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What do I actually do as a support?

Echos of shadow··1 votes·474 views

This might be simply a poor mentality choice on my end, but next to top lane, barring some sort of hypercarry offtank, I feel support has the least amount of impact on the game. Unless I lock in some sort of pseudo secondary midlaner support for extra damage in exchange for utility, if a team cannot capitalize on vision and/or plays made by a support it nearly invalidates the position. There's no objectives for a support to capitalize on, they cannot effectively waveclear or splitpush, and even a traditional support who can somehow miraculously come out ahead of a winning enemy team isn't much of a threat.

Okay fine, the position is support, you're not going to or supposed to 1v5 pentakill people, you're there for your team to get them fed and or give a strategic advantage. But it feels like a double edged sword, being that you're so team reliant despite any amount of skill a support may have it simply does not matter if you're on a team that cannot fully capitalize on those skills that you possess.

It simply feels incredibly helpless to, pardon the strange figure of speech, watch a ship go down in flames because your water is in no way retardant to the fire.

10 Comments

DrCyanide2 votes

Generally a support does one of two things:

  1. Deny the enemy - Clutch heals, shields, exhaust, CC, body block, etc to prevent the death of a carry. It's one of the most satisfying feelings in the game, playing your cards right to keep your ally alive in a situation they were as good as dead in. Even if you die to save the carry, it's worth, something which isn't always true for the other positions. Also includes shutting down the enemy's vision so they can't make informed plays.
  2. Initiate/Chain CC - Regardless of if it's a Sona ult, Nami ult, Leona ult, etc. many supports have a way to get their team into a massively advantageous situation. Your deep wards will help the team find picks on other targets that can turn into an advantage as well.

It's not a position focused as much on towers or waveclear, but Supports a fun position to play.

Athenes Lulu2 votes

Supports actually have a good deal of control botlane.

The champ you pick decides how the matchup will go more than your ADC does, and how he may play the game. If you're going to sit there and be a shieldbot, then he will likely just farm. If you have some form of aggression on your behalf, he will be more inclined to push and poke more. Some supports are gods at handling 4-5 man clown fiestas, while some get destroyed if the enemy jungler casually walks in, because of whatever you picked gets easily destroyed by ganks.

Hell, you have the power to "herd" your ADCs around the lane and map, though it could be difficult to get them to ward sometimes when they should.

A support playing like a complete retard singlehandedly fucks over botlane, and I have been there, done that. An ADC positioning and playing like a complete retard may not if he knows how to dish out damage and that the support knows how to turn around fights.

Outside lane, good peels and well timed followups often caught people up and place them back on track, especially if you know how to shotcall. People usually listen to junglers and supports for that, if anything. Warding at the right places at the right times is also very powerful.

Of course we can't win every game no matter how much smarter we can be, but you're not that powerless. Yeah, junglers are actually the ones deciding games nowadays, but don't just sit there thinking you can't do anything. You can. It's a lot on priortizing on when to support whom.

EndlessSorcerer2 votes

Personally, I find support tends to have more influence than top-laners and ADCs.

Even ignoring the fact that supports dictate bottom lane, they arethe primary source of vision control around the map. The locations at which you place or deny vision are exceptionally important for:

  • Enabling/preventing ganks
  • Controlling objectives
  • Performing or denying picks
  • Preventing an enemy from flanking you
  • Picking fights

Supports are generally one of the main sources of utility on your team. As such, they are generally relied upon to initiate/disengage fights, lock-down opponents when diving/peeling and creating opportunities for picks.

Supports determine who will live and who will die during fights. https://i.redditmedia.com/_sm6yBHmf5WZASKstqFhyP7dMJq0HijV08RmwdvhXoI.jpg?w=320&s=29eea2d0bb566aa6d7a48a94d5b117a4 Be nice to them.

Supports (along with mid-laners and junglers) are among the best at roaming to influence other lanes. They are generally traversing the map to control vision and aren't responsible for clearing minions; as such, they will often be nearby when objectives are contested or skirmishes are occurring to influence the outcome.

You would be surprised how much influence you can exert by deep-warding the enemy jungle, ganking other lanes or joining early skirmishes when playing as a support.

Swarmer1 votes

Actually bot lane is as strong as support is for first 15 minutes of the game, support makes all the plays possible, since nowdays adc is worth shit if he cannot get atleast his 3 core items ( excluding boots ), support does twice the damage as adc too, also support controlls the whole team, and a good support can solocarry game a lot better than a good jungler or top.

khorney1 votes

wrong its proven that jungle can carry games more then any other position. also if supp is so so so awesome why does 90% of the community despise doing it

Swarmer1 votes

90% of low elo despise doing it, i rather play supp when i play soloq than adc which is my main, because with shitty supports you just lose the lane, have carried a lot of games as supp, and i have friends who at start of season each season some of them switch to supp mains, and from gold or low plat they in just 1 or 2 months time get to diamond.

Valderis Vandala1 votes

Because its a different play-style, a play-style that most people don't favor. Most people just like to do damage to their enemies, get kills and feel powerful and impactful that way. Support plays very different from that, usually its not about doing damage but being constantly vigilant of what the enemy is doing so you can shield at the right time or apply cc, its also about thinking ahead with ward placements for objective control and destroying enemy vision, its not about winning the fight yourself but enabling your team to fight better. And because you usually just don't have the damage in your kit to put up a good fight people feel helpless playing as a support. Not many people like that.

Flaherty1 votes

Generally your job is to protect your teammates and provide/prevent vision if you're a low damage dealing support. And often you initiate team fights or help catch an enemy out to have a future team fight be in your favor. You're right that it's probably the most team reliant but that's just an unfortunate reality to the role. Being a high damage support makes you less reliant on the rest of your team at least, but still more so than just being a mid laner. If your team is decently coordinated then being a good support can make you have a huge impact

KVbqbFsC8e1 votes

Get carried.

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