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Why is support such a disliked role?

JavelinJoe·5/5/2019, 8:57:51 PM·8 votes·8,065 views

I get not liking being auto-filled, but is support really that bad? I understand having a main role and not playing in said main role can be more challenging for those players who ONLY play one role or champion. However, it is not like Support is any less impactful to a game's outcome. They sometimes are directly responsible for wins too. Playing with a good support is amazing compared to one who just decided to troll because of auto-fill. Being a good support is also fun. It is not a hard role to learn either. And it is not a passive role in the slightest. You can always be doing something active or proactive.

A common argument is that "since the adc sucks supporting them is useless, but I cant carry as a support in place of them". While there is some truth to it, it does not always mean you are useless or cant carry. Sure you wont have a +20 K/D by the end of the game. but you can do a lot for the other 3 team members and that "useless" adc too.

Maybe I am missing something?

38 Comments

Kai Guy5/5/2019, 9:09:56 PM8 votes

MTG has a few terms for players. Spike, Timmy, Jhonny.

Timmy likes power cards. Big dramatic effects. In League this is the flash LCS BIG PLAY Penta kill I just done won the game. Its the I destroyed my lane lulz! Its the Warband icon guys. They enjoy winning because they made the impact. doing badly is more upsetting then losing. the guy who loses lane and spends all game spamming /ff? Proly a timmy.

Jhonny is the combo gamer. They like weird mechanics, funky interactions. Its finding strangs ways to break rules. In league that's folks like me, who go off meta who run things in ways most players don't ever see or think to try. We care a lot about winning on our own terms, doing things our style. Having to play meta if does not overlap our thing is agony. Theory crafting can be as much fun as playing for folks like this.

Spike only cares about wins. As many and as much as possible. Copy others builds. Adopt any cheese if its viable. As long as spikes win % is high and they come in frequently he is a happy guy.

Realistically most players in MTG are a mix of this, should hold true for league of legends as well.

Supports are harder to Timmy. Pyke and some mages for the kill and flashy plays. A few are great for some cluch teamfights because of CC Nami Leona but that has to be a timmy who values setting up the fight not just one who wants to looke like the MVP.

The perception is supports are lower impact on a win thus hard to spike.

Johnnies don't give a dam about anything that's not their personal interests so you don't find as many off meta support mains like myself floating around.

JuiceBoxP5/5/2019, 9:00:40 PM5 votes

Bard Morgana Pyke

These can carry SUPER hard... I main all of them.. they are super strong supports.

Nea1045/6/2019, 12:01:14 AM4 votes

If you get a bad ADC, you're gonna suffer and be insulted for 10 minutes or so, before leaving your lane.

If you get a bad team, you're gonna suffer and be insulted for the whole game.

Arcade Lulu5/5/2019, 9:00:35 PM3 votes

People love to be in the spotlight and supports are usually the ones forgotten People love to be the ones doing damage and getting pentakills etc, with support you can't really do that so most people don't like support because supporting is such a ''chore'' And some people just think that support is too easy of a role to play (it really isn't)

Kaisha5/5/2019, 11:30:23 PM3 votes

This game is all about snowballing, so to play a support you're choosing to play at a gold and level disadvantage. Think how annoying it is to be 1 item behind, well as support you are always 1-2 items and lvls behind everyone.

You have to ward, but of course if you meet any opponent in the jungle they'll insta-delete you. Have fun!! BTW, you don't get 6000 dashes, hypermobility, and all CC requires complex combos or skill shots. The enemy of course will be able to 100-0 you in 0.05s with right click'win'abilities. Complain about this and you'll be told to 'git gud'.

Anything goes wrong its your fault. ADC dies, your fault. Opponent gets away, your fault. You kill opponent before they get away, that's kill stealing and your fault. You get to be the emotional punching bag of some of the most toxic and narcissistic people on the planet!!

Support items are crap. Not only do you get less items but the ones you do get are all meh at best.

If you find a champ that is even remotely viable, prepare for it to be nerfed into the ground. RIOT makes it clear your sole purpose is to ward and pander to the adc, being effective in any meaningful way is against the TOS or EULA or some sht.

You don't really matter.

Sound like fun?

Moody P5/6/2019, 3:31:54 AM2 votes

Because it's boring

t. played lots of support

Red Mage FTS5/5/2019, 9:02:45 PM2 votes

I am a supp main myself and I never get autofilled :P

But yeah. In games I generally gravitate to the role, "tatical" or "support" - ill play the healer, the sniper, ect. In LoL, the role of support is as critcal as the role of "healer" in an MMO. You shitalk your preist, your not gonna down Rangoros (dated, I know).

XJ999999999999995/5/2019, 9:07:18 PM2 votes

its perceived as a non-masculine role.

The Highest Noon5/6/2019, 12:05:57 AM2 votes

Duo-laning is by far the worst idea ever. It's hated for the same reason that ranked is hated--having to rely on shitters in order to make progress is pure torture. It's not just support but ADC too. Have you ever been support for an adc that has no idea when to go in and when to leave? Have you ever adc'ed with a support that doesn't commit to engages and doesn't protect you? Have you ever tried your hardest to carry a team that just makes every mistake on the list and refuses to listen?

In my opinion. Ranked, bot lane, support, all of that will be hated less once Riot impliments a performance-based matchmaking system. Right now, it doesn't matter how many times you carry, how many kills you get, your ward score, assists, least amount of deaths, you'll still be grouped with pure trash merely because they got carried to your rank. And that's terrible.

ProSkittelz5/6/2019, 3:29:06 AM2 votes

Seeing a lot people perceiving what they think other people think about the game in general or the role and not a lot of people just answering your question from their point of view. Anyway, I am a mid main but I like playing every role but support. This is because, regardless of actual stats, I almost never feel impactful as a support, in my wins or my losses. If I die just ONCE mid, then the enemy laner can punish my wave/ abuse ward control / get good dmg on turret / all the other stuff available to a winning solo laner. If I die as support, who cares lol. I probably saved my adc, which happens to be the person who controls my wave and whether I can do any of the things mentioned above. If a support tries to do any of those things regardless of their adc, they will be making the wrong play, regardless if it works or not, it was tactically or strategically incorrect simply based on the fact that the support should be acting primarily based on the adc. So if ur adc loses lane, u lose lane. If u do the things to win lane but ur adc doesn't, u lose lane. It's up to that guy beside u. So the support can't really start making their own moves until after lane phase which instantly sucks cuz that's where a lot of games are decided, and even still a support can't make significant contributions without the team. If I'm Zed and I see someone out of position, I can just kill them and push a lane. If I'm support, I can probably do a fair amount of dmg and cc them, but if no one comes to help, then it doesn't matter. So your choices are very limited as support, which ironically make it easier to play cuz obviously if I'm thresh I'm not gonna try to solo the Yorick who's pushed a bit too far, so I know that's not really an option and I can find something better to do with relative ease. But those limitations make playing the role so easy that it becomes boring because u barely have to think about your actions, even if they are advanced tactics like establishing ward control for an upcoming lane push or dragon spawn. Those moves are necessary and helpful, but anyone could've done them. There wasn't anything else to do. It was do that or go sit next to draven while he farms. So it doesn't feel like I'M doing the work. I'm just on autopilot cuz my decisions are made for me. So I would boil it down to having no wave influence, no solo kill potential, and no solo obj potential. Not being able to do anything yourself feels fucking bad man. Barely feels like I'm playing the game at that point.

chipndip15/6/2019, 3:52:34 AM2 votes

Because nothing feels worse than knowing how to win and losing because someone decided they simply don't like someone on the team so much that you "don't deserve" to win in their special needs minds.

TekkenPlayer5/6/2019, 8:11:38 AM2 votes

I blame Yasuo Zed Riven players tbh

BigFBear5/6/2019, 2:49:55 PM1 votes

People like to dominate and make kills. As Support you often can't do that.

That's why mid is the most played role. Because there are the "cool" Assassin's and Mages who can go 20/0/10.

Kieshwa5/6/2019, 3:20:40 AM1 votes

"Can't carry" hah, tell that to my 6KDA average lux. I drag ADC's, good or bad, to a win

LordGeovanni5/6/2019, 7:41:14 PM1 votes

Support does have less impact on the games outcome then other roles and saying otherwise is a bold faced lie. You can CC shield and heal as much as you like but if you dont have the damage comming in you arent gonna kill the enemy champions and thus open up objectives to win the game.

MrFawknSunshine5/5/2019, 9:13:08 PM1 votes

basically people think the game is about doing damage and getting kills ( that is what people have turned it into) when its a strategy based game about map control and objectives. ( the fighting and damage /kills are just to help secure this )

when you get to support you arent "farming" "getting kills" etc etc so it seems to take away from the "game" ( or what people turned it into) as a support main since season 2 support has alot more impact on game then it did in seasons pass. ( being legit a ward bitch and nothing else )

i love support i love the fact that if i dont do something correctly my team can lose the engage/trade fight and or game. i like using my support to create pressure in lane and around map.

my fav type of champs are tanks and enchanter supports i enjoy setting up the engage and protecting carries for a team to win . dying for the dive to get a turret as a tank or standing in the thick of shit as a tank to take the death and let my fed carry to get away.

estebuddy5/7/2019, 7:06:50 PM1 votes

As a support player:

I don't want to be blamed for my ADC being trash and having no game sense. Not all ADCs, but I've been with plenty who are too used to being carried by their support to actually bother learning proper CS or kiting in high gold (S8, don't really play anymore this season). Secondly, it sucks playing a role that doesn't have as much impact as it realistically should. If my ADC cant do his job, I should be able to carry, but that's not always the case. More importantly, because the supp doesn't technically play the laning phase (they don't cs), people assume they don't actually have to learn anything. Which I quickly learned is far from the truth. Most supports I've personally been queued with are smarter than everyone else. That's due to the fact that supports have to: have the most awareness, provide constant vision, peel for EVERYONE (not just the ADC, and track both junglers at all times), be aware both team's vision, trade for the ADC, peel for the ADC, engage for the ADC, and rotate for the ADC. Support is essentially the secondary jungler who is instead assigned to an actual lane.

For people who don't play support:

It's the same dumbed down mentality that Overwatch has. Peoe think that to win you have to hard carry by killing everything and keeping them dead. While that's not necessarily wrong, it's just not real, either. Plenty of high elo games can be close yet one side comes out on top because they have bwtter game sense in the end. They play around the whole, not the one idiot who locked in Draven/Kassadin/Irelia and is expecting to get their hand held the whole way. They honestly believe aupport sucks because they don't realize how crucial that role is to the entire team. For example, when the ADC is 13/0/4 and the support is 4/1/25, they don't se that the support badically gets the kill a majority the time and let's the ADC ks for the most profit and output. In reality, 80% of the wprk put in in botlane is the supp while the ADC sits back and takes credit. Essentially, the ADC is Donald Trump and the rest of the team is the right. They only see the numbers and accept it as fact while the actual process is buried beneath and out of sight.

SGT Reckless5/6/2019, 5:18:38 AM1 votes

I'm a support, and I can say that it sucks being blown over when you do well, or chewed out when something goes wrong. At the same time, it's awesome when someone recognizes the part you played, be it babying your adc to victory, carrying someone else, or throwing the ult that turns the game.

stealthstyle755/6/2019, 5:20:05 AM1 votes

Escort mission

Zed genius5/6/2019, 7:49:20 AM1 votes

You are right. For that reason, the higher you go in the ladder, it's just as common to get autofilled in toplane or adc as in support, becauase people have realised it

Nik Nikerson5/6/2019, 7:53:16 AM1 votes

It's in large part players' personalities at work. Some people want to be the ones out front getting kills, making big plays, etc.

ImDaJokerBaby5/7/2019, 7:09:34 PM1 votes

That's because it's really up to your adc. You can all in with Ali and Leo and have an adc that runs away. You can play heals and shields with sona/lulu and have an adc that keeps killing himself. I've been a silver bot main and this was always the case. Now I just play top/jg and never looked backed.

ZaFishbone5/6/2019, 8:15:03 AM1 votes

On my other account, I haven't won a single one of my last, i think, 5-6 autofilled as support games. And I was playing so well as Afthershock Shen supp last game, that my teammates told me to build dmg too, cuz I was carrying at that point. The problem is that ADCs are so used to enchanter and warden support mains, that they have a bad habit of going in like crazy, and expecting their supp to keep them alive through everything. It's like they think it's still the Ardent cancer meta. Either that or they are used to Pyke supp mains who literally carry the games their selves. There is no way to keep up with that level of suicidal overconfidence.

Kenneky5/6/2019, 10:58:27 AM1 votes

I mostly play support when I'm legit bored, or not feeling like playing at all (which is often I suppose), and most importantly, to help my friend. I have 3 sets of playstyles for support (Aggressors, Protectors and 50/50 of both), those playstyles help me spice that role a bit, singe I get bored of playing something like Morgana all the time. They are downsides of that role as well, you are always behind in money, people rarely appreciate your help and you are not the one who will "carry" the game (If you are that kind of guy).

But If I can have fun playing something like Lulu , It's worth playing that role. That's just my preference...

CJ100020005/6/2019, 11:39:56 AM1 votes

Idk whenever I go on tilt in the top lane I will bust out some Lulu Leona Janna because I seem to untilt by playing the support role. Sometimes I will just hop on and play it too. It jist depends what I feel like doing that day.

Support Position5/6/2019, 2:32:48 PM1 votes

[sg-ahri-1] I dont know why people dont like it. [sg-jinx] Not like you have to do anything but ward [sg-ezreal]

AINT NO SHEEP5/5/2019, 10:38:13 PM1 votes

Depends on regions, but jungle is the less popular role these days, after the multiple nerf to jungle exp and gold

KVbqbFsC8e5/5/2019, 10:13:17 PM1 votes

Often times completely uninteractive, you have to rely on someone else in lane, very team dependent, and its difficult to stay awake.

OgSc5/5/2019, 11:48:42 PM1 votes

Cuz players find them boring, for the most part. You dont have supports who zip around minions, knock up people with torndadoes, and do a fuck ton of damage like yasuo. You dont have supports who press R and tear face (trynd, kayle, yi, vayne), or press R and proceed to do flashy plays and clean house. Supports have impact, in fact, at times they are THE MOST impactful role in some games. However, their efforts arnt really recognized. When people see that 20/2 vayne, they all just give them the credit and honors when a good amount of the time, supports (and junglers at times) allowed them to get that fed in the first place through buffs, peel, warding, etc. You take an adc's cs by accident and u get railed at times or have ur adc afk at worse. But the main issue I feel is that ur just ur teams bitch for the most part. Reason why poke supports like brand and zyra are so populer is cuz they can just blow people up and go full ap and be independent if the time calls for it. Meanwhile, with more traditional supports, your more so tied to ur teammates. Monkey teammates who cant make use of buffs or engages? sucks to be you.

tldr: people hate supports because they have to be another player's slave a majority of the time. People like to be the one following their own plays, not having to hope a teammate follows theirs.

Nyarlathοtep5/5/2019, 10:00:50 PM1 votes

Most people dont like helping others. Then there is the nature of being in a duo lane. Like being forced to cooperate with one under shitty circumstances (other than pings not a good way to communicate but even if there was one chances are that noone would communicate)