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Rise of the Headhunter Supports.

Damagefox·11/10/2016, 6:32:10 AM·12 votes·2,098 views

Yeah, that or something similar. A mix of an observation, a proposal, and a declaration. Basically I am for the most part a Support, but I am no longer gonna just sit back and be a doormat. I will be taking Kills, even away from adc. How did I come to this? Well Its been happening more and more in matches. This idea that supports arent actually worth listening to because they are not a "KILL-FOCUSED" Role. I was in a match with a draven Adc, and the enemy Leblanc vanished from mid. Mid pings MIA? Good. I Ping on the map, the river 3x (usually forming the likely route LB would take) ADC Draven just keeps on pushing. LB comes up behind and takes out draven after I backup (expected Draven to follow) I asked draven "I pinged, why didnt you back up" and I get "Stfu you have no kills"

Wait...Wut? (Funny considering teammates rage at me for taking kills cus "ur support, your not supposed to take kills! ur supposed to give them to adc)

This Idea that A support's Pings, observations, or advise carries NO WEIGHT on the team at all. That support isnt actually part of the team because They are not a "kill oriented role" so the supports are frequently ignored, dismissed, talked down to, and generally treated like trash. I have pinged MIA, warned of ganks, all went ignored. I played games where I ping dragon (when enemy down) suggested "Either we take dragon or they will". My team ignored and not even 5 minutes later the enemy team took the dragon while my team was still roaming for kills. Sadly enough in the SAME map, the same thing happened with Baron. I pinged, suggested baron, it went ignored, and enemy took baron, costing us the match.

Well I guess If I have to play on thier level, I am gonna start building "headhunter" supports. The type of support who will not hesitate to "Killsteal", even from thier own adc. Now dont get me wrong, Not doing this to "troll". But If the support isnt actually part of the team unless they are racking up kills, Getting told to stfu when they ping to back up, or warn of an incoming gank. Well then I guess the supports will have to start taking kills, even if it means from thier own adc.

I am a support main, I do my best to try and keep/buff/support my TEAM (Not the adc's personal verbal punching bag). My focus is to try and keep my team alive. I play Support because I spent alot of time watching the map, watching where enemy is going, predicting movement patterns, watching for missing enemies, etc.

I am looking at the long game, but its harder to see the checkmate if Adcs are too arrogant and full of themselves, using thier supports as scapegoats, verbal punching bags. Or just someone to dump all the blame on. I tried healing Ezreal adc, just to be told how much of a "useless support" I was. (dont worry, you want to pull that, I wont "inconvenience" you with heals or buffs. So sorry for distracting the god-tier adc at work)

But I ramble, sorry.

My Point is this. Every Role has a Purpose. But NOT EVERY ROLE revolves around kills. Roles like the Support are meant on Keeping the TEAM alive. If you are looking at your teammates worth by how many "kills" they rack up, and dont even see your supports as worth listening to. Well guess I will just have to "take" some of the Adc's Kills/CS and build up a bit of worth on the team. At least enough that you will not instantly dismiss anything support has to say because "you have no kills"

Also on a bit of side note, Please actually look at what support items actually do. Tired of having to explain what item 3302 does when my adc throws a tantrum and flames support for "Stealing CS" because they didnt bother to look into what the item does. That and "What is a ward?" (actually been legit asked that before, it was a lvl 30 player too)

62 Comments

notice me Sin pi11/10/2016, 6:19:50 PM4 votes

as a supp main, i encourage u to do it. I was stuck in bronze. One day i decided i should never try to give kills as support. I climbed out of bronze.

Do: -priortize securing kills over donating kills if unsure -become the carry if u get super fed Don't: -intentionally ks at the cost of a long cooldown and/or death -be toxic while doing so (they will flame u 100%, and if u end up lashing back, u will most likely get banned for toxicity) -play cc-only support (given ur elo, I expect no one to follow up if u land a cc on an enemy. Healer or damage supports are better choice since they dont require immediate followup from ur teammates to be useful)

Shirvallah11/10/2016, 4:29:32 PM3 votes

I cannot express how much I understand what you're going through. People ask me why I choose to go for the more aggressive support builds or why I even play more aggressive mage supports (i.e. Karma, Zyra, etc.) or champions with support potential, like Lux or Brand (god forbid, I know).

And this is why. Most adc's I play with don't take initiative even if I set up a play perfectly for them. I want them to take initiative so we can get important objectives, like dragons or turrets. Maybe it's because I'm in a low elo.

I think I was playing with an Ashe the other day (bless their soul). They played about as passively as a new Soraka player, ok. The enemy support was a Morgana, and their adc was a Jhin. Mind you, my Ashe was low on mana. She was level 6 at the time, I believe, but either she'd ulted already or didn't have the mana to do it. Ashe was decently low in hp already before the Morgana Q'd her but became even more so during the fact, and I peeled for her with my shield and snare. The Jhin comes back. Ashe pokes him while she's farming, and so do I. Ashe was getting ready to back, and the Jhin began his curtain call. He'd only shot my Ashe once, but she was too far away from me under the turret for me to body block for her while I was a little pushed up in lane attempting to freeze the wave. Pretty sure one more shot would have killed her. I hit 6 on Lux. Jhin was in the fog of war, but I knew appropriately where he'd be because of the curtain call angle, so I sniped him with my ult. And I saved my adc's life in a less "conventional" support-like fashion. Got a "good job" for that one.

Another instance... There was a well-fed, snowballing assassin on the enemy team just last week. I was playing Karma. There were maybe 3 people on my team surrounding this guy, and I kid you not when I say I did literally everything I could to get my team the shutdown on that guy. Sped them up with my shield, rooted the enemy, slowed them, auto-attacked, even, but they didn't finish the assassin off for who knows what reason. Maybe all of their abilities were on CD, but I tried to be a "good support" and not KS my teammates. That guy was one empowered Q away from dying. Sigh. But whoever it was (can't remember) managed to escape. I got a "Karma, why didn't you do anything?" ???????? Excuse me? Did you not just see everything I did for you just to catch up to this guy?

But I say all this to say that... I'm not really paid attention to or respected that much as a support when I don't play the more aggressive ones. For some reason, it's all about the damage. It's all about the kills. I can't remember when I've gotten a "good job, Janna" (or Soraka, Nami, or someone of the like) because my abilities peeled or engaged well for my team or even saved their lives in the midst of a teamfight.

ReadyxPlayerxOne11/10/2016, 7:11:26 AM3 votes

This guy's like the Donald Trump of supports! Tell it like it is!

Azure Hamster11/10/2016, 3:40:00 PM2 votes

You need to play with better ADCs. We lost a game recently with a Bard support stealing CS and kills (KSing not just the ADC, but other people as well) I had a hard time getting going until I started hanging out with the mid Malzahar who kindly acted as support some of the time. First couple minion waves I was 1v2 because Bard was off ganking mid and running around in the jungle. I'm aware Bard needs to wander to collect chimes, but he didn't come by to leave some heal shrines first.

To be fair we lost because he was also not playing as a team player in general. Him stealing shit was only one manifestation of the solo-carry mentality.

The solo-carry support mentality will only get you so far. LoL is fundamentally a team game; play it like one.

Caitlyn

Shloonz11/10/2016, 6:39:02 AM2 votes

I totally agree to your post. i moved away from doormat support to your described interpretation of support half a year ago.

The time of the "holy ADC" who might not be disturbed in his work is over for me too.

P0IS0N IVY11/11/2016, 6:38:55 AM1 votes

Ok I looked you up. You are bronze, meaning that the people there don't understand the game/are toxic/trolls/all of the above. Anything goes at low elos.

Second, you shouldn't get into the habit of taking kills on purpose. A good ADC will far outdamage you.

Third, if you want kills, I would suggest mid.

LawUrDepravdHart11/11/2016, 10:03:30 PM1 votes

A kill should be secured if the target is going to escape. However, if the kill is guaranteed then let your adc have it. ADC's need items to scale because they are weak early and generally lack utility. Supports are very strong early because of their utility, and they remain useful the entire game even with low income.

Continue trying to communicate with pings and try to add in "mid Mia" or "take baron" in chat. Many players that are silver and below don't understand what you mean by a ping. Alternatively they don't understand how to read the map, and they don't see the danger of a missing mid.

The draven in your example was likely embarrassed that he died to an obvious gank and he was looking for a reason to dismiss your comment by saying, "I don't have to listen to you because you don't have kills." Kills are not required to contribute tactical knowledge or give a warning.

The support's job is to carry their adc through the laning phase until the adc can carry the rest of the game. Healing, harassing, and even dying for the adc are part of the job description. It can be a thankless role without much glory because people can flame you for 0 kills, 10 deaths... but you have 30 assists. That's still a great kda imo.

In low elo going a full dmg support like brand or zyra can indeed carry the lane through oppressive damage.

Randomonium11/11/2016, 10:10:25 PM1 votes

I'm an ADC main and I actually approve of this post.

MeilinII11/11/2016, 11:07:10 PM1 votes

Allow me to recommend Morgana, one of the few supports that can save an ADC and take over the game if your ADC is a retarded asshole.

Having recently picked up Zyra, allow me to also recommend Annie, Zyra, Lux, Sona, Vel'koz, Bard, and Brand.

Sincerely, A support main that only plays Morgana in ranked without a duo [slayer-jinx-wink]

woodvsmurph11/12/2016, 1:48:50 AM1 votes

Yep. Same as last season. That's why I swapped to top. See too many good supports dragged down by boosted toxic adc's and team blames the support. Or bot lane is set to carry game, but they get camped 2v4 while mid and jungle ff or gank top to try to stop enemy top snowballing when they should be helping bot. People had respect for every role when I first started playing ranked. I sucked, so I went support and got hella good by end of season. Could 2v3 carry with a decent (not even godlike) adc my 2nd season. 3rd and beyond, people had 0 respect for anyone -- especially supports and refused to give simple help that could snowball their team 3v3 rather than hang people out to dry 2v3 or 1v2 all game. I know junglers feel similar to supports -- everyone expects you to be everywhere, but you have games where you're always on the wrong side of the map at the time and you can't even farm jungle half your jungle because you get invaded by enemy jungle and the laner on that side who god fed before you even completed first jungle clear. The key thing junglers need to know is to not just ff for first 15 min and to gank for lane(s) that are actually decent and have kill potential. Don't waste time camping for a lane with 0 kill potential and with unskilled player. That and watch timing windows -- like you said -- if enemy is all top or backed to buy or died, do drag.

As for you as a support main -- do carry. Do take kills when needed and not apologize. Do mute toxic dumb teammates with no clue of the game; ignoring good shotcalls and treating you like trash. But most of all, I hope you can find some good adc's (very hard to find at bronze-gold rank consistently) who actually deserve a good support and appreciate one. That 1 game a month you do and you duo carry your 3 losing teammates almost makes up for the rest of the month.

ph1234k11/10/2016, 6:53:32 AM1 votes

What you are describing in what you have experienced is a mix of toxicity and low elo. Just climb and people start being better at the basics such as map awareness which is where your Draven messed up.

At the same time, there is no reason for you to chat to people who ignore your pings, it will not help you or them. It will generally just tilt them whether they respond or not and if they do respond it will most likely be toxic. It has nothing to do with you being a support, just him being tilted and toxic.

You are of course free to play however you like if you want to steal kills, just understand that in doing so assuming you don't let your team know before the game starts your lane partner will likely pick a champ that requires feeding to become impactful and if not fed you have effectively removed a teammate. If you do let them know beforehand they can of course adjust to your playstyle

JoeMG11/10/2016, 4:16:41 PM1 votes

Step 1: Play Bard

Step 2: Take all the kills

Step 3: ???

Step 4: Profit

Lapis11/11/2016, 4:48:30 AM1 votes

Nothing wrong with that, I figure. A kill's a kill, no matter who gets it. As long as you leave cs for the adc you're golden

bad arcade kitty11/11/2016, 5:58:01 AM1 votes

I am a support main

found your problem