Flinty Rants: All about supports and why you should love 'em · 3:29pm Nov 23rd, 2014
So, here comes one of Flinty's late-night rants. Y'all know I've been playing League of Legends for a good while now, and that I like to play support. But here's the thing, support role isn't limited to just League; ya'll got tanks and healers in every MMO ever and those NPC's you abuse for healing in rpg games and whatnot. Hell, the support role is found in real life, from assistant manager to minimum wage jobs and even those nerds you only talk to when you need homework help (yes, that actually happens. No, we never forget when you never return the favor). Oh, and they're just like editors on this site! Sure, proofreaders can just copy and paste to a word document to use spellcheck (we know), but an editor has to scan every. single. word and make sure the story is perfect, give criticism, and help out the author... for barely any credit whatsoever.
So yeah, those adorable little supports.
D'aw...
...
...
Anyway, back on track. As a short little disclaimer, I am in no way a "good" player. Hell, I even make really bad mistakes from time to time that cost me. This is just a fun rant, like one of my favorite sponge's here, and I'm up at 6 am with no sleep and it's Saturday/Sunday so you can't judge me harshly.
So, here's the rundown: I'm going to talk about supports, how to treat supports, and how to play supports. As a guy who mains support, instead of just "filling in" and feeding because I didn't get top/mid/adc, I'm going to speak my mind after all the... blegh I've gotten. Also, lots of pictures so stay posted (pun not intended).
1. All About Your Support
Supports are a little different, and special in their own way. Tanks have health and take it as much as they dish it, carries kick ass with their burst (AP) or sustained (AD, but both have exceptions), and junglers babysit gank lanes and provide offensive help when necessary. Supports dip a little into those areas, but they shine in something called... utility.
Five glass cannons seem like a fun team comp, but they ain't shit if they're stunned.
So yeah, supports have utility that give them their own flavor and style. You got sustain, which is all about healing and keeping your adc (the glass cannon) in their lane so they can get gold for all their damage items. You got poke, which is... well, imagine instead of being punched in the face, you get your personal space invaded. You can handle it a couple times, but eventually you back off... slowly. The grabbers, who grab your adc, stun them, and kill them if they don't have the mind to hide behind minions, but are otherwise manageable if you know what you're doing. Then you got aggro-supports who are all about going all-in, stunning and cracking skulls.
But the trade-off is a low gold income coupled with no appreciation.
Did I mention supports have the most tragic lore? I guess they're the only ones who can even handle the role!
That's the stats of my last game, the one I played before writing this blog. 11 kills, 13 deaths, and 41 assists. Forty-one kills were made by my teammates because I set up the kill. You know Leona? She's about initiating and stunning. I'm risking my neck, diving toward the enemy to stun them (either one at a time for an AoE team stun) in HOPE that my team will follow up and get those kills in time. And you know what? After we won, after all that struggle and valor we as a team went through, you know what I got?
Not a single thank you the entire game.
A support is the most unappreciated role. Top lane gets fed? GG. Mid lane gets fed? GJ. Jungle ganks successfully? TY! Adc farms because their babysitter protects them for the first 10-15 minutes, then proceeds to carry the game? OMG GJ ADC!
You can stun. You can heal. You can ward. You will never get the praise you deserve. People counter this by saying that supporting requires no skill, but you know what?
That's utter bullshit.
An adc and a support need good synergy, cooperation, and teamwork to succeed. A good support means a fed adc, which means GG. I've seen solo adc bot-lane, it's never pretty.
Farm, deal damage, push objectives = Poke, sustain, initiate, ward
The entire game, every role, is difficult in its own respect.
And no, grow a pair and pick a real support.
2. There is no "I" in "Team," and there's no "abuse the hell out of and expect good results from" in "Support."
So you're the guy dealing damage, or the guy tanking damage. Or the guy who occasionally deals damage while ganking lanes. But you know what all four roles have in common? Farming. You get to have all the gold. And deal all the damage.
So, here's this support on your team. Their income comes from an item, and that's it for early game. Their job is to babysit the adc. They get no real gold, they usually have to build warding after that, and basically sacrifice any hopes of dealing real damage later on (unless they're Morgana, Lux, or a myriad of champions). From one viewpoint, it seems like the least fun role.
So they might die.
And someone will yell at them for it.
Yell at someone who's sacrificing most of their power in the early-game to feed another, because they couldn't defend themself from a gank.
Think they're underappreciated yet? Here's the typical pre-game chat:
[Bruiser]: top
[Burst]: mid or feed
[Janitor]: jungle
[Feeder]: adc*
[Punching Bag]: top
[Punching Bag]: shit
*notice how they call adc instead of bot? Yeah, that's how unappreciated the role is. Even the description on the game itself implies that they're pretty damn important.
So here's what to do when playing with a support:
1. If they die, think about why. If they're a tanky Leona, it might be their fault. If they're a squishy Soraka who loses health when healing her teammate, think twice about typing "Lol noob support" when your adc is fine and at full health in lane. It might be for a damn good reason.
You can't save someone who can't save themself, my dear, dear Sona.
2. If they damage a minion, don't rage at them in chat. Autoattacks happen. They might have been trying to poke the enemy. Maybe they need 20 gold to buy a sightstone to prevent ganks. They've been dealing with your shit all game, so just let them have a damn minion.
3. If you got a kill or won a teamfight and you see the support getting assists for all those kills, maybe they're the reason you got those kills. Many supports have an AoE stun, which can and will change the tides of a battle. Be grateful, damn it, and stop thanking just the adc when the support sets up that all-you-can-feed buffet.
4. If you're a jungler, try to gank bot-lane consistently. It takes pressure off the support and, let's be honest, they'll be more willing to take risks and stun someone for you to kill. If they're hiding under their tower, afraid to initiate because they'll die and be raged at by the adc, then they're not going to do their job well.
5. Do. Not. Rage. At. The. Support. Shit happens, and that role gets enough crap as it is. People do worse when yelled at, and constructive criticism will be more likely to improve their gameplay. Want to hear a secret? If someone rages at me for no reason, I don't feel obligated to listen to what they say. You play adc and rage at their support? Looks like mid could use some healing... good luck soloing.
6. WARD. I don't care what your role is, what your rank (probably Bronze if you don't already do this), or if you're feeding, just ward. I don't care what you think about supports, it is not their job! When they buy you a sightstone and give you vision of the map and warning of ganks, be glad it wasn't your EIGHT HUNDRED gold.
Why is Batman a support? Because he has a utility belt.
3. Supporting your team so they can carry you.
Here's a fun thing about supports: a lot of them are women. Of course, most of them can do other lanes and kick ass, and there are male supports and even a couple... agender(?) supports, but most of what I've seen is women. So, you know what? Girl power. When I play support, I feel like a woman. An empowered woman who has the freedom to choose her destiny.
But you're still a babysitter.
Yeah, that's basically you.
But here's the thing, you get something no other role does. You get the experience of... nurturing. Sure, the jungle can gank left and right but it's nothing compared to what it feels like to be a support. You start the game out with this weak, pathetic champion who can't even peel for their life, and have the job of raising them until they can carry the team on their muscular, sexy muscles.
Oh yeah.
I don't hate adc's. They're pretty essential for taking objects and kills, and a pretty popular role. The thing is, I love my adc. When I play support, and my adc thanks me for a heal, a peel, or a meal, I get this warm feeling in my heart. No matter how stressful the task is, it's always worth it to see my adc grow up and kick ass.
Unless someone DARES gank my adc, and then everyone is left wondering how the hell a Sona got a triple kill.
Lesson: DO NOT TOUCH MY ADC.
*Ahem*
After your adc grows up and leaves the nest, it's time to turn to your team, becoming less of a babysitter and more like a desk clerk.
Sound lame?
How first blood feels.
But that's the point. Your joy and accomplishment isn't from the numbers, from getting all the kills and damagez, but from how you help the team. A fed adc is nothing if they don't push, and a support is useless without their team. It might not feel look like much on paper, but...
It's the greatest feeling in the world.
So ditch this:
And support your supports.
Heals, pokes, and stuns all day. How can you NOT love them?
Nidalee isn't a very good support choice. She has a single heal and a trap that doesn't stop anyone; no slows unless she gets Rylai's or Frozen Mallet. She's intended as a support that deals a high damage spike with her spear so the adc can clean up afterward. Unconventional, and certainly not what you look for in a support.
The other five, I agree, are supports in some form or another.
I'm surprised you didn't actually go into sub-types of support, since the sample you gave was Leona. She's classified as a support tank because she's got support and tank abilities, but no noteworthy damage threat. She's similar to Sejuani, Taric, Thresh, and Braum, who are also support tanks.
This is in contrast to Rammus, an AD tank who deals more AD the more armor he has, and Maokai, an AP tank who has an insane amount of burst damage--without having to build items.
Then, there's your dedicated supports, like Sona, Janna, Soraka, and Lulu. They can build non-support, but their greatest advantage is when paired with a laning partner. They don't benefit much from being able to stand in the middle of the fight and absorb damage, but their offensive ratios aren't high enough to merit building a carry--plus, their abilities are targeted knock-ups, slows, stuns, shields, heals, buffs, debuffs, etc.
Then you have your AP/support hybrids, like Lux, Morgana, and (my personal favorite) Syndra. They're like Maokai with utility and no damage tolerance, able to deal high amounts of damage and incapacitate the team so the adc can mop up afterward.
AD/support hybrids are... hmm, I can't actually think of a really noteworthy one off the top of my head. Anyone who builds AD is usually tanky or a tank, like Garen and Dr. Mundo. Yeah, just looked through a champion list and saw not a single AD support. I've been experimenting with Jinx because dat utility, but nothing that I think could be usable in ranked.
Anyway, enough lecture time. Seems to me that you value your role well enough to not need validation, seeing as it's what you main. I don't typically get validation no matter how hard I support, and I don't know anyone who does get validation. Their role is important, crucial even, which is why supports are still a staple of most every ranked game, but the duty of a support is to help others... and if you want to be thanked for philanthropy, well, why don't you just get your bottom two ribs removed so you no longer need a partner?
I never expect to be thanked for doing what's expected of me as a support; I'm happy to help, regardless of whether it's noticed or not.
My lot in life... Take all the damage, set up the kills, get none of the glory. ... Guess that's just my place. But I don't mind... as Fluttershy always said.
fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/140/c/9/flutter_braum_by_otakuap-d7j1ymx.jpg
Supports = My Beloved Skymin
Worship them supports.
I love supports/healers characters, I chose them all the time (Not LoL though)
It feel really good to know that without you your team would fall. Is the same as the bassist in a band (I play the bass), it's rarely the spotlight, but is a really crucial part of the group.
The amount of moe in this blog puts Fluttershy to shame
I was not aware all the crapping on support still happens. Season 2 maybe, but I'm generally seeing the crap go to the jg these days. Support was even getting picked before ADC for awhile mid S4 iirc. Maybe I should play more ranked.
And you forgot the best part of boss support skills: dat green teamwork ribbon
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Ashe is one. Provides a bunch of slows with her Q passive and W, and a global-range missile stun with her Ult. Many people underestimate how much a slow can affect you in LoL. Slows are longer lasting than stuns and can stack high enough to feel like it is a stun. Slows also make it perfect for a jungler ganking, especially if the enemy overextends.
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Ashe can support quite well.
Ah, quite right.
I think it would be cool to see more AD supports like Ashe. They're the first role in a while where I remember looking at it and realizing, "There's not very many who fit this role."
I liked this post; I don't play LoL (mainly because my PC is shit and I'm afraid I'd not be able to get properly into the game), but the supporter archetype needs more love.
That said, any tips on learning League? Seeing as you can now officially get scholarships for playing it?
2612392 The best way to learn is to listen to advice and learn from your mistakes.
Don't blame lag if you miss your skillshots.
I might be horrible for this, but I play Braum, autoattack creeps, stun and get kills, never buy wards, and I still somehow win my games.
... Man, I suck at this game :C
Top 3 wood league!
And then I played as an actual support for a game. I warded, poked, and stunned, and didn't attack creeps. We crushed the opposing team and I ended up with over 40 assists. And somehow, I got a thank you. just one, but one is enough.
2618069 Braum's go-to item in the beginning is that one shield, so it's OKAY to hit minions. :3 And supports getting kills... why is that a big deal? Supports can use the gold considering all the adc does early game is farm, farm, farm. A kill is a kill for the team, and gives the lane time to farm without pressure (assuming wards are in place and the enemy jungler is nowhere near).