Climbing solo as Support feels impossible compared to Dps/Tank

General Discussion
1

You guys are welcome to critique a couple of my games today
These were back to back games today. Yeah I sucked today.
Winning Game YXAW4G
Losing Game SF5MQH

My main (banned) fluctuated anywhere between 2800-3800 over the years. I had plenty of help on my climb up, but I was able to hold my own solo, though i fluctuated alot.

It’s been a few months since I first started my climb as healer completely solo this time.

To put it simply, it hasn’t been a good experience.

I can easily solo myself out of plat with dps or tank, but I feel I’m just in for the ride when I queue healer.

The main problems i’m having is SR 2000-2600 in general, positioning, and bad luck.

The elo i’m currently stuck in (gold) has a wide variety of skill sets. If I was to guess, I say 1 out of 3 people in gold should probably be in plat or above. There are so many good players stuck in gold that really pop off when their team isn’t weighing them down and makes for some incredibly one sided games. They win really easy but get stomped the next game.

My positioning is an issue because, wow, its waaaaay different positioning as Ana in gold than in diamond. It’s something I never realized before but my team 100% dictates what positions I can take. It is through their movements that I’m forced to keep line of sight, or I let them die. In short, I feel like I’m always stuck in some bad position because how my team decides to engage.

That on top of normal healer things, like everyone on the enemy team is focusing the F out of you. I just don’t have to tools to deal with the diving monkey and the long range dps spam at the same time. I’m getting jumped on because im out of position, and I’m out of position because i’m trying to heal someone. If I was only worried about damage, I never would have lost my positioning in the first place.

I feel I have to make impossible decisions that basically makes my actions a simple coin flip… I’m making a wager when I jump down from high ground to heal someone out of LOS. Absolutely no strategy to it. If I jump down and if the enemy can aim, I will die. If they can’t then I’m ok. That’s what its come down to.

Not MY skill, or my knowledge, but how bad is the enemy team at simple aim and team focus.

I’d like to group and use the group finder, but i’ve had some weird hardware issue with my rig thats not letting me use my mic, and I get kicked for no coms 95% of the time. It’s a frustrating experience.

Any other solo supports experiencing this ?

10 Likes
2

100%. DPS and tanks have more control of the match in general. Supports can make huge plays, but their main role is far more “preserving the status quo” over pushing things forwards. That means if your team is kinda bad, you’ll have less ability to carry in general.

8 Likes
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Ana is able to hardcarry a game, but you are limited ofc.
Besides that it just takes time. If you are better then you will climb. It just takes time. Remember its a grind

4

What supports you play? Baptiste and Ana can carry fights pretty well with their mass amounts of healing. Your impact is most of the time making sure your team outlives the other team

5

I get it, but months of sideways movement feels like a long time for someone that plays proficiently higher sr’s.

My favorite is Ana but I can play any support. I always pick with a strategy in mind and switch and counter often. On my last account I had a combined support play time in comp over 1200 hours, about 600 from Ana. I love Baptiste right now because he has the best applied damage and offensive utility so I can defend myself, but if my team is having a stroke while playing (about 50% of the time) I’m forced to heal and play defensive more than damage and that’s when his skill set starts to break down. I think its honestly just a gold elo problem.

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It depends on what you play. If you play mercy, good luck. If you play anything other than poke dps(tracer-echo being an exception)good luck. If you play anything other zarya or ball, good luck

1 Like
7

The only way to climb as support in the ranks where teamwork doesn’t exist is to play proactively, which means that you can’t afford to play some heroes that rely on teammates as much like Mercy and Brig. Bap, Zen and Ana are all pretty good at making big plays in their own ways, depending on your skill on them and what the team comps are looking like. Lucio is a wildcard because even if you’re good at him, there are going to be situations where you’re just not going to get the value you need because of your tanks (yes, the tanks), but if you’re good enough you can make up for things by playing disruptively and go for assassinations on isolated targets.

My best advice would be to push the envelope as hard as you can without sacrificing your ability to keep your team up. Bap is probably the best solo-queue support because he can deal damage, heal enough for tanks, and has a good kit for surviving dives. If you’re getting focused on Ana and can’t do anything then you need to switch if you can’t outplay the dives.

But it sounds to me like you have shortcomings that are telling me that you’re not ready for a higher rank yet. You have to be able to perform in all situations, not just ones that work out well. It sounds like you need to work on your positioning, awareness, and overall skill with your mains. Putting yourself into situations where you need to rely on your teammates is only going to work when your teammates are reliable, and that just doesn’t happen in gold. You can’t blame your tanks if you’re making yourself a free kill for anyone who exploits you being in an unsafe spot.

Take the time to assess what can threaten you at the current moment and position/plan around it happening, so that if it does happen, you already have a game plan and can outplay your opponent. If the enemy has a Widow, stay out of her sightlines at all times and respect her ult. If the enemy has a Zarya with grav, keep your distance so you can’t get caught in it. If the enemy has a Winston, don’t sit on the other side of the map, position yourself where you can’t be dove safely. Positioning yourself as support is more than just doing your job, its also making yourself a difficult target in the process.

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A good support can make a good team great, but they can’t make a bad team good.

:frowning:

8 Likes
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I mean as a peak 3,8k support it should be easy to carry games in gold ngl
At your worst you should still do better than nearly everyone in your games, so just play. You will climb eventually.

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How do you fluctuate from 3800 to 2000? that’s insane, just from a mechanical standpoint. You should at that point be able to DPS support your way up a fair bit.

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I’m not really sure how to take your advice. I completely understand what you’re saying and I know what my problem is, its just that your advice doesn’t help me at all.

You say my positioning is an issue. I know it is.

But this is not by choice. If I don’t take the risky position, my team dies.

There is nothing I can do about this but communicate to my team. I fully believe this is purely a god elo problem.

Also you say:

I was playing Diamond rank 4 months ago on my main before it was banned. I played that level for over 3 years. Admittedly, support is my weakest position, but I could taste Masters not even 6 months ago on my main. Yes, I had a full 6 stack carry me to diamond, but I played solo for years after that, never dipping below high plat.

Skill with my mains? I have 600 competitive hours on Ana alone. I can confidently say I can play any support and do well.

I get this but here is the specific problem i’m having. i have the skill, I have the awareness. My kit lacks the power for me to SOLO CARRY myself out of gold unlike tank or dps. I do not have to the tools to deal with all the threats coming at me so it is up to my team (other people not me) to do something about it. If I want my team to do something about it, I have to keep them alive. Since my team doesn’t play any traditional strats in gold, i’m left playing a risky game instead of a one based on what you said, positioning, awareness and overall skill.

Again, to sum it up, On my main I was carried out of gold with a static 6 man years ago and never saw it again. Now on my new account In gold when i’m playing SOLO I can’t climb. There are many reason why.

I’m at the point now where i’m wondering if healing these people is even worth it at all and If I should switch to a damage oriented style, something I never really tried before with support.

12

I’d argue against this, but it really is going to be dependent on your team to their job, otherwise you will get stuck trying to perform their role, and if your team is particularly absorbent, the healing is going to suffer. Doubly so if your co-support isn’t capable of doing the basic job.

This isn’t quite true, but I can understand dealing with it and not having the optimum positioning to adquately heal or maintain some level of safety and risk. There are cases where I have to basically be on point, behind some cover and have my back against the enemy while firing into my cowardly or passive Tank and offensive line.

It doesn’t hurt for you to position yourself in more riskier or other positions where you can still get an angle and cover your team. You don’t have to hide behind or attempt a flank for your team all the time. Sometimes getting ahead of them is useful for keeping them covered. And it doesn’t hurt to take some risk with your solo-flankers/divers and try a backline assassination and assist with that.

The point is, you don’t need to sit with your tanks at all times. Taking some risk as a Support does offer some good returns when timed right and you can read the room, as it were.

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If you have the time

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At this point in the game, Supports across all the ranks are functionally identical with small differences in healing output, and:

This basically sums it up.

1 Like
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And what exactly does this mean? There are people with 1k hours on Ana and they are still in bronze.
If you think you are better than them you can carry yourself out of any Elo thats still atleast 500sr below yours.

I guess you mean gold and no, its not

Skill and awareness are the things that will carry you out of any elo, if your skill or your awareness is above the other people there

If you cant carry yourself out of any elo then there is a specific reason for this, but I think you wont like it

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Hey I gotcha. I’m just bad and I’m at the elo I deserve. I can climb with a team because they cover my weakness’s but when I’m solo its really up to me to mitigate all those weaknesses solo, through better positioning and such. Thanks for the input.

I 100% disagree with this. You won’t find a single human alive on this planet thats bronze with 1000 hours of Ana played.

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Ana and zen have the best chances at climbing. mercy does too but you need to duo and hope your dps is at least decent.

18

Zen is my weakest support by far. I’m not terrible with him, but do you have any tips on how to actually land his m1 on a consistent basis? My average accuracy is 23%, the lowest of every other character I play.

19

Simple, discord someone and you can now track them through walls for a few seconds. Use that to charge your attack and let it rip as soon as you see them about to peek. You don’t need to land headshots to get kills with the secondary from zen and you don’t always have to fully charge it if you land a headshot or 2. Never get too close to your tanks, try and stay a bit further back and stay near natural cover. Zen’s hitbox is so big that getting picked off by some random hanzo will happen a lot more than you think.

1 Like
20

Support is more about setting up plays for your team rather than making the plays yourself. Sure it’s possible to make plays by yourself in certain scenarios, like getting a massive multi-kill boop as Lucio, or fragging out as Bap/Zen, but otherwise just focus on helping your team out. Get those antis, boop lone enemies into your team for them to finish off, apply those discords.

Even if you just reliably shotcall, even if nobody is listening, you’re better than 95% of supports in your rank.