League players fear double support item nerf will have catastrophic side effects

League of Legends’ devs are already planning to nerf the double support item strat with the reworked support starters, but players are concerned that the way in which Riot has planned on nerfing it will have some devastating side effects.

Another new League season with reworked support items, and another new double support starter item meta. History has repeated itself a few times at this point when it comes to players abusing the benefits of support items in bot lane, and everyone from pros to casual players quickly caught on to how powerful the strategy is.

It should come as no surprise that Riot’s planning to nerf this strategy’s viability by nerfing the item, but the way in which they’ve done it has left some players extremely concerned about how the nerfs will affect the game.

There’s a chance that the nerf doesn’t work at all in multiple ways, leaving League of Legends players concerned about how the change will affect the game.

League players worried about new support item nerf

Unfortunately, when it comes to League of Legends, the ways in which players will try to sabotage each other are very important to bear in mind when it comes to making gameplay changes.

And, though the double support item strat certainly deserves to be nerfed, the way in which it has been done has caused concern amongst players.

First, it’s important to understand what exactly this change does to the item.

Currently, it’s possible for the ADC to quickly evolve their support item by purchasing it on their first back, poking with it, pressuring lane by killing minions faster with the passive, and it allows them to split with their support without putting themselves at a huge gold deficit.

When laning with support champions who can do a lot with that extra income, the sheer value and early power spike gained from this strategy makes it an absolute must on the current patch in a lot of lane combos.

Additionally, the strength of the upgraded support items and the wards that come with them give enough pressure on the map that it’s possible to snowball the game out of control with an early lead.

Caedrel does a great job of explaining the strategy:

All teams had to do was work around their individual thresholds for reduced income. The moment the ADC hits it with a completed item, the support starts taking minions and vice-versa. Now, the moment that threshold is hit for one player, everyone will get the penalty who owns the support item.

There are some support champions who don’t really need farm to be effective and are happy with taking no CS, but more aggro supports like Xerath, Brand, and Zyra who benefit greatly from taking a cannon minion here or there and clearing a wave in sidelane are really easy to troll for disgruntled teammates in a way that could be passed off as someone accidentally buying the wrong item or not reading the most recent patch notes.

The other main concern is that, even with the gold penalty, some lanes just won’t care. The added early pressure in a double support lane may be worth even if they end up with a last hit penalty, as something like a Seraphine or Senna paired with Tahm Kench and double support items may not care about the penalties whatsoever.

Meanwhile, many have suggested that the best way to balance this would be to only let one player buy a support item. But this comes with a whole host of other issues revolving around who exactly is getting that support item and how the rights to buy it are divvied out.

This is definitely a hard problem to solve, and there’s a good chance it won’t be solved by the 14.2 nerfs. However, additional nerfs could also nerf the support role as a whole depending on how they’re implemented, leading to a whole host of nasty new problems. Balancing a game like League of Legends is truly a tall order.