I feel like I can never rank up as a Support main

nickdec97·2/1/2016, 4:28:05 AM·2 votes·2,089 views

Now that we have a new que system where we get our chosen roles, I play my favorite position, Support, almost every game

Now here is what i have soon realized after being demoted and currently on a 8+ losing streak. As a support, its hard to carry a team. The only way its possible is if you have the game changer supports that can break down the game and change the dynamic of teams fights. Ones that come to my mind are Bard with ult, Alistar with his headbutts, Blitzcrank Thresh hooks, and if you are crazy and do this, the Poppy Illaoi supports that just break team fights on their own. Aside from the last two who are not genuine supports, its hard to carry a match from a supporting role.

I feel like I have to rely on team mates that don't hold their lane, or think they can carry 5 teams at once and dive into a 1v5 and get rekt over and over again. Regularly I seem to get the people who think they are gods and try to separately carry a team and we end up losing. One thing stays the same, my lane never does bad. We may not do well, but we don't lose the lane. We hang on decently enough until opportunity strikes or someone feeds the JG maliciously.

I honestly don't want to play ranked any more, because even when support is my secondary role i get it because nobody wants it, and I am losing all enjoyment of league. I don't want that to happen, so how can i fix it?

Should I just learn to play Illaoi orPoppy support? Try and be the egotistical solo stud that tries to carry the team in Mid Top or JG? or just play for fun and don't give a crap about ranked anymore?

Not sure what to do.

11 Comments

Mysticman892/1/2016, 6:02:03 AM3 votes

I primarily play Janna in ranked, which has generally served me rather well.

When people get crazy and dive into things they shouldn't, I can dive in after them, and disengage things to limit the amount the opposing team gets fed. When eventually a teammate manages to get fed (there's usually at least one person who seems competent and more suited to a higher mmr), then I can hop on their back and peel off any attempts to murder them, enabling them to carry.

It can be frustrating sometimes when there isn't such a person, but that does seem to be the most reliable way to climb as a support (i.e. finding a particular person to support, and doing you best to minimize the mistakes of the rest). Aggro play makers can be effective too if you happen to have a bot lane partner who happens to be such a person, and if you're particularly good at those pokey champs you can basically spoon feed the kills to even a subpar adc.

I'm pretty sure all supports played have their niche that enable them to (enable someone else to) carry the team, the key is just to find what particular flavour of support you're best at playing in practice.

GGX Millia2/1/2016, 4:55:47 AM2 votes

At your rank, you have a very limited understanding how the game works. No offense, but when you added Illaoi to the support list, it just started smelling bronze, so I checked.

What you need to do is to learn how to play both your roles and champ better.

It does not matter which support you pick if you can't see advantageous situations that you could exploit.

I would strongly suggest picking one champ with low skill bottom and spamming it. Playing either of these Alistar Blitzcrank Morgana Soraka Sona champs should teach you a lot in various ways, so just choose one to your liking. After that, there's Annie Janna Leona Zyra Thresh. These champs require more than just landing 1 skill to win. Finally there's Braum Lulu Nami Zilean Brand and all kinds of other gimmicky supports - they all require above average understanding when to go in, when to retreat etc etc. Try to land every skillshot (2x if enemy is in bad position). Try to understand what YOU could've done better (even if your teammate fucked up, maybe you should've pinged him etc). and so on. Last but not least, practice. Good luck.

GuiltyGecko2/1/2016, 4:54:09 AM1 votes

You need to find your "anchor" on the team. This is usually easier if you duo queue with someone you trust.

If you're solo, find the person on your team that's doing the best. This isn't always your ADC. Then, make sure you always ward for this anchor, support them, and always at most 1 lane away so you can respond when they are in trouble. You can use any support with this tactic, and I used it all the way up to diamond and I was solo most of the time.

Yumifries2/1/2016, 4:48:45 AM1 votes

Playing for fun is the best solution, Another option is getting yourself some friendlies to play with instead of solo que! From what you're saying, it is the fault of others that you end up having a bad game, which I totally agree with since I play support Sona almost exclusively. Try picking up support Poppy those mid/late game heroic charges could be what you're looking for, haha. If your goal is wanting to carry, go jungle. You are basically the caretaker of every lane, and can help someone get that lead or come back from a bad start.

Juggernaut6282/1/2016, 5:40:35 AM1 votes

I literally had to start playing mid and top lane because nobody knows how to play when I support...

I do fine in premades with 1-4 people though. As long as you duo with your bot lane partner, you can go freaking Wukong J4 bot lane (I did this with my friend in ranked and shat on their bot lane(and won)) and do well. Trying to support a random ADC isn't always easy as they may not be on the same page as you.

resumed2/1/2016, 4:53:01 AM1 votes

DONT GIVE A CRAP ABT RANKED N JUST HAVE FUN!!!!!

when you play champions you have fun playing you get good at them and then you get better and you rank up :)

poppy support is REALLY fun to play as. i main support too, and you can carry games as her really well. you can almost play all tanks as a support role with relic shield, poppy is one of the more obvious (and fun) ones though

illaoi support is anti fun though

Athenes Lulu2/3/2016, 4:03:48 AM1 votes

Morgana

  • Land your Q
  • Put on spellshield when you want someone to live longer
  • Can carry if team is too stupid; you got decent damage to do something

Sona

  • Just play the positioning game
  • You can also build lots of AP and poke hard

Janna

  • E = EZ trades
  • Click of any button and you can already peel for the stupidest players
  • Good for anti-dives, one click of any button you already screwed them up
  • Just remember to save your Q's for peeling/disengage, not poke/engage

Supporting is mechanically easy, but requires a special kind of knowledge of the game if you want to improve. Try practicing with these to help you improve and have a better knowledge of supporting in general.

Good luck :)