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Why I'm starting to hate being a Support main

I hate my ADC··123 votes·8,377 views

There are multiple reason why I'm getting sick and tired of playing Support. Something I would never have said in the past seasons. Before I start enumerating the reasons, let me make two things clear...

  1. I absolutely LOVE the support role.
  2. What I am saying here is subjective so don't get your panties in a bunch please.

1. I feel like I have no control over vision.

  • A trinket that doesn't last long enough to keep vision on an area 100% of the time.
  • A pink ward that is more useful to keep vision on the Tri-bush or River than to deny the enemy vision. At least in the laning phase.
  • Forced to rush a Sightstone because Green Wards are a thing of the past.

2. I am always underleveled

  • Because of the masteries changes.
  • I'm in a duo lane for christ sake, I am forced to get less XP, but being 2-3 levels behind a solo lane is simply unacceptable...
  • I have to roam and ward, giving me even less XP...

3. I have no gold

  • And that is fine with me, except that the difference in gold, while not much different than previous seasons, is much more visible in this season where everyone can just kill you by looking at you.
  • With the few gold I can manage to gather, I am forced to build support items, making me an easier target to take down with a complete lack of damage to retaliate or fight back.
  • If I play a tank champion, well... bruisers are tankier than me because I can't even buy tank items. I need support items and I can barely afford them in the first place.

4. The snowball

  • This just make the 3 previous points even worse. The game is so snowbally right now that I am not allowed a SINGLE MISTAKE without fear of getting erased from the game instantly by the 5/0/0 on the other side.
  • The bot lane is almost always decided on the first kill in the lane, usually caused by a jungle ganking, which brings me to point 5...

5. Dealing with ganks

  • 2 words: The Package ... There are more and more ways for people to literally jump over multiple walls and gank from almost anywhere... Why did they increase Zac's Slingshot range? Why did they give The Package to Corki? Why is the new upcoming champion capable of flying across half the map and dropping a freaking star on your head? I shiver to think what may happen with the mage update.
  • This problem is just the cumulation of every other problem I mentioned above... Having less control over vision means it's easier to get ganked. Being lower level make it easier to die and less capable of fighting back against a gank. Same for the gold... less gold, easier to kill. And finally, snowballing means that a 3/0/0 Top can just teleport and instagib the bottom lane.

In conclusion... I find myself feeling bad for playing Sona, Karma, Zyra or Nami now. Because if I don't play Janna, Alistar, Leona or Nautilus, I have to rely on the rest of my team to... support me.

139 Comments

Droogzy17 votes

As a support Nami main, I've cut my playing time on this game severely shorter. Used to get on for FWOTD, now I don't even bother with that most days. I have to say, despite the changes, I find myself still winning the very high vast majority my games, but it is still frustrating nonetheless.

So many problems with supporting right now and you pretty much hit it on the head.

Particularly the warding change is what has me frustrated the most. Between spooky ghost to help with face checking, a pink ward, and only three wards on the sightstones, it feels like I never have enough wards for vision on the map.

To the above about Nocturne/Pantheon/TF, all their gap closers have one thing in common: you at the very least have about two seconds to react to their gap closers, which in most cases for a support, is more then enough time. Corki's Package almost rarely gives enough time to react, Zac I'm not too bothered by as you can at least ward his gap closer sufficiently. Corki's Package, I've seen go over two fucking walls, from Red buff to the tower turret.

Least Nocturne/TF/Pantheon's kit is properly power-budgeted to include their gap closer into it.

Nocturne sacrifices quite a large amount of early game pressure due to needing to hard farm to six. TF maintains a weak early game and his teleport ganks will only work in high coordination with other members on the teammate until late game when he can solo pick off anyone. Pantheon is the inverse of TF, his level 6 man-drop gank is his strongest, but falls off at games goes on. Corki's? His is just a giant middle finger on top of massive damage at every stage of the game and ANOTHER gap closer which resets after using package. Pantheon has two gap closers, but of his four abilities, they take two of his ability slots. Not one.

I am a terrible, lemme repeat, TERRIBLE mid-laner, I played a game the other day in which somehow I got mid-lane when I wanted to play Jungle, I picked Corki, went 4-1-4 and finished ahead of their mid-laner in CS, they ended up forfeiting at the 20 minute mark. This is not OK.

And with all due respect mate, looking at all your comments, I can see you do not really have a proper grasp on the problem with supporting right now.

Warding is a team game? Lol sure maybe in coordinated teams, but even before the changes to warding, it was always a team game in coordinated game-play, going solo? Well you're shit out of luck now.

Supports are under-level because of a critical mastery that at least allowed them to stay close to the rest of the team in terms of level, its not about striking a balance, supports WILL be severely under-leveled in the process of doing their job in comparison to the rest of their teams.

Lack of gold, again, this has been an issue and plight of support its not about last hitting and trying to participate in every kill, my games end with me around 70% - 80% kill participation, and most solid support mains will have higher, but they will always be gold starved, no matter what, unless they're killing stealing, most support will be several thousand gold behind the rest of the team, which generally is always accepted.

The problem is now item snowballing is so bad now, if someone on the other team is up a thousand gold on on their lane opponent, that means they're up several thousand on the opposing team's support, this means if they even so much look at their support, they pretty much will die. All I can say is that it feelsbadman.

Snowballing - Dude have you watched the LCS? Every game now is a dance around each other because one kill will most likely lead to game over now. This is pretty reflective in regular game matches too, while yes, not every game resulting in first blood will result in team winning, the vast number of game is decided now within the first 10 minutes, regardless of whether it is ranked or normal.

Don't believe me? Perfect example from a game today: C9 vs TL, watch it, TL got first blood off tower dive/mistake by Balls, and the lead snowballed incredibly far out of control because of it. All because of one mistake. And no, this isn't one match, I can pull up MANY more in which the game is decided in this manner.

RainbowIcee1 votes

Pant only needs his ult to get to you not even hit you. He can ult on your tower it wont even matter if you see him or not if you are a distance away from cc'ing him before he reacts you are dead. One W, E, 2 autos and then the crit Q. Pantheon gives no fucks he is just getting there not trying to sneak in.

Droogzy1 votes

{quoted}

Pant only needs his ult to get to you not even hit you. He can ult on your tower it wont even matter if you see him or not if you are a distance away from cc'ing him before he reacts you are dead. One W, E, 2 autos and then the crit Q. Pantheon gives no fucks he is just getting there not trying to sneak in.

You can use skill shot CC to stop his entire combo completely and blow him up before he has a chance to react, I've done it many times, additionally, his mandrop gives ample time and warning. TF's falls in a similar manner of counterplay.

It's honestly in my opinion, one of the healthiest global teleports in the game.

ElysMustache1 votes

{quoted} my games end with me around 70% - 80% kill participation, and most solid support mains will have higher

False. You average 60% kill participation.

In your last 26 games, only 4 of them fall within the range you described, and none of them were above that range.

ThreshHookisGood1 votes

This was indeed a long time ago... but seriously? wtf is the point of what you are trying to say here? doesnt matter if he exagerated a little bit. No need for such condescending comments. Honestly...

what you deserve11 votes

That summoner name though.

IcyPepper7 votes
  • Forced to rush a Sightstone because Green Wards are a thing of the past.

Let's be real, we were forced to do it regardless if there were Green Wards or not.

Nobody was forced to buy green wards, but you were reported for not buying sightstone :/ Huge double standard if you ask me.

I hate my ADC7 votes

People can report me for not buying an item they wanted me to buy all they want, nobody ever got banned because of a salty teammate. At least back then I could delay the sightstone and buy Green Wards to cover. Was especially useful for Sona who is so dependant on her items to get early dominance.

Sum Wun Speshal2 votes

Don't get me wrong but I think this applies to more roles than just supports.

Imagine your Anivia mid going full AP from the very first item instead of getting some mana or mana regen before that. There are simply a couple of things specific roles are supposed to do. I main Jungle/Support and it bothers me when my support doesn't have a Sightstone 30 min into the game. I wouldn't go as far and report them for it but it makes me think that they either have no idea what they are doing or don't care about the game at all.

There are some questionable and similar cases like the Sightstone issue for Supports, like tanky top laner not taking Teleport, aggressive junglers building full glasscanon although they are behind, that Anivia example I mentioned at the start of the post ...

I am all for defending Supports and giving them what they deserve but the expectation that some items should be build does apply to everybody. Is it report worthy when those things are being ignored? I don't think so.

I hate my ADC1 votes

The difference is that Sightstone needs to be rushed, unlike Anivia who can buy a cloth armor into a armguard rather than rush a chalice to deal with an AD champ matchup. Middle laners have CHOICES in what they want to rush first. Every champions have items that are essential to them, but only support have a forced item to rush. (Exceptions may apply) The only outliers here are Tear and RoA but even those can be delayed because middle doesn't have issue with gold. Sightstone is choked down our throat, even if the 150 health is utterly useless for the majority of support champions. The most I spend without a Sightstone is with Sona because I desperately need the scaling to keep up early laning and Sightstone would screw me ten time over if I went the item 3098/item 3097/item 3096 =­> item 2049 like I usually do with other supports.

Sum Wun Speshal1 votes

First of all, thank you for taking your time to reply.

I'm not sure if I can follow. Do you have to rush Sightstone from a strategic point of view or are you afraid of getting negative reactions from your team mates?

I would agree with the first instance. There is definitely room for improvement in terms of supplying supports with wards in cooler ways. Although I kind of like the Health you get from Sightstone but I can see where you're coming from.

But I also think that rushing Sightstone as a very first item is not really mandatory up to a certain elo. Maybe you are Diamond+ and this doesn't apply to you, but lower divisions don't require the instant Sightstone IMO.

Depending on how the game is going and how confident I feel in winning, I sometimes upgrade my first support item (item 3092 item 3097 item 3096 ) and/or finish my tier 2 boots first. But that's the furthest I would go. I am actually quite excited for the Sightstone as I can assist my team with more than just my abilities from then on. It allows me to do so much more than just trading/peeling/engaging. It kinda feels like a powerspike.

Just like mana/ mana regen feels great on champions who really need it. Like finishing item 3174 feels great because you know you can walk up to lane and spam everything.

I hate my ADC1 votes

The thing is, when I forgo the Sightstone and go for Pink Ward instead, I can get the early dominance I need with certain bully supports like Karma and Sona, but without green wards, I place myself at risk of getting easily ganked because yellow trinket is garbage. If green wards were still a thing, I'd gladly spend 150-225 gold for 2-3 green wards just so I can completely ignore the Sightstone for 5 more minutes so I can dominate my lane without fear of getting crushed by the ganks. It doesn't feel rewarding at all to buy a sightstone because it's an item I'm always forced to buy and with the current way things are, I'm forced to buy it ASAP unless I want to risk dealing with an enemy team that know how to take advantage of a lack of vision.

Loli Lulu6 votes

Lulu Support Main here~

  1. Vision is much harder to keep than previous season, but I think that was Riot's intention. They didn't want the game to be a farmfest. Although the early levels are much more dangerous since you only have 2 trinket wards on a relatively long duration to rely on. Having to recharge Sightstone a lot is also a pain (tying into #2 a bit)

  2. I don't think it's changed all that much, or at least not how I play Support (never did go with the old EXP mastery). We've always been behind, and our kits in general were kind of built around that. However with how much more snowbally things are, the gap rises very quickly, especially for an already starved support.

  3. This isn't too bad now with the combination of support items being generally a tiny bit cheaper, and the dedicated Support starter items. No Green Wards to spam also allows for gold in other areas.

4-5) Enemy jungler ganking, or simply losing in lane due to a minor mistake is more snowbally this season for sure. Lack of vision (#1) early contributes to this. Ganks and deaths lead to lower EXP/level (#2) and less gold (#3). With current meta of strong laners/bullies near-unavoidable ganks and tanky-dives, early kills are very punishing.

Unfortunately, squishy-poke/utility supports are a little weaker in the current meta, which favors more tanky-utility or pure-utility/disengage supports.

FurretHasAGlock4 votes

Hey. This is coming from a support secondary main. Try out bard! The situation your describing can be fixed if you play him correctly, if he falls behind he is still incredibly helpful, he is cancer to the enemy team, he has good early game power with his stun and meeps, and his chimes interaction always give him something he can do when out warding, so he doesn't miss out on XP! Not only this, but he has one of the most powerful ultimates in the game. A good ult can stasis 4 of the enemy team and make it a 5v1 for a few seconds. With spellthiefs, his meeps trigger the passive, so auto attacking once procs 2 of the passive, giving good gold. Hope this helped you learn to love supp more..... -DerpasaurusTrex chimes intensifyBard

SexyGamer4 votes
  1. I feel like I have no control over vision.

-Well, vision control is now a team mechanic. 5 players weren't equipped with a trinket just so they could press another button.

-Yes, there are ideal areas to drop ur pink ward but you obviously don't want to drop it in an area you can't readily defend. That's 75 gold down the drain. There is a right time and place for everything.

  1. I am always underleveled

-While it is true that supports generally fall behind harder in levels now, it is your responsibility to strike a balance between roaming and sitting in a lane for a minute or two to soak exp. Remember that you can always go with your ally to a lane to soak the exp as they quickly clear the wave then immediately roam afterwards. In the mid-late game, you can hang around your allies as they clear a jungle camp to soak up some of that exp as well. If other support players are able to adapt to the game's changes, then theres no reason you can't as well.

  1. I have no gold

-Since goal is more scarce this season, you need to learn to salvage it wherever it is possible. This means last hitting minions when your adc isn't in lane (sometimes, even getting the last hits on cs your adc will miss due to their autoattack cooldown). Being near turrets as they die to receive the local gold. Making sure you're utilizing item 3303 and item 3302 to their maximize capacity as well as the "Bandit" mastery (which is a pretty important mastery for supports). Also, you should always try to participate in every kill so you can get gold from assists. this means shielding/healing/using some type of buff on an ally that kills an enemy or simply attacking the enemy.

  1. The snowball

-It is NOT true that the 1st kill in the lane decides the laning phase. Different match-ups have different powerspikes at specific levels. Certain champions have advantages in poke wars/range/all-in potential/wave clear. The enemy can make mistakes on which , if you're competent, you can punish them. Then you have other possibilities like your allies ganking your lane or the enemy does a horrible job with minion wave control/csing (leading to huge cs gaps between the enemy and your adc).

  1. Dealing with ganks

-You have a problem with zac/corki having immense range on their gap closers but what about nocturne, pantheon, and twisted fate who have been in the game (with subtle changes to their "globals") for longer? The enemy could easily plant a ward behind you for the potential of 1-2 TPs from their allies. How would you play against any of these differently? If you don't know where the enemy is and you have a strong belief that they could be nearby, then PLAY like that. -And yes, less vision means you need to play smarter and safer. There is no reason to play stupidly aggressive when the enemy has globals, is competent, and proven that they will target your lane.

The meta of supports has sadly been crippled to a few select tanks/utility supports. That is the sad reality.

I hate my ADC7 votes

{quoted}

The meta of supports has sadly been crippled to a few select tanks/utility supports. That is the sad reality.

This is the whole point of my thread. I'm starting to hate being a support main because I no longer have choices. I'm stuck to go the same path all the time using the same champions and having to deal with the same exact problems all the time. I'm sorry if it wasn't clear in my OP, but I wasn't really looking for advice or anything. I adapted to the meta. But in the end, I still have less control on vision, I can't stop other lanes from snowballing, I will be lower level with less gold no matter what (Excluding the rare snowballing Sona games I have) and there are ganks that are simply impossible to deal with without having the right champion for the job or if the rest of our team doesn't answer.

No matter how smart and safe you play, you still need to be in range of the minions for XP and you still need to allow your ADC to last hit. Else you are effectively losing. And with how weak towers are, it's not rare that we are powerless as support to do anything when getting zoned because we got counter picked. Had an enemy Ezreal bitch after a game to his Nautilus that he suck. Told him that it's not the Nautilus fault that I was the last pick and counter picked Alistar to make Nautilus completely useless. No matter what the Nautilus would have bought for items, no matter how he played, he was pretty much screwed because he was bound to lose his lane and once that happens, he was way too behind to do anything against the rest of my team.

Pürple2 votes

But in the end, I still have less control on vision - As someone else stated, it's now a team mechanic. You've gotta adapt to that now. Get over it.

I can't stop other lanes from snowballing - You can't be everywhere all the time. Get over it. You can try but you will never be guaranteed success.

I will be lower level with less gold no matter what (Excluding the rare snowballing Sona games I have) - Why do you care? They have a support that's in the EXACT SAME BOAT. Get over it.

and there are ganks that are simply impossible to deal with without having the right champion for the job or if the rest of our team doesn't answer. - That's why you learn how to counterpick instead of just choosing a champion you like to play. Given equal player skill, the game will not be equal because it's kind of like a glorified rock paper scissors. Certain combinations beat others. That's just how it is, was and always will be. Get over it.

Hope this was helpful.

Athenes Lulu1 votes

{quoted}

But in the end, I still have less control on vision - As someone else stated, it's now a team mechanic. You've gotta adapt to that now. Get over it.

I can't stop other lanes from snowballing - You can't be everywhere all the time. Get over it. You can try but you will never be guaranteed success.

Adding on, this isn't support-exclusive. As much impact a jungler may have, there are plenty of things they can't control. They don't complain, or at least as much as "support mains" do.

I will be lower level with less gold no matter what (Excluding the rare snowballing Sona games I have) - Why do you care? They have a support that's in the EXACT SAME BOAT. Get over it.

Though people on this thread will talk about how "this is a problem so therefore should be addressed". To take it on a realistic approach, for someone who doesn't farm, it is only natural that they get less EXP and gold than their teammates do. I mean you can also use some basic reasoning: 4 sources of gold/exp, 5 people. One person will have less. Unfortunately, it's just a thought that they can't get across.

and there are ganks that are simply impossible to deal with without having the right champion for the job or if the rest of our team doesn't answer. - That's why you learn how to counterpick instead of just choosing a champion you like to play. Given equal player skill, the game will not be equal because it's kind of like a glorified rock paper scissors. Certain combinations beat others. That's just how it is, was and always will be. Get over it.

Though this is actually a good solution especially to the general players, but sometimes picks aren't everything; even bad matchups can be outplayed to some extent. To put it bluntly, people need to remember that they have to think. Not all ganks are escapable, even if you're something like Janna. But not all ganks are un-escapable either if they know how to anticipate or even, just have map awareness. All lanes are not pushing except botlane and enemy jungler hasn't shown up in a while? Someone's probably coming down bot. Messy 2v2, and enemy top and/or mid has teleport? Someone's probably coming. And this isn't botlane exclusive either.

ModAttysu The Poro3 votes

I feel you as another ex-support main! I just wish Riot would do something to make Supports get a little more exp/mana without making mids take it and ruin it for us. >_< maybe Exhaust-specific items like Smite specific items for Junglers?

DepressedAhri3 votes

Mid can just take exhaust, then, like top laners take smite in some cases...

ModAttysu The Poro2 votes

{quoted}

Mid can just take exhaust, then, like top laners take smite in some cases...

True, but it would turn off a lot of assassin/ad types of champions who highly prefer ignite/flash. Like how Top laners only get smite sometimes because usually it's better to get others.

DepressedAhri4 votes

Turn off Assassins? Why are we not funding this!?

WingsofGulgazor1 votes

they won't take it if the item is built out of sightstone and has a bad build path for mages until the very end where it would only be Ok on a mage.

DepressedAhri2 votes

I was mostly responding to the "without making mids take it and ruin it for us."

If a mid wants to take it, it must be viable, right? And if it's viable, why wouldn't you just take exhaust to be able to get it? I mean, right now, I personally start Spelltheif's Edge on all my poke mid laners for the extra gold because it is viable and gets you a really early lead while providing some AP as well.

Yosuke Apperu1 votes

{quoted}

I feel you as another ex-support main! I just wish Riot would do something to make Supports get a little more exp/mana without making mids take it and ruin it for us. >_< maybe Exhaust-specific items like Smite specific items for Junglers?

This would honestly completely eradicate the assassin meta and I am okay with this. Edit: This coming from a talon main <3

Reep Daggle3 votes

So if you are struggling with those problems in the support role my recommendation is to be a jungler.

Heckin Support31 votes

But I can't play the champs I love in the jungle. And we can't play them mid lane, because god forbid a support champion gets play and is viable in the mid lane riot whips out that nerf hammer. coughSona Soraka cough

TeCoolMage2 votes

Sona and Soraka work averagely in mid now. Soraka has a more reliable kiting tool, 100% AP heals on W and the ability to chain QE. Sona has RFC, nuff said. I like taking them both mid more than support but it's easier to do that with Sona than Soraka due to saltiness.

Oh yay downvote brigade here to perpetuate ridiculous ideas set by the meta by shooting down any attempts to argue otherwise.

Heckin Support15 votes

As much as I do love ap Sona mid, the meta right now is completely not in her favor, and is a huge target for ganks. Back when mages ruled the game, she was actually really good. But certain items are so anti mage burst (which is what ap Sona is about) that it's hard to get a good game in as her mid.

I guess I could see Soraka mid though. Lots of poke with Q and sustain for her team, and a huge global heal. But like you said, will probably get non stop complaints from butthurts yelling at me for taking her mid in normals.

Mama Soraka5 votes

I've been running Soraka mid with a group of people I play with regularly and so far I dumpstered a Zed to 0/6. It was so hard he literally wouldn't engage me when his jungler ganked and CC'd me for fear of the Banana.

The next game I held my own and then some against a Swain and healed my ADC for over half her health from across the map with my huge heals. Soraka mid is too legit.

Those are the only two I've done so far since I'm actually the support of the group when I can get it. Mid just happens sometimes.

TeCoolMage2 votes

HA same, I feel sad for Zed mains sometimes. But I've only played 2-3 games.

Soraka AP is so powerful right now, since her base heal isn't as good anymore but her AP ratio improved so much

Mama Soraka9 votes

The unseen banana is the deadliest. Also I am physically incapable of feeling sympathy for Zed mains ;]

Heckin Support1 votes

I've managed to get mid lane with it being my secondary But getting mid lane as my secondary and getting into a game without Soraka being banned. That's unheard of.

TotalJerk2 votes

Not really; Soraka's ban rate is about 13.9%, right now.

Nunya Bezwacks3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Mauve Thunder,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=BEZzckas,comment-id=00090000000000000000,timestamp=2016-03-21T06:05:14.398+0000)

I've been running Soraka mid with a group of people I play with regularly and so far I dumpstered a Zed to 0/6. It was so hard he literally wouldn't engage me when his jungler ganked and CC'd me for fear of the Banana.

So you beat a shitty zed? Am I suppose to be impressed?

Mama Soraka4 votes

The point of this chain of discussion was if it is worth taking Soraka mid in spite of her immobility in the face of no doubt numerous ganks and the current diving assassin heavy mid lane environment.

Nobody asked you to be impressed.

If you have experience with Soraka on Sona against those types of champions that would be helpful, rather than a post full of snark that serves nobody.

DeathBot6664 votes

Yet you see a mage in support lane or with support items and we get the support items nerfed. #RitoLogic

CheftoniFTW2 votes

rip season 3 Soraka.

MysteriousBootie3 votes

I can't comprehend the decision to remove stealth wards from the game, and this change affects EVERY role, not just support. I mean if the logic to remove them was "vision is too strong" then why not......create more detection items?? Removing a vital aspect of league, that has been in the game for years; such a terrible design choice.

Ya know what dota 2 has? Detection wards, and observer wards. Very simple, very obvious warding system that gives the best of both worlds. You can't really complain about too much, or too little vision in DOTA because you get adequate tools either way. Now in league it's like "yeah now the only real vision is coming from your support, who may or may not even buy a sightstone let alone use it regularly enough". Yellow trinkets still suck even after the CDR buff and blue's still suffer from the issue of making their presence too obvious to the enemy team by LITERALLY MAKING A NOISE AND VISUAL EFFECT where they're used, and getting destroyed in 1 hit while also being visible.

Green wards imo REAAALLY should come back before the season ends, and riot should just throw in a detection equivalent of wards, that or simply buff sweeping lens so it's more available throughout the game.

SoisauceCCH3 votes

I like how the support main brings up viable grievances, such as how vision is completely useless right now because you can't actually buy wards, and how snowbally the game is, and everybody's reaction is "play mid or jungle".

Yeah that's now how that shit is supposed to work. Bring back buyable wards, true vision scanners, and remove a shit ton of AP ratios from "supports" who just build AP and instantly chunk people down with Thunderlord's Failure.

I hate my ADC2 votes

And people complain about the lack of supports in dynamic queue.

The irony.

SoisauceCCH1 votes

Every person playing support in Dynamic is either a support player, or a mId laner who got their second role, so they just build AP.

Dangerous Man2 votes

I absolutely hate playing Tank supports. They are so squishy early because the support items (FotM and SS) barely give enough to be a tank item. They have no sort of resistances and I usually die a bit early because of it.

SquareClock2 votes

My brother and I always duo bot and we tried to fix these problems by focussing super hard on winning lane instead of roaming. It doesn't fix everything, but it solves a lot. Our midlane might lose lane a little bit more often because we roam less, but we do win lane 90% of the time.

Our strats aren't that solid yet, but here are the basics of it:

  • To fix the midlane problem we always tell the jungler to ignore us and focus on top and mid.

  • The warding problem is mostly fixed when you have a good warding strategy with your adc.

  • My brother stopped playing tanky supports and only builds a sightstone plus a ton of items to buff/save me (the adc) so I can take on the enemy midlaner in teamfights that is like 2 lvls ahead.

  • Whatever we do, we won't let the enemy botlaners place a ward behind us for the top-TP-plays, if they manage to do this, we let them push towards us without hesitation.

  • Basicly anti-engage supports that can buff the adc work best for us. Janna and Lulu are the queens on botlane now. Zyra isn't too bad either. And don't forget about Bard and Thresh.

ATM these things are making us win about 75% of the games we play together. Like I said, they aren't the holy grail to get out of elo-hell, but at least they do something for us.

JerulEon2 votes

Has anyone heard any kind of news of Riot future intentions on improving the support meta?

These kinds of board discussions have been popping up very often. I just hope Riot implements some changes soon because I think support is a fun role that I want to try more often but I get kinda turned off by the problems you mentioned.

Saianna2 votes

. I have no gold

  • And that is fine with me, except that the difference in gold, while not much different than previous seasons, is much more visible in this season where everyone can just kill you by looking at you.
  • With the few gold I can manage to gather, I am forced to build support items, making me an easier target to take down with a complete lack of damage to retaliate or fight back.
  • If I play a tank champion, well... bruisers are tankier than me because I can't even buy tank items. I need support items and I can barely afford them in the first place.

That's the reason why I dislike supports. Most of "true" supports disagree with me, but I don't give a singly flying fk about it. IMO this logic "supports need to starve" or "ADC gets everything" is flawed hard. And as a proof you have this mess of a dynamic queue. Supports job is supporting ADC and team, having utility, not starving to death, having no items and overall be slave for a team.

I'll never jump in to play support role unless Riot will change the part where I have more room for my build (more gold), my actions as a support are more visible & important (aka I'm not just the stun bot) and some way to keep up with ADCs levels.

Battlecast Sona1 votes

riot did not create 0cs supports. other mobas did. It has almost nothing to do with Riot's game design and everything to do with the state of MOBAs at the moment. I mean shit, DotA2 has MULTIPLE 0cs supports, and they're expected to leech as little exp from the lane as possible. While I don't disagree (there needs to be another gold stream that isn't a piddly 2gp10 item for supports), expecting them to go back to a situation where supports share CS is highly, highly unlikely.

Saianna1 votes

LoL hasn't created 0cs supports, but they did implement it anyways.

Riot boasts everywhere about teams, friends, contribution, team wins, solo loses.. Sharing gold across the team, where everyone gets +/- equal share (or something like support gets 0,7 while ADC 1,3). Wouldn't that be Riots wet dream for team oriented game?

CoffeeDave2 votes

I posted this on another thread, but I'll bring it here too.

I'm a support main, been so since I started playing at the end of S3 and I've got to say the vision changes hurt supports more then riot realizes. Yes, item 2049 was OP for how much you have to spend on it, but on a support's budget you NEED the item. Dropping from 4 charges to 3 really hurt the item and the role overall. This was the first time I felt like I got nerfed as a player. The item 3340 item 3363 also hurt. It doesn't matter at what point of the game, it never feels like I can get enough vision anywhere. You guys want to know why Alistar Janna Soraka are the OP support picks right now? because everyone else feels so much weaker/ineffective.

Why is everyone else weaker and ineffective? Because of the support's budget and experience penalty for being a support. Everyone else needs the XP to get the utility they need to be effective. I keep hearing you need to play tanky supports to make an impact in the game (as a Nami main, I can tell you, you can make an impact with any support), but for tanky supports not named Alistar , you need items too.

It feels bad being a support nowadays because unless someone on your team gets fed, you can't be effective. This is also assuming you're playing a easy to play champ too, if you're playing a high skill cap champ like Nami or Thresh you don't get rewarded with carrying potential like other higher skill cap champs like Yasuo or Azir . As a main of one of these 'high skill cap supports', you just have to work harder to end up with the same problems with everyone else. Low income, low experience, low carrying potential unless someone on your team is already fed.

What makes it worse is games nowadays also feel harder to come back from. I know that games have the same come back potential as before but it feels like games are won or lost by the 20 min and it's just a matter of ending. If you're a support on the 'losing' team. It doesn't feel like there's much you can do to turn it around and if you're on the winning team, it doesn't feel like you can stop your team from throwing. Again, I'm talking about the 'feel' of support, not what can actually happen.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but damn. I haven't even touched the 8 min 4-5 man gank to bot lane.

kDrakari2 votes

"In order to encourage the whole team to participate in vision, the Support is now the only champion able to place Stealth Wards (Unless the jungler is nice... Tracker's Knife is a good item guys! Hello?) .

Also, we nerfed Sightstone and trinket wards have fun!"

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