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Support main scared to play ranked. Need advanced advice.

FortnitePro2006·4/24/2015, 6:10:16 AM·1 votes·4,662 views

WARNING: THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE A RANT.

High ranked support mains, I beg you, please tell your secrets. I've started playing support because I loved the idea of opening up opportunities, making plays for my team, and so on in the background. It's what I genuinely try to do... People say play-making supports can carry, yet I find that absolutely not true. I've been studying Thresh like a maniac; watching videos of pro-level plays and doing what I can to mimic their strats.

Yeah that sidestep? I'm predicting it, and my Q will still land. I don't even miss too often. Yeah that lantern? For god's sake, click it! You don't have to summoner 4 in when I make a play.. I left that there for you for a reason. I made sure to put it in a decent spot too.. I understand that minions and whatnot make it difficult to click. Jungler, I know you're headed in for a gank, let me make it easier for you and lantern you in for it! I won't be obvious either, and give away your position; I'll use it at the right moment. Oh wait... you didn't want to click it and ran around instead resulting in you being too late.

I know to use my lantern for brush vision. I know to use it as a shield when need be. I know to use it to collect souls. I know that I can use Death Sentence on monsters and minions to escape. I know the tricks. I'm providing vision control non-stop. Warding non-stop. Buffs coming up soon or an anticipated steal/counter jungle? Gotcha. Drag or Baron? Gotcha. I'm clearing wards constantly with item 3364, yet my team still hasn't upgraded their trinkets. I look after games at the stats and our jungler placed 3 wards all game, and our mid didn't even purchase a single one to help him. I'm peeling non-stop. Yeah, that guy wants to flash aa/any spell you for the kill? No problem, I am waiting for it and I will more than likely preemptively Flay it. I literally Flay'd Pantheon's mid-air W today to save my ADC and they asked why I did. Team fight breaking out? I am using my Q to peel, my E too, and my R all whilst using my W to shield whoever may need it if I have to. I am focusing the proper targets. That adc is sure as hell getting cc'd the hell out of on my watch (especially if our team has the upperhand and I don't need to peel the backline). Except.. the whole team is focusing their tank and not profiting off my cc.

I use my items properly too. My lane is winning hard? Okay, I'll start roaming. "Roaming supports help win games.", no?

Katarina is using ult? On it, I will summoner 3 it to mitigate damage, and if I'm playing a champ with cc, I'll cc it.

My ADCs don't build QSS half the time, yet they're confused why Zed's Death Mark got them or they're complaining how Lissandra always pops them with R.

It drives me nuts. I'm so scared to play ranked and get placed in Bronze because my role is meaningless and can't snowball. How in the world did you guys pull it off? It's not like all I know is Thresh, and it's not all I play so I don't think that's the problem. I am pretty decent at various supports, whether it be engage, disengage, or sustain supports. I'm just baffled by the level of play, and I mean, these are with silver and sometimes even gold players a lot of the time too that I get paired with for some reason (maybe mmr? although I don't think norms have aggressive mmr). I'm way too intimidated, but I genuinely want to climb the ladder and prove myself.

Don't get me wrong, some people know how to profit off of what I do and we mesh soooo well together. It's usually Gold + players too. The majority on the other hand is clueless.

26 Comments

a0IP9RlIBC4/24/2015, 7:07:56 PM3 votes

I know plenty of support mains who carried themselves to Diamond, although none of them are Thresh mains.

Like most low-elo/unranked players, you're focusing too much on individual champion play and not enough on general mechanics which are required to have success in bot-lane.

Do you know the power spikes of every bot lane combo? Are you going in when you're at your strongest(insert lvl 2 Lucian power spike joke) and when they're at their weakest? Are you zoning their ADC? Are you keeping your ADC from being zoned by their support? Do you time their summs? Do you know when to freeze the lane? When to push the lane? When it's appropriate to AA the minions, and when it's not? Do you know typical jungler gank timings so you can maintain 100% ward coverage? Do you know when you should back and when you shouldn't? Do you freeze minions for your ADC when they're crashing into your turret and he's still walking to lane? Are you prepping ranged minions under turret so your ADC can cs them early game?

These are the things you need to initially climb. Being a god with hooks/flay won't do you jack if you don't understand the more important fundamentals like wave control and trading. It's like learning how to do the butterfly stroke before you learn how to tread water.

just my 2c as a diamond adc main.

Sydelle4/24/2015, 6:19:02 AM3 votes

I'm like an old, grizzled, whitebeard down to my toes and pointy hat up to the sky main support who, like you, once posted (2011) in these forums bright-eyed and full of love for support, my teammates and blah blah blah.

Listen to me kid, learn to carry before you go rank. With a carry. Not a support. Support as a last resort, like everyone else.

Thank you.

Tmoose4/24/2015, 3:39:45 PM2 votes

This is how ranked works for me: I almost always play support, because I don't want someone forced there uncomfortably. I only play anything else if someone wants support. 90% of the time, if I get a good carry, we will win. I can usually rely on myself to be consistent making plays and saving carries. So if you spam SoloQ playing a good, consistent support, then you will climb. Slowly but surely. DuoQ with someone you know is a good ADC and climb fast.

gr8job4/24/2015, 8:08:20 PM2 votes

I'm in the same boat, mostly posting here so I can keep an eye on the thread (a lot of this advice is very helpful.)

Personally, I would recommend just going for it. You have nice scores in all your recent games, and a 50% winrate. Look at ranked as an opportunity to play with people on your own level and who (ideally) are taking the matches more seriously. Normals are usually a place to learn, practice, and sometimes goof around. If you're taking the game seriously and trying hard to win, you might be alone.

The only reason I don't play ranked is because I no longer have mastery over any champions, or the game in general (I keep taking breaks... and I've been playing since 2012!!)

hh the thinker4/24/2015, 6:40:24 AM2 votes

I'm guessing it may be the items you buy as support. don't get sunfire or randuins (they don't really help your team, just you). if other team has zed, get Mikael's Crucible. if other team has a liss blowing your team up, get locket and crucible (get this if other team has cc or an ult like vlad/zed) if you can. if you want armor and no one on your team has one, get frozen heart. focus on getting items that help others instead of you as much as possible.

another thing you can do is push to level two in land before the other team, just hit the minions a bit to get them a bit lower for your adc to kill them. getting level two keeps your lane both safer and gives you the chance to go aggro level two depending on the lane matchup.

Wakamune4/26/2015, 5:16:46 AM1 votes

I once had a tutor for league who watched my game and then left off with "Ok, I'll tell you the more complicated stuff the other day. I pecked all your small mistakes so you should be fine for now."

And what I'm saying is, because there is only so much you can convey in text, you may need it to dumb yourself down to their level. There isn't as much harm because chances are the other team is not that great neither.

i.e. Your Graves isn't going ham enough on the Ashe you hooked so chances are he doesn't understand the powerspike. Expect less kills and play accordingly.

You seem to have a little bit of frustration because your team doesn't read you, which is understandable because you're playing Thresh, not Raka. But when playing with kids, guide them as though they are indeed, kids.

Karlyr4/24/2015, 7:45:47 PM1 votes

The best tip that I can give you is to learn another role or keep playing consistently. Support is hard to climb with, it's a long and hard road that you are taking. And anyway, having a deeper knowledge of another role will just help you out to support them better.

A good starting point would be jungle I think. I started climbing pretty well in Season 3 when I understood the jungle role better (but more specifically on when to pick fights). If you successfully pick a good fight with an hard engage jungler you should draw closer on winning a game. The same goes with a play making support, but people will be less likely to follow you being more squishy as a support.

You can still climb well with support to your "real elo". But keep in mind that you will have to play more games since the outcome of these games depend a bit more on your teamates. You just have to keep a good attitude and stop playing when you either feel exhausted or if you feel that you are queuing just to get elo (aka tilting). Keep playing for fun over rating. It doesn't mean not to care about your rating though.

For more help on these subjects go see PhyLoL and Stonewall008 on youtube.

The Chin4/24/2015, 7:57:09 PM1 votes

As other people have said the best bronze supports are AP poke champs

Zyra is the best but she takes a while to master Lulu Velkoz Karma Sona these are all very strong as well

my personal favorite poke support is lulu

FortnitePro20064/24/2015, 8:33:06 PM1 votes

P.S. Thanks to everyone for all the advice! I'm really glad I even got responses on this. Sorry if I seem to be venting too hard :'(.

Shogunai4/24/2015, 8:34:25 PM1 votes

I understand exactly where you coming from, I've too been very passive of finishing my provisional for rank an really trying to get my supporting as sharp as possible so that I can get the best results. I was an die hard Leona player an she is still one of my favorite champions however as I've learned more about the game I've realized my play style accommodates more utility so I been putting a lot of more focus in Lulu and is becoming my favorite champion an learning how versatile she is.

Pretty much after taking a time out an finding out what type of support style I play an which champion fits that, It made playing the game in game in general a lot easier, an I'm ready to hit the ranked queue. There something in ranked you can't avoid, afks, feeders, trolls, toixicity, etc. but all you can do is do the best you can to set up plays for your carries, peel for them, an communicate. Can't force people to follow your lead an take the good games with the bad.