Boards›Gameplay

Supports need some Support

Biff Manly·2/3/2016, 1:24:59 AM·3 votes·642 views

Half the time, your support is not there to play support. They're there to play Fill, or I-guess-I-put-secondary-support-by-accident. Blitz and Thresh exist to make the non-support players still feel like they contribute big plays in an otherwise dull role, and they're appreciated. But sometimes your support takes Ignite and starts with a Doran's item, and chances are they're not exactly happy playing "just support" and have decided to create a duo-top lane in the bot lane.

Why is support the least popular role? Why has it stayed the least popular even after Riot's attempts to make it less awful? They gave us trinkets, they gave us Sightstones that aren't just HP, they even made some playmaker supports like and , but people still avoid the role.

And I'm aware of the loophole where you take powerful AP champs with some CC, but even then, they avoid sightstone, they dodge aegis, they're just there to play mid in bot lane.

What would make the community more inclined to pick support?

EDIT: For context, I like playing support, but I don't play ranked. People down here are generally less willing to take the role.

9 Comments

Provengreil2/3/2016, 2:30:41 AM2 votes

A cultural change where simply winning the game is more appreciated than personally carrying the game. Not gonna happen.

Seriously, people want to climb and get the skin, get the border, get the bragging rights. They get excited by the damage and control they have over a match. You might say supports have control in a match, I(support main) heartily disagree: We have control of a fight, not uncommon to have some control over who lives and dies even. However, in a full match, I can't go places without my team. I can't engage without followup. I can't take a tower, push a wave, take a dragon, and so often can't even do my biggest job, warding, without a buddy. Very few people enjoy this loss of agency, and even more are deeply frustrated when their team ignores the right option for farming wolves, and the support has no capacity to do it him or herself instead.

What's more, if someone on my team has to die, almost every time it's the support that should go first. Even the LCS casters say the same: "....it's 1 for 1, but it was mid for support. (team that lost their mid) is going to have to pull back for a bit...." Almost nobody has that self sacrificial flair. We get no gold, one to four item slots taken by lower impact items, to include the necessary yet anemic sightstone, and so often get ourselves killed over it to hear "nice double kill, lucian!"

So Riot has given us playmaking supports Braum TahmKench , impactful items item 3092 item 3069 , and what happens? the champs are taken top and jungle until they're nerfed into obscurity, the items are taken by mids and jungles until they're made worthless again, and our lack of damage and kill scores keeps the average* league player laughing at the support.

*remember, the 50% mark on the ranked ladder is about silver 4 at the end of a season, and that's JUST when supports start seeing meaningful recognition by anyone else. It's likely the same or worse in normals, but I play a lot less of those.

But how can based Rito help us? well, announcing assist streaks is a start. Even with no text on the screen, an announcement of "Provengreil has Assisted 15 Kills" would help people realize that I do things. it might be rough to code, but a stat for enemies warded would be amazing. Might be tough to keep some people from stealing it LeeSin , but once per team merging sightstone with boots instead of denying us powerful support items to save a slot would be incredible.

In the end though, its up to not Riot, but we the players to simply credit the supports more. recognizing the supports as more than just "ward biatch" or sacrifice would massively improve some people's willingness to play. I think it's just something non-supports will have to live with until that time, which may well never come.

until then, I, Provengreil, Will support you if you carry me.

Aeolian Melodies2/3/2016, 2:49:16 AM2 votes

Support is not popular because a good support makes his team shine instead of taking the glory, and a lot of people want the glory.

Something you said kind of tilted me. You said if your support picks Ignite, they're not there to support you. Well, good sir:

http://champion.gg/champion/Sona http://champion.gg/champion/Braum http://champion.gg/champion/Thresh http://champion.gg/champion/Morgana http://champion.gg/champion/Lulu http://champion.gg/champion/Alistar http://champion.gg/champion/Bard http://champion.gg/champion/Leona http://champion.gg/champion/Brand http://champion.gg/champion/Blitzcrank http://champion.gg/champion/Nami http://champion.gg/champion/Nautilus http://champion.gg/champion/Zilean http://champion.gg/champion/Shen/Support http://champion.gg/champion/Annie/Support http://champion.gg/champion/Poppy

Ignite is the most successful summoner spell on many supports. On Bard, it is also his most popular, same for support Brand.

I personally prefer Ignite on most of my supports because I like to play aggressive and I find the added burst often assists my lane in early kills that help us snowball - also, I tend to play supports who have enough CC on their own that they easily do without Exhaust. Ignite is kind of my default setup, I only pick Exhaust on Soraka or when I'm drafting and I see enemies that I need Exhaust to deal with.

Summersteeth2/3/2016, 2:25:20 AM1 votes

Dynamic Queue will probably increase the rate of people maining support. In solo queue, playing support is sort of like playing elo roulette. The more supportive you play (buying sightstone, spending time warding, peeling for carries) the more likely it is someone else on your team will carry the game, but that's not really the same as being the carry yourself and being able to outplay your opponents to win the game. Even tanky initiators have more direct influence over the game, as they can choose when to start teamfights.

With Dynamic Queue, people are going to start looking for more people to play ranked with to decrease the number of randoms on the team. In solo queue, you could duo as adc/support, but that often meant you were playing against a higher mmr bot lane or you were hurting your team by forcing your top/mid/jungle to match up with someone with higher mmr. In Dynamic Queue, once you start filling out a team supports become highly desirable because it allows you to have some bot lane synergy and it means you are more likely to be matched with 3/4/5 premades. This doesn't solve the "playmaker" issue, but it will at least encourage people to find someone to play support with them consistently.

KillerKell2/3/2016, 2:52:42 AM1 votes

If you think Support is dull, boring, unrewarding... don't play it.

I love my Braum, my Leona, my Thresh.

If you don't want to play Support, don't play it. If you get stuck with some one who doesn't want to play Support... we have a whole new System where you and Friends can play Ranked... so bring some one you know that DOES enjoy to play Support.

There's nothing wrong with the Role.