Barrier seems to be quite “outdated” among summoner spells in LoL…
If you are an LoL lover, you will definitely be able to recognize that most summoner spells in the traditional 5v5 mode all have some additional effects. For example, Heal can boost MS for you and the target allied champion, Ghost enables you to move through units, or Exhaust will lessen and slow the target enemy champion. Those additional effects have helped their spells become beloved for years.
However, Barrier is obviously an exception when everything it provides you is just a shield! Actually, there are 2 spells that give you no additional effects, such as Flash and Barrier. Nevertheless, Flash can help you to create a perfect combo, a sudden approach, or an unbelievable escape.
Meanwhile, Barrier is not that useful when its unique mission is protecting you from a particular amount of damage. As a result, this spell appears to fit with marksmen as they are the main targets of the enemy assassins in team fights. But when we compare it to Heal or Cleanse, this spell is obviously the loser as it does not provide you with any additional effects.
That weakness of Barrier has lead to its poor popularity in LoL, especially in the traditional 5v5 mode. As stated by LeagueofGraphs, the popularity of the Flash-Barrier combo is just standing at 1.9% – even lower than the “bizarre” Teleport-Ignite combo!
All in all, it is high time Riot needed to give this spell some adjustments, particularly adding some additional effects. According to the community’s ideas, they can transform Barrier into an attacking spell by increase a small amount of adaptive stats or a defensive one by increasing the power of healing on the user. We hope that Riot Games would figure out this problem and bring this spell back to Summoner’s Rift.