My opinion and frustrations regarding the support position
I really want to have a discussion about my stance on the support position and my issues with playing support. I've been holding this shit in for nearly 3 seasons and it's come to the point that I seriously cannot keep it to myself anymore so I have to make my points. Do keep in mind that this is extremely opinionated, and most likely an unpopular opinion at that. That being said, I don’t care if you tell me I’m wrong or stupid (I won’t take it personally), as long as you have logical arguments to back it up.
To preface, I am a silver top/mid main (don’t really play ranked anymore but I can play all roles at a mid silver to low gold level), playing mostly split pushers, who only plays support when absolutely forced to. When I do, I usually play mage supports or engage tank supports. Don’t get me wrong, support is not underpowered right now. In fact, I still think it is way too strong. I just dislike playing support because it's not fun for me to have to deal with how other people treat support players. This is not really a discussion about game balance, this is more about gameplay experience and how the general playerbase's attitude toward support makes it anti-fun for the support player in my eyes.
My question is this: Why am I the only person on the team that gets abused for wanting to get even the slightest bit of gold, but it’s okay and universally accepted for everyone else?
When junglers gank a lane and tax farm, it's perfectly okay, even encouraged. When laning phase ends and people start roaming around and farming the map freely, nobody cares. If a wave is about to crash into a tower and there are no objectives up, anybody is allowed to go farm that wave. Well, almost anybody. But god forbid that I, as a support, “tax” even 2 minions from a wave to help pay for wards and support item components? Everyone is instantly up in flames.
What's more infuriating on top of that is that the people who flame me for taking only a couple minions per wave/set of waves are the same people who don't let me get any gold. People power clear minions so I can't proc my Relic stacks. When I request for people to wait to clear the wave so I can get Coin drops, nobody listens. When I want people to make space for me to poke a little or hard push a wave into their tower so I can get off all my Spellthief procs while not committing to an all-in teamfight, nobody cares and everyone does their own thing. When I'm 200, 300 gold to finishing an item (Censer, Athene’s, Zeke, Abyssal, Rylai, Archangel, etc.) and another person is heading toward a wave, nope, I can't have it. It has to go to the other person, no matter how much they need the gold. Half the ADCs I see tell the support to back off a tower to give the carry solo gold as it is destroyed, even though the support put in just as much effort, if not more, in getting the tower. Same thing goes with kills, the ADC always wants the support to give them the kill, even if they’re already 3/0. In all my years of playing League since season 2 (well the earlier seasons don’t really count since there were no real support items back then), this attitude of greed and selfishness has not changed. It’s a catch-22 where the support loses no matter what choice they take.
Ultimately, the issue I have with playing support is this: Why do people flame the support for every minion or jungle monster they take? At the same time, why is it so common for people to intentionally deny supports their only way of getting money?
Completely starving one person on the team like this leads to a gold distribution issue. Yes, I am fully aware that games don’t go that long. But if the game does end up going that long, one or two people are going to be nearing full build while the support is probably stuck at like 2 items. This creates a discrepancy where at a certain point, the support doesn’t have any way to get money anymore, because the people killing minions the fastest are the ones with the most gold, and the main sources of gold are going to the people who are closest to full build, aka the ones that need it the least. I would like to remind people that just because a champion is arbitrarily assigned to the support role does not mean that they can literally go the entire game without gold. In this current meta and state of itemization, every champion has their functions amplified by gold. Some supports like Brand, Zyra, Lux, Soraka, Sona, Karma, Leona, and Tahm Kench actually scale really well with gold (like, they scale pretty much just as well as champions in lanes). 500 gold may not mean much to a champion with 4 items, but it matters a lot for someone who is at 2 items and can build components toward the next item, while still having enough space for wards.
This is basically the support dynamic right now from what I’ve seen in my games. You’re the team’s bitch. Ward here. Sweep there. Get the fuck out of my wave you’re soaking exp. If I get caught and die, it’s the support’s fault they didn’t stick with me and protect me. If there’s not enough vision, it’s the support’s fault. You need to buy more wards. Oh sorry I can’t get any even though I literally have twice as much gold as you because I need to be even more greedy for farm and a Long Sword/Cloth Armor is taking up my last inventory spot. But you’re not allowed to buy your last item because you need to keep a slot open for wards. Blah blah blah you know the drill. I can’t take it anymore. It’s unbelievably infuriating and not fun in any way.
And just to clarify, when I play support, I never intentionally steal minions in laning phase where the ADC is most vulnerable. I never intentionally feed or troll. And when I play a non-support role, I don’t care if a support wants to take a couple minions for themselves. Because I know how hard it is for them.
This is a 5v5 game. Not a 4v4 with 1 extra person that nobody really cares about. There are 5 people on a team. And all 5 people on the team should have the opportunity to have fun regardless of the state of the game or game balance. If I’m not allowed to have fun as a support, whether I willingly selected the role or was forced into it, I might as well just not play the game. I think this is one of the biggest reasons why people hate being autofilled to support.
What do you think?
tl;dr Why do people flame the support for taking gold when they have so much of it themselves? At the same time, why is it so common for people to intentionally deny supports their only way of getting money? The attitude of players toward supports makes support unfun to play, regardless of whether they're strong or weak.
