Support Love!?

[Bromeo TTG]

I'm with the people who feel she shouldn't be classified as a support. Her shields are so tiny that it feels like the only purpose for them is to make sure your teammates won't get one shot by abilities that would normally one shot them.

Her turrets are strong but if I've had a few maps where I've had to switch because the enemy Tracer or Winston was super aware of where they were and would take them out so fast I just couldn't keep them up.

Her beam alone does scary damage, and I despise Genji on almost every other character I play regularly but I will chase down every Genji I see when I'm on Symmetra. He can't reflect any of her abilities so he melts.

See I do believe she should be classified as a support, her turrets and teleporter just offer a different kind of support. Back when her shields did 50(?) she was way too strong. I like where is at right now tbh.

[Deleted]

Sorry but I don't consider someone who simply applies pressure on the enemy team a tank just because he's got a lot of health. Plenty of other heroes that are great at applying pressure and none of them are considered tanks.

A tank job is to be hard to kill in order to soak up damage, and Hog can directly take the highest amount of damage (not counting Winston ult) without dying, and has the highest self-sustain in the game. His role is to pick up targets with his grip and make way for his team with his ult, making him the most dangerous tank out there.

Just because he does not have a big blue rectangle where other teammates can hide, it doesn't mean he isn't a tank.

[Deleted]

A tank job is to be hard to kill in order to soak up damage, and Hog can directly take the highest amount of damage (not counting Winston ult) without dying, and has the highest self-sustain in the game. His role is to pick up targets with his grip and make way for his team with his ult, making him the most dangerous tank out there.

Just because he does not have a big blue rectangle where other teammates can hide, it doesn't mean he isn't a tank.

It kind of does though, because a tanks job is to protect his team mates, something all other tanks can do, he's the only exception.

Tracer can also be hard to kill and puts lots of pressure on the enemy team, doesn't make her a tank.

[Draenox]

I dont like playing support in random games, because they depend so incredibly much on your team not sucking. I have tried so many times playing Lucio an entire game, wondering why we're getting stomped by a Roadhog or Reinhardt while we have a Reaper and a McCree on our team, which made me initially think we were fine.

Thats what I hate the most in random games, people picking heroes and then not fullfilling their supposed roles, causing us to get steamrolled

[Deleted]

Who needs another support when you can have another turret?
- Torb / Bastion players

[Kudos]

It kind of does though, because a tanks job is to protect his team mates, something all other tanks can do, he's the only exception.

You're arguing over semantics. Others have said the ability to soak damage you say the ability to protect team mates. Blizzard calls him a tank, that's good enough for me. It's also good enough for pug teammates who don't complain when I pick him because 'someone' one the team actually picked a tank. I often 'protect' teammates with defensive hooks as well.

The only issue when I pick Boss Hog, is that (like the OP stated) people tend to avoid the support classes in pugs. I can't play a tank AND a support, so maybe one of the 2 snipers could change?

[Deleted]

After hours and hours of (solo) play and 59 levels, I now avoid support - and my win rate benefited greatly. Usually, when no one picked support, I would jump in and take the spot. Result: A combined win rate of 43%.

Usually, people will just trickle to the objective one by one, or way out of range, die before they take two ticks of healing, and then it's the support's turn for a trip to the spawn room. If you wait for them to group up, you're gonna have a bad time, as that won't happen, but they'll instead rage at you for not duo suiciding along with them.

If your team, for example, consists of two snipers, two roamers and a roadhog, don't pick support. You'll be running around chasing after your teammates to no avail. Don't do it.

Once, I managed (after about 4 minutes of watching them die) to make my team group up on me for a Lucio ult near the objective. The point, of course, is to storm it then. Guess what they did? They, as a group, as if commandeered by the devil himself, ran into a side alley to hunt down a Widowmaker. The ult ran out, the Widowmaker survived, everyone died, and we lost the game.

60% loss as mercy. 60% loss as lucio. 55% loss as zenyatta. Not even talking about symmetra. People just die so quickly that there's no point to supporting - no matter if you or someone else does it. It's a wasted spot at low mmr. Just pick up some DPS (or roadhog - dude wrecks teams at low mmr) and kill shit.

I'm now at 52% wins, paired teammates that are worth supporting, and finally getting results with supports. I still don't like the role, but with better teammates, it's worth it.

Yes, it's true: At low-mid mmr, even another turret is worth much more than a support.

[Deleted]

You're arguing over semantics. Others have said the ability to soak damage you say the ability to protect team mates. Blizzard calls him a tank, that's good enough for me. It's also good enough for pug teammates who don't complain when I pick him because 'someone' one the team actually picked a tank. I often 'protect' teammates with defensive hooks as well.

The only issue when I pick Boss Hog, is that (like the OP stated) people tend to avoid the support classes in pugs. I can't play a tank AND a support, so maybe one of the 2 snipers could change?

It's not exactly semantics for me since I primarily play Mercy and people decide to pick Roadhog when we need a tank. I've played plenty of games as Mercy with all four tanks and Roadhog is without a doubt the worst of them. He's a great hero to have on the team, a semi-tank if you will, but he is most definitely not a proper tank that fulfils the tank role.


@Le rarest Pepe
That's my experience in most games like this though. I only ever support in Dota 2 as well, and when you end up with poor players you're unable to do anything. It's why I really can't wait for ranked match making so I can avoid these people going two Widowmakers on an attack mission only to end up squabbling amongst themselves of how the other one should switch...

I just checked my win ratio and it seems to be at 43 %, 40 % as Mercy, 32 hours played out of a total of 44. It doesn't really matter though as I have no interest in any off the Offense heroes, all of them seem incredibly boring to me. I normally pick Reinhardt whenever we don't have a proper tank and try to at the very least move the god damn payload...

[Naxere]

Yeah I've gotten soured on Support the last couple nights. Played too many games where our team was garbage and there was no point in being Support because they were dying so fast anyways that my Zenyatta Harmony orbs wouldn't save them. Makes it especially bad if our team doesn't manage to pressure their sniper at all (either with a harasser or counter-sniping).

[Mormolyce]

Yeah, sadly Lucio's gun might just be the worst in the game (in terms of stats, at least).

It's significantly worse than Mercy's and even puts out less damage than DVa's Light Gun. The only saving grace is the fact that you're not hurting your primary role by using it. But yeah, it's pretty garbage. (The knockback is great, though)

Lucio REALLY doesn't need damage in addition to everything else he brings. It's more than adequate IMO, and not needing to switch like Mercy is a huge deal IMO.

[Hanto]

I do notice it, but it's getting better as time goes on I think. I'm usually the guy that will try to fill a role if nobody selected something we need. Too many times have I neglected to do something like that and I just hear the enemy Mercy calling her ult every few minutes and we have 0 support or 0 tanks to defend against the risen onslaught.

[Deathquoi]

Zenyatta is one of my favorite characters.

I usually run Soldier 76 or Pharah for offense, Widowmaker or Junkrat for defense, Reinhardt or D. Va for tank (even though I feel that D. Va is pretty weak as an actual tank) and Zenyatta for support. Occasionally I'll run Torbjorn if we need a builder.

I can't play Symmetra, I'm retarded when it comes to placing turrets and the short range on her weapon annoys me.

[Deleted]

It kind of does though, because a tanks job is to protect his team mates

No, it's not. By your logic the only tank in the game is Reinhart.
And at this point I bet you don't consider Symmetria a support because she doesn't heal.

[-Gr-]

It kind of does though, because a tanks job is to protect his team mates, something all other tanks can do, he's the only exception.

He does this indirectly by directly soaking the other teams damage with his health and re healing. If he didn't have his heal, he wouldn't be a tank.

[Deleted]

I do notice it, but it's getting better as time goes on I think.

It does get better as mmr goes up. People start realizing that healing takes a while, can't carry them through heavy damage, that grouping up with lucio in particular is important before rushing, and that Mercy ults won't happen if she has nothing to heal.

[Deleted]

No, it's not. By your logic the only tank in the game is Reinhart.
And at this point I bet you don't consider Symmetria a support because she doesn't heal.

Winston has a protective barrier, Zarya has an absorbing shield she can put on people, D'va has an unbreakable shield. All of them can protect their allies, Roadhog is the only one who can't.

Symmetra is a support because she provides protective shields and a teleporter which greatly aids the team.

[Deleted]

Roadhog doesn't actually tank much, he has high health, but is easy to hit, he is disruptive, but only on one target at a time. He can also stop several ultimates.

I play him more as some kind of support assassin. He really, really shines when the enemy team goes for for a lot of flankers or bad snipers. Grip, oneshot and heal up until they don't even bother anymore (switching heroes is for noobs I guess).

Obviously, that won't work at higher ratings, where you can't just grip and oneshot each and every widowmaker or McCree you come across. But it's a great way to get out of elo hell, or whatever you want to call it.

[Chrysia]

No, it's not. By your logic the only tank in the game is Reinhart.
And at this point I bet you don't consider Symmetria a support because she doesn't heal.

D.Va and Winston both have ways to shield their group.

[Taalyn]

I'll install choose Genji or Mei depending on the map but if everyone else ignores a tank or healer I'll switch. Usually if I see Widow or Mcree and Reinhardt I'll go Mercy even if we have another support.

[Deleted]

And people wonder why some don't like supporting... First time I've ever chosen not to heal someone, simply because he was such an ass for no reason.