Impact of MYMU on the Support Picks in Professional Play

State of Supports in the old meta

As the meta of early-to-mid Season Six hadn't showed any major changes in the way the game had been played, rather simple patches resulted in Support picks being fairly consistent throughout the split. The champions played in the Support role had mostly been tanks that provide enough crowd control to both engage and disengage fights. These champions' weakness is mostly their lackluster 2v2 laning which had got mitigated by the constant lane swapping and making bot lane duos play a bit of PvE in the early parts of the game. It's also worth to notice that in te meta of carry junglers it's a necessity for a support to be able to set up ganks and provide decent roaming pressure. With towers being the only objective that was worth fighting for before the spawn of Baron, rotations and constant map pressuring opened up the map for skirmishes and tower dives which made champions with low cooldown crowd control rise in priority.

State of Supports in the current meta

The Mid Year Mage Update was all about centering the game around objective control and teamfighting. With the introduction of the new Dragons that require being controlled throughout the whole game to maintain the lead, Bot lane duos are needed to stay in the bot lane to create and control over the side of the map where the Dragons spawn. This completely changes the Bot lane champion pool to picks that are able to win lane and put up enough pressure on the enemy bot lane to ensure the control over the Dragon pit. While quite a few immobile Mid lane mages got reworks and buffs both to their kits and their itemisation, the Support role now also has to be able to keep these immobile carries safe. Supports like Trundle that struggle in laning phase just won't be usable in the meta that relies so heavily on bot lane while changes to Grievous Wounds from reducing only self-healing by 40% to reducing all healing by 40% hurt Soraka hard, that, with her weak laning phase, isn't a good pick anymore.

 

Two Groups of Support champions that will rise in the current meta

1. Nami, Morgana, and Zyra

Squishy caster ranged supports that rely on landing their skill shots on the enemy to keep him in place. All three have the potential to pick off a target and win lane through applying pressure on the enemy duo while poking them with high base damage on their abilities. Their ultimates can turn the tides in a fight and provide enough peel for their carries to deal damage and eventually win the fight.

2.Sona, Karma

Another set of ranged squishy Support champions but this time more poke-oriented. Sona and Karma provide insane amounts of poke damage and can win lane on their own while still being able to peel with the ability to speed up their Marksman and shield/heal him for better outcome in the trades. These picks have only one crowd control ability compared to the three champions listed early but their extreme lane dominance makes up for it if paired with the right Attack Damage Carry.

Effects that the new Support picks leave on the game

The lane dominance automatically opens up the map but because of the low mobility and squishiness, deep warding will have to be more jungler reliant instead of an Alistar face-checking a bush full of enemies and simply walking away with Unbreakable Will. Other roles will have to pick up the frontlining duty aswell as the role of a primary engager in a teamfight. These picks also create a lot of zone based on pick off potential which will increase the amount of caution that a Support player has to possess. Laning will suddenly be a lot harder while both trying to land and avoid skillshots that might make your or your enemy's screen grey for an amount of seconds that has been lowered in the recent update. Lots of lane trading will open up the possibility of your or the enemy jungler ganking bot more often.

 

All in all, Support as a role will probably gain a lot more carry potential and require more mechanical proficiency while the bot lane rises in importance.

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