The League of Legends Season 4 has brought a lot of changes ; among them, the change of the bot lane's metagame. Riot is testing the Doran's shield in order to nerf it. This item is way too powerful, even for support champions. The map vision in the Summoner's rift changed as well : players are no longer allowed to display more than three Sight wards and one Vision ward at the same time.
The Ruby sightstone has been submitted to some changes too and it is no longer necessary to buy it as a first item.
This article is an overview of the support role in Season 4, intertwined with an interview of a great Support player : Maxime « Migxa » Poinssot from Supa Hot Crew XD.
Since the beginning of the Season 4, there is no longer any ward restriction on the Sightstone. You are allowed to put the same amount of wards with the Sightstone and the Ruby sightstone because there is a limit of three per person. Let's analyse the item :
Sightstone 
:
+ 180 Hit Points
+ 4 Sight wards (3 at the same time on the map)
You need 600 gold to evolve it into the Ruby sightstone 
:
+ 360 Hit Points
+ 5 Sight wards
You are now losing 125 gold because you are already using 475 gold to buy your Ruby crystal 
and the 125 gold, which is the recipe's cost, only give you one more ward in the end. The Ruby sightstone allows you to have one more Sight ward in your inventory. However, some pro support players are still buying this Ruby sightstone as their first item. Why ? Here's an answer by Migxa :
Migxa, support player of Supa Hot Crew XD :
Q : Hi Migxa, every game, you are buying the Ruby sightstone and not the Sightstone only. Can you tell us why are you doing this instead of buying a gold income or Boots ?
Migxa : The Ruby doesn't give more map vision but it increases the number of wards you can place and doubles the Hit Points. I'd rather have more wards avaible in order to « deepward » (to put a ward in one bush after the other) the farthest possible. I can't facecheck a bush so I have to ward every single bush to go forward.
Here is an example of aggressive wards (red numbers for redside and blue numbers for blueside). The numbers represent the placement order of the wards into the bushes. Because of the restriction, wards 1 and 2 are disappearing . It doesn't matter because if you want to play aggressive, it means that you already won your lane. You want to know where the enemy jungler and midlaner are. Wards 3, 4 and 5 are enough but you need a full Ruby sightstone to have 5 wards in your inventory.
Furthermore, those 600 gold are offering you the chance to have 180 extra Hit Points. It can be decisive if you are going through a botlane burst (Annie/Jinx or Leona/Lucian for example). 600 gold can allow you to buy a gold income or Boots, but it is useless in all-in battles. A dead support isn't very useful.
Riot is working on the Doran's shield 
problem. Here is the change on PBE :
Hit Points : 100 HP to 80
HP regeneration : +10HP/5s to 5HP/5s
Its passive doesn't change.
Migxa, support player of Supa Hot Crew XD :
Q : Let's talk about the Doran's shield rework. Do you think the three new support items (
) could appear on the competitive scene ?
Migxa : Yes, I think it's Riot's purpose. It would change all the botlane metagame and the level 1 because support champions would have one ward in their inventory.
Q : I noticed that you have a very diverse champions' pool, more diverse than a lot of LCS pro players lately (e.g. : Migxa already played Thresh, Leona, Nami, Sona and Morgana during the LCS). Does it bother you that other teams are only playing Thresh/Leona or Annie ? Do you think the next Doran's shield nerf will increase the pick rate of other supports ?
Migxa : I think the metagame will come back to AP poke supports and less to full tank supports like Thresh or Leona because their strenght comes from the Doran's sustain. Without it, it would be impossible to first pick Leona for example.
Q : Good news for you then, right ? Then you could go for Sona, Lulu or Karma for example ? And what about Fiddlesticks and Zyra who totally disappeared from the competitive scene and SoloQ ? The fear duration nerf ?
Migxa : Yes, Fiddlesticks' fear was what made him so interesting. Indeed, this nerf is good for me. I think that Zyra will come back into fashion.
With the Doran's shield coming into effect, many players turned to the defensive mastery tree to take full advantage of their sustain and to gather more experience with a longer laning phase. It is now a usual thing to see an Annie without Ability Power but with AD and HP/regen runes to poke the opponent using the auto-attack, even if by doing so you are not exploiting the utility mastery tree to its fullest. What does Migxa think about this ?
Migxa, support player of Supa Hot Crew XD :
Q : Your rune set is very aggressive. For instance, by choosing not to have any magic resistance runes, do you make up for it with a more developped defensive mastery tree ? You usually give priority to HP in your runes. Taking this into account, what kind of item do you go for ? More HP ? CDR ? Utility ?Migxa : I always go for tanky characteristics in my runes as well as in my builds, my aim is simply to be as tanky as possible to be able to play more aggressively in lane and teamfights. As for the magic resistance runes, I don't really mind, because the basic 30 are enough as far as the lane is concerned.
Q : Viewers have noticed that you often won (with Haydal or MrRallez) your early laning phase. Do you think it is thanks to your build and offensive runes ? Or is it your gameplay ? And why is it that you sometimes lose your advantage ? Do you think that you don't have enough experience ?
Migxa : Making 2v2 my specialty has been a recurring aim throughout my career, because that part of the game is what I like the most. If the game only consisted of 2v2, MrRallez and me would be the best botlane in EU (laughs) ! We usually win the 2v2 in all our games, but we lose our advantage because it is paramount to avoid ganks, TP and all this kind of stuff that prevents us from leading the charge 2v2 without being ganked a thousand times.
Q : And last but not least, what Boots do you recommend for supports ?
Migxa : Different people have different choices, but I personally go for mobility Boots to be able to roam.
Migxa is the SUPA HOT CREW XD team's support. He has been playing League of Legends since Season 1 and has reached 800 points during his promotion as a Challenger during Season 3.
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