best not to alienate those that are sacrificing their fun so you can go adc.
Because no one anywhere could ever enjoy supporting.
Thank you Byron for 2014's loudest laugh up till today
Jimmydoggga 2.0 wrote:
Kayle is a waaaayy inferior Soraka clone.
Shen is pretty much Leona except he has less CC and looks completely stupid in low Elo when you cant land your taunt.
Maokai is what Leona players use if they're REALLLLLYYY into trees.
And Gangplank is just like "Oh you're dying I'll just heal myself TROLOLOL now watch me buy an infinity edge so I can be effective." But pretty much a Janna clone.
Shen is pretty much Leona except he has less CC and looks completely stupid in low Elo when you cant land your taunt.
Maokai is what Leona players use if they're REALLLLLYYY into trees.
And Gangplank is just like "Oh you're dying I'll just heal myself TROLOLOL now watch me buy an infinity edge so I can be effective." But pretty much a Janna clone.
I said "playable" not "good enough to play in ranked".
champions are unique, trying to say one is a "weaker" version of another is silly.
Kayle should not be compared to Soraka, they're nothing alike. You harass with Kayle and most certainly don't go all in with her. Her ult is massively useful at all stages of the game. She's far more similar to Lulu than she is to Soraka, in terms of playstyle.
Shen really isn't anything like Leona, he should use his taunt as a counter-engage to pull aggro off his carry in a trade, rather than engaging with it. He also has a lot of global presence with his ult and can pull off trades other champions are just incapable of, even when played as a support.
Maokai is sort of like Leona, but he has ranged harass Leona will never have. His ult reduces damage and that gives him a fair amount of utility, whereas Leona is pretty much 99% engage.
and, finally, Gangplank isn't even remotely like Janna. He has pretty decent harass that's hard to ignore and an AoE AD buff that makes turret pushing, in general, and sieging with AD champions more effective, whereas Janna has almost no harass potential and a single target shield that gives an AD buff...not to mention the global pressure his ult gives.
again, I'm not trying to compare the effectiveness of these champions, I'm just pointing out that there are actual reasons why they can be played effectively as supports.
Quoted:
Unconventional supports are most fun though :3 Lux, Morg, Yorick, etc are my favorites to play atm.
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Krepo picked
I think that's more of a "