New Items | Team Support | current item pool missing buff archetype

[lhlurricane]

Problem: Playing heroes as supports has very limited item options. You can buy items to heal your team or debuff the enemy heroes. There is a distinct lack of items that increase your allies offenses.

Why this feels bad:
After investing 6000 souls in Health Nova, Healing booster, and Rescue Beam, the only options to help increase team damage is Heroic Aura, or items that debuff the enemey heroes. Being so far behind in soul investment compared to other heroes makes investing in damage items feel fruitless. That leaves only active debuff items as options, and with 2 active item slots left and a lack of damage items this can feel bad in a lot of games. Having another set of items to buy that would increase your team's power instead of debuffing the enemy teams would provide more flexibility in builds for these heroes.


A few rough item suggestions:

T2 Weapon
+100 bullet shield
+4 spirit

passive 15m
you and nearby allies gain:
+15% weapon damage
+6% bullet resist

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T3 Weapon
+15% ammo
+150 hp

active 3m
7s duration 20s cd
targeted ally gains bonus ammo equal to your current maximum ammo
you are disarmed for the duration

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T2 Spirit
+100 spirit shield

passive 15m
you and nearby allies gain +1 spirit per second to a maximum of 10 spirit. spirit gained this way decays 1/s while outside of radius

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T4 Spirit
+12% cooldown
+200 hp

active 10m
20s duration 40s cd
targeted ally gains range and duration for the next ability used
+30% range
+30% duration
can be cast on self for half benefit

 

[Tavish]

Balance team must be careful with too many buff ally items. I find the game right now to have sufficient farm for everyone. One player can by no means last hit every creep in the laning stage, so everyone competes for equal share. I understand wanting items that promote buffing allies, however that could demand some players to ask for those items in pubs, and that would shape a meta where people are not allowed to build the items they want.

 

[Fishjump]

There definitely needs to be more items that allow building buff or debuff auras instead of being limited to 4 actives and then just getting damage.

 

[larswillemsen]

I feel very distrustful towards the notion of this. Your third example is exactly what I would fear. Right now there is no strict established meta of "those that create space" and "those that need space" (typical support/carry relation) - which means drafting is more fluid and people are not locked into designated roles per say. This feels good for the game.

If you introduce items like "give X to targeted ally" you are likely to enforce that one or two players are now EXPECTED to purchase these items, and one or two players are EXPECTED to receive these items. This would also flatten your options, as now the aura/support carriers must function under gimped inventories and the receivers must make exceptional use of said buffs.