Talk:Orianna/@comment-46.11.127.93-20120305231409/@comment-96.30.138.69-20120310000328

No, I'm an NA player.

I'm not sure that's a very good support player, they weren't harassing at all, just baby sitting and hiding behind Cait. Baby sitting is only a small part of supporting, the important thing is harassing so the enemy carry isn't comfortable last hitting. Especially for unconventional supports who's strong point (particularly early on if you're not buying AP) is damage.

So it sounds like your problem isn't with support Orianna and just support in general, or at least "support items". The big thing about them is they build out of gp10 items, give survivability, usually CDR (which is useful as your main use is utility), and added utility.

If you build AP you gain strength very very slow because you're giving all the last hits to your AD carry, but if you build support you become surprisingly tanky at the same speed as everyone else is gaining strength because of the gp10 items.

For Shurelia's vs her W, the W has less than 300 range on it, meaning your team has to line up single file or clump together if they all want the buff - which is terrible for initiating team fights and unlikely when retreating. Shurelia's has 600 range, so you can stay scattered when running away, and if the enemy team over extends you can jump on them immediately without having to line up for your W.

For Locket, it shields an entire team and the shield is affected by their defense. At level 18 it gives 1200 worth of shield in a team fight that ends up being between 2000 and 4000 effective health when you factor in the defenses. (Side note: Shields being affected by defense is what makes shield supports so strong, shields scale with your team, which makes stacking AP that much more effective but also unnecessary)

For randuins, basically turns you into a tank, attackers get slowed and slowed attack speed, an AoE slow and attack speed slow. Expensive though, so it's late game situational depending on how many auto attackers they have and how well they're doing. Of all the "crap" support items, this is probably the most obviously useful.

For Aegis, not built out of a gp/10 but it's the most cost effective item in the game! Gives you 30 armor, 39 mr, some health and ad, gives your team 48 armor, 60 mr and 32 ad. Great item.

The big thing is you're not getting cs, so in the time it takes you to finish your support build you could have maybe two big AP items, three if you're lucky. If you build AP you're going to get focused down quickly, if you build support, you're still probably going to get focused, but you won't die. Either way you're going to be weak relative to everyone else in the game, because you're not getting cs. If you build supportive, you'll at least be able to live long and make use of your utility.

Focusing a support ends up nearly as bad as focusing a tank, but people don't pick up on that for some reason. I can't tell you how many times I've got "caught" by a full team, ran around a little and ended up getting 5 assists, sometimes without even dying.

"Either way you're going to be weak relative to everyone else in the game, because you're not getting cs. If you build supportive, you'll at least be able to live long and make use of your utility." This goes for every support including unconventional ones like Karma/Zil, although I don't think they're that good as supports personally, I'd still build them with support items over AP.