Agency vs power of each role

Discussion

In the recent devlog Riot stated that one of the goals is to balance agency, because currently jungle and support are the most influential.

I think the goal of making influence exactly equal is misleading. We should strive for equal fun, which can be measured to some extent by popularity.

Fun can come from influencing the game, or from power fantasies. Currently support is the least popular role (17.5%) and top is the most popular (22%): https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/main-stats.

But why is that? why support, being one of the most influential is also the least popular, while top is the most popular, while being the least influential? It's because of actual fighting power. Supports are running around the map lvl 4, deciding things like Grubs fight outcome, they are much weaker, but their decisions can decide the game. I think that's a fair tradeoff. As a Top/Mid/ADC you have fun by actually being strong at certain points in the game, while the Jungler/Support have fun by being at the right place at the right time and having higher agency.

If reduce support agency to be the same as Top/ADC, that would make it even less fun and popular. They would have the same agency, but also much less fighting power. Same could be said about Jungle to a lesser extent.

Posted Dec 1, 2025, 7:01 PM UTC

26
Loading comments…