What defines a "Support?"

AttackOnTeemos·Nov 28, 2016·1 votes·573 views

Default answer I hear from everyone are one of the following. 1)Someone who heals and wards 2)Someone who tanks and wards 3)Someone who CC and wards lil of first 2.

We play where the meta is changing but now Riot is SEMI Cracking down on people who do different things as a support.

"Personally" I believe anyone who doesn't build a sightstone early game isn't a support but that's just me. I've ran games ADCs are not range. But the truth of it all it's like that official/nonofficial rule your adc "has" to be a range carry.

So really what lines someone as a "True" Support?

11 Comments

AptestNov 28, 20165 votes

This and ONLY this:

relegates farm to others.

Leo1024Nov 28, 20161 votes

CerealBoxOfDoomNov 28, 20163 votes

support is both a role and a champion type.

support role is one where you are focused on enhancing teamplay and getting a champ from one point in the game to the another.

support champions are ones designed to enhance the performance of others or reliably negate extreme effects on them which does something similar. Support champs are usually also geared to do well on low gold budgets through various balancing means like high base ratios and such

PrimaquariusNov 28, 20162 votes

Meta supports imo are those with healing/shielding capabilities plus optional CC effects.

Todays supports are champs like Kennen Malphite Rammus Sejuani Sion who ONLY provide CC...where did the metas fall to?

1wolfpackNov 28, 20161 votes

its a game, let people play how they want. as long as they are legit trying to win. you dont need to buy a sightstone to provide vision. some champions have abilities that help provide vision, and u can always buy wards + trinket. besides it is everyones job on the team to provide vision, trinkets are free dammit!! use them

Leo1024Nov 28, 20161 votes

everyone knows damn well what a support is and who the supports are, no one sees Braum and thinks of taking him mid, i hate seeing people go or Annie support because they focus damage and don't prioritize wards which puts the entire team behind, not just their adc, as a support main, just because Annie has a stun or Velkoz has a knock up, it does not make them a support. the only mages that are acceptable supports are Morgana for her shield and stun which can be a game changer and Karma for her speed, stun, and aoe slow

utility > one cc ability

DolasaurNov 28, 20161 votes

{quoted}

just because has a stun or has a knock up, it does not make them a support.

You're right. It's how you play them. If your team already has a Maokai and a Cho'Gath on it, then Braum's probably not the best support. If you already have a Xerath mid and Varus ADC, Vel'Koz probably isn't the best support (outside of surprise level 6 cheese). But if your team has no magic damage and no wave clear and you need a bunch of AoE disengage (2 AoE slows and 1 AoE knockup), Vel'Koz is a great fit.

FYI, Karma doesn't have a stun :)

Leo1024Nov 28, 20161 votes

well it's a root my bad but yes its her W which works like a Leblanc chain

and so because your team already has 2 tanks that means you play a mage? because you can't play Janna Sona or Lulu ? Speaking of these are all great champions who can be the ap for the team and very rarely does a team go full ad and if they do they deserve the loss for lack of strategizing

DolasaurNov 28, 20161 votes

Building AP isn't the same as doing magic damage. Check out average damage charts on a site like champion.gg. Quick snapshot of damage per game:

Vel'Koz/Brand/Zyra: 21-22k Sona: 12k Lulu: 8k Janna: 4k

If you're Janna, no one's going to build MR to mitigate your damage threat because you don't HAVE a damage threat.

I didn't say anything about playing a mage for the 2 tanks situation; I was just pointing out that even support-only picks like Braum are not universal. Picking a mage support might or might not make sense in that situation. I didn't say you couldn't play Janna or Sona or Lulu. But just because you can doesn't mean you should.

And going top/mid/jg AD is not necessarily bad strategy. Your team can be a full-on early game steamroll team (like Pantheon top, Riven mid, Yi jungle) that wants to win by 25 minutes, and that's another situation where Vel'Koz is great. (As a support, his early game is much stronger than his late game.)

Leo1024Nov 29, 20161 votes

i pick my support based on what my adc picks, not the team, a Thresh doesn't work well with Ezreal the same way Nami won't work with Vayne , and if you're going an apc like Velkoz then you're not playing support at all, you have 1 cc on high cooldown and will likely ks due to burst which makes your adc useless as the game progresses, mage supports almost never ends well because they always ks and they don't ward due to focusing damage, yes the adc can ward too but vision is primarily for the support to handle

DolasaurNov 28, 20161 votes

For the lane (and not champion type), a support is a champion that contributes to team success on a lower reliable experience and gold budget than the rest of the team. When optimized, this usually means preferring items with higher gold efficiency over slot efficiency, as well as playing champions that have innate base stats or utility.

Specifically note that most item goals in this game involve multiplicative scaling. For physical damage, you have AD, AS, crit chance, crit damage, Lethality, and %ArPen. For magic damage, you have AP, MPen, %MPen, CDR, and lots of active damage items. For defense, you have health and armor/MR. Utility items usually have large benefits that don't contribute to multiplicative scaling, making them gold efficient (useful even without other items) but less slot efficient (not as useful when you're full build as other options).

But that's all defining what makes a champion do well in the support lane.

So really what lines someone as a "True" Support?

To me, a support is someone who takes the above information and runs with it. You see the lower budgets as a challenge for finding out the best way to help your team.

Sightstone's an easy win because the utility it provides for its cost is unmatched, at the cost of poor slot efficiency. Supports don't need to rush Sightstone every game, but someone that doesn't get it fairly early most games is probably not a "true" support at heart.

But beyond that, the sky is the limit for supporting.