I am a competent player who absolutely loves Overwatch, but with the new Role Queue beta it is very difficult to climb solo as a support. One game, no one was in chat, I nano’d multiple players multiple times, after signaling that I have ult, and zero was done with the nano. Other games I would play as Moira (mainly throwing healing orb) and Mercy, just pumping heals into people and despite keeping them alive as best I could no one seem to set up or get any picks. As lucio, I’d signal ultimate and group up for a push through a choke point, but no one would. This has happened not only often, but seems routinely. I am a lower level player, mid-to-high Gold prior to this beta season. I know this season is not in earnest and used more for data collection, but it seems almost impossible to escape silver as a support.
Editor Note: Initial post stated “very competent” for multiple reasons, including valid statements of comments, it has been changed to “competent.”
Further Editor Note: Pursuant to comments it obviously is not “impossible” to climb as a support so the title of the post has changed accordingly. ** Body of text changed as well.
I’m sorry but if you’re silver you are no where near competent as you think you are, and it isn’t impossible to climb, you need to practice, because even if you magicaly go up 500 Sr, your games are only gunna get harder and you won’t have the skill to compensate.
I’m incredibly biased (don’t look at my profile), but I always suggest picking up Zen.
He can frag out, he can dull the pain of your teammates’ poor positioning with a harmony orb, and discord / transcendence will virtually always have a lot of value.
He’s also very wiggly, even if he doesn’t always show it.
Over a long time, your skill (or lack of skill) as a healer will translate into higher SR. I will say that as a healer you will have the highest variance of the three roles.
It seems like a large part of the OW forums are simply players frustrated with teammate variance
Thank you, yes I agree. I always try to keep my criticisms as objective as possible. I would never suggest that I am beyond a silver DPS, I always shied away from it prior to role lock. A good friend (who is slightly better than me either Plat or Gold, depending on the season) traditional queued up together and we’d go support or tank. During the beta we’ve been playing separate and it seems quite difficult for both of us. He placed* mid-high Gold in all classes, while i played I believe all silver (I may* have played like 2001 in support initially, but then fell quick and hard).
Edit note: please note it said “played” instead of “placed”
I climbed to Plat yesterday, playing in the Support category. Was in mid/high Gold for a long time.
So your theory is proven flawed. And I’m finding it easier to climb now than before. It could be because I have improved a little (or something else, I don’t know).
Again, thank you for the time and interest in the post. I’ll review the gameplay where possible and seek to improve. Any suggestions on developing support characters would be welcomed and appreciated. Or comments on how you traditionally play your support character.
Editor Note: Initial reply stated “traditional” rather than “traditionally”
Well I guess that’s important to, watch pro support players and play some dps. That’s usually what I do. Might help you. And watch the guides for all hero’s, even if you don’t play em.
It’s not. I’ve done it. I’m wondering if I’ll have to do it again when the beta season ends, but if so, oh well I guess.
I’ve mostly been playing Moira and Mercy (if someone takes Moira), if that helps.
In lower elos, if you plan to actually heal, it’s best for you to take Moira asap so that you KNOW that your Moira will be healing. If your other healer was going to play DPS Moira, well, too bad for them, they’ll now have to pick a support more suited to it, like Zen or Lucio or Ana.
If they do take Moira before you, you can try to take another aoe healer like Lucio or Baptiste or Ana and pray the Moira actually heals.
If she doesn’t, then yeah, you’re in for a bad time.
Long story short, if you want to climb in lower elo on support, take Moira away from the DPS Moiras.
Oh - also try to figure out who on your team is most likely to carry, tank OR DPS and try to throw most of your resources their way while not neglecting the rest of your team.
This is great! Do you think your rise was based on anything specific? This is not a criticism whatsoever, but did you find that you were paired with better teams as well? Not suggesting that you did not climb on your own merit, but I am curious if you feel that something changed on your end, in addition to being paired with better teammates, or if you feel you were the principle factor in the climb?
I actually would avoid those channels, they’re not the best players. The thing with watching streamers is you get an imagine of what support is supposed to look like rather taking to heart everything a guide says, cause it won’t always apply. So just visually tell yourself what a pro is doing and you’ll make a guide out of every stream you watch.
While my initial post is perhaps to negative and critical of other players, it is a statement of fact, so I can’t change that. But I do appreciate the similar sentiment and thank you for taking the time to comment.
It is possible to climb as support and carry but it is less evident in games when a support does it.
Unlike every other role where you get kills more than the enemy, you instead keep your team alive longer than the enemy to carry. If your team is alive longer, the more likely it is for them to do their job.
