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Support Main... what to do?

Rathlord··3 votes·1,156 views

Heya,

So I've got a problem: I'm a support main, but playing support in soloQ is garbage.

I like to think I'm a fairly talented player. In normals I'm frequently matched with (and also sometimes play with) plat and diamond players. I don't struggle playing with or against them.

However, as soon as I go into ranked (bronze now, thanks to letting my rank decay a few months near the middle of S4) I face the issue:

Good support players struggle to make an impact in soloQ play. Sure, I can make even a mediocre ADC have a good laning phase, but you're essentially down to the luck of the draw when it comes right down to it. You're not a carry, and while you can have a big impact your ability to alter the game's outcome is clearly FAR lower than any other role.

The problem this presents is that I don't really feel I'm making any progress in ranked. I feel like I'm playing good games, I dedicate a huge amount of time to watching better players than me, taking advice from them, researching my champs, etc. but it just doesn't make any difference.

I've been trying to play mid some recently, but honestly I just have so much more fun in support. I feel like, as a player, I'm really talented at support and it fits my playstyle well. I don't feel happy when I'm playing other roles.

At the same time... I want to progress. I'd like to be earning vicious skins and feeling like I'm making progress. That just doesn't happen. Now that I'm down in bronze, I can't get out because I rely on my team. In bronze, if you rely on your team to carry you out... you'll be there forever.

Advice?

Should I stick with support? Go to mid or another carry role? I'm stumped and frustrated.

21 Comments

The Chin3 votes

Duo with someone who isn't a bronze adc

Miku Lv993 votes

Here's how I got out of low elo as a support:

Just play Sona every game. Your opponents will likely be out of position all the time. Poke them every time you can for it. If you have 2 stacks of your passive waiting, you can auto, q, auto for quite a lot of damage in a very short time. Start with spelltheif's so you make a whole lot of money for doing so. You should usually be able to reduce them to being really passive and safe while your adc free farms. But make sure you avoid blitz grabs, thresh hooks, braum's skill shots, leona's e, and morgana's q, and you should be fine, even if they hit you with some other stuff. Your adc should get significantly ahead. And when teamfights roll around, the enemy team will still fail to position well at all, to the point where even you can make big plays that win fights. Just wait for them to all group up too tightly (or at least most of them) and then flash ult them. It should really turn the fight in your team's favor. Just be willing to tell your team to group up on a regular basis since you should be able to really help your team win fights if you're all together. But be very careful of going into fights when you're outnumbered. And ward a whole lot. Wards save tons of deaths a lot elo since your teammates are too incompetent to tell they're about to get killed unless you make it so they can see the enemies coming in time.

Rathlord1 votes

Yeh, I do play Sona from time to time, but that's probably a good idea. I really enjoy good "traditional" support without having to carry, but maybe that's just not an option where I'm at right now. I'll give it a go- thanks.

hh the thinker2 votes

karma support is fairly good. you can do damage and support that way.

Rathlord1 votes

I used to play a ton of Karma support. Maybe I should get back to it- I can early game bully really strong on her, but she falls off hard later in the game in the support role as far as damage/impact goes. I pretty much only play her if I have a team that benefits from late game attack speed pretty highly due to full team Ardent Censor buffs with ult'd shield from her.

Imentet1 votes

From my experience: At low elo the enemy bot will be making a lot of mistakes. So you want a support that's good at punishing those mistakes so you can spoonfeed kills to your ADC. Team morale makes or breaks games. So go for early game powerhouses, don't gamble on late gamers. And finally at lower elo it seems like noone wants to be a tank. So picking one will help your team big time.

On this account placements got me to silver 3 and I climbed to gold 4. Leona's been working well for me. On my other account placements got me to silver 2 and it's gold 5 now. Braum has worked really well there.

Poke supports aren't really my thing, but Sona should work well too. She can pretty much solo carry bot lane if the enemy lane doesn't deal well with poke.

Rathlord1 votes

Thanks for the advice, all of it good.

I almost always play Nami or Thresh, though I'm competent on pretty much every support and a few off meta champs. I play Nami a lot because I almost never miss bubbles and she can carry in laning phase and then keep a major impact late. However, she doesn't do well with a team that's behind- she does a much better job snowballing a team that's even/ahead, so it doesn't solve my problems overly much.

Sherogarth1 votes

Stick with support if that what u really like. Play some easy, high impact champs who can set entire teamfight like Braum, (played him form s3 to g5 in last week of S4 :D), Blitzz (dem Grabz of Doom). Maybe if u get in game with good adc msg her/him after the game if you can duo with her/him, in bronze many players look for any way to escape :D.

GoldenMean1 votes

I believe that anyone who is ranked below their true value will rise over time. The problem is that there's a lot of variance in that (and there is probably more in support than other positions), and therefore the sample size required to reliably leave your rank is larger than you seem to be enjoying.

It's possible that you're in a bad luck streak though (perhaps even like 99.99999% or something crazy) so that your example doesn't really reflect the overall result of the game.

It's also possible that you have an incorrect judgement about how good you are, google how many people think they're smarter than average... It's a lot of people. :)

If it's that big of a deal, just switch lanes until you rank up.

Rathlord1 votes

I definitely agree that normally players will get to their ranks in the end, but I do feel support is in a bit of a different position- or at the least requires vastly more games to do it in.

And it's not as if I'm losing every game or anything- I think I was roughly positive last season- but just not enough to make any significant push.

Regarding the "how good I think I am" thing... it's certainly possible. I don't think I'm a pro player by any means, but what I do know is that I play with and against much higher ranked players on a frequent basis- like I said in OP, I don't have any trouble with them. Specifically there's a few diamond+ streamers who let me play in their games with them (and who let me scrim them) and they've all seemed to think my gameplay was good. Again, the purpose of this post isn't to toot my own horn and I don't think I should be playing challenger, I just feel like it's hard to move ranks as support.

I can consistently win bot lane for my ADC but still just not have him capable of carrying the game if the rest of the team doesn't do well.

Rikari1 votes

kick the adc out of their high and mighty seat and take their role.

ABlueQuaker1 votes

I'd say just duo with an AD Carry. If you have a good game supporting someone in Ranked, just add them after the game and see if they want to duo - you could even use voice comms too.

If that fails, just spam Sona, Annie, Vel'Koz and Morg Support then get your standard Support items (GP10, Sightstone, Mikael's, Mobi Boots) but also get Morello's and Zhonya's then replace Frostfang (no point upgrading to FQC in Solo Q) with Void Staff. This way you can either peel for your AD Carry (if they're doing well), or go HAM and ult the enemy back line (and carry fights yourself).

Rathlord1 votes

Yeh, maybe I should be more offensive with my items. Typically I run a lot of ardent censor/locket team based items; maybe I'm too fixated on being a "good support" and not fixated enough on making impact.

ABlueQuaker1 votes

{quoted}

Yeh, maybe I should be more offensive with my items. Typically I run a lot of ardent censor/locket team based items; maybe I'm too fixated on being a "good support" and not fixated enough on making impact.

Dude, my mantra is 'Never buy Auras'. I get 1-2 Aura Items from these (Frozen Heart, Zeke's Herald and Abyssal Sceptre) 3 depending on my role and the situation of the game. If your team mates need cheap MR, they can go get themselves a negatron cloak. I'm sure they'd appreciate 10% Lifesteal + 20 AD, or have enemies auto attacking them less often as well as me being able to peel for them 20% more. But as I said before - if you're on a Support-Mage, you just want the build I listed. Stop trying to be a 'support' and start actually having decent stats to support with.

Rathlord1 votes

I get what you're saying though that's maybe not an entirely fair response (and perhaps I wasn't clear in the first place). I'm only going to buy locket if I'm on a tank in 99% of cases. Similarly, I'm only going to buy ardent censor if I have aoe or spam heals/shields to proc it with.

These are fairly common builds we're talking about- both for "common" builds like you'd find in the better sections of Mobafire, and in pro builds. I'm a strong proponent that playing like a pro when you're not isn't always the right thing to do, so this is definitely worth thinking about.

ABlueQuaker1 votes

{quoted}

I get what you're saying though that's maybe not an entirely fair response (and perhaps I wasn't clear in the first place). I'm only going to buy locket if I'm on a tank in 99% of cases. Similarly, I'm only going to buy ardent censor if I have aoe or spam heals/shields to proc it with.

These are fairly common builds we're talking about- both for "common" builds like you'd find in the better sections of Mobafire, and in pro builds. I'm a strong proponent that playing like a pro when you're not isn't always the right thing to do, so this is definitely worth thinking about.

If you like the team-centered builds, you should get an AD Carry duo partner to make use of it. Otherwise, you're better off going Damage on a Support-Mage, or really tanky with a lot of CDR on a Support-Tank and really focus on disrupting the enemy back line.

AtheosisX1 votes

Don't know how you are with Blitzcrank, but he is such a noobstomper. That's one support I'd recommend to get out of bronze. Also high damage supports (aka mages who have moved to bottom lane) would probably work pretty well since they allow you to actually carry late game.

Rathlord1 votes

I'm not too worried about getting out of bronze- I'm only there currently because of MMR decay back when that happened at mid/low elo. Blitz is pretty terribad against decent players, and high silver/low gold is where I'm having real issues.

Zotilus1 votes

Although I totally agree with Miku Lv99, I was also in the same predicament as you less than a week ago. I know how to play support very well for my elo, yet it is so difficult to carry as support in SoloQ if your ADC sucks. In my mind, I saw two options. My preferred one was to pick a deadly poke support champ such as Karma or Zyra in order to zone the hell out of the enemy bot lane and ensure your ADC doesn't do anything stupid. I just find that Zyra has so much CC combined with her potential damage that she both zones well and teamfights well. I only have about 20 games played with her in normals, and it still suffices at Silver 3 elo. Or you can tone your skills at other roles such as Mid or Jungle, which are very easy to carry with. Also, ADC is a fairly difficult role especially for me because I always play the role so differently as a support main.

SmokingPuffin1 votes

If you are super misranked, like 5+ divisions misranked, pick a snowbally carry champion and dunk people. Someone like Draven, Fizz, Akali, etc.

If you are only some misranked, play support and carry by never being the guy who screws up. Very few opponents will have that kind of player at support, and it makes a big difference in win rates.

Honestly, when I've smurfed in bronze (I'm d5), carrying as a support was still really easy. Like, 15 kills on Sona in a 4v5 easy. I don't buy for a second the idea that supports can't carry themselves out of bronze.

Rathlord1 votes

Yeh I haven't been playing much super heavy bully supports lately, as those lanes can fall off late if mismanaged.

I play a lot of Nami/Raka type champs who just have super strong and safe laning phases- I don't typically have enough damage to be doing stuff on my own, I just set up other people to. I did play a pretty fun Karma game last night where I went something like 8/6/18 and kept their adc at ~10 CS until 15 minutes in.

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