I've never really found it to be harder than any other role.
Yeah, you have to have vision control, and understand how to lane 2v2, but you also don't have to CS. I'm not saying it's braindead easy, just that I don't find it as hard as people make it out to be.
So what is it, then? Am I missing something?
Supreme Senpai6919 votesSupport is hard cuz lots of time your ADC is a potato. And that's fine. But without an ADC as a support you're useless so you're basically just spectating the game. It's not an issue with other lanes even if other lanes are a potato as well. The actual role isn't hard in itself, but when people say support is hard that's what they mean. It's the role that can't really carry and sometimes your team legit doesn't want to win
EndlessSorcerer10 votesIf your ADC is a potato, you do whatever you can until mid-game comes.
At that point, you abandon the potato and assist the competent allies.
Moetaro8 votesIf the support is a potato, laning phase becomes a living hell for the adc. If the adc is a potato, laning phase becomes a living hell for the support.
If the support and the adc are both good, but they dont get on well, laning phase becomes a living hell for they both.
AgeOfTheMage1 votesor let that potato grow by protecting it
EndlessSorcerer1 votesIf the potato has shown themselves to be unreliable, I'd rather invest my efforts in an ally who has proven themselves to be competent.
It is just a better use of resources.
ZILLAGULA7 votesADC is hard cuz lots of time your support is a potato. And that's fine. But without a support as an ADC you're useless.
Supreme Senpai694 votesPut the circlejerk aside, I'm not talking about "qq the support can do no wrong." I mean if your ADC doesn't want to win as a Leona you are worthless. You literally might as well AFK. You can do nothing in that lane, for that lane, and anything you try to do will result in your death.
The ADC can still farm minions. The ADC can still attack the enemy from range. The support can't do these things. It's harder for the ADC yes, but they can still do things. The support really can't. It's the reason I've started to play ADC; I'm just sick and tired of it. And yes you get bad supports. Like the Karma who would run under their tower to 2v1 while I was under our tower farming the 2 waves that stacked up, fed the hell out of their Ezreal, then flamed me and roamed mid to leave me to 1v2
But I could still farm. I even killed the Ezreal when he E'd in. I could still play the game
ZILLAGULA2 votesNo, but you're so busy talking about how hard support is while not even considering the other roles. Yes the adc can still farm minions. The support can roam though and isn't obligated to stay in lane. Your job is to make sure the adc is ahead anyway (in lane), so if you ward and make sure to get experience I'm sure that's plenty as you really don't need many items to function.
Risk of Fate10 votesIt's because you're so heavily team-reliant that if 2 of your 3 lanes are losing hard, there's mot much you can do to stop the bleeding. Yes you have a fed ADC, but what good is that when you have an 0/5 jungler, 1/3 mid, 2/5 top and down a turret and dragon? It's not really that hard to keep one person alive, however the difficulty comes in trying to get your team to work together when all they want to do is dive for kills, ignore whatever you say because you don't have any kills and ergo not a carry, and blame you when things go wrong.
A good support is nothing without a good carry (whether it be ad or mage, srs I'll support a mage bot if you're willing to work with me a bit) and vice versa. On top of that, you're already item dependent how a match plays out. On top of that, you have an 800g slot waste for your sightstone which you must constantly use because heaven forbid anyone else should ward. Your job is map control which is not as exciting as getting kills, but it's still important and the other 4 lanes don't really respect just how high level of macro play supports can do.
50000000000000006 votesIt's harder to carry with, since by the nature of the role you need to rely on teammates more. In terms of just playing support, I don't think support is significantly harder than other roles, but at the same time not significantly easier.
NiamhNyx5 votes[{quoted}](name=Mecha MaIphite,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=YYTqz3n9,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-02-01T20:49:15.101+0000)
I've never really found it to be harder than any other role.
Yeah, you have to have vision control, and understand how to lane 2v2, but you also don't have to CS. I'm not saying it's braindead easy, just that I don't find it as hard as people make it out to be.
So what is it, then? Am I missing something?
I think it has to do with it being hard to be a really good support. Cause a really good support does more than just vision control.
RabbitVS5 votesSupport isn't easy at all. A good support knows that they should poke the enemy ADC just before they are about to cs. That's meta that many supports don't do. If you're not doing that basic strat then of course support is going to be easy - you just sit and watch until your ADC needs you. In team fights, the support has an eye on all four players, not just himself (compared to other lanes where you get to focus on your own positioning and abilities). This is why people say support is hardest role; because you have to juggle more than any other lane. 
NiamhNyx3 votesSupport isn't easy at all. A good support knows that they should poke the enemy ADC just before they are about to cs. That's meta that many supports don't do. If you're not doing that basic strat then of course support is going to be easy - you just sit and watch until your ADC needs you. In team fights, the support has an eye on all four players, not just himself (compared to other lanes where you get to focus on your own positioning and abilities). This is why people say support is hardest role; because you have to juggle more than any other lane.
yea, and the worst part of it all, is when you call shots. Cause sometimes the solo lanes think "pfft its just a support, they cant tell me what to do, they have no game knowledge, they only get carried"
TequilaZombie1 votesOr we honestly think that your shot-calling is a bad idea. Happens quite a lot in Low Elo.
NiamhNyx3 votesOr we honestly think that your shot-calling is a bad idea. Happens quite a lot in Low Elo.
I doubt me saying "Dont go to baron, take the nexus" when its open, is a bad shot call. just saying. thats where my example came from. i got "shut up your a support you dont know anything"
TequilaZombie2 votesI feel your pain. I've had my team doing ELDER FUCKING DRAGON after an Ace while the enemy team had no Towers on their Nexus and the only thing stopping us was a rather big minion wave and an Inib. And that was an idea given by the support.
Shit in this game goes both ways, most of the time.
KoggyStyle1 votesthat 50g from nuxus must not be tempting enough :/
TequilaZombie2 votesInrease the value for a Shut Down amount of gold. Kill Hungry as low Elo teams are, they are sure to dive the nexus hard!
Mecha MaIphite3 votesThat isn't particularly hard though. I understand that supporting well takes a lot of skill, but I don't think the skill cap is that high.
Also, I'd argue that jungle has more juggling to do.
Ralanr4 votesIt isn't hard. People just don't like it because they don't feel useful to the team.
This is because they equate getting kills=useful.
Rito Staff4 votesBecause it is an art to let go of selfish desires and humbly serve others.
Good supports are hard to come by, half-assed ones are all around: mage picks. Sighstone and proceed to build full AP. Some bypass sightstone and just go for that Veigar wannabe build.
And my favourite one, wave clearer Annie who doesn't even care to get last hits herself and shamelessly shoves the lane foward for some reason, I feel like she's telling me "get on with it already". (This happened more than one time no joke)
The best work a support can do is to synergize with you. That's pretty hard to achieve and most people don't know how to cooperate and work together (you can do it without chat).
Keyword here: support.
Moetaro3 votesyou are not supporting the adc in lane phase. You are supporting mid, jungler and adc. A good support will gank/countergank mid, and will help jungler to counterjungle/countercounterjungle. And you know what? you cannot do it when you want to, you need to know if you can do it or not, a bad decision at this spot and you give a double/triple for free to the other team. You dont even consider that? then you cannot carry as support.
you are the shotcaller, GL shotcalling playing solo. EDIT: not to talk about shotcalling being hard as F even if your teammates follow your shotcalls. One single bad shotcall, and you can throw the game badly (oh boy, yes you can, I've done so many times :S)
Mecanically it doesnt seem to me that they are very difficult, but either you understand VERY WELL the game, or you cannot support properly. I dont find very difficult to play support, but carrying being support (points 1 and 2 I mentioned earlier) is hard as F.
Gelmous3 votesof course it's hard otherwise i wouldn't get so many potato supports that don't know what they're doing. but i need those little potatos to lane properly, i ward with them or without and ping them danger when it doesn't feel safe to trade or i sense a gank and try to keep them safe as much as possible, if you're an ADC the support role is really hard to deal with, it's the role that someone always wants you to carry them without putting in any effort
Paquay2 votesI don't think the individual act of playing as a support is hard except maybe on a few champs. I think it's more being a part of a team and having the support typically the one who is shot calling everything that is the tough part and really separates good support players.
People don't like support because they want to get 800 kills and carry their 5 ton teammates to victory. Harder to do as support that gets yelled at for an accidental CS kill.
KoggyStyle2 votesjust cuase your support doesent mean you shouldent know how to last hit with no ad, you need to know your teams powerspikes and your enemies,you need to know what to build for maximum budget effeicntcy(cant spell fml)where the best places to ward/sweep are.
The list of things a good support has to know is huge, any monkey can take a mage bot XD.
chipndip12 votesSupport isn't brain dead easy, but people try to list shit like it's the hardest role in the game when it clean isn't, either.
SociopathFriend2 votesSupport is "hard" for the same reason learning any role you're not proficient in is "hard"- it's because you have to learn something new.
An equivalent example would be for a Jungle main to learn to last-hit in a lane. They never had to develop this skill in the Jungle.
By contrast of doing something you know, learning something new is always going to be "hard" in comparison.
Look at new champions when released- everyone wants to ban them because either: They don't believe in their teammates doing well with the "new" thing. They don't want to learn how to play with the "new" thing.
NGNL Asian1 votesSupport is insanely hard it you have 0 synergy with your team and learning when to ward and ward is very important nowadays because almost everyone is going to camp bot but after you learn that all you have to do is learn to predict and stuffs. It's honestly not that hard
Elisheva1 votesIt's the easiest to me, other than maybe ADC. Seeing as how ADC is the only role in the game with a designated babysitter/verbal punching bag.
YoungFarmer1 votesI find it harder in low ELO, because if you have a brain dead ADC rip. When I played support around plat elo it was much more enjoyable.
Mysticman891 votesI feel like it's 'hard' in so far as it's not easier than other roles, and theres a subset of the community who feel like support is the 'easy' role since they don't need to cs and just count on getting carried by the 'hard' roles.
It also draws on a different skill set compared to other laners, so an adept mid laner who has never topped before could probably still play top fairly well since many of the skills transfer, but a mid laner who has never supported before would probably make for a horrible support.
(I consider jungling it's own thing too.)
Basically supporting isn't harder or easier than being a cs-ing laner, just different. (and similarly jungling isn't harder or easier than laning, just different again.)
Bârd1 votesSupporting isn't harder than other roles, per se.
It's just hard to carry as support.
SwiftKitten881 votesBy far the hardest part about supporting is knowing when you cant save someone and to NOT try to save them and get yourself killed as well.
this is hard because as a support your who job is to "protect" your team and every fiber of your being wants to do this and save them. And its REALLY hard to stop yourself from tying to help them even when its hopeless.
and not only that you, NEED to KNOW when its hopeless, and when its not. that a large part of the issue. you need to have knowledge of a large number of champs to accurately decide this. most importantly are the ADC who you will be with most of the game, you need to figure out EXACTLY how good each one of your teammates is at their champ VERY quickly, and figured out if they are good enough to turn the fight around if u go in to help in any given situtation. you need to have knowledge of a large number of champs to accurately decide this.because if they try to gosu... then you have to let them die.. but if they ARE gosu... you need to help them...
learning your own champ is easy.. that's not the hard part. learning who is savable.. what fights are winnable. when to let people die, and when to go in.. is NOT easy. that above all else is what makes a good support.
warding the map, removing their vision, getting your adc fed, coordinating the team, engaging the fights, pinging the objectives. WATCHING the map at ALL time and pining gank's because even when your team wards they don't look at their map.
this is the supports job.
agbudar1 votesno "look at my kda" potential.
coming from a Braum main who sometimes goes 7/0/14
so idk what the fuss is all about.
getting kills with braum and seeing the tilt on the enemy team is so utterly satysfying especially when 4 of your kills were 
.
hue hue hue
Snowplosion1 votesProbably because all non-supports seem to want to play this guy: .
34271009DEL11 votes
I play him and being a support isn't hard, relatively, but making plays in lane and peeling for your ad is more difficult than just vision control.
Aptest1 votesBecause your direct lane partner cant 1v1 anyone and has a giant bulls-eye on him and in addition to that everybody goes full damage on your team and you're the one providing the control over the other team for them so every time they want to do something stupid they need you there or they feed and all the while all of them think they are incredible playmakers and pay 0 attention to what you are trying to do so you end up trying to do 17 things at the same time.
basically playing support is like babysitting a house full of toddlers and they all try to shove spoons up their noses.
lilpokfluf1 votesIt's not that the role is hard it's just that it is easy to see when someone is good at support than when someone sucks. They used to say it was a brain dead role that had to be carried and couldn't carry themselves. Now that everyone gets autofilled and they gets smashed by the enemy support who has actual game knowledge a lot of people see that it is just as important as any other role.
DarkRitual1 votesIt has more decision trees than top/mid/bot during laning phase. Jungle has more as well.
In addition to dodging, harassing, and grabbing a minion for those relic shield stacks (when applicable/, you have to judge your 2v2 engages and counterengages. If I go in, can we kill and get out? If they go in, how do I turn it around? The 2v2 (minus jungle/roams/clown fiesta) lane is harder to play in general due to the duo dynamic. Support isn't hard, it just requires different decision making processes compared to most other roles (with jg being the mkst similar in terms of decision trees variety).
the weeaboo1 votesNot hard. Just boring as shit. Do all the work most of the time and get none of the credit.
Hence why people have shied away from tank/initiator supports and turned to supports that are basically just midlaners with Eye of the Watchers
Maddinii1 votesI don't understand how the adc can be potato. You're supposed to protect your adc from pokes, help him farm minions, keep track of minimap and land a few pokes instead yourself. In return you don't have to pay to much attention to last hitting minion and you don't have to waste abilities on minions. If you do your job proper most adc's will be able to land a few kills.
Moetaro1 votespffffffff
NO
Jesse Pinkmân1 votesI never say there hard but people blame you for every mistake every mistake. If you make any mistake your the problem. You're the "Meg" (Family Guy) of the team.
Athenes Lulu1 votesIt's not.
You just need a brain for it, and not everyone has one.
Fondling Gems1 votesTo break it down there is a general consensus that the 3 hardest roles in LoL go either Jungler > ADC > Support or Jungler > Support > ADC. There are some other fairly well supported role orderings but those two are the most common from my experience.
These 3 are broken into 2 types of difficulty. Mechanical difficulty and map awareness/pressure/control difficulty.
ADC's are the most mechanically difficult champions. Some people argue that they aren't because right click hur durr however there are rarely any champs as targeted and with as few tools to defend themselves as ADCs. (Which is Why ADC's get the support and not the mage laners) This is why they score high on the list at 2nd to 3rd place. Mid or Top as a role are not as difficult. Sure there are champs like Azir that are hard and on a comparable difficulty to the hardest ADC's but as an overall role your mechanics don't need to be as high.
Junglers and Supports require the most map awareness. They are the ones who roam, gank, set up vision, often call the shots, etc. etc. That takes a lot of game knowledge rather than mechanical skill. Junglers tend to take more as they decide the game early on while supports just want to stick with their ADC. Mid - Late game though their roles are quite similar and it is their job to engage/peel/decide when and where to fight. They need to know what fights can be taken, how much room for error there is, who the priority lockdown, damage, and peel targets are, how healthy the team needs to be, where to set up and clear vision etc. etc.
Other roles help in this but their job is often to provide the damage/tank not to engage, ward, clear, call off fights etc.
That is why support and jungler are placed so high, they need much more game knowledge and map awareness than any of the other roles because that is their job.
inplane1 votesTry playing Support, the role that gets the least EXP and Gold if behind, consistently well in a Meta where it is crucial to take down Bot Lane with whatever means necessary. Play 15 to 20 games as Support and you'll know why it's not as easy as other roles.
Jeanne fan club1 votesits not necessarily that the role is hard, its just harder to carry teams as support. Mostly because you aren't in a damage position, so you have to rely on your teammates to do damage. As a support, its entirely possible to land 5 man stuns and still lose teamfights because your team just doesn't do damage where you want them too.
Its super unfortunate, and leads people to believe that support is a difficult role.
Also, difficult is misleading, is difficult, 
is not. They are both supports, so saying that these 2 extremely different skill level champions can be shoved under the same difficulty level based on class is ridiculous.
Support isn't really the most difficult role, its just the most frustrating, because of who hard it is to carry teams when you cant rely on them to do damage.
Faustavian1 votes0/3/0 varus with 38 farm at 8 minutes
: I need kills guys, im behind
Le moi, : What you NEED, is to buy a 
, and safely farm so you can gain a bit of gold instead of ulting the second you see their fed 
, missing, and dying again, without even taking my lantern, and trying to get in melee range of the enemy I just hooked to peel for you before AA'ing them and your idea to stand on the frontline to poke when they have a 
: wow, report this thresh. Toxic
*Not an actual event, but a scenario made to provide an example
Aldapsayar1 votesLong story short. Support is no hard. Good support is hard to be. You are underleveled, don't have damage or split push power. If your ADC sucks, you suck too no matter how good you are.