Support vs Tank in Duo

So we know what the meta is. Mid mage, jungle bruiser/assassin, solo lane is usually a bruiser as well, and duo lane is an ADC with a support. My question, is what do you guys feel is superior, support tank, or support...support?

Supports would include people like Ra, Chang'E, (obviously) Aphrodite, etc. Usually healers. Support tanks don't really have limits outside of tanks themselves, but it's usually only Sobek, Ymir, Bacchus, and Athena. Ares, Hades, Odin, etc are usually not a support for an ADC.

So what're your thoughts? If you're going to state something as trivial as "depends on comp", what comp would each fall into?

I'd say Support tanks. The tank is such a important role in the current meta. Without one, you cannot initiate well. Ra, Chang'e and Aphrodite can provide good amounts of heal, but they're squishy. The current junglers ARE Assassins and some Bruisers, therefore they'll lack initiation on the team.

But it might work out, even though I'm contradicting myself. Some tanky bruiser can go solo, and thus a True Support with an ADC on the duo lane. Then they'll have initiation.

If the team already have a solo like odin or hades or a jungler like thor and fenrir, it might be better to have support healer as you already have someone to initiate

Personally, I laugh when I see the other team doesn't have a tank. Alot of Gods that can play support (not tank) are better off solo/mid.

I side with Kriwych on this. Altho a support healer can be viable in casual games when your solo is natural tanky or a good initiator (blink Tyr).
In competitive games no-one can par with the hard initation of a tank, it's an absolute essential. If anyone other than a tank initiates he just gets shot down and the teamfight will already be in the "team-with-tank"'s favor.

Like kriwych said, most supports are actuall better solo lane-ers. Aphrodite+ADC is a casual stomper though.

Yup. Ra, Chang'e, Hel and Aphrodite are all strong solos, and can also be strong mids. True supports also have a severe lack of initiation, which all tanks have, yes, even Ymir, because Blink. It's a good idea to have both imo, as the support can really change teamfights later on. I want to see the solo lane change from bruiser/mage to bruiser/support/support mage (like Eset).

Supports don't exist. There are a lot of support mages though.

I'd say tanks, because the hunters need someone to soak damage and not deal much.

This. If a team ever has a squishy support, just sit back and smile while thinking of all those juicy objectives that you're going to get easily later in the game.

That's the thing that's overlooked when people talk about gods like Aphrodite in the support role. Sure it works in lane... the problems come when you're attacking FG and the other team drops a Zeus ult and Sobek ults into the middle to try and steal. Aphro, even building tanky, is going to melt. She just can't tank the kind of damage that's required to defend or take key objectives.

Most supports are good enough in lane already that there's really no reason to look for alternatives. Pretty much all of them are capable of either chunking for a lot of damage or stunning/putting an enemy in a bad spot.

The other area where most squishy supports lack is peel. Initiation is actually best handled by the bruiser a lot of time. They can get in, chunk a squishy or two and either get out or start causing more disruption. The tank is better at getting between the enemy team and your squishies and tanking shots and peeling for them. I'm not sure what bruisers people are watching get instantly melted, but pretty much all bruisers are just a Hide of the Urchin away from never melting.

In the current meta, mages just aren't and should never be in the support role. Tanks and a couple bruisers only.

The problem with mages in the solo lane is that they're so easy to kill. It's one thing in mid when the lane is tiny and someone's always close enough to rotate, it's completely different when the minion waves meet so far from the tower and the jungler comes in to make it a true 2v1. Even the tower isn't enough to save you a lot of the time. Most bruisers will laugh off a few tower shots if there's a jungler there to help melt you.

Mages in the solo lane are good if you can get away with it, but you have to be careful. A good jungler is going to punish/camp you, and you really need a bruiser in the jungle if you go mage solo. No team comp is good when it's a tank and four squishies.

I used to play Isis in the solo lane... then Sun Wukong and Merc got released. Kill potential is just so high among bruisers and junglers in the current meta that you really need the other team to play it poorly to win lane. It does happen pretty often in solo queue though, so who knows.

Also, please don't encourage blink on Ymir. All supports are locked into Eye of Providence and HoG in any kind of competitive game/setting. That's a big reason why Ymir and Ares are unpopular right now; they can't have blink unless they seriously weaken their team in another way (map vision or objective control respectively.)

I put a Bruiser* Hades in the solo lane so we can have a tank, support mage, ADC, Mid Mage, and assassin. The build is overall very tanky though, so I still have great defense and sustain for my 400 power.

*Magical bruisers exist -stinkeye-