As a support main what do I do if I have to work with an incompetent adc?

Ao Dracona·Feb 20, 2019·4 votes·4,011 views

I haven't been playing support for a long time maybe about 1-2 months I still have much to learn and the role fits my play style but someone I meet adc players who 1. have never played adc or 2. Is just horrible at adc? So what do I do in a situation in which my adc keeps feeding and stuff or never goes in when the jungle engages a good timed gank?

29 Comments

The thigh guyFeb 20, 20195 votes

Play Pyke. Auto win lane cause you physically cannot lose a fight on him.

Sir SaltarinFeb 20, 20193 votes

Revaluate why are you playing a duolane alone knowing that you are basically rolling a dice every game to determinate if you get a bonobo on your side or a competent player.

It's basically the same from the other side aswell, that's why tired of getting horrible supps I started to play mostly with premades.

Piki PicoFeb 20, 20192 votes

Lol from playing both roles it does go both ways. I would say there are more horrible supports then adc.

DemainaNyxFeb 20, 20191 votes

The problem is that Support dictates the bot lane, so if you are a competent ADC but your support has no clue what to do, then you basically lose your lane phase because of it. It's even worse when you are a lane winning ADC/support.

I had a game where the enemy Thresh was roaming around the map while my Leona stood behind me letting the solo Caitlyn free farm. Like, zone her. She's alone. Just walk up into the bush and throw abilities at her if she dares get near the wave. Boom, now Cait is behind and will be extremely worthless during her mid game. Or, go counter Thresh's roams and stop leeching exp.

Or, you have supports like the "I'll stand 9 feet behind you and shield" Janna's who take Spell thief without using a single ability on the enemies so you're essentially in a 1v2 with 200 extra hp now and then. Great...

Or the "I don't want to actually support" Veigar's that miss every Q and cage (like not even trapping them inside it, just straight up misses), gets fed up because you aren't playing aggressively enough when he misses, starts taking farm, pushes the wave, runs forward after you start backing, dies to the obvious jungler who's been in that bush on a ward for almost 2 minutes now, and then blames you for leaving him.

At least with an incompetent ADC I can at least use them as bait cause the enemy team will think "we have to kill that ADC" so maybe we can get return kills on our actually fed members. Or, if all else fails, hope the ADC knows how to stand still and right click late game and pray the enemy team doesn't notice that they got their 4 items and now actually do damage despite not knowing what to do.

Plus there is always the age old adage of "you used all that to kill a support, lul".

IllabetheFeb 20, 20191 votes

I'll be honest: If you are complaining about Janna standing behind you, you don't know her kit. That's where she SHOULD be. But she should be doing more than just shielding.

DemainaNyxFeb 21, 20191 votes

Late game yeah, but early game she's really strong at poking, hence why the recommended item for her is spell thief. If you take spell thief and never do anything except press E, you might as well take coin so you actually make money from your support item and get your sight stone earlier.

And I do know Janna's kit. She has a really strong W and Q that can not only be used to disengage, but also to engage. Early game, she can W the enemy ADC and E herself to avoid taking return damage. Or, start a tornado out of vision, run up to the ADC, press W on them, press Q when they are in the path of your tornado, and hopefully your ADC notices the knocked up target and finishes them off. Believe me, there's a lot a Janna can do in lane besides just spam E on cooldown.

IllabetheFeb 20, 20191 votes

Disagree significantly.

Right now adc is getting autofilled MORE than support.
While there are inexperienced supports and subtle things they do wrong can cost a lane, adc is basically "all in or choke." The very fact that you want to live as an adc but also want to kill is a contradiction. Supports can at least go through the motions and compensate for their lack of skill.

excelsheet1Feb 20, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Piki Pico,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=eUiwXE39,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2019-02-20T07:43:53.651+0000)

Lol from playing both roles it does go both ways. I would say there are more horrible supports then adc.

I've doubt you ever played support.

EbonyBladeJ88Feb 20, 20193 votes

Take the kills and say the following to them: https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/81997039/look-at-me-im-the-carry-now.jpg

In all seriousness, you're going to have to do your best to bear with it. If you are following your jungler and helping them (Regardless of whether the gank succeeds or not) you are contributing, and your JG SHOULD recognize that. If you don't get a kill, you will hopefully at least be applying pressure so that the ADC can do something. In the event that the ADC doesn't get the kills, hopefully you and the JG can and can make use of the gold. Or you can force them to Recall and gain a gold lead, or get the Dragon, or something else. I'm not saying outright abandon your ADC, but in the event that they just aren't contributing, you're gonna have to start taking the initiative.

Taterbug7Feb 20, 20192 votes

I used to main support, and lemme tell you: it's rough. The reason I swapped mains was because it was easier to carry as an ADC or mid than it was as a support. My best advice in that situation is just to try to survive laning phase, and then start supporting whoever on your team is actually carrying. Something a lot of people don't understand is that as a support, the ADC is NOT the only person you have to dedicate your life to. If your Mid is carrying, help him push your lead. If it's your Top, keep him rolling. I hope that helps!

JarodDempseyFeb 20, 20192 votes

Take the kills and say the following to them: https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/81997039/look-at-me-im-the-carry-now.jpg

YboatFeb 20, 20192 votes

I try and use them for bait. No really, some times it's all you can do. It's why I rarely play tank supports. Which is really sad as I enjoy that play style

UlyanasaurusFeb 20, 20192 votes

Let the incompetent ADC die instead of making it a double kill trying to save him.
Let the incompetent ADC die again instead of making it a double kill trying to save him.
Ignore his complaints about you letting him die instead of making it a double kill trying to save him.
Let the opposing bot lane take all the turret plates.
Let the incompetent ADC die again instead of making it a double kill trying to save him.
Let the opposing bot lane take the turret.
Ping off your jangler.
Pray that your other lanes are winning.
Profit.

Zoe

DemainaNyxFeb 20, 20191 votes

This exactly. If someone is being dumb, let them be dumb alone. Better to be losing 1 kill instead of 2.

JmmanFeb 20, 20192 votes

Play a mage support. This gives you a lot of options.

Good adc = buy supportive items. Zone enemies if able to give easy farming to adc. Late game peel and use spells defensively

Average adc = ap / supportive items. still peel and try to zone. Just have extra damage to help the adc during laning phase. Late game peel / lead the damage charts. (they won't target you)

Bad adc = Hold my beer while I carry. Let him die no sense you in dieing too. Get as much farm as you can. Late game ignore adc unless they have seems to get a clue. You are now a fill in because you can still bring damage and CC to the team fight. Use the ADC as "operation human shield" to give you time to kill the other adc. This is your goal. If you can swap the other adc for you, your team is 100% better off and you did the best with the cards you were dealt.

People hate mages however they give options. Blitzcrank Pyke have play styles where you can carry or leave the adc to still impact and win the game.

I get about 1 out of every 4 adcs that has a clue on how to play. Nothing is worst than wasting 30 mins on a game where an adc has 100 pts on a champ. Can't last hit, trade, or watch the mini map. They get soo focused on CSing they miss everything even the CS.

Pandemic PunchFeb 20, 20191 votes

Agreed with this. Mage supports are a preventative measure to ensure you still have agency over the game if your adc is an idiot.

Minimac2000Feb 20, 20192 votes

Basically play out lane till your adc dies or you lose tower, then roam mid/top and try to pull something off Do NOT go back to your adc after tier one tower falls unless there's like 4 man not or sonething bc they should just try to solo farm in a side lane until they actually get back in the game

ProfirixFeb 20, 20191 votes

Pretty much this. If your leg is broken, don't walk on it. Use your other leg. You have 3 other 'legs' to stand on so to speak and a surprise gank top or mid can snowball one of your solo lanes. The trick for you is not to get caught. Die less, help with vision in important places, and attempt to make plays with the rest of your team.

Obviously this won't work if the rest of your team are broken legs.

Trash MammaIFeb 20, 20191 votes

Leave, let them feed they aren't worth anything. Go get everyone else fed instead. If the rest of your team does just as bad then you aren't supposed to win a game where the enemy team is just flat out better

HåneriFeb 20, 20191 votes

leave the lane?

u know its a pretty op strat to just have adc pick ez and farm with q while you impact the map, so that says something

Mr DenseFeb 20, 20191 votes

Couple rules to supporting your adc:

Never abandon your adc unless you're going to die as well
Sacrifice yourself for the adc if he\she is going to die and you can prevent it completely
Help your adc farm
Keep him\her alive\peel for them
Help him\her get kills be engaging or poking down

Failing these rules because your adc is useless, then ditch them, cause your general rules for the entire game is:

Keep the dmg rolling (in other words, get your other team mates fed and farmed)
Engage for your team mates when necessary or if opportunity comes up
Peel for your team mates if they're getting smacked down
Top up their health if applicable
Keep close to the carry of the game so they stay alive

Failing THAT, cause you team is full of monkeys, go full ap\ad and go to town, carrying everyone

Full ap sona for the win

Metal JannaFeb 20, 20191 votes

As mentioned by other posters, your backup plan if the botlane carry sucks is whoever is doing the most on your team. Jungler, mid, top, whoever is being the most useful, even if it's not damage they're contributing.

JarodDempseyFeb 20, 20191 votes

sometimes being a good support means realizing when youre more valuable than your adc. If your adc is incompetent then you doing well in botlane (eg not dying or dying to save your adc) so you can do well at supporting your other teammates after lane phase should take priority over you dumping all of your resources into the bottomless pit that is your bad adc

Support PositionFeb 20, 20191 votes

You learn your lane is lost, so you support the person that won the lane instead. Make them bigger and unkillable after lane.

General MattyFeb 20, 20191 votes

Disconnect

IllabetheFeb 20, 20191 votes

I'll be honest. Riot has made it nearly impossible to do at a statistically significant level.

By caging in the stipulations by which a support can earn gold, they have basically created auto-cripple conditions for supports with a bad adc.

Even if you follow some of these posts' advice, and either "Become" the carry, or leave to support another lane, you're doing so from a behind situation, and good luck getting to proc Spellthief by following a Mid laner around, because the natural response of an opposing mid laner is to turtle under their turret if you come.

It's not impossible to compensate for a bad adc. If you can land multi-hit Nami Bubbles, or last hit some serious Lux R's and reset her cooldown, you can compensate for some things by taking in Assist/Kill gold. But, that's just as unreliable as your adc.

Bottom line: There is no correct answer. You can only hope for the best and hug some other player on your team.

excelsheet1Feb 20, 20191 votes

Rules as support:

You are out there to win.
You are the teams support, not the ADC's.
Try to funnel gold into the player thats going to carry. Roam, Roam, Roam. It's the adc's job to know how to manipulate the minion wave so you can do your job as the adcs support.
My attitude is that ADCs are generally the lowest IQ players on the map, by far. The average adc has no knowledge of last hitting, team positioning, wave manipulation, when to back, when not to over extend, when not to spit push. In soloq your job is to mitigate how stupid most adcs are. You aren't there to help the adc carry, you are there to prevent a net loss from having a complete idiot on your team.
Try to help real lanes like mid, or even top lane.
Ward so you can help your jungler.
Making sick plays your jungler helps you secure objectives and get your mid rolling. This helps more than mitigating how terrible your adc, who is borderline helping the other team.
The adcs feelings don't matter. If they wanted to win they should learn the game and play a different role.
If you happen to lane with the .01% of ADCs who are not only skilled, but knowledgeable, add them and don't play soloq without them. Buy them skins. Tell them they are god.