Why don't people play support?
My theory is that people feel like they don't have enough impact in the game and the fact that if the ADC does something stupid or is just not doing good it's the supports fault.
47 Comments
It's because when the ADC isn't pulling their weight, the Support gets blamed. Then the top lane at the 15 in mark is going "BOT LANE WTF?" as if they just woke up out of a coma.
That's why.
Former support main here. Because:
Sorry, but I'm completely fucking over it. If I wanted to spend 45 minutes being completely miserable, I would call my dad and listen to him rant about how Trump will make America great again. I'd rather spend my free time doing something fun, not bashing my head against the wall of unkillable tank supports and hypermobile assassin ADCs. Fuck. That.
And now that we have the new champ select, I don't have to main support to consistently get a preferred role. So after some 700/1000 ranked games last season as support, I will never queue for support again. Thanks Rito.
I think there are a few reasons:
- When starting out, everyone's doing 2-1-2 lanes. Having one of the 2-man lanes have someone not taking CS or Kills isn't particularly noteworthy, especially compared to that one guy who left lane and tried this "Jungling" thing.
- Both ADC and Support have to get along with each other. If one of you goes in while the other goes out, it leads to bad results.
- A Support can only make awesome plays if they have semi-competent teammates. If your teammates are complete morons, then there's nothing you can do.
- There are people that are willing to play Support, but aren't because the New Champ Select wants to take too much advantage of them. If you ask for "Fill" in Blind Pick you'll get Support less than if you ask for "Fill" in Draft.
I love playing support! <3
I was support main for a long time ... my experience is, that, if you don't sync with your adc (what happens often in random games) it can be a real disaster ... and then your impact in the game is beginning to fade ...
I personalty like support it not my main,but i like tank or semi tanks so i play
cuz support is ass
It's just not fun.
I'm a support main and it's really a difficult role to play.
You essentially rely on another person to do as well or close to decent as you, otherwise miscommunication leads to death. (I.E. you want to all-in or trade because your early game is better but they aren't on the same page as you.)
Since you don't get much gold unless you get assists, being behind is devastating after awhile in both items and exp.
Because you are gated into buying certain items as a core like 
you are dead weight if caught alone, opposed to every other role which atleast has meaningful damage.
will make your laning phase the most stressful, rage-inducing 10-15mins of your life or however long laning lasts.
Back in Normal Draft finding a Support wasn't an issue because everyone would have to do it like 20% of the time. On top of that, everyone wanted to win so most people gave it good effort like they were doing any other role. Now, it is still by far the least popular role; but there is no way to help and play it periodically without getting it 80% of the time. Since no one really wants to support 80% of time, people avoid it altogether.
tl;dr Dynamic Que created what was never really a problem before, because it forced people to be a Support main.
Even when I win lane and provide a solid amount of utility to my team, I still feel very vulnerable with a massive lead. You can help save team mates, but you can only do so much if they're consistently getting caught out. At least as a carry, I know if I play well with a lead I built up from lane, I will most likely be able to keep it and sail to victory. That is not guaranteed on support regardless of how you play. Yes, it contributes, but you're not "carrying" as a support unless you have the potential to solo kill enemies and splitpush or something along those lines.
This is not necessarily a "problem", but the majority of people who play competitive games don't wanna feel like they're completely leashed by the rest of their team and not have much say-so in how a game is going to progress, so we will always have this problem no matter what unless supporting just gets completely changed.
I can't play my favorite champions as support without people thinking I'm trolling (though 
support is powerful and support is a thing I don't understand. I have not tried 
support).
I have recently picked up playing when my friends needs a support. Works fine, but that probably because I can trust my friends more than I can with random ADC's. If I had to support, I'd prefer to play supports who have the option to say, "Yeah, screw this." and start dishing out the damage the ADC won't. But I play tanks, and the only ones I've seen with such abilities are and .
I should probably learn poke supports.
-blaimed for bad adc -blaimed for lack or wards (even though 4/4 possible wards are out for the support using sweeper leaner to clear enemy wards) -blaimed for having low impact (due to damage and kda being what most care about, not times placed wards or times CCed enemy / saved ally)
Support would feel more rewarding if we had a chart that states things like total duration had enemy champions in CC effects, similar to shields/heals having been Put in making it look more appealing because you have more example of how well you did as a healer/shield support
For example as Janna I could count my success by CC and shields given instead of just shields
I have loads of impact on the game as a support. However 1 out of 10 times am I actually recognized for it, usually it goes to whoever got the kill, not the person who set them up for the kill.
i do from time to time. I used to main jung/supp, but now just do jung/mid. Cant be bothered getting paired with a clueless adc. I can more easily carry from jungle/mid than trying to drag my adc along.
also, early itemization isnt very fun. Typically need to rush ...and while I do actually find playing the vision game fun, rushing this just isnt a satisfying buy.
completing your support item is fun, but there are problems. Talisman is garbage until you complete it; even then, it is purely a utility item and you have to sacrifice combat power to complete it. Might as well just make 
, oh wait, im too fucking poor.
Face of the mountain is a fun item. I like it. The execute is nice and it feels good to get 2x the gold from cannon minions. Unfortunately, 
is more efficient than FotM, so often you're better off rushing this sightstone 2.0 and then finish your build with normal items; again, this is unfun as support because your income is so limited.
FQC is good. While it takes a bit to finish on a support budget, that fine, given it's active. Building it feels good; you get a bit of power in AP and some nice CDR which supports always like. Unfortunately the best/most fun support item is too good and became abused by laners. It's really not as shiny after its nerfs.
lastly, it's no fun being level 12 to the enemy mid or top level 16. If im not playing alistar, braum, etc, a fucking zed can kill me with w e qq
why I don't play it as much as I used to;
- the bot lane meta is garbage and ADC lane bullies need to be neutered
- i get blamed for shit i wasn't even responsible for
- the only support that never stops being fun is Bard
-
Heavily team reliant. Supports can carry games by timing CC's peeling ect but if you land a perfect CC/engage and get no follow up or your team carry ignores the wards you placed and gets caught stupidly theres very little you can do.
-
No recognition and all the blame. You can win an entire team fight by peeling for your carry and shielding at the right times but noone will ever notice. It gets tiresome after a while seeing in chat this adc god omg so good when you are working you ass off to set up their kills. The second things go wrong however its always 'why didnt you ward that bush, why didnt you stun him, why arent you defending me' This is especially frustrating in low elo where im at, as you cant leave lane for even a second to roam/back for items or your adc is dead half the time and you get 'sup where were you!!!'
-
Always behind in exp and gold. Its not fun to be 2 levels behind everyone else and desperately trying to grab exp wherever you can find it to keep up because you went mid to ward twice.
-
Team seems to think you are least important and they have the right to demand what you play, even down to the specific champion. Comp lacking a tank? Better demand the support take thresh regardless of what they want to play. Comp lacking AP because mid wants to play zed? Noone else will change their pick.
Your always lower level than the rest of your team. So many games I am lvl 14 while the rest of my team is 16+. All becuase I went to put a deep ward and helped mid lane.
they try to go for K more than A and then end up getting the D because they're doing something other than devourer+rageblade
There almost needs to be a support based on the way the game plays. The three lanes get one person each, the jungle gets one, then someone else has to go with one of those 4. Maximizing one person's income of the two is the best way to create a surge in power rather than sharing it between the two. If the one person is gold starved then they can do much damage, but utility is good no matter how many items you have. The items that provide additional utility are cheap, but tend to either not be useful mid-combat or provide low stats. Lack of damage means lack of kills, and having a "bad" KD can either make the person playing the champ feel unsatisfied with their work, or people can criticize the person regardless of their actual performance.
So supports tend to be damage lacking, item lacking, utility machines. People like to do damage to both champions and turrets so they feel like they are influential over the outcome of the game, meanwhile Nami just slaps turrets with a splash from time to time. Their kits also tend to be straightforward which reduces playmaking potential, because when was the last time you saw a "best plays of Taric" montage? People can sacrifice utility for damage, but people still love to yell at others for picking off-meta supports like Teemo because the utility he offers isn't like what traditional supports offer and their damage tends to fall off as they buy sightstone, boots, and their gold item. Supports are forced into situations that other roles aren't and influence the game mostly via indirect methods.
quite simply is that the adc who carries what bot lane does. and if the adc is not as good as the enemies. it becomes a problem as its very very hard to carry as a support.
Hi support main here who is about to never support again
and ill tell you why
Supporting sucks a**. its by far the hardest role, and can be the most rewarding (game wise) how ever you have to baby sit all the "adc's" and if they fail it is your fault. you can set them up for free kills, and save their as-erm butt time and time again without a thanks and even if you are 1/7 you will get harassed for being a feeder doesn't even matter if you are 1/7/31. you can ask help to ward and then get b****ed at for no wards only to die to ward when no one will help
Seriously maybe 1 in 10 games any one will even think about saying "wow support that was amazing thanks for saving me and letting me get three kills, I'm sorry you died to do so" instead of "omg such noob l2p I carry you thank me for free win"
and don't get me started if you get a kill when the adc would have died if you didn't, the rage and trolls. trust me. I hardly ever support outside of ranked now and I hate ranked
#platsupportashemain
My theory is that people feel like they don't have enough impact in the game and the fact that if the ADC does something stupid or is just not doing good it's the supports fault.
The biggest reason and this is from a support main, in lower elo i feel like i need to play something like brand since I can never trust the adc to either farm, attack champions, or not die so I need to be able to carry them.
I support. It's fun to an extent. Those wards don't place themselves :)
I'd like to add in that some players (at least in my tier) completely ignore the pinging and advice of the support, ex. "Jinx why are you getting the other inner turret?? Please focus on the turrets closest to the nexus!" (ignores Lulu and takes the enemy teams other inhibitor and then tries to take Nexus turrets when the entire enemy team will respawn in 5 seconds even though I warned her 30 seconds in advance when the enemy would be respawning so that she could escape. Proceeds to die > close game lasts even longer > we barely win. Not to mention there's definitely a lack of gratitude towards the role. (Thresh misses 5/10 hooks > "Thresh u suck" , yet pulls awesome lantern saves and helps kite the enemy jungler to keep him from killing ADC. > [silence]) Noone else is expected to ward except for the support and if a ward isn't where "A" wants it, "A" cries that the support is useless. Another personal reason that I have is the fact that for some random reason, players in Bronze focus the support like a Katarina and will ult them/flash for them even if supp is tanky. I actually won a game yesterday because the enemy team focused me in every fight (I was a pretty tanky thresh) while the rest of my team caught up in a losing game by take advantage of that fact.
Several reasons; 1 They're always significantly behind, both in levels and in items; the removal of assist sprees basically prevented them from being meaningful beyond cc bots or heal bots. With the snowballing buff to minions and the cripplingly long deathtimers; supports in general struggle to waveclear at all when alone, and to survive more than a backhand in teamfights. 2 The majority of their items got nerfed hard, because some other champion (that clearly wasn't a support) was abusing it. 3 Vision capacity was gutted across the board, and with so many hyper-mobile champions about, they can't ward beyond tower range without high risk of being telefragged. 4 Most of them are mages, relying on ability power & mana regeneration; and since mage items have been nerfed so that physical carries can shine, they're always going to feel ineffective short of full build. Which is doubtful at best, considering most games last 10 minutes long due to riot's impatience. 5 Community hostility has dramatically increased ever since the tribunal was removed, yet riot still ignores that supports & junglers are the most harassed positions since the beta.
I 100% stopped playing support due to bad adcs. Now I don't play adc due to bad support. Maybe I'm just bad.
IMO:
- Supports often act as a multiplier to their teammates' performance. A great support can absolutely shine and make a visible difference, but usually only if their teammates are also willing to communicate with them and react to their plays, and not just the enemy's. Similarly, part of the difficulty of supporting lies in communicating with your teammates, something that is notoriously difficult to pull off in solo queue.
- While the situation's gotten a lot better, supports still often get treated like second-class players. Their role for a large part of the game still boils down to being the marksman's personal servant, they still get verbally abused more often than other roles (besides the jungler), and they're still pushed towards doing some of the less interesting stuff that everyone else should be doing just as often (i.e. vision control).
- Supports don't really have a consistent way of enjoying themselves. The joy of carrying your teammates to victory, making great saves or legendary set-ups is pretty much unrivaled in the whole game, but that's also generally the only major satisfaction supports can tap into, whereas pretty much every other role can enjoy the game by winning duels, getting phat CS and making themselves more powerful with items. Just making itemization that truly empowers supports, instead of leaving them with a kit and stats that barely take off from their (powerful) baselines, could probably go a long way in giving supports a strong minimum level of satisfaction.
Because it's a very undewhelming role most of the time and the fact that you don't get to kill anyone doesn't help either.
Support is a horrible role, Anything bad happens? Its automaticly your fault
The only reason i don't play support is because i don't want to main support. People cant have support as a secondary, you'll get support over your primary role every time, this is a huge reason why support players are as rare as they are.