Supports how do you do it?

General Discussion
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warning - drunken rant ahead

Because I can’t…
I used to, hell I even enjoyed supporting, but I can’t do it any more.

I’ve spent too much time as a DPS , and I can’t go back. I LIKE having my choices matter, I like the large set of heroes, I like that when I play well, I win, and when I play badly I lose.

I just can’t support any more, this “you play REALLY well, but eh, you lose anyway” - I just can’t face any more.

I WANT to lose when I play badly, I WANT to win when I play well.

Supporting just isn’t like that. So, at least for Overwatch, I can’t face it any more.

In other games it means something, but here? Like your choices just don’t matter.

Don’t get me wrong, you NEED a support, so they are a thing, but your skill as a support is totally under represented in the game. My support SR waves ALL over the place.

400 SR gains or loses in the night is just normal, and I THOUGHT it was normal.

But it isn’t.

As a DPS I don’t have that. I don’t end an ENTIRE rank above where I should be as a DPS, it doesn’t happen.

My DPS on my accouts are all VERY close to each other? Support mains? can you say the same?

Does your skill matter in a game? When you have that Mercy beam on someone, and they are shot and die, was that anything you could have changed?

If you want to know WHY the DPS queue is so long? it is because it is the most fun to play, and it has NOTHING to do with the game being a shooter, and people wanting to shoot, it is all about people wanting to play a have and having impact in the results of that game.

You don’t give supports impact, and people will live in the DPS queue.

Supports NEED more skill expression, they need to be harder, and they need to be stronger for it.

Their choices NEED to matter if you want the queue times to go down.

They HAVE to be made harder, and they have to be made stronger, SO their skill has a higher gradient on game outcomes.

I don’t if it would make me suck at them, I WANT to suck at them and lose, rather than sleepwalk to wins.

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i can’t believe people still think support isn’t an incredibly impactful role where you can win games singlehandedly with good plays

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I played a LOT of both, and I can say with ABSOLUTE certainty that DPS have more impact.

You NEED a support, but, who the support is matters less.

In MMOs you NEED a tank, who can taunt.

If you don’t have one you lose, so they ARE powerful, but the tank player hitting the taunt button , their skill isn’t not really being expressed here.

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OMG I need to start ALL of my drunken threads like this!!!

Thank you, experienced forum user!

May edit this post once I’ve read beyond the first sentence.

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No matter what you edit, It will still be a drunken rant from the heart. I mean EVERY word.

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With the way a lot of the forum Support-Mains speak about DPS as a role, it comes off as them being upset that they didn’t get to play DPS.

I frequently find myself wanting to switch to Support whenever I play DPS whenever I feel my Support teammates not carrying their way, and vice-versa.

OR, you just enjoy playing DPS more and have fooled yourself into enjoyment = impact, which in the grand scheme of things is probably how a majority of people feel like.

I don’t understand why people feel this need to keep pressing this idea of Supports being this “worthless, unimpactful, weak, terrible” class when it’s far from the truth.

I get saying that you don’t find Supports fun, but Supports are FAR from being unimpactful.

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You do get that I play support in other games. I am not saying supporting is unimpactful, I am saying supporting in OVERWATCH is unimpactful.

I’m not saying that Supporting CAN’T be impactful, I am saying that supporting as implemented in overwatch isn’t impactful.

They SHOULD measure peoples variance in SR, because the more impact you have in a game, the more your SR should be stable right?

Because your skill will be important, so you will find and stick to your SR.

I shouldn’t have accounts 2 ENTIRE ranks above the other account, and still roughly the same difficulty.

For DPS it TOTALLY doesn’t happen, but it happens with support.

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I know what you’re saying, but that’s FAR from the truth when Supports have literally been the catalyst for every single major change that’s gone on in Overwatch.

Supports have been behind almost every single stagnant meta.

Support heroes are always the ones that not only the community, but Support-Mains themselves will clamor to get nerfed because of how easy it is for one Support to become an outlier and skew the game by how they enable heroes.

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They matter in support as well. If you’re doing terribly as a healer, it really shows and can lead your team to a loss if you’re not throwing your weight, or you’re forced to have your second support carry the burden. It’s the exact same as on DPS, if you’re doing terribly as say Hanzo, you’re missing all your shots, etc, you’re leading your team to get frustrated at your lack of key picks, and your Mei will have to pick up the slack.

This I will agree with, there isn’t a wide selection. But IMHO it’s not like I play every DPS or healer anyhow. I stick to a select few I know how to play and play well, and only step outside my comfort zone when I truly need to.

I feel like this happens on DPS just as much though? Like, you could be getting picks, but your team is so asinine that you can’t support them solo and the blame gets put on you.

Plus on a lot of healers, you can literally also do the DPS’s job. You can get those important picks while also healing your team and providing utility.

But it is though?

I’m not gonna nitpick through this anymore as it’s just rambling and false claims. It’s frustrating because of this perception. I have bomb AF Ana plays where I sleep an oncoming Doomfist, get a huge nade, get those picks, keep my DPS and tanks alive and combo well with a well timed Nano.

I also have games where I can’t hit a thing and lose.

Stop pretending like supports don’t matter.

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Right, you NEED the right Tank to be taunting the enemies, but the skill expression of THAT tank player still isn’t a big thing.

This is NOT saying support HEROES, are not strong, because they are, but that your choices with that support doesn’t make a big difference in the outcome.

When Ana is the meta support, then you take Ana, and make sure your 'nades land.

When Moira is the meta support, you just have to be there and make sure you do resource management.

WHICH support you pick is super important, but HOW you play them doesn’t make as much of a big deal as it should.

Ok, lets use a concrete example.

I played in the open, I got to contenders trials, as a Zen main.

My job was to get a discord on the right enemy and run like hell when I just jumped.

The Lucio’s job was to stand next to me on speed, and press amp when they jumped us.

That was it. That is enough to play on a pro account as a support in the open.

NOT EXACTLY AMAZING STUFF.

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Enough posts have passed to where editing my first post is no longer a viable strategy, so I’ll make a new post.

WARNINF: I’m 5 green tea shots in and still going! drunken rambling may occur.

No, I can’t.
This account on xbl is in masters and on its way up and I don’t see the high win % leveling out until at least mid-high masters or low GM. (I only play comp on weekends though)

My alt “Lord Doubleton” is hardstuck high plat with nearly identical stats. When I solo q I get put with and against the other high plat master smurfs, and when I 6 stack we could win or lose but it just depends on what each match is like.

Meanwhile my smurf is in mid plat because my placements got trashed by a throwing diamond and the 10 boosted SR games made me level out at 2700 and you literally cannot carry as support in virtually any rank. Players below high diamond simply cannot capitalize on the openings you provide for them, cannot path, and dont intuitively understand the game well enough to just…do what should be done…

That being said, on this account I was stuck in the 2400-2600 hellhole for A LONG TIME because if you get excellent stats on support your next matchmaking game will be awful if you solo queue.

How do I deal with it now? I 6-stack with other masters and just play 6v6 stack lobbies.

In quick play I have so many hours on Lucio that I can just feel how the match will go and generally understand what’s going to happen before it happens so I play proactively.

…one literally cannot carry from the support role (unless you count a good shotcalling Lucio) because any support hero with actual carry potential gets witch hunted until they get sledgehammer nerfs to make them slower at doing their job and almost redundant.

I guess what I’m saying here is: with 500 Suppprt hours on this account alone, and at least a few dozen spread on my other accounts…just play Lucio until you understand the game better than anyone else in the lobby. He’s the only support hero safe form nerfs but with a kit that allows him to fight back and somewhat control engagements.

Also I’m smart enough to stack with 3600-3700+ players instead of grouping up with a bunch of barely 3500s who may have simply stumbled their way out of diamond on a lucky streak or straight up boosted. DO NOT get me started on the diamond DPS Moira 1 trick who stumbled his way into masters and then threw all the while taking a dump on me (an off healer main) for not playing a main healer to enable his crappy “playstyle.”

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"My job as Widow was to click on an enemy and run like hell when I got jumped.

That’s it, that was my job. That’s enough to play on a pro account as Widow"

Do you not see how ridiculous you sound? Are you seriously just putting Zen to a Discord bot like he doesn’t do ANYTHING else?

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In the open that was LITERALLY my job. Sure, I tried to fight the Tracer / Genji who was after me, but no one really expected me to win.

There is a HUGE difference between Widow hitting all of her shots and getting in a discord and running until you have burnt enough of the enemy teams time.

One of these you couldn’t train up a bronze player to do, but I am SURE you could have swapped me out for a Bronze Zen player, and given him a script.

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Discord is an important thing, but it’s stupid to assume that is all Zen is good for.

Then they didn’t have faith in your Zen play.

There is also a HUGE difference between a Zen who can deal with a flanker, and a Zen who cannot. :man_shrugging:

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Right, but being able to outrun them was actually more useful.

If you can tie up the enemy team, you win. Staying and fighting the flankers gives the Winston / D’va a chance to wreck you, and facing down a Genji AND tracer? How often do you win that fight really?

Honestly, we won MORE if I just ran, than if I won vs one of the flankers and died to the second.

You could replace me with a script. Not even a good one. THAT is how bad supporting is.

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I think what OP means for the most part isn’t that supports don’t have an impact. If you’re playing badly your team will lose. I think the problem here is that you could have 30k healing and 0 deaths, you could be playing insanely well, and your team can still lose. Often. It makes a huge difference in terms of negative impact (your teammates dying because you’re not healing), but not so much a positive one. With characters like Ana, it’s the rare exception, because those moments when you anti-nade enemy Trans or interrupt an ultimate with sleep dart are often game-changing ones. Mercy probably has the biggest problem with this, as she is so incredibly team dependent and has no midfight utility (while there is rez, it’s hard to pull off mid fight and you usually just revive the first pick or give your team a one-up, and it feels terrible to use outside of Valk).

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I think I see your problem.

You don’t believe supports are powerful, or you’ve been playing DPS for so long you no longer understand HOW to support and have turned to a mindset of “They’re useless, defenseless, etc”

If you’re being flanked that hard, you make the decision to swap or counter pick. Especially to a healer who is far more meta. Instead of going Zen, getting dove, and running for the hills.

Just say you don’t like healing anymore instead of bashing the role.

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I feel you… I so do.

This is my issue, it SHOULDN’T be like this.

It should NOT be like this.

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Hmm, this is, generally speaking my experience as support. I love healing. The only difference I think is DPS get play of the game for their epic plays and show up on the kill feed so it feels like you’re doing more. You get more positive feedback. As a support, you just kinda have to know what’s going on and know when you’re making the right plays and the right saves.

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Except I do, I play support in every other game there is to play support in.

When do we start to see there is a problem here.

How is THIS normal?

That is the sign the game has MAJOR issues.

Can you NOT see that (not Gunky, you obviously know, but Mogar)

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