Support Heroes Extinct?

Hero and Skin Suggestions
1

Has Blizzard given up on the support role?

There are very few of them. The most recent theortetically would be Zarya who was reclassified as such. I don’t consider her to be a real support, so then I look back to Medivh as the most recent true support. He came out in the live server on June 14, 2016. That’s just over four years without a support hero. Even if you count Zarya, she was Sept. 27, 2016, so still a long time coming.

I felt that with it having been since the end of 2017 that we had a OW hero one was due from there, but then why not Zenyatta who would have probably been a good fit for the support role? I don’t know; maybe the role just no longer fits in with the modern Nexus.

2

Wouldn’t Zenyatta have been a healer, though?

There was a thread recently with a link to reddit, where a dev said several heroes are in the works and “none of them currently fits the support role”, or something along those lines.

The thing is “Support” is pretty much the “others” category where they place heroes who don’t fit Tank, Bruiser, Healer, or Melee/Ranged Assassin, so a hero has to be really unique or unusual to land in support:

Whatever gimmick they have can’t be healing ('cause they’d be classed as Healer), dealing damage (Assassin), self-sustain (Bruiser), or disruption (probably Tank, unless they don’t have enough survivability).

That reduces the design space that “fits” the Support category quite considerably.

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3

Fair points, though Abathur and Medivh can also heal, so I wouldn’t say that healing precludes a hero from being a Support. I thought of Zenyatta since he boosts allies, but also nerfs enemies, which reads to me as support. And with Mei we saw that they changed how she plays compared to in OW, so that could have been done with Zen, such as replacing healing with increasing armor. Just a thought.

Just now I thought that if a warrior was going to be classified as Support, it probably should have been Tyrael since he can speed up allies, as well as slow down enemies.

It just struck me as unfortunate that there are only 4 of them and haven’t done one in 4 years.

4

I think a more supportive hero from OW, if you must, would be Brigitte. Zenyatta, imo, is too much of a healer. His debuffing of enemies is nothing new really since Tyrande and Ana can do that too and they’re both Healers.

Brigitte on the other hand, can be fitted into a suport role easier by diminishing her healing and make her a armor-oriented support that gives out armor and not raw healing (similar to Zarya and pre-rework Tassadar shieldings). This makes her a sustaining support without actually healing her allies a lot. But thats just me.

The only role that I can think of that doesn’t fit into any of the Healers, Assassins, Tanks, Bruisers, or any of the existing supports’ roles (i.e portals by Medivh or shielding by Zarya) is map pressure. Similar to Abathur and The Lost Vikings who specializes in map pressure and XP soaking. But then this will be another “Specialist” role again like pre rework where the members are singers. I guess it is hard for a hero to be a support lmao.

5

While Support is definitely not as easy to create as the other roles, I think it is distinct and has a place in the game. I think there is a craving for more supports by the playerbase, and the playstyle of focusing on assisting your team outside of healing or peeling. I feel like there is something of a defeatist attitude here, so I wanted to bring forth some ideas for examples of what a Support could look like!

[HC] Unng Ak, Denwatcher of the Blackmaw

Unng Ak is a furbolg that who uses etched totems to empower his druidism. Over the course of the game, Unng Ak can select additional Wild Gods to draw power from through his totems, which have a variety of effects, some negative for enemies and some positive for allies. Unng Ak specializes in zoning damage and buffs.

[HC] Cenarius, Lord of the Forest

Cenarius is a patient and planning Support who must look far into the future in order to maximize his abilities. He offers unique buffs to his allies and can create moments when his team can easily push forth and claim structures through the use of a special summon, as well as overgrowing structures.

[HC] Izsha, Advisor of the Swarm

Izsha is a special defense based support, attaching to forts to heal them while sending out her mobile buildings outwards to hold down areas, or defend her attached fort. Izsha utilizes drones in her playstyle primarily, and brings the defensive zerg structures into the game in a unique, highly complex manner. She brings some of the RTS micro gameplay into HotS.

[HC] Mida, Her Tallness

Mida is a crafty and selfish support, who assists her allies throughout the match, but always for selfish reasons. Her ability to make her allies into Goons and then benefit from all of their effects cements this attribute, and she primarily helps her team by allowing her allies to output bigger numbers. Mida is unique in that she has abilities that enable her allies without making any big plays herself.

[HC] Symmetra, Hard-Light Architect

Symmetra is a defensive control-oriented character that focuses on keeping enemies down as she deals damage over time to them. Her main focus is to reduce an enemy’s output while her shields protect her allied heroes.

[HC] Belial, Lord of Lies

Belial is a mindgames-based support that can be a core of a Lord of Hell themed team. He has the maximum number of options to keep his enemies guessing, while still being useful outside of pure smoke and mirrors. He is focused more on suppressing enemies and enabling his team all through illusions.

[HC] Magatha, Elder Crone

Magatha is a buff-centric support that can provide her team with a solid boost to their damage and survivability. When needed, she can call upon an Earth Elemental to provide her with some extra damage, and she can use her buffs on her elemental to greatly augment her damage and disruption.

[HC] Rhonin, Draig'cyfail

Rhonin is a high utility support who utilizes his mana and careful management of his abilities and health to shut down the enemy team and protect his team. He has no healing capabilities (hence why he is a support), but contributes moderate damage and disruption.

[HC] Vorazun, Matriarch of the Nerazim

Vorazun specializes in pairing with an ally and making them into a lethal stealth assassin. With her Shadow Assault and her Veil of Darkness, Vorazun is incredibly hard to catch, and can become a pest for the enemy team with her Stasis Ward and the damage dealt by Shadow Assault.

[HC] Nozdormu, the Timeless One

Nozdormu is a very aggressive support, who lacks real healing but offers a variety of damage and utility options for his team. His ability to manipulate time offers new tools for the player, such as hastening debuffs placed by enemies as well as stalling enemies from healing their allies or buffing them.

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6

There are plenty of options out there to placed into the support category and I for one would love to see more of them in the game. I think of supports as character that boost an ally’s abilities by increasing damage/spell power, reducing cool downs, providing armor, maybe more escape and not just giving them healing. I was a big fan of the specialist class before it got removed (although Zagara, Xul, Probius, Azmo and Gazlow still can split push really well and still kind of fit this role) because I liked pushing the map or doing something other than direct team fighting, which is why I’m sad that more supports aren’t in the game. I don’t necessarily have to be the one to get the kill and if I can help someone win a fight they would otherwise loose, then I think that would be fun.

Some that weren’t mentioned and could fit this role are Rory Swann, Arcturus Mengsk, Karax and heck even Tosh depending on his abilities given. And that’s just StarCraft.

7

Very interesting roster there. I’d like to throw in Overmind as a global pressurer and maybe another hero that focuses on restoring mana. Also how about Lilith from Diablo as a support? Her trait can be that allied heroes respawn from her location and not in the Hall of the Storm (kinda like giving birth).

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8

Almost all support characters either:

Mitigate allied damage through shields, light heals, or other utility,

Or help immensely with XP.

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