Define "support," please.

Samus72·11/25/2015, 9:17:23 AM·5 votes·1,215 views

I keep seeing people say they want to do the "support" role. Yet they choose characters like "Blitz" and "Yasuo." Sometimes, I'll choose one of my ranged characters like Ashe or Miss Fortune and someone will tell me to "go support."

Maybe I have been tainted by my many years of RPG and what I believe the support role is supposed to do, i.e., support the other team members with shields, heals, and other buffs. How does a ranged character support? How does a tank character support? I've looked at these character's abilities. They are not what I would call "support."

What is "support" in LoL?

30 Comments

LegendaryLemur11/25/2015, 9:36:57 AM5 votes

The main thing that sets supports apart is their ability to be useful without a lot of gold. Since there are 5 players in 3 lanes, that leaves 2 extra players. There aren't enough jungle monsters for two people to jungle, so one player is going to go to a lane but not get any farm (minion kills).

That player is going to get a lot less gold, so will be more useful if their kit has a lot of utility rather than damage (because damage usually requires items for ad/ap scaling). With the gold they do have, they often buy items that provide further utility to their team, like Sightstone or Aegis of the Legion, to free up their teammates to build more damage/tanky items.

A lot of different types of supports can succeed from hard engage/all-in supports like Leona to more conventional (in terms of rpg background) healer supports like Soraka.

Miss Fortune is not a great pick for the support role, since most of her kit is focused around dealing damage that scales up with items. Any champion can work as a support, but some are better than others.

Hope that helps.

Kouga11/26/2015, 4:33:16 AM2 votes

Everyone has their own ideas & definitions, so I'll throw my hat into the ring here. Speaking as a long time LoL player I've seen the trends come and go. First off, while I'm not defending the meta lane assignment against all possibilities, it is something that was built up over time and has been reinforced as a core strategy.

See, originally, LoL didn't have these rigid lane assignments. You had 2 top, 1 mid, 2 bot. Or you had a jungler, sometimes, but not always. This was because Junglers didn't have special items to make their clears faster, they only had 1 smite at a time, they didn't have fancy smite effects.. all in all, they tended to be behind the curve in terms of gold. If you had a jungler, Mid & Top would be anywhere from 1-3 ahead of everyone, the 2 Bots would be about the same level and the Jungler would be somewhere in the middle. So you didn't always have a jungler.

However over time patterns began to emerge. Because bot lane shared XP (and often gold, since again there wasn't a set "Support" role), they were usually a bit behind the rest of the team. So the more you could isolate players the more XP they'd get, they'd be stronger and outscale their opponents. This is why a 1v2 top lane might win if their Champion scaled really well or if they had a kit that let them hold their own while outnumbered (Old Mordekaiser and Dodge Jax were my two favorite 1v2 to planers).

So eventually junglers became more and more common to give their tops the edge - or at least, avoid being behind because they were sharing XP. The jungler struggled in terms of items until late game, so Junglers were typically based on their ganking potential - Warwick's Ultimate made him one of the original Terror junglers once he hit 6, where Amumu might pose an even greater threat early on because of his long-range 1. Also, these Champions typically didn't need a ton of itemization; they had strong abilities (either their base damage was pretty high, or their abilities themselves had strong effects to help them jungle, such as CC for ganking or Healing to sustain in the jungle).

This mentality eventually made its way to bot lane, too. If you gave the ADC all of the minion kills (CS) to give them more gold, they'd be able to destroy a lane with 2 people who were sharing the gold. Early game, one big item is better than 2 small items.

Fast forward 5 years or so.. and now we have a unique set of Jungler & Support items that cater to their roles. Because of this the diversity of these roles have definitely increased. However, at its core, the Support Champion still does the same thing. This is how I personally define it:

The Support should help the ADC win the lane

Now there are a lot of different ways to win. Soraka wins the lane by giving her ADC more health, keeping them healthy and letting them win trades over and over until they push out the other person, or just kill them. Blitz wins the lane because his hook is a very strong ability, essentially letting him turn the fight into a 1v2 very briefly. He pulls the ADC away from their teammate and behind the minion line, which puts them in a very bad spot - especially if they already have the upper hand. He's also great at stopping them from retreating. He's the "I'll hold 'im, you punch!" support. However other Champions have started making an appearance; Morgana's long range snare lets her catch the enemy out of position, and Annie has a regular stun that can be targeted or AoE, in addition to high base damage.

Braum is the kind of Tanky support that is good at keeping at teammate alive (since his shield can block all projectiles, which can completely shut down someone like Jinx), whereas Leona is the kind of Tanky support that is good at starting a fight.

The common denominator between these Champions usually comes down to their base abilities. Generally, a Support needs to be able to do well with a limited amount of gold, especially if their lane doesn't get any early kills. Even though they have gold generation items these still won't compare to the CS gold from another lane. So maybe they have oodles of CC in their abilities, or they have shields & heals to keep their teammate alive. These all work, and they don't require having items to deal damage, they just use the "effects" of their abilities.

So what about "Kill Lanes" - where you take another DPSer or someone who deals damage in lane? Well, sure. If it helps them win the lane, those can help. Since "traditional" supports tend not to deal a lot of damage, a damage-based Support can sometimes tilt the lane by pushing both of the laners off the XP line and starve them. However these lanes will typically fall off if they don't get those early kills, and the lack of items will be a problem in the mid game until the 'support' has time to farm.

Deep Terror Nami11/25/2015, 9:23:25 AM2 votes

I think you're limiting the definition of "support" to maybe CC and heal/shielding.

The short of it is that the support is there to prevent the carries from dying, and help them get kills. Getting in the way of damage or attracting the enemy focus (tanking) is a way to support, and securing high value targets or peeling enemies off your carry is supporting too (like Blitzcrank).

If you're stuck supporting with a non-traditional support champion (like Ashe), you want to keep doing the same thing as much as your kit allows; control as much vision on the map with wards/sweeper as you can, and harass the enemy so they are forced to leave or are an easier kill for your carry.

jesus1worlds201511/25/2015, 9:44:09 AM1 votes

Support is aiding your ADC to success, ADC's must be strong because they are the most pivotal part of the game, if an ADC is strong/buff/fed, they will carry the team, so the SUPPORT has to: prevent enemy from zoning your ADC, 2. assist ganks for your ADC 3. in-general provide some vision for the map

Stars Shaper11/25/2015, 9:46:38 AM1 votes

Team utility, this defines support as they should focus on that.

Blitz has his pull/silence/knockup and Yasuo has Wind Wall plus a knockup (even if he is more on the Carry side of the thing).

Aeolian Melodies11/25/2015, 1:23:49 PM1 votes

Support champion: Support whose kit is focused mainly around helping teammates, be it through buffs Sona , sustain Soraka , shields and peel Janna , strong engage to help the ADC get ahead Blitzcrank , and so forth. The support champion may be playing the support role or may be sent to a solo lane, such as Lulu mid lane. Certain champions such as Lux have supportive aspects to their kits but not to the point where they typically get played in that role.

Support role: Someone in your team who will forgo killing creeps in the laning phase and use their kit to help the team in any way possible, such as Zyra zoning with plants and locking down with ult, or Annie stunning the whole team and lowering the carries to half health (thus making them easier kills for her team) to engage a fight. The person in the support role may or may not be playing a support champion; the support role is a playstyle and a philosophy more than a category of champions. Typically support champions, who do not need gold to do their job, are better at this, however there are many cases of non-intended supports being popular and strong Annie Fiddlesticks Karma Kennen Nunu Nautilus Leona Morgana Zilean Zyra .

Samus7211/25/2015, 8:07:14 PM1 votes

That's...weird.

It's been my gaming experience that DPS characters (and you can call them "adc" here if you want. But the bottom line is they are Damage Per Second characters) have less armor. And if you trade out their DPS for defense, they become a lot less useful.

I see the point posters here have made. Ashe, one of my two favorite range characters, slows enemies she hits for a second. However, I would NOT call that a "support" role feature. Blitzcrank may have an ability to pull champions to him. I still would NOT call that a support feature. Not along the same lines as Sona or Lux. Sona and Lux can heal and shield characters respectfully. In Sona's case, she can do both. Nami does not shield. But she can heal and cast a damage buff.

I may be thinking along traditional roles here. And, granted, not all of LoL's characters fall in to those traditional categories. When a tank stands out in front and takes damage that would outright kill a DPS character, the tank is just performing their role. Technically, you can call that support since the tank is supporting, aka aiding, the other player in the lane. But my issue is someone screaming "I am support" at the start and then whining when I pick a true support character like Nami. The whiner cannot heal anyone. Even if the whiner "supports" his lane, I will never regard them as a true support character.

And frankly, if you're the type of person to loudly complain that someone has sacrificed damage and "gogogo" to heal the group, you are a horrible player and probably do not belong in team oriented games.

Samus7211/26/2015, 1:14:21 AM1 votes

What is "CSing?"

BluePolarizer11/26/2015, 1:18:06 AM1 votes

Stop thinking RPG. The only thing a support needs is the ability to optimally use all abilities with only boots, gold item and sightstone.

Sir Yamazuki11/26/2015, 1:37:49 AM1 votes

Support is used as a label for both position/lane and champion type. When people tell you to support they are talking about the position/lane and not the champion. What the support position does is go bottom lane and not farm at all while harassing the opposing bottom lane and/or protecting their own carry. They get their gold through passive generation and other means that don't involve minions. As for support as a champion type, it's usually champions with a lot of utility like Janna who has shields, grants move speed and ad, which is the "support" you're thinking of.

Abyssphere11/26/2015, 1:55:33 AM1 votes

Your definition of support is far too limited - in League of Legends, supports do much more than just heal their allies. Even the supports you list as being "real supports" like Lux and Sona are evidence that LoL supports are not just about keeping health bars high. After all, Sona was designed to be supportive, so you can argue that all of her abilities must have a supportive quality:

Q - damages enemies and allows allies to do more damage to enemies. Damaging enemies so they're quicker to kill/leave your friends alone = supportive. W - heals and shields allies. Sustain + damage blocking = supportive. E - speeds up allies. team mobility = supportive. R - stuns enemies. Engage + disengage are supportive.

As you can see, Sona supports her team in a variety of ways, despite being only a single champion. Her kit having so many different supporting abilities makes it clear that a number of different types of champion can support. That's why champions like Blitzcrank and Zyra can be considered supports. I completely understand having a preference for healers but you should not have the attitude that non-healer supports are not "real" supports, as they can do your job just as well as you.

alfavhunter11/26/2015, 3:09:00 AM1 votes

For some people the support role is the ward dispensing Btch of the team who is always to blaim for everything

Those people typically lose their support early in the game and the "support" supports another lane and gets them fed

You "can" support with any champion, doesn't mean it will work well

But as a support main it can be fun to change it up and do an unconventional support now and then

I've supported ap shack before

Come late game I split push all game with boxes everywhere and force their team to send someone at me even though I have 70% less gold than who they send at me

Laning as ap shaco support is putting boxes down so your adc can be safe to farm, poke with shiv and generally survive laning, but late game you split push all day just to make the enemy rage but you have to play smart about it, and getting banner of command for it is a must

Samus7211/26/2015, 3:32:32 AM1 votes

I don't believe warding should fall to only one or two people. EVERYONE can carry a ward of some kind. If you have one and are not using it, you do yourself, and your team, a disservice. Even Riot seems to stress that warding is very important. If you get jumped from behind, that's not anyone's fault but your own. Tunnel vision is deadly.

My idea of support may be "unconventional" to the game, but that is how I play. If I choose Nami or Soraka, I'm healing. If I am out there trying to DPS, I'm deluding myself and screwing over my team because neither Nami nor Soraka were designed to be damage dealers. Even Soraka's lore backs that up!

Another thing I dislike is this rigid lane assignment people feel is mandatory. You might start out at mid lane, but you won't stay there forever. "Top lane is solo only." Who says? I've seen plenty of solo laners feed a double team and quickly have their outer turrets destroyed. Just today, I played a game and went to back up a middle lane guy. The other person there told me to "Get out." Two minutes later, the middle lane was double teamed and my dismisser was clicking for help. Talk about hypocritical. Yes, I eventually did go back to the middle lane to help. But not before typing out "Karma sucks, doesn't it, bub?"

Yes, my play style is "outside the box." But it works. When I'm healing and you tell me to get lost, blame yourself when you die and I could have healed you through it. You TOLD me to leave.

Ok, rant over. I just think players should be a bit more specific when they say they want the "support" role. Helping someone in their lane may technically be support. But a healer is the support role and will trump a tank claiming to be support every time.

Samus7211/26/2015, 3:42:05 AM1 votes

Didn't say it did, sir.

EcchiOtakuTM11/26/2015, 4:59:36 AM1 votes

Supports are either "Utility, Tank(Disengage), or damage" Supports

Utility are stuff like healers/buffers such as lulu/sona/soraka/janna/taric

Tank/Disengage are stuff like taric/tahm/naut/blitz/thresh

Damage are mages and alot of off-meta supports, There's more that I can write later on

Kyrrion11/26/2015, 5:29:41 AM1 votes

Gonna ignore all previous posts to throw out my thoughts (so forgive me if I'm reiterating/disregarding points already made).

"Support' is an ambiguous term. It means two things.

Support champion - a champion focuses solely on supporting their team as a whole. These champs will have low damage but some of the highest utility in the game. These are champs like Soraka, Sona, Nami, and Thresh. Their power lies largely by enabling their teammates (shields, heals, and peels).Not to be confused with Tank champions, who tend to disable enemies (disorientation and initiation).

The two types of champions are closely related, as they both demand follow up by teammates with actual damage to win the game - just instead of utility they generally get free tankiness and better initiation prowess. Both types of champions will pretty much have CC, though it will normally be slightly nuanced to fit the respective role. Think Nami bubble or Sona ult in comparison to Nautilus hook or Sejuani ult. Nami's bubble and Sona's ult can be, and frequently are, used for initiations (this is not a bad thing).

However, these abilities are much better for peeling - as when the bubble hits an ally they get a speed boost and enemies are CC'd (so when a fighter inevitably dives your carry you can both speed up your carry to run away faster and CC the enemy). And obviously it goes without saying that Sona pretty much needs Flash in order to initiate and it's way easier to hit a team coming at you straight on than one trying to keep their distance.

Now Nautilus hooks can be used to peel easily, however it arguably more ideal to use it to catch an enemy out of position (disorientation + initiation). Same with Sejuani's ult, which is optimally used when the enemy team is bundled up in one neat spot (which hopefully does not mean they're all inside your back line tearing apart your squishies).

However at the end of the day, utility is utility and is generally just plain useful in most situations. This is why it's common to see Tank champions bottom lane as well. It's also important to remember that a lot of champions aren't pure in the fact that they will exhibit certain traits from other types of champions (hence the secondary tag Riot put on nearly everyone).

Support position - the meta-game roll referring to a player who plays a champion bot lane in order to assist the meta-game carry in lane. This is purely meta-game. This is a term players use that does not strictly exist in game. Any champ can be played in the support role, just like any champ can be sent to any lane - but as always you're going to have varying degrees of effectiveness with what champion is picked. Way back in season 1, ADCs went mid solo and bottom lane was just a duo lane of any two champions (and I kid you not, even Amumu and Soraka laned together - IN A PRO MATCH). There was no "support bot", it was just "duo bot".

Then the playerbase got smarter and realized that gold doesn't affect the utility baked into any champion's kit, so it was more efficient to have a high utility oriented champ to be in the duo lane to assist champions that were much more reliant on gold. It didn't matter if Blitz had 300 gold or 30k, any hook he lands on you is likely to end in disaster for you. Marksmen then filled the "carry" role due to the nature of their kits; high sustained damage that was heavily reliant on gold to achieve and required teamwork to fully utilize. Since Support champions specialize in enabling (the carry to take risks and deal damage) and Tank champions in disabling (the opponents from retaliating and making them vulnerable for the carry to attack), the natural synergy lead to the bottom lane meta that has dominated the strategy in League of Legends for a vast majority of the game's lifetime to the point where the term "Support" is synonymous with any champion that has an abundance of utility that can help a Marksman succeed in lane.

TL;DR: Support champions are not the same as the Support role in bottom lane, which is solely a product of the meta game and optimization.

Samus7211/26/2015, 6:38:49 AM1 votes

Good information. It is assimilated.

The problem I run in to is people screaming because I chose a healing character and they're of the mindset "Hey, I'm support!!" and using a tank. Okay, FINE. I get that you are supporting your team by using Blitz's pull ability to CC. But I'm not going to back down from choosing Nami and healing everyone just because some tank managed to type "support" before I could click on Nami's portrait. The only time I would back down is if there are already two characters in that can heal. A team with three healers could work but the odds are often against it (it would be rare to find three healers that actually work together.)

Now, I don't know how it works in ranked (I've yet to play ranked,) but I've already been told that refusing to yield to someone who calls out a certain position / role will get you reported by players and banned by Riot (I don't believe that last part.) Frankly, if that's how it will be, I'll never play ranked on LoL. Not because I fear being banned for healing a team when they didn't want it. But because I've better things to do than put up with that kind of crap.

IcyPepper11/25/2015, 9:26:29 AM1 votes

Blitzcrank is one of the few "support" characters that doesn't do the traditional supporting, but rather his solo kill potential is incredibly low but his team kill potential is incredibly high. Because of how successful he is, nobody really bats an eye he doesn't actually do any "supporting" beyond decent cc.

Yasuo, on the other hand, is a pretty cheese "support" who isn't nearly as popular as Blitz because his solo kill potential is probably higher than in any duo setting.

But, generally, a "support" in LoL is a champion class that sacrifices individual power for teamwide utility and strength. Lulu, for instance, is strong on her own but makes a versatile support. Sona, however, loses a bit of her power solo and is more useful as a team member than a solo mage, and has some of the greatest teamwide utility if she's within aura range of her entire team, but falls short when there's less. Soraka, as my final example, loses access to one of her spells when alone, rarely if ever has a passive, and her Q is relatively easy to dodge; in other words, Soraka is basically useless on her own nowadays, entirely dependent on her team but incredibly powerful when doing so.

alasarcher11/25/2015, 9:28:58 AM1 votes

Support is basically champion role that provides utility for entire team through their kit or/ and item builds. Every champion in theory can support, but some are doing better job than others.