Fix Our Support!

The goal of a support is to remain effective when fighting with less farm. You must use your skills and the few items you have to fight enemies that can be 2-4 levels higher than you, with less power than them.

The problem with our support is with two problems:



A. Self explanatory.

Supports have to ward, rotate, get certain actives, not last hit, and sometimes, die to protect your team. All of this translates to less gold and less effectiveness as time passes. And no, "natural tankiness" doesn't mean anything when the enemy is three levels higher and has a defense shred item.

This is exceptionally infuriating when you're forced to get Midas Boots or Watcher's Gift to keep up, and even then, you can only finish one non-footwear item before roaming begins. Ever try fighting He Bo as Chang'e when you have only Shoes of Focus and two ranks of Breastplate of Valor? It isn't pretty.

B. Bracers of Replenishment. Midgardian Mail. Witch Stone.

Most tank/support items fall off, while other non-tank/support items simply get better. The Executioner actually becomes more effective as enemy defense rises, while items like Mystical Mark get weaker. And items that have the potential to be good, like Midgardian Mail and Witch Stone, just...aren't. Witch Stone is more useful on a bruiser or a carry than it is on most supports, and Midgardian Mail is Midgardian Mail.

C. We see debuffs/buffs on some very weird places.

Like on carries like Apollo or Neith. And the few truly 'support' gods in the game aren't very good supports, they're good mages. For instance, Hel has buff and debuff skills, yet Hel's healing and other abilities rely on magical power, and she is built most often as a mage, since her massive burst is otherwise put to waste.

And the buffs/debuffs we do see are underwhelming. A healing 50% debuff, whoopee. Oh, I lost 25% attack speed, and I'm not a carry. Terrifying.

Why not more interesting and varied and powerful support abilities? Not slows, everyone and their grandmother has seen slows. I mean stuff like lowering enemy power, buffing your allies' power, knockback, peeling. This could open up a lot of possibilities.

As it stands, Ares isn't considered a very good tank, at least in Conquest. Why not buff his two? Or make his flames knock back enemies that aren't hit by his chains? Give him a role besides an ult machine! And Chang'e, why don't you give her better buffs/debuffs? Just adding s pinch of physical protections or such isn't enough. It's like when they gave Ezreal healing, only in reverse. Rather than being out of place because it was too much, the buffs Chang'e has are out of place because they are too little.

D. I don't understand this one. Athena and Ra and Sobek make better lane/team supports than most actual support gods. Ties in with E.

E. The current support gods, Aphrodite, Chang'e, and some others I can't remember right now, rely too much on magical power. They're supposed to be support! They shouldn't have to buy Rod of Tahuti just to stay relevant late game. This also applies to some tanks. Ares and Hades stop being a concern when your enemies get some form of protection from them, and they have no other way to meaningfully contribute.

I like to play support alot, and I really cant remember the last time I played support WITHOUT building like a pure mage. You bring up a fair point, you either have to play hyper-aggressive and secure kills for yourself to keep up [A.K.A, not being a support] or play super-passive and fall so far behind that you're too weak to support altogether.

I think support items are clearly lacking atm. Things like pythagoram's piece have potential but cannot be utilised properly. Really we need support items that directly support ONE other god rather than a team of them, because in reality 4 people crowding around you for a minor buff = a dead team. Perhaps having an item that buffs, but splits the buff when more people are around. I.E. Pythagorams piece gives +40 or w/e magical power and 15% magical lifesteal to allied gods, but this is split between them. So one person near you = they get the full buff. Two people = the buff is split in two, so +20 magical power +7.5% magical lifesteal each ect.

It's just an idea of the top of my head, but supports definitely need a better way to demonstrate their role, rather than the role of a pure mage.

^ All of the above said, I do like building isis/chang'e "tanky" and taking damage for my team when I can, then dipping out of battle to heal it back up. I play chang'e as a walking stun tank with fantastic harassment to keep the enemy away. I play isis as a hyper-aggressive initiator to secure team kills. Both "work" in a way as support, but the play style feels more like a tanky mage than a support. :/

I have no idea if i'm allowed to post links to other websites, but here goes:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Smite/comments/1r4cd9/tank_summit_questions_for_hirez/
That topic really nails down the problems with tank and is a good addition to the points stated in this topic.

There's alot more broken/off in Smite than the majority of people would like to admit. Both service-wise and actual gameplay-wise. Just pray Hi-rez manages to deal with it it before they pull another Tribes:Ascend-"lolbye" on us.

ps: also, Inukii splatting out some really interesting ideas:

I totally agree. Most players don't like playing support because the role difficult and under-appreciated. It would be cool if Hi-rez could implement some kind of item or update to incentivise players to play support.

League just got a new update, to do this very thing. They added more GP5 items and a new warding system for season 4. The trinket idea is totally based off of the eye of providence, but they took it further. Hopefullt Hi-rez will do something similar or innovative to make supports as much fun to play as any other role.

Also where did you get this quote from Thiel?

Late respons, sorry. I got it from the reddit topic I linked to. It was the highest rated comment (at the time) from Inukii.

For the gold problem: Watcher's gift? And maybe boots of midas?

I love support. I do kinda hate how the 'meta' says that you gotta do it this way and no other. It offers no room for variety. I don't really have any problem being behind in levels as a tank, I can still do work for my team. Also, I think a good team needs to consider their support as well

In public games you get a jungler yelling at you for taking xp. Or an ADC telling you go away so he can get more. This goes against teamwork and hurts the team, in my opinion. Everyone should pitch in the XP for a strong tank because that ensures you aren't in a 4v5 and it pays off.

I will admit, keeping from falling behind in levels is a hard aspect of tank...especially if you carry fails to land last hits. Ill often times grab a quick harpy camp on the way to a lane...eff the jungler (and good junglers never really mind since its after the 10-15 min mark).

The #1 issue I have with tank is the rating system. I have a post over at tiermonster talking about ELO hell. I play support/tank pretty much exclusively. My rating is currently 1400ish. I regularly have tons of assists, low to no kills, and decently few deaths. I do work in regards to disrupting, ward placing, stealing objectives (I stole a GF the other day with level 1 hog, lolz). Yet I don't feel my rating reflects me (I could be wrong).

Further, in league games its all about my team. As a tank I can't carry a team and so if im randomly rolled a **** team...we lose. I try and try to pull the team together, get them to quit shouting at each other, etc...but sometimes theres nothing that can be done.

And because I play strictly tank...ive watched more skilled players advance while I get matched up with **** players (then again, maybe im ****).

My post at their monster had some person arguing that I just suck and ELO hells a myth. She quoted lots of 'elite' players who supposedly only play tank and have high ELO's. Yet for all of the names she gave...not one was exclusively tank. Ive yet to find that elusive player who plays 90% tank (I don't count bruisers) and has a good elo.