What makes a support hero flex vs main. I used to think it was just raw healing output but I found out that isnt true so what makes a support a main support or a flex?
IMO, A main support can keep tanks alive forever and and as solo healer, also usually has 2nd heal skill - (Ana, Moira, Bap)
A flex/off support is just everyone else - (Brig, Lucio, Zen, Mercy)
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Usually you have someone who mainly provides healing which is the main support and then you have a mainly utility support which is the off support. Off supports focuses less on healing and more on providing utility.
the distinction usually isn’t that important unless you’re in a team and being given specific roles to queue for, because the role of main or flex decides which heroes you practice
in ranked it isn’t as important, main healer and off healer are more relevant and those pretty much do come down to who can heal the tanks faster vs who is more about other skills like damage or utility
Honestly, no one should care what they feel pros think and more just accept what people’s common definition is because its the most natural.
You are not wrong to think main support is the person with the highest healing for a team. That’s how most people view it being the most natural understanding of it and as such I think how it should be defined.
Most people see the game providing main support (mercy) and off support (Lucio/zen) as that’s how the game started with is Mercy had the best healing and lucio/zen afterwards with more utility. We gained Ana and Moira who could take over Mercy’s role while still maintaining zen/lucio afterwards.
When we got Brig/Baptiste and power shifting going around things started to become a bit more fluid as you had more options. People have seen Mercy as main or off depending upon who your paired up with because Ana or Bap just hit higher healing potential at times.
Though to me your still running 2 main healers because the healing output is very high.
Custa explains it here at 26min
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the funny thing is it’s actually the opposite in top tiers lol
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Main Support, High Healing: Ana, Bap, Moira, and Mercy
Off Support, Low Healing, High Utility: Lucio, Brig, Zen but also Mercy again.
Mercy kind of fits into both roles
Main support provides the bulk of the healing.
Flex support provides some type of utility in exchange for less healing. This would be: lucio speed, zen damage amp, etc.
I just want to say Custa explains it horribly. He pretty much just lists a bunch of characters and provides almost no depth to the explanation on why it is what it is. Not showing any defining traits or anything. It just leaves people confused more than anything.
The one thing I’ll agree with is that main support and off support might be archaic terms at this point. From my history with Overwatch it was born from there only being 3 supports at launch. Mercy, Lucio, and Zenyatta. You pretty much always had Mercy + Zen or Lucio. You pretty much never ran Lucio/Zen. Particularly in the low to mid-high range of play.
Main support was Mercy who you needed to do the bulk of healing, then you had Zen/Lucio who provided the weaker healing in exchange for extra utility. Which is where the whole flex thing comes form because for most people. Flex = Off support to most people. Most people see it as the amount of healing done because the defining trait of support is healing. Symmetra was removed from Support and was the only non-healer.
Despite that being the cause the general public has a much different association with the experience that is different from high level players. General players arrange themselves as high healing or low healing. Moira, Ana, Bap, Mercy and Lucio, Zen, Brig. The idea being that Lucio, Zen, and Brig do a high degree of other utility at the same time as them doing attacking and weaker healing.
This is the most natural thing for people to think about in regards to playing Overwatch. Mixing 2 of Lucio, Zen, and Brig is just bad juju for everyone. Its sacrilegious to do anything else.
I thought the same…but at the same time I see people call Lucio and Brig “main supports” on this forums…
There’s 4 terms you’ll probably encounter
Main Healer
Off Healer
Main Support
Flex Support
Main and Off healer youll primarily see on ladder but some people have been confusing main healer and main support
Main healer does lots of healing and off healer does little healing thats it
Main Support and Flex Support are primarily terms youll see on high end ladder and pro play
A Main Support is primarily a peeler for the Flex Support and other squishy team members, and when necessary theyll provide healing to the tanks
Typically this is Mercy Lucio Brigitte and sometimes Bap
Flex Support is the primary healer for the tanks in the comps they play in as well as a strong provider of Utility for the team as well usually but not always… stares at moira
It’s usually Ana Baptiste Zenyatta and Moira
Yes Zenyatta cause theyre able to play around his lower healing he’s still able to act as the primary tank healer
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I honestly dont know why. If I were a tank I would not be relying on Lucio or a Brig to keep me alive during big teamfights
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A very useful answer, should clear away most people’s confusions.
At the end of the day, these are just definitions people made to suit their needs
Wrong so wrong and so loud
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I mean, it’s partially true.
It depends on the measurement.
Main healer vs Off healer is different than Main support vs Flex Support.
Main healer vs off healer is what you know and expect.
The Support role is played by people playing characters that can heal other players (or support them in other ways). Historically, the Support role has been split into Main Support and Flex Support. The definition of these two roles has changed over time, and is hard to define indefinitely. Generally, however, the Main Support is a character who focuses on providing non cooldown utility, such as speed or damage boost, and will likely have the most healing done. Depending on the composition, the Main Support could play characters such as Mercy, Lucio, Brigitte, and even Baptiste. The Flex Support, on the other hand, generally is more mechanically demanding and focuses on things such as dealing damage and cool-down based utility, such as anti-nade or discord orb. Depending on the composition, the Flex Support could play characters such as Zenyatta, Ana, and Moira. These terms are loose and characters might define as a Main Support in one composition, and a Flex Support in another for example, Baptiste can be considered a Flex Support in a Mercy Baptiste support line but considered a main support in a Zenyattta Baptiste support line.
However Main Supp vs Flex Supp applies much less to general ladder play than to GM+
People confuse Main Healer + Off Support and Main Support and Flex Support. They are simply different things and comparisons and the needs are different in higher level play.
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He identifies it, but doesn’t really explain it.
Ok, so Mercy/Lucio are main supports based on that. But the why of it isn’t really covered very well.
Thank you for providing that.
Main support - their utility is focused around healing/supporting the team
Flex support - their utility, while maybe including healing/supporting the team is not focused around it, and contains damage or enemy-focused utility (by way of debuffs) in equal parts.
Not to be confused with main healer vs off healer, which is more simply the hero that has high heal output and can be expected to do the bulk of the healing vs the hero who can’t be expected to dish out huge heals, but may offer other utility.
So, main Supports are Mercy, Lucio, Brig and sometimes Bap. While Flex supports and Moira, Ana, Zen and sometimes Bap.
Main healers are Moira, Ana and Bap sometimes Mercy.
Off healers are Zen, Lucio, Brig and usually Mercy.
Nothing really. There is almost no coherence to it.
MS: Lucio, Mercy, Brig
FS: Moira, Ana, Bap, Zen
Wouldn’t really pay much attention to it.
how you play the hero.
mercy can be main support by being a healbot and an off support by damage boosting
lucio can be main support mobilizing his tanks and healing them or off support by mobilizing dps
heroes like moira really can only be main support really since the lack utility.