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Support isn't a desirable enough position right now

Fisk·2/6/2016, 4:33:51 PM·146 votes·23,232 views

Right now I don't think support is very desirable as a role at the moment. Just look at the new champ select, if you queue up as "support" or "fill" as your secondary there is a 60% chance you're going to get support. People are "fine with playing it" but nobody REALLY wants it. Before you just write me off with "hey support's fine go away" or "its just a playstyle choice", I am a (last season) D4 Support Main. I as a support main KNOW that it has power as a role at the moment, is capable of making really big plays and is a viable carry position. But that doesn't actually make it a desirable role. More often than not, instead of feeling like a powerhouse savior of the people, you feel like the b**ch having to get vision by your self, being underfed and underleveled virtually every game. Notice in proplay right now supports aren't even getting level 18 in some of the 40-60 minute games that are happening. I feel like support as a role could really use some love :(

Edit- Hey the **support **(get it? :P) here is great and the feedback for both arguments is really good! I've seen a lot of great ideas on here! One was giving the support items/sightstone XP bonuses. What would you guys think of making support items give bonus xp for every minion you DIDN'T last hit? It would allow supports to be more meaningful early game as they could get overleveled/stay even in levels without them getting to strong. And it wouldn't be abusable by solo laners.

Edit 2-

The single most important thing supports could bring to the team was vision. And now with the current changes those 3 wards you drop do not feel as impact-full.

Do people agree with this? Should supports get more chances to ward in order to carry games or other areas need more work?

I will continue to post good ideas with my thoughts to address current issues up here for discussion.

342 Comments

Naramiel2/6/2016, 4:54:17 PM25 votes

Yeah, I find it odd that :

Riot said in their initial design "we plan to incentivize support with IP bonuses if necessary"
Picking anything/Fill automatically means you get Support.
They haven't actually experimented with any changes.

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/site/2016-season-update/new-champ-select.html

Aatrox Herself2/6/2016, 4:38:28 PM15 votes

I always want support but i hardly ever get it.

Zeke Maelstorm2/6/2016, 8:57:04 PM11 votes

Support will never be desirable by the mere design of the role.

In laning you are entirely reliant on your ADC not being a potato. If you're ADC is a potato you're fighting a 1v2 lane where the enemy is getting fed (probably resulting in you feeding). As a result of this you will fall even further behind.
An assassin will pretty much always be able to burst you down. Go to ward the wrong bush and you can say good bye to your health bar. This problem is more noticeable with mage supports but a behind tank support can suffer from the same issue.
Most ADC mains are toxic and you tend to take the blunt of the blame, deserved or not. (Shout out to junglers)
Support doesn't get to hard carry by being an unkillable tank, a flashy assassin or the hyper carry (Unless you're a very fed support). As a result the position is undesirable. Nobody wants to be the second fiddle, most would rather be the main character.
Off meta supports are not well liked. Although this applies to a lot of roles support players get to choose between 26 champions (http://champion.gg/statistics/#?sortBy=general.experience&order=descend&roleSort=Support) while most of the other roles get approximately 50. The notable exception being ADC.
You have no 1v1 potential (Outside of being very fed) because of gold and experience disadvantage.
People want to want ranked games and a lot of people consider support to be a role which you cannot carry from and this is true (TO SOME EXTENT) as you far more reliant on your team and hoping they make the right decisions. After all you only have so much CC and peel.
You are obligated to be a ward *****. This is truer at lower elo but the preseason changes didn't help this (Seeing as now laners can only buy pink wards and the blue trinket keeps getting nerfed).

Support is just a role where you feel like someone else's *****. You cannot make plays on your own (Unless you are really fed). Land a Blitz hook, great if other people are there to kill them.

Also Annie is not a support, she is a mage sent bot (http://champion.gg/champion/Annie/Support).

Communist Toast2/6/2016, 4:59:22 PM10 votes

I don't mind being support, but the only issue is that support has to relay on someone else (the adc) while the other roles are kind of by themselves. which makes me rather play the other roles instead of supp

Satanstein2/6/2016, 7:36:48 PM8 votes

Playing support is like being in a Fiora lane. You just sit around waiting for passive gold. You don't really get the opportunity to play League of Legends.

And yes, for the record, I've played Blitz/Taric/Rumble support so I know they can "make plays" but it's still a solid ten-fifteen minutes of fucking waiting until you do.

DeynaTaggerung2/6/2016, 8:30:04 PM7 votes

I think it's because there's nothing flashy about getting assists. There's no recognition by the game when you make an amazing support play. You know, and your teammates might know, but when you save everyone's life and set up the kill on the enemy's carry in a teamfight there's no "pentassist". I'm not sure how it would be implemented well but if people got some positive feedback when they play well as a support I think that'd go a long way to making it desirable.

Retillin2/6/2016, 7:06:43 PM6 votes

The single most important thing supports could bring to the team was vision. And now with the current changes those 3 wards you drop do not feel as impact-full. This mean Riot needed something else to make players feel they could really contribute to the game. But for whatever reason support, as a role, has been over looked in the past year/two years.

Solerian2/6/2016, 6:05:52 PM5 votes

I don't understand the point of this post.

Support is and always has been and always will be a niche role that only a few of us like to take on. You can make characters like Bard or TahmKench that help bring in some of the anti-Supporters, but ultimately the core gameplay behind support is what's not appealing and no unique champion design can fix that.

I also don't think there needs to be a macro update to the game dynamics just to bring in a few people who want to support. It's something everyone should accept. It's just like on MMOs where healers are arguably the least played role. Folks like to damage more than they do help.

Mandang02/6/2016, 11:41:39 PM5 votes

IMO it's because riot's afraid to let support's power curve ever be strong. Sure, it probably shouldn't be strong late - that's when carries should shine, but when Riot also makes carries' laning relatively strong, it really shuts things like supports out from having meaningful fantasies. ADC should be weak in lane, not gifted easy sustain and strong skills. Lane bully tops and mids should pay for that strength lategame (and lategame should actually happen once in a blue moon). Supports should be the opposite, in both cases, while obviously not being as strong as either in their strongest phases.

Also, more interesting itemization would go a long way. Just look at the utility active items available in Dota. Those exact items would be broken in LOL, but should serve as a guide for itemization that's more interesting than gp10...sightstone...boots...yaaaaawn.

ADepressedLeona2/6/2016, 9:03:48 PM4 votes

Yeah, Supports are power houses, but they don't feel like them. They can make plays they can win games, but they don't have any flashy numbers to go with them. Not only that, but supports cannot carry, you can set your team up for success all day long but if your team falls flat on their face, all your efforts just go right out the window.

Also I mentioned numbers, and just going by numbers, they don't really shine at all. I play a lot of Leona support, and there were many times I'd look at my stats after the match, and unless I simply crushed my lane, I'd have the lowest damage dealt, and even the lowest damage tanked (compared to Top and Jungle), despite being in the middle of every team fight.

Not only that, but assists just aren't praised that much by the game. When someone gets a kill, they see a big box with their picture and sword smacking the other guy, and the assist just gets this tiny little box next to it. All in all, support can feel very unrewarding to play at times, and I think there can be something done to help with that

Emperor Time2/6/2016, 5:49:37 PM3 votes

Dude i wonder why support items don't give bonus xp, like sightstone.

WinBoat2/6/2016, 4:46:17 PM3 votes

Wait til the next support champion to be released. Eventually there is going to be a support champion that is hella fun to play, and you will see a ton of people playing support.

SoMNia2/6/2016, 11:16:39 PM3 votes

Bring back the Inspiration mastery, so supports can catch up on experience after roaming. They already added Assassin in the Cunning tree, and are bringing back Expose Weakness in Ferocity. The same spot in Resolve could hold Inspiration, and it would be a huge help (as well as balancing the mastery trees).

Otherwise, maybe if support gold items gave more assist gold, and other support itemization was given a slight bump in price and stats, it might help.