How can we (the community) help Riot with ideas on encouraging more support Mains

St0rmln·6/23/2016, 2:16:40 PM·8 votes·1,721 views

anyone who risks saying "fill" as their secondary role knows that support has just become the secondary position by default. This is because no one wants to be the support on the team (not even the pros,.. kinda). When everyone has to take turns playing the role very few people like than it seems obvious that we should do something about that unfavorable role.

I main support, I love supporting, but i will admit I don't have enough say in how the game goes so it really is a lot harder to rank up.

Is there a way we can help riot think of good ideas to make the support role more appealing? New Items or game mechanics? another support rework/update? Anyone got any ideas?

44 Comments

Tahyana6/23/2016, 2:42:33 PM2 votes

Explain to the ADC community at large what the support role is.
Stop abuse of the support in the team comp by the ADC. (Let's face it. Next to Jungling, Support is the most under-appreciated role out there, and that is why hardly anyone wants to support.)
Fix XP gain to include assists, ward placement/destruction. (This has been done, well the ward part.)
Fix XP to include clutch saves by the support.
Allow a support to cast on an ADC if said support does not that have that ability in their kit.
Allow to scale slightly for supports who do not have that in their kit.
Place a second trinket slot for pink wards.
Allow the gold in an accidental last hit go to the ADC and not the support for the first ten minutes of the game. (I know that one is a stretch.)

Febos6/23/2016, 2:43:10 PM2 votes

I'm a jungler main, but I also enjoy playing as a support. I'm usually the shot caller of my team (we are premades), both in the jungle and as a support. The support is the role that has the highest impact on the early-mid game. You are baby-sitting a champion that is weak early, but if you feed him well he'll be stronger than the opposite team. A good support makes a great difference in the game.

Elite4Runner6/23/2016, 2:48:49 PM1 votes

I think the biggest problem with a lot of what has been said so far is the difficulty for the game to register who exactly is the designated support with limited information at the start of the game. Unless the computer automatically assigns the qued 'support' slot with these buffs (which many of them are buffs), and just assumes the game will be played in that way. The problem with this is that if the player does not ultimately play as a support, they will be exploiting those buffs.

Taeseuk6/23/2016, 2:50:07 PM1 votes

The main reasons people don't want to play support is 1 most adc's are umm not nice to say the least and constantly blame the support if they die/are doing badly. 2 They have very little impact on the game as a hole in the sense that even if they are playing extremely well if the other player(s) aren't there isn't much they can do about it. 3 They don't get rewarded very well for doing their job.

Veraska6/23/2016, 3:26:00 PM1 votes

I think the unpopularity of supporting roles is just kinda a ugly truth to pvp games in general, support characters (and tanks to a lesser extent) sacrifice their carry potential to enable teammates to carry harder, which is a good thing but in games a big pillar for fun is expression, we can express who we are by what and how we play

I don't think people wanna be the sidekick or the supporting cast of their internal narrative

As for a sort of solution to the problem I think we as a community should be more open minded to what our support wants to play, like I would never support if vel'koz wasn't considered a support (for some reason) and I think it would help people get into the role if they didn't feel like they have to play janna or sona and babysit a marksman for 30 minutes

"As long as they get a sightstone" has been my motto this season

Xyle The 7th6/23/2016, 3:34:38 PM1 votes

We could have an icon that shows how many times an ally has won a fight because of a ward they placed. Such as if the enemy adc walked into a bush the support warded and the ward allowed the supports adc to win the fight because of that. I personally think that would make playing support a little more fun to be able to show off how smart warding saves your teammates and secures them kills

Elite4Runner6/23/2016, 3:51:11 PM1 votes

To be completely honest, I feel very responsible just about every time the person I'm supporting gets a kill, as long as I am there in the lane with them. Pretty much as long as I got an assist, I feel as if I was the deciding factor.

Interestingly, I don't often feel all that responsible if they die, .. maybe I'm just a bad support. lol

NekoYoka6/23/2016, 4:29:14 PM1 votes

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Bard Rock6/23/2016, 4:48:38 PM1 votes

It would be really neat if during suggested support update, they would bring back a reworked {{summoner:2}} to Summoner's Rift. What if when you cast it you could place a ward anywhere in it's zone without it having to be in range? Or make it something we can use to deal with stealth champs late game.

thekingofnido6/23/2016, 5:33:27 PM1 votes

the problem is not that support isn't fun to play, i have a blast every time i play support. The problem is adc's are super selfish bitches who go afk if you steal 1 cs by accident. And don't get my started on if you take a kill from them early even if they would have died if you didn't...

Sneed6/23/2016, 11:48:18 PM1 votes

people like to carry

support is not a direct carry, you set the carry up in a favourable position

its a competitive game.

in a competitive game the average playerbase would more likely want to carry than get carried

nobody wants to play support outside of females, tryhard thresh mains and people who suck at farming. thats how it is

Dauks6/24/2016, 12:32:28 PM1 votes

Imo there isn't a lot that riot needs to do gameplay wise. off the top of my head I can think of just a couple of things from their end:

On the after game screen display additional statistics like damage shielded and # of seconds inflicting cc effects on enemy champions. If these were in place I'd actually look at my end stats after a Janna game for once.
Have a legit replay system. If people watch their previous games and see how many times their support saves the whole team from wiping thatll teach them some respect.
Improved or emphasis on the Honor system. Might be a tad like overwatch's approach, but its a nice way for others to show appreciation of a role that doesnt shine through numbers.

The bulk of the problem with the perception of supports, however, lies in the community itself. Its really how others treat the role that is the problem, not what the situation is in game (though the experience discrepency could use some looking at). I'm fine with having less gold. I'm fine with having less damage. I'm fine with being more dependant on my team. I'm ok with constantly being underleveled. But i'm not ok with being treated like freeloading scum. I love the support role, but I dont always love the people that i am supporting.

TouchpadExpert6/24/2016, 2:44:56 PM1 votes

How about Assist sprees? Or a way for the system to recognize a save. Like a clutch Soraka ultimate that saves a teammate from death. That's the most Riot can do on their end.

As for the community itself, a change in attitude might be nice. Supports get blamed for mishaps made by the team yet recognition of our achievements are extremely rare. I'm not like most supports where I demand recognition for my work. It's nice to get it sometimes but I don't need it. My main gripe with the community is the current mentality which is "Meet my unreasonable expectations and if you fuck up I will report you." It's one thing to demand a lot from me but at least be realistic with what you expect of me and don't blow off my input simply because I am in the support role. That is what bothers me the most is when I give advice to a teammate only to be blown off simply because I am the support. Like my opinion does not matter. Like I am not a part of the team. That is what I want to get changed in the community.

Dehitay6/24/2016, 2:54:44 PM1 votes

The community has come up with a number of ways to help the support role. The problem is Riot doesn't seem to listen to much of it.

Support items give more gold for assists and less for kills Support items give small bonuses on assists (+x AP/max mana/max health per assists for blue/yellow/red) Destroying wards adds another stock to sightstone Bonus exp/gold for destroying wards for supports Ward statistics display in end game screen

St0rmln6/24/2016, 4:20:06 PM1 votes

How can we keep this post alive?

zlumpy6/23/2016, 2:22:33 PM1 votes

They could always make supports gain more xp for doing vision work. And a buff to some would be nice. The game doesn't HAVE to be carried by a hyper carry, anyone should be able to hypercarry!!

doiminat0r36006/25/2016, 2:39:05 AM1 votes

If you que up in the least desirable role at that current time, you get extra IP based on lack of players IE: Lowest num of players gets 1.25 IP multiplier 2nd losest gets 1.10 IP multiplier Middle gets 1.05 IP multiplier 4th lowest gets 1.00 IP multiplier Highest num player role gets .98 IP multiplier

(Not exact numbers just off the top of my head in the middle of the night)

St0rmln6/23/2016, 2:29:57 PM1 votes

What about a support overhaul designed around giving supports more peel/cc/healing power. as of right now they can make plays but they still can't carry a player that is doing poorly. It would be nice if I could continually save and protect and even secure kills for the guy that is doing poorly thus giving my team more chance to win.