Riftwalker as support

[Rat_Salat]

I've been playing Riftwalker with reasonable success at around the 1500 level. I'm having a bit of trouble getting back over 1600, as I am mainly a support player and therefore don't really have the ability to carry games. (93616180 is a loss where I played reasonably well).

I do all the usual support things, like warding and stacking, but I'm having a bit of an issue deciding which item build to go with. Basically there are 5-6 items which I feel are plausible for core items, with push stick being the only no-brainer.

Ring of the Teacher / Nomes Wisdom
Ring of Sorcery
Mana Battery
Grave Locket
Striders
Steamboots

Luxury items would include frostfield and sheep stick. I haven't really been getting Shrunken Head on her, but that's an option as well.

Really we're looking at 3-4 item slots, since I need 2-3 spots for wards/counter wards and a homecoming stone. The striders/steamboots question is probably dependant on the game, so I guess here are my questions:

1) Do I get a Mana Battery? Since rift can really farm well if she wants to, I almost always end up selling this to make room for one of the other items on the list.
2) Ring of Sorcery or Teacher into Nomes?
3) Grave locket is so awesome, but I am having trouble fitting it into my inventory.

Right now I am getting ward/2 mark of novice and 2 regen items to start and building both ROS and Locket, but that slows down my sheepstick a lot.

[[SBT]Rkey]

Grave Locket AND Mana battery? If I get that alone on a support when I'm playing that's a freaking 50 minutes + game. And then you want MORE?

Semi support sure.

[[TaX]Vo1taire]

Well, riftwalker in my opinion is not a very good hard support hero. She is more like Dsham in that she definitely benefits from levels and also could use some farm. Luckily, she has two very nice farming abilities so it's not like she's helpless if her role in the game is to farm a core. I don't see her as competitive strictly because she needs those levels, and her ganking potential isn't high enough that those levels are worth it on her. But, if you want to treat her as a competitive hero then I would say she fits the same sort of niche role that tempest does - you have a big teamfight sort of ult and a couple of spells to blow before you're taken out. If you do have the luxury of getting farm, then I've found that tanking her up can really be quite effective.

My recommended item set would be
steamboots -> power supply -> mystic vestments -> shaman's headdress -> barrier -> bulwark (if no one else has one by now - which they should) -> shivas/sheep/whatever your team needs

[Sherwood]

I can't add anything more as what's been said I agree with.

I can give logic as to why she's a semi support over hard-core but you might feel patronised. She supports in Team fights by teleporting into very close range of the enemy to disable them for only 2 seconds. Tempest disables for longer (channeled however) as a result Rift needs to tank up more than Tempest would. The cooldown on Riftwalker's abilities is longer than other AoE Int heroes and she lacks ticking aoe damage, so she isn't a carry in that sense.


If you magically have many golds a Mock would be fun if the enemy doesn't have magic resistance or shrunken heads and you live long enough for it to work. Huge IF there.

[Rat_Salat]

Well at the 1500 level, if I'm not warding... nobody is going to. Most games I end up with 250-300gpm just from pushing lanes. The thing I like about Rift is that she pushes lanes so well that she can pick up a decent amount of farm in addition to warding/supporting. The tablet does help quite a bit to get her the hell out of there after firing off her combo.

With that said, perhaps I can look at building her tankier... Maybe try a few games with shaman's/Vanguard and see if she stays alive a bit more.

[durindanas]

agreee

[[0GPM]`Haunter]

idk how you plan on getting sheepstick as primary support but if you have can somehow get these items, they're ok.

[Jenova26]

If you want to play her as a support, vice a ganker/initiator, I'd consider playing her closer to the role of Magmus/Behe as a semi-support/initiator. If you're trying to play her as a true support, then "Sheepstick" shouldn't even be in your vocabulary. You shouldn't ever be able to farm this if you're supporting properly. Grab a couple cheap survivability/mana items and some good boots and set up teamfights for your team. If you can farm luxury items, then buy based on what your team needs.