2014-10-13, 04:27 PM
[MENTION=3175]IllegallySane[/MENTION]; I'm not sure how you determined that there's only one effective build or build order unless you're talking about ADCs. All other roles have pretty decent item selection and order variances depending on your and your enemy's team.
Annie did indeed see support play (mainly last season) along with Morgana and Zyra. The reason for Annie and Fiddlesticks nerfs was that they outshone traditional supports significantly. The huge round of support scaling and items changes makes it much easier for utility and mage supports to coexist in balance. If Worlds has taught us anything, it's that the niche pick, oddball champs can still beat the FotM priorities. Riot has previously stated that they dislike many champs switching to new roles because it's difficult for them to balance both simultaneously. It works for some champs like Mao and J4 (jg/top), Morg (mid/supp), but really poorly for others like Alistar top. The pre-season work seems to find a way around this by tying some jungle items with the Smite summoner spell. This should hopefully allow them to balance Jungle role champs through itemization without having to nerf their lane counter parts. I'm slightly skeptical since this may require more effort and upkeep on Riots part to balance properly.
Loose hit some of the best. Heck, Lulu has been played successfully in Top, Mid, AND Support this season.
On my personal list, I really like J4 top, Panth mid, and Liss top even though it's not exactly their intended roles.
Annie did indeed see support play (mainly last season) along with Morgana and Zyra. The reason for Annie and Fiddlesticks nerfs was that they outshone traditional supports significantly. The huge round of support scaling and items changes makes it much easier for utility and mage supports to coexist in balance. If Worlds has taught us anything, it's that the niche pick, oddball champs can still beat the FotM priorities. Riot has previously stated that they dislike many champs switching to new roles because it's difficult for them to balance both simultaneously. It works for some champs like Mao and J4 (jg/top), Morg (mid/supp), but really poorly for others like Alistar top. The pre-season work seems to find a way around this by tying some jungle items with the Smite summoner spell. This should hopefully allow them to balance Jungle role champs through itemization without having to nerf their lane counter parts. I'm slightly skeptical since this may require more effort and upkeep on Riots part to balance properly.
Loose hit some of the best. Heck, Lulu has been played successfully in Top, Mid, AND Support this season.
On my personal list, I really like J4 top, Panth mid, and Liss top even though it's not exactly their intended roles.