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Supports and Lane Presence

Atmosphere·12/20/2017, 5:38:08 PM·1 votes·1,767 views

Just to preface this, I'm a bot lane main. I play ADC and support almost exclusively, with jungle and mid in between. One thing that I have noticed that a lot of non engage supports (Janna, Morgana, Sona, Lulu, etc.) don't understand is the concept of lane presence. I had a support LeblancLeblanc in a prior game, and she had no lane presence whatsoever. Every time that the enemy Thresh and Jhin got even a bit too close for her, she would immediately just walk away. Thresh would continually recognize this, and just walk up, flay me into Jhin root, and then Q me. While I admit fault to some of it, Leblanc had plenty of time to counterengage Jhin but chose to just walk away, and this is the issue that I have with a lot of support. When you pick support, you are going into that role knowing what it entails. All supports have some sort of utility that helps their carry to do their job, whether you're a Nami with CC, a heal, and a damage buff, or a Leblanc that just helps the ADC get fed by bursting the enemy down for the carry to finish. You can't just leave lane whenever your carry gets caught: it happens to everybody. If there is something you can do to help, it is your job to do it. If you're not up to the task of supporting as a support, then please find another role to play. I would suggest a solo lane where you don't have to worry about anybody but yourself.

Quick additions:

  1. If you get autoassigned to support, you still have to support. If you don't like it, dodge the match. You don't get to ruin the game for your team by having no support and an underfarmed carry because you didn't get your way.
  2. If you have a support that doesn't have any lane presence or just can't do their job properly, don't report your carry. It's seriously not their fault that the support isn't doing their job properly.
  3. To fellow ADC players out their, we're not perfect. We make mistakes. Recognize when you made a mistake, got caught out, and there's nothing your support could do to help.
  4. To junglers, recognize when a lane is falling behind and go help them out. That's your job. I can't count how many times a game has been lost because a lane snowballed due to a jungler ignoring said lane and then blaming the lane for feeding despite them asking for help and getting none.

TL;DR for the additions: This is a team game. Treat it as such or stop playing. It isn't fair that 4 other players get to suffer because one player doesn't care about the team.

9 Comments

Anastaecia12/20/2017, 6:28:17 PM2 votes

ADCs need to do the same. Three of my five ADCs today just kept CSing away while I (Supp) and/or JG was engaging. Had a Cait earlier that several times continued CSing away when a TF was going on 1 screen away.

RookPusher12/20/2017, 6:34:07 PM2 votes

I agree with you, and you can tell when someone has never done it before. By and large it's a perception issue. People think Support is a free ride because it doesn't have visible metrics. There's no KDA for saving someone's bacon, zoning the enemy, or ensuring the kill for the ADC. All of those things aren't measurable and so support becomes a role of instinct.

If the enemy goes in on the ADC, my job is to make sure they figure out it's a bad choice. And I'm to do things to make the enemy think "I don't know, this Morgana knows what she's doing...maybe just farm." Having said that, the ADC needs to unload on the enemy when they jump on me and that doesn't always happen.

My rule for ranked is, if you don't have enough games player with that champ - I'm taking a carry support. To that end, it would be great to show mastery as early as "declared."

ily noose12/20/2017, 6:00:26 PM1 votes

But Lulu is an engage support ;-;

Alterluz12/20/2017, 11:10:22 PM1 votes

I say make it mandatory to equip shock system for playing league! So that when people play differently than the "meta" they are automatically shocked! Yes bend to my will! I am always right hahahaha

Draehl1/14/2018, 6:46:37 AM1 votes

By the same token don't criticize supports that aren't playing a tank or a healbot that you just want to stand there and serve you. You have to remember not everyone is getting forced into support and a lot of support mains like playing a more active role (IE poking the enemy, initiating when there's a health/minion advantage, etc.) So many ADCs just stand there and complain if you do anything except watch them farm.