User blog comment:Freedfg/support elise/@comment-3970297-20130322092320

The major issue that determines a champion's ablity to support is based upon balancing the characters utility, and how thier utility in turn, affects what else they bring.

Despite what people think, and a lot of people would disagree with me about this, but damage IS a form of utility. If a character does an insane amount of damage, enough for the enemy to die or retreat into a losing situation, then that in itself is utility, since it brings an advantage to the lane on your favor. A SUPPORT'S MAIN ROLE IS TO GIVE THE TEAM THE OPPURITUNITY TO GAIN AN ADVANTAGE. This a plain, simple truth that a lot of people overlook. Be it: ward coverage for awareness, heals, debuffs, buffs, CC, slows, silence, damage, etc. You are supporting the team as long as you're giving your team an advantage.

This is balanced entirely upon what they bring to the table in the laning phase. While damage is indeed a form of utility. Let's compare two deemed "non-support" champions like Katarina and Talon. Both bring exceptionally powerful damage to a lane, though Katarina 'potentially' brings better damage than Talon.. However, Katarina has only 1 other form of utility than damage, and that is her Ult's ability to mitigate healing to the enemy. Talon has a very short silence, and a decent slow. Both qualities of Talon's kit don't bring a lot to the table, but it brings more than Katarina who's utility is much lower than Talon's.

Now let's bring in a comparsion between two deemed 'non-conventional support'. Like Elise and Annie. Both bring a ton of damage to the lane. Annie has the ability to perform frequent, powerful stuns at level 1, a tanky minion for tower dives at level 6, and through out, good harass. While she doesn't bring much utility for the carry to use. She creates situations which her and her ADC can win their lane combining all of Annie's utility in a single burst combo. Elise has a single, skillshot stun. Two abilities that Reveal, Skillshot barriers, and good single target damage that doesn't rely on heavy-cost items to deal damage. Can the carry utilize these qualities to give themselves an advantage? The answer is yes on all accounts. Does the utility that she bring provide enough to create an advantage for her lane? The answer is yes. All together, these qualities seem pretty good, almost on par with Annie in terms of amount of utility. However, Elise only falls shorter due to a lack of a lane-changing ultimate.

Overall, Elise can support. She is not among the most powerful supports. That is easy enough to say is true. However, Does this make her a bad support? The answer is No. There are a lot of other champions that cannot bring the same amount of utility nor of the same quality of utility that Elise can provide. Elise as a support is viable. Completely viable. However, she's only a viable support in comparison to other non-conventional supports as oppose to the true support champions, whose utility far outmatches Elise.