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The Struggles of Support Mains

Hoku·9/19/2016, 5:53:28 AM·26 votes·4,585 views

As you all know, 5 roles exist within LoL. Top, Jungle, Mid, AD Carry and Support. Each is vital to the team and equally important, however a vast amount of players don't believe so. The Support is seen to be inferior, unimportant, unnecessary and a sponge for teammates' hate, salt, frustration and rage. When something goes wrong in the Bot Lane, it is always the Support's fault, no matter the circumstances. If there is no map control or wards, it is always the Support's fault. If we cannot save a fellow teammate, despite our best efforts, it is never enough.

Support Mains are rare for multiple reasons;

  1. Unpopular for it's lack of ability to carry and control the game.
  2. Highly dependent on teamwork from the early game, and communication between players.
  3. Perceived to be a liability at times.
  4. Considered to be a "weak" role while the "strong" prevail in other lanes.

We Support Mains have to put up with a lot, while trying to do our best for the team. In laning phase we protect and provide opportunities for our AD Carries. In Mid-Game we help in ward placement, map control and assisting fellow teammates. We provide so much yet are recognized for so little, to nothing. When we set up plays for our carries, they are praised for getting the kills while we standby and pray we are recognized BESIDE them (not instead of them). The very nature of the game calls for Supports, those who are willing to provide glory rather than snatch it. We do our best to work with a team that is not guaranteed to be pleased with our plays.

If you agree with the argument that Supports are trash, garbage and are to blame for every mistake made during a match, give this post an Downvote and continue with your ignorant and arrogant gameplay. If you disagree, and instead believe that Supports are essential, important and should have at least some recognition, please Upvote and share. Support Mains are rare and uncommon for many reasons. So please applaud the ones you find and assist any non-Main playing Support for that match.

I'd love to hear stories, feedback and comments down below. I wanted to at least share and speak for Support Mains in the shadows.

Loving the feedback, arguments and opinions. You guys really progress this discussion and help me understand more.

85 Comments

Mira Arya Enthe9/19/2016, 6:22:58 AM18 votes

Sorry, I played support for a long time. And I rarely see this "Support gets flamed the most" stuff. In fact it's one of the least flamed roles I have played period. I don't even understand where this came from.

Narvuntien9/19/2016, 6:19:31 AM5 votes

I have had it described that a support debuffs the opponents, reduces thier ability to win the game. But that only helps so much if your team can't capitalise on the oppotunity you gave them. That is why a support can't truely carry.

If you are still a support players chances are you don't need tha accolades or the reconition we do our jobs the best we can.

The abuse is mostly unacceptable (unless you didn't buy item 2049), that is kind of true for everything though.

Part of what has made supporting so hard this season is the high mobility meta. I mean you have about half a second to exhaust a fed Zed before your carry is dead, Moakai's and Ekkos diving your carry with no chance for you to respond. Then there was the all TP bot meta, what can you do they will tower dive and they will kill you. (luckily that was nerfed) Then comes the warding negative snowball when the enemy has turbo taken out some towers (again nerfed for worlds) and you can't ward safely anymore. You go to place a ward then enemy lee sin jumps a wall and kills you, you are the only one warding you can't cover everything all the time.

Then you end up 3 levels behind everyone else trying to be everywhere all the time.

Baby Ghoul9/20/2016, 7:28:33 AM4 votes

The support role is so unpopular because you need to be able to do a lot with very little.

Your income is much smaller than the rest of the lanes and jungler, therefor what you can buy and at what point in the game you can get it is limited. On top of that, you absolutely need to buy a Sightstone and Oracle Alteration for a variety of reasons. Vision, true vision, map control, etc. Full builds on supports are rare, and that also makes the eye items not as enticing anymore. Slot efficiency isn't our problem.

Not only that, but you need to trust a complete stranger, who usually is a diva that only uses their trinket early game when they forget to ban Blitzcrank. Seriously though, nobody likes how tied to the ADC supports are, and yes there are ways around it, but a huge chunk of your potential is tied to how well your ADC does. To a lesser extent this is true for ADCs, but they still have damage, which means so much in this game. If a support gets someone who is off their game (happens to all of us), then that's a huge blow towards their chances of winning. It's not impossible to come back from a unfortunate ADC plays bot lane, but should it be that difficult for the support? I often see ADCs carry their medicore support with sheer damage. I don't see that happen as often in the reverse.

Then you are always 1-3 levels behind everyone else except the enemy support. This is the worst thing in my opinion. I hate seeing games where I recognize what I have done, even my teammates do, and yet it just doesn't show. I'm still a level behind the enemy 0/5/1 Sion with mediocre farm. How messed up is that?

I don't need players to recognize my hard work. I want the game to do that.

Supports do get blamed a lot for crap that's not in our control, way more than any other role. I don't care what anyone says about that. I don't care about the same 3 support mains that come on here and claim everything is sunshine and roses 99% of the time. It ain't. I've been to Gold, and it's not better, however I can't speak for any higher than that aside from what I see on streams. The highest friend I have that mains support is in Platinum, but the vast majority of us are Gold are below anyways. Overall, I do see supports get the most BS from their teammates. That's just the way it is folks, and it is actually not that hard to understand why they do when you take into consideration everything about the Support role. It is understandable that they're the most likely to get blamed. Players love passing the blame in MOBAs.

But you know what? That really doesn't bother me. The mute button exists and the likelihood of you running into that fool again is slim. That person that criticizes you for being 0/4 when your full score is 0/4/15 likely isn't going to make it very far, and if they do they'll look back on that moment and cringe. Same with the people who talk about there being no wards on the map when they've only put out 2 or 3 the whole game. The support is always the easiest scapegoat because the score doesn't always reflect our influence on the game.

Let's just be honest about that, okay? I don't think that is the reason people give up on the Support role though. If people quit just because of toxic behavior, LoL would have died ages ago along with every other MOBA. Supports may get more of it, but you can come across toxic behavior in every role.

That's not to say there aren't bad supports, but honestly? Playing a basic functioning support isn't that difficult. Rarely have I seen it played "badly." Meaning they don't even do the bare minimum. I've seen many supports casually sit there, babysit, and ward. When your ADC is demolishing the enemy on their own, that's enough to keep them going. You won't make any amazing plays etc., but I get why people can see that we don't do much when that's a huge chunk of supports I come across. It just won't be enough against a support and ADC that both are actively participating in the game. Half the time that doesn't happen. There just aren't that many true support mains in ranked for the reasons I just listed.

Moving up playing as a traditional support is difficult. If you have good teammates, you can make them great. If you have bad ones, then they usually aren't going to be able to use your abilities to their full potential, which impacts you so heavily. Turning the tides of the game isn't as clear cut as it is with the other roles and you need to be resourceful. You do need to put in a lot more thought to make something like that occur because you do less damage and are usually levels behind. Sometimes I don't think it is possible to do that as Support because the role is so team reliant. In Gold or below you can kill everything or farm and make decent progress. That's not to say you should, because certainly not all games are that one sided, but It is much more simple. If your concern is simply making fast progress in ranked, then I wouldn't look at the support role either.

10Tickler9/19/2016, 6:19:30 AM3 votes

Honestly...

Too many supports have had to be nerfed because of items and keystones making them overwhelming, and yet, the truly oppressive Supports are barely ever touched.

Blitzcrank: Misses 99 hooks, hits one? Laning Phase is over, GG, WP, you lose early game, and if it's lategame, they get baron and nexus.

Morgana: is it a meme? Yes, is her snare super-strong? God yes. Should it be nerfed? Yes.

Annie: She's a mid, who's taken bot infrequently (Was more of an issue in S4-5) and with how strong her Scaling and bases are, as well as her AA-range, she's oppressive, and again, a Free lane once she hits six. Tibbers needs a definable cast-time, the AOE on the stun should increase based on AP.

The biggest issue is that mages, taken bot, can stack AP and still crap out damage. Annie, Lux, Nidalee, etc. Tanks and Juggernauts can crap damage too (I.E. Illaoi)

Deflum9/19/2016, 6:16:14 AM3 votes

As a support main, i agree with the fact that we are blamed for bot lane. So, when i play normals as support i play carry support picks so i don't have that problem, Kled, Nidalee, Janna, Karma, Annie and a few others who carry no matter where they are. I still build support on all of them with Ruby sightstone and such to maintain my role as support but i make sure my output is enough to chunk the enemy to low hp so i can spoon-feed my ADC kills. Yes, SPOON-FEED, because AD Cries are little babies who grow up to be beautiful AD Carries when they get items. So i spoon-feed them kills so they get there faster. I get flamed in champ select because of this, but as a support main, i understand i'm going to get flamed if i don't and my ADC is a boosted Bonobo who cant kill unless its handed to them.

Sorry for my rant, its good to get it out sometimes though. Have a wonderful day

P.S. Much love to my Support Main family <3

Deep Terror Nami9/19/2016, 6:15:35 AM3 votes

I'm going to be honest here; imo players that tend to get harassed tend to actually be playing poorly (no, I'm not saying it's justified). I very rarely get shit from anyone because I'm good at what I'm doing. If any Support feels they are always being abused, I recommend they get someone a few tiers higher to review their gameplay for a second opinion.

Sylvant9/19/2016, 8:36:18 AM3 votes

i think they main and prolly only problem why supports are less popular is mindset of nowadays people. They want to be the hero thats super powerful, come in with fireworks and dominates the enemy...People dont take joy in being that play maker who stands slightly more back, but thru supporting his allies with often unnoticed moves can set the fight. The supports isnt greedy and selfish, demanding gold and assistance, he is selfless and sacrifices his own greater being in exchange of this of others

Immortal spax9/19/2016, 9:56:52 AM3 votes

So... This is the usual circlejerk pro supports post? Every week we can witness one.

I play support too, and the only time i got flamed its because or i fucked up or i flamed too.

We can all agree that the most flamed role is the jungler, and we can all agree to that the most useless role is the support (just think about it, of LoL become a 4v4, what role will be erased?)

Also, with top lane, support is the most unskille role in the game, if you have 0 mechanics, or you play Janna or some "carry me" support, or you pick a bronzodia in top lane and you carry for your self.

The Deckowner9/19/2016, 1:00:53 PM3 votes

I quit support mostly because of player toxicity, seriously can't stand these crying 12 year old adcs.

Also watching these adc mains cs at a rate of 3 cs/min really hurts my eyes, I rarely even play adc and I can cs better than that.

maybe it's just low elo

Gary B Enkelis9/19/2016, 6:08:14 AM2 votes

There's no lack of control or weakness in the vision control / denial game...

item 2043 item 3364 item 2049 a Support's bread and butter. And then also the aura / buffing items they can stack up so your team mates can get other big items.

Poske9/19/2016, 3:15:46 PM2 votes

Support is the least important role its also the most boring role

Sorry to say it but its truth

And NO supports main get bashed the least compared to other roles

Supports were more cruical back in season3 when they were just ward bots.. Sad but true

manbearswine9/19/2016, 4:35:18 PM2 votes

please Upvote and share.

Go back to facebook.

Kled Man Walking9/19/2016, 5:43:17 PM2 votes

the main thing that makes me mad is when your adc that fed in lane tries to 1v1 the enemy adc and dies, blaming me (the support) for not helping even though i was in the jungle while this bad idea was happening

Canastus9/19/2016, 3:10:58 PM1 votes

I've grown to consider supporting a waste of time, it's simply the least rewarding role in the entire game for me - and I've been playing healers for years. However once the system starts FORCING you into playing the role 100% of the time just for having it picked as your secondary role, you start getting extremely tired of it.

I'm also constantly disappointed whenever I give it my best just to see all of that effort go to waste because my team is unable to properly follow up after my cc or heal. Or in most cases they're just too damn stupid to win with a broken support like Soraka on their team since they lack the necessary intelligence to kill a single person. These games have to be the worst and they taught me to never ever let someone else take on the responsibility of carrying a game again, since then I've been only playing mid and top laners.

For one, they'd seriously need to rework their role-system to ever make me consider picking support as a secondary again. Secondly, they'd have to rework the role into something with far greater utility or superior access to vision (maybe an additonal slot for pink wards?). Only after these things have happened I might consider playing a support champion again.

TricolorStar9/20/2016, 1:41:40 PM1 votes

I main Support, but with a twist.

I just play Zyra or Bard . When you play those kinds of supports, you decide who lives and who dies and when the teamfights happen. It's a whole new world.

Breaku9/20/2016, 2:09:53 PM1 votes

Support was the hardest roll for me to get Gold with.

Penguin Eclipse9/20/2016, 4:50:14 PM1 votes

I actually don't get flamed much at all as support. In fact even in my worst games where everyone is being toxic toward one another, I am usually the only one who isn't being called trash. Part of that is because I am fairly good at what I do. The other part is I typically don't say anything negative no matter how bad it is. Too often I find that supports (and everyone really) talk too much. That only leads to trouble when things start going bad. Don't blame, take sides, or tell someone how to play their champion and you will get a lot further.

I will say that expectations are becoming increasingly unrealistic these days. I don't recall another season where I have ever had to bail so many people out of avoidable no-win situations. And the amount of healing required in some games is unbelievable. I used to joke about people not dodging skill shots because they have a healer. But people actually seem to be making plays they know they will take needless damage for these days with the assumption that the support will heal them. Going after that last minion knowing you will eat a Lux E for is just poor gameplay. Sure Soraka can take the pain away but not if you make her kill herself to do it.

Abrosis12/20/2017, 12:37:15 AM1 votes

Might not be the most flamed role but definitely the least appreciated.

Gives No Lux12/20/2017, 12:45:39 AM1 votes

It all comes down to ego. In most ranks support has the highest opportunity of all roles to make the most impact. You can carry if you get ahead and you are always useful even when behind. You're the only one who is actually going to care about vision and the only one not tunneling 100% of the time on chasing down kills.

IMO if you can't play support then really you can't play any other role either.

AdmiralPouyan3/17/2018, 12:44:09 PM1 votes

I recently choosed sup because I underestand a good sup is a game changer. I did a lot of S ranks with Sona and Zilean ... two champs that everyone think they are not strong . Maybe at early game they be weak but after mid game if u got a good player with these champs your win is guaranteed ;) Yes usually ppl see them as weak and not good but in many games I received more than 1 honor which shows ok its not only "The guy who killed more is best one". I think pro gamers know the value of a good sup.