Supports is my most played, I often complain that I don’t get protected or peeled a lot by my teammates. When playing other roles… I feel like protecting Supports is actually not easy as I thought, thus I feel like a hypocrite when I failed to save them. (Harsh reality: You can’t save everyone and also can’t please everyone.)
As a frontal shield Tank, it’s hard to keep my eye on Supports in the back as I could get overrun (e.g get charged or shattered by Rein, chain-CC’d, get displaced by Lucio/Pharah, etc.) if I lose my attention on the front. I also can’t just drop my shield as Reinhardt and hit the flankers as my team will be soaking more incoming damages. Another time as a Dive Tank, every time I initiate my jump as Winston, enemy Doomfist uses this opportunity to dive at my Ana and I just helplessly watched, crawling back as my jump was on cooldown, while abandoning other teammates in the front…
As DPS ( especially when playing as flankers like Pharah, Echo ), I’m definitely too focused on farming damage and getting kills. There’re times that I turn around to check on my Supports or target the attacker who’s harassing them, I got one-shot / burst down by enemy DPS (e.g Ashe, Hanzo, Mccree, Widow) who just enter the fight; got hooked by Roadhog who just turned around a corner.
I find bodyguarding Supports seems viable ( especially when playing Mei, Mccree, Soldier:76, Roadhog, Zarya ) but bodyguard means I won’t be doing anything until an enemy comes. Then my teammates will start to wonder why I’m not moving up as a Tank or playing too safe in the back as DPS. Some heroes are particularly hard to be dealt with when heavily enabled by their teammates (e.g pocket-healed + bubbled Doomfist or… literally any hero), thus much harder to save Supports.
Mccree: shoots enemies from a distance.
Soldier: shoots enemies from a distance.
Mei: right-clicks enemies from a distance.
Roadhog. Hooks enemies from a distance. Also, right-clicks enemies from a distance (not as effective though).
Zarya: right-clicks enemies from a distance (but not as effective though).
Bottom-line, you can still damage enemies from a distance. You don’t have to wait for enemies to come near.
The thing I wish more MT players would do is just … wait a sec.
Double check the team is all ready to go and if you go - commit! I might die but we might win the fight anyway if we keep pressure on. and Tbh if I’m just dead before every push u bet i’ma swap to a more mobile hero that can keep up.
But yeah usually just try to notice if someone snuck by you/over you as you went in and give us a sec to stabilize in the back for 1 second before a full push.
Well it’s a give and take I think. Supports (and I say this as a support player who makes this mistake too) don’t need to be protected. We need to be HELPED. Just like our teammates need our help.
Ana playing in the backline when her team is pushed up isn’t helping herself stay safe. If I see the characters that can peel for me getting out of a safe range, I either ask for them to pull back, or I rotate up to help them.
Supports also need to be aware of where their team is not just to heal, but to be available for their team to rotate to help them. So I would argue the impetus is really on your supports to make themselves available to be helped, and to call it out if needed. But you could also I guess let them know “hey I’m pushing you should move up so I can help if you need it”
I tend to rely on the offtank to do the bulk of the peeling if Rein unless they’re close by or the rest of the team is in cover (ie hanamura walls first point). As Orisa I’ll put the shield in front and pull+shoot anything that flanks. As monkey I’ll look around to see if there’s someone flanking before committing but they’ll usually wait till I bounce before attacking If Ball, I’ll just play out whatever is happening going back and forth from our team to there’s if it’s an issue.
All of the off tanks are great peelers though. I guess the problem is the team is never short on off tanks…
Yeh you kinda want to sit close enough that, if attacked you can jump into the bulk of your team. If somehow the mccree doesn’t know someone’s behind he’ll usually spin about pretty quick if I run in front of him shooting backwards.
The thing that a lot of support players won’t like to admit is that some of the fault is on them when their team doesn’t peel. I don’t know how many games I’ve played on an off role and heard “Wow guys, thanks for the peeling” after they’ve already died. If you’re a support player and you’re not verbally calling for protection when you see you’re going to be in danger, you’re at fault too.
That said, audio queues are a massive help when you need to bodyguard your supports while also providing value outside of just protecting them. You need to familiarize yourself with the sounds that supports make when they’re taking damage and always be listening for them. It’s a skill that’s going to help you a lot on ladder with how few people actually use voice comms.
To specifically address your question of what to do as main tank when your supports are getting farmed behind you, the answer is usually nothing. That’s not your job, especially on Reinhardt. Sometimes you just need to rely on your teammates to make the correct play and tell them to if need be. With Winston, it’s sometimes best to wait to counter dive rather than initiate a dive yourself. It’s often okay if your supports die while you’re diving too, the name of the game is trading and sometimes fights will be messy, but you can still win them.
I’ve been encountering teammates using “Counting down, 3… 2… 1” & “No.” much more than “I need help.” It’s like players seems don’t care much about the new voice commands.
Some Supports position themselves too far away that I can’t peel them easily. Tanks moved into the point B of Temple of Anubis, while Ana + Zen stayed in the middle doorway, thus enemy Tracer could attack on them around corners & Genji could attack them from above. If I go back peel Supports, means I’ll abandon frontal Tanks but dead Supports = guaranteed fail push.
I’ve noticed that main tanks are actually incredibly bad at peeling for supports. You lack the range, mobility, and even damage in order to kill flankers before they get a pick on your support. More often than not, you’ll do more by distracting the 3~5 people in front of you than trying to fall back and kill a Doomfist or Tracer. You’re never totally free of responsibility, but generally these are some of the worst people to blame.
As an off-tank it’s somewhat different, but still difficult. You’re generally looking first and foremost at protecting your main tank, but defense matrix, projected bubble, and accretion can be used to give supports leeway in order to survive.
As a support, it becomes apparent that survivability is a responsibility that falls mostly on you. If you’re getting flanked a lot and dying, switch to Moira, Brigitte, Lucio, or Mercy and get a feel for what works. I see a lot of Ana, Zenyatta, and Baptiste players feed to me over and over and then tilt in chat.
Support is also the best role for peeling for support. Brigitte absolutely shuts down dive attempts. Mercy’s 55 HPS is very powerful on squishies, and her resurrect can be used to punish trades. Lucio has a powerful boop, Bap can make use of invulnerability field, and Moira just outputs an intense amount of healing. Take accountability and protect yourself and your co-support.
No comment on damage, there’s far too much variety in playstyles and I’m not experienced enough to give proper input.
Not every Supports like to do that though, these 4 heroes are not very high-skilled compared to Ana, Baptiste & Zenyatta. Some players particularly enjoy shooter-typed of hero, thus these 4 heroes won’t be their choices too.
Supports need to move up with the team instead of staying far back in a corner and become an easy target. You need to check the enemy DPS line up as well, if there s flanker, you know they are coming for your support.
A frontal shield tank protect supports by keeping tabs on where they are, i’m not saying you need to constantly turn around to see where they are, good team communication here is key, if you know your support is behind you shield up, if your dropping shield tell them.
That relationship works 2 ways, if you need to turn to help your support, your support in turn should help you to defeat whatever is flanking behind.
Dive tanks are a bit trickier, best you can do with them is if you noticed a support dive with you, again, just communicate that you need to head out and try and give them a second longer to leave before you, this is hard to do and won’t always work.
One thing I can say is i’ve had winston and hammond players who give me great coverage as mercy.
If they needed healing or noticed i need to get out of the bulk of a fight, they would do a quick hop/swing up and give me that leverage to move away from incoming damage, in turn Id support them through the fall back down.
DPS Characters
A lot of these depends on your supports, (which heros they’re playing)
For characters that need line of sight, keep tabs and try to remain within them for consistent heals, if you have a mercy having a high to low ground flight zone for her can be tremendous.
The other big on with dps is learning to counter whats plaguing your team, if an enemy tracer is constantly diving back line, switch to mcree and communicate to your supports to stick with you.
All in all, keeping supports alive is tough, but the key is always gonna be good communication, supports saying what they need, and you communicating what you need in turn.
Understand the importance of using your supports as bait and inflicting more damage upon the enemy when their team is split. There will be times when this is the only option. Saving everyone doesn’t win games and sometimes you have to hope your supports aren’t pushovers and are competent duelists that don’t hide behind the role to avoid learning how to fight.
Also the likes of Tracer and 76 can swing fluidly between the front and back lines if they deliberately position with this in mind. Lucio and Brig are good stepping stones to that sort of gameplay.
As for actually being on support, people will instinctively defend themselves. It may be worth being unusually aggressive in your positioning and staying near the front with your team.
Peeling is mostly the off-tank’s job (hook, bubble, accretion, D.Matrix), or the Lucio’s job if you have one (boop + speed), but if they suck you can just make sure to always keep an eye and ear out for your backline and when you notice they are being harassed, simply try to kill the harassers.
Support player has 2 options. Either stay far from the fight in a safe place by yourself or stay close to your team. Now if you choose to stay far, it’s your responsibility to protect yourself and if you’re with the team, they are supposed to and probably will peel for you. They are both good options depends on the team compositions/map so one is not better than the other.
If you are an Ana or Zen trying to snipe from across the map, you have no right to ask for a peel. Also if you are playing with the team, you gotta hug the hard cover ie. wall and don’t always rely on shield or payload etc.
Remember, playing support is 90% about positioning. I don’t play Lucio and Brig so I can’t talk about them.
It’s difficult if they don’t cry for help, meanwhile there’re so many things going on.
There’re times that Tanks move into the point B of Temple of Anubis, while enemy Genji & Tracer use this opportunity to dive at my Ana & Zenyatta who are in the middle doorway. If I peel my Supports, Tanks will be abandoned & feed to enemies, but dead Supports will guarantee a fail push. I feel powerless to peel my Supports from double Dive DPS, or pressure enemy Tanks (who’re well-healed by enemy Supports) with my teammate Tanks.
It happens when Supports don’t trust their teammates like they still get picked off when they stay with the team.
Things could happen very fast like Doomfist could suddenly fly or drop from nowhere and eat my Zenyatta before I could react. (e.g Eichenwalde choke point, Doomfist can stuck himself on the roof and wait for the moment to slam in.)
From experience, off tanks and DPS are the best at protecting their backline. If you’re playing a main tank, stay where you are, in the frontline. I assess the situation first, sometimes my support dying doesn’t mean losing. I’ve had games where my Ana kept dying but we won pretty easily because the enemy team sucked more. However, I think the supports should look after each other as well. If I’m playing Zen and I know a Tracer is looking for my Ana, I stay in the back with my Ana instead of flanking.
In my opinion, if you can’t protect yourself, switch. Unless there are two people going against you.
If Ball, I’ll just play out whatever is happening going back and forth from our team to there’s if it’s an issue.