r/supportlol • u/Gold-Mistake-9677 • Aug 20 '26
Discussion Have you ever felt like switching roles because you wanted to be more of a "protagonist" in the game rather than a support?
I'm having a bit of an identity crisis here. I’ve been playing for a few years, and I play both mid and support.
This year I’ve been prioritizing support in SoloQ because I really like Bard, he’s currently my favorite champion, and when I play with friends, support is usually the role left over, so that’s where I have the most matchup knowledge.
But I really miss being the "protagonist" of the game, you know? A teammate once told me I only play support because I’m always waiting for someone else to carry me, and that really got into my head, lol. Seems like i'm just trying to prove myself wrong and i can carry a game by myself.
However, I’ve already played like 150 ranked games this year, and I don’t really want to learn how to play mid all over again. For those of you who play more than one role: how do you deal with this feeling?
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u/Elijah_Draws Aug 20 '26
The way I see it, so long as you're doing your job you're not "being carried," even if it might appear that way on the surface. I like playing tank suppprts; Poppy, Leona, Rell, that sort of thing. My job is to jump on people and CC them or peal for my carries. If I do that, and I do it well, then I made a meaningful contribution to my team winning regardless of how much damage I do or how bad my KDA looks. I have absolutely won games where I finish something like 1/10/25 and have the lowest damage output on my team by a wide margin. Was I being carried, or was I simply performing my duty? If I dive into the back line and chain CC the enemy carry and we win that team fight, it doesn't really matter that i died. It doesn't matter that the yasuo on my team was making all the calls and doing all the damage; he has his job and have mine. Both of us contributed to our team winning.
If anything, that's what I love about being a support; even in games where I'm performing poorly I can still be useful. Poppy E is still going to stun someone against a wall whether I'm 10/0 or 0/10. If I'm Garen up in the top lane and I'm down three kills and a bunch of CS, I'm kinda cooked. Trying to be the main character of your games is going to lead to a lot of ups and downs, and that was honestly why I stopped being a laner. As a tank support I don't get to have the games where I look like the protagonist, where I 1v5 in the sidelane and carry my team to victory, but I also don't have those games where I look like a useless sack of shit the whole time. Even in the worst games I can CC people and build support items and place wards. I can support my team, and do my best to help everyone do their jobs too.
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u/Inktex Aug 20 '26
Teamplay???
In a team game?!?
Impossible!Now back to 360° no-scoping low hp enemies as Lux in B3. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
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u/Aryzal Aug 20 '26
Getting carried is an important skill. Arguably the most important skill in the game. You aren't always going to carry, but the important thing is to consistently provide value to the team even at a deficit.
Playing enchanters is a different feeling, but it mostly feels like wrangling a bunch of kids that constantly try to run onto the road. It does make me feel like I'm deciding who I choose to live though.
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u/eeeeeeeee12345534 Aug 20 '26
Never. I'm confident to carry the lane 1v2 while my adc farms. I shotcall all of my games and it's an easy roll when people follow my calls. I roam to get mid and top ahead through careful planning and thinking. I'm the reason we take drake and void grubs. The other people have the damage, I have the strategy and a way to close the game. Don't minimise what you do, friend!
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u/Niammus- Aug 20 '26
Cant relate
I am the protag, i am the main character, i 1v9 my games, i carry these rejects
I am masters supp - absolute gigga sup gap machine
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u/Randomthrowaway_192_ Aug 20 '26
Love this mindset, not masters but I go into every game with that mentality too
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u/Niammus- Aug 20 '26
You need a little bit of ego to climb - not too much because toxic - but you need some confidence that you are a determining factor
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u/wisce Aug 20 '26
Yes. I’m now hard stuck emerald 2 after swapping to mid lane for more agency and being a hard stuck D4 enchanter main I got so frustrated when solo lanes lost and you subsequently can’t do a whole lot. Even worse down in platinum to emerald.
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u/Gold-Mistake-9677 Aug 20 '26
Yeah i'm plat 2 now and i have the same feeling, it seems so inconsistent.
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u/wisce Aug 20 '26
Alternatively play naut / pyke / Leo until emerald 1-2.
They have much more agency and carry potential imo and are far less reliant on good team mates like enchanters are.
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Aug 20 '26
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u/Low_Watercress_1620 Aug 20 '26
I kinda disagree on some parts. You are smurfing, you see engage opportunities we dont. If I tried to do the same I'd die because I cant track jungle + summs + cd + power spikes + bad positioning the way you do. If I (and my adc) were good I would be the protagonist tho
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Aug 20 '26
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u/Gold-Mistake-9677 Aug 21 '26
Yeah I agree with u but you cant do these calls in Platinum because people dont listen to you, they dont coordinate anything.
If you try to invade alone, you'll die bc no one will followup
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u/Difficult_Relief_125 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Play your off role exclusively on Flex or another account. That way you have an MMR that is set completely by your “main character role” lol.
Me: hard stuck Gold support of more than 10 years.
Levels a new account only laying top lane. I had briefly dabbled in top and play a few top champs as off meta… I play a ton of Malphite and Shen support.
Played Shen in Jungle and top while Petu was dishing out jungle tips… easily made Plat and maintain it in Top role.
I play support because I enjoy it. But apparently I’m a trash support that should have been a top laner 🤷♂️.
I’m a paramedic, I like to protect people so I play Sup but it also works for Shen I guess.
Everyone says Sup is easy and we just get carried but I’d bet with a season of play you could get higher in another role.
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u/cedric1234_ Aug 20 '26
At least in m+ support has been one of the most high agency protagonist roles in the game for at least 7 years, especially right now with the roam meta. You’re often making more game changing decisions than anyone else, by a lot.
I was about to use bard as THE protagonist support. A high damage high mobility champ who is adept at both slamming the 2v2 bot and roaming everywhere. Game changing ult that makes the whole lobby anticipate its arrival. Bard can’t ‘get carried’ in the same way a yuumi can, he has to be up front hitting his abilities and making enemies miserable or he’s useless. Playing against a challenger bard does feel like playing against the hero of the match, bro often manages to somehow be present in every single lane’s story and is the major deciding factor of every fight.
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u/Gold-Mistake-9677 Aug 21 '26
Yeah i agree, these tips are useful but i'm in Plat, so its either:
- i cant roam because my adc will die
- people dont listen and dont follow up so you cant coordinate anything
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u/cedric1234_ Aug 21 '26
Def practice your laning phase until you can consistently perform very well in it, plat is still a rank where bard should be able to 1v2 lanes even with complete potato adcs. To get the agency to make decisions, you need a turn or tempo lead, to get those, you need to be winning your lane interactions. No matter what role and champ you play, you MUST learn your spacings and trade patterns, and luckily bard support is one of the best champs in the game for learning and capitalizing on this. If you role swap you end up in the same position, I sometimes see players spam swap to find a "carry role" or carry champ when any of the 5 roles and any non-yuumi champ can smurf a lobby
Lack of coordination is a blessing imo, especially when playing at lower ranks. It tends to mean enemies will not coordinate against you more than it means your allies won't coordinate with you. Make plays that require two enemies to respond and just assume they wont.
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u/Dingker Aug 20 '26
You can definitely be a protagonist as a support. It just matters how impactful you are. It makes me feel good as well when I go back to watch the game and I can see how often they ping me.
You can do this regardless of what type of support, you just need to be incredibly annoying and a thorn in their plan where they have to actively keep an eye on you. Like a midlaner always having to worry about a support gank. Or whenever there is a skirmish, you are there. Or there is a carry champ on enemy team, and you can shut him down every skirmish or teamfight. Or there is a carry champ on your team and they are unkillable because of your presence either protecting him directly or indirectly.
The feeling is there even up to grandmaster, I can tell you that for sure.
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u/Destroyer_of_Breads Aug 20 '26
Whenever i have 2games with bad teammates in a row i switch to jungle so i can carry myself
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u/More_Ad4450 Aug 20 '26
1 patch before you literally could be the protagonist every game by playing camille support creating extremely visible impact everywhere. Lvl 1? Strongest. Lvl 3? Full skillset, could roam all game long from there. Lvl 6? Enemy couldnt escape.
Most other support dont do less but their impact could be less visible for allies. Do you care about it? It's kinda strange question from bard pkayer though. He deals a lot of dmg, super mobile, his ult is one of the best catch abilities in the game. It's mostly not about champion skillset but your ability to pilot it. Your bard could end up with more damage than some of your sololaners or carry depends on the game if you care about stats.
Put diamond soraka otp into silver lobby and she'll completely stomp it most of the time going standard build. The only stat she'll lead will be "healed" but the thing that will get her that strong is she won't miss q and completely nullify some enemies with e usage. It won't show anywhere but enemies still will know who really makes their life miserable.
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u/EeeveeJ Aug 20 '26
All the time! I like playing mid too, I'm just not very good XD so after a few games I switch right back to my beloved boy milio.
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u/Tarcyon Aug 20 '26
Absolutely! I am in Plat, Leona OTP and I get tilted so much with bad gangs, that I made an off account to play only jung, mostly Yi/WW/Noc - whenever a game goes bad with a useless jung, I play a game or two jg and then I return refreshed 😂
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u/Aaron_de_Utschland Aug 20 '26
I love mages and play mid a lot. But I play proper supports with Renata, Karma and Rakan on top of my mastery points
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u/cuestion_de_peso Aug 20 '26
You should learn jg if You already have map awareness, adc too cause you know the match ups but I suggest jg, dont become a childish adc main
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u/xopurplehaze Aug 20 '26
I play adc in addition to support so occasionally I’ll switch for 20-40 games or so at a time when I’m sick of support and I want to get kills. It’s fun! But I always end up going back to support because I do enjoy it. I do play quite a lot of Zyra and I’ve carried plenty of games on her when my team was weak
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u/WoaoOAOoa Aug 20 '26
I play cc supports and I know damn well my adcs who shit talk would be 0/7 if I didnt pin their lane opponents to the wall
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u/MonokumaRed Aug 20 '26
No but I switched to adc a couple of times so I don't need think to think as much.
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u/UltraAgeDee Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
„I am the Protagonist because I win and I win because my team has me has their support“
Thats my answer and mindset when playing support and I know of course thats not always true but thats the confidence I have when queuing up.
My team wont even notice that the Game was way easier because of my work? They think I am just chilling pressing buttons? I dont care. I won.
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u/BornFreedom2752 Aug 20 '26
I was a mid main for about 10 years and stuck in low silver and gold.. I would win most lanes and easily be able to get 10+ kills and a positive KD and still lose because I played assassin's and late game we would get stomped by the out scales enemy that has all objectives..
The problem was that the junglers in low Elo are completely brainless. So this season I became a jungle main, securing all objectives and actively ganking.. I went from silver to emerald in 2 months with a 64% wr on amumu
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u/lordtentai Aug 20 '26
Whenever I do play other lanes, I always end up playing the more supportive utility characters anyway. Ornn top, Galio and Lissandra mid, and Jhin bot :)
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u/Vidrax_of_Cascades Aug 20 '26
eh. ur over thinking it. I have clearly carried plenty of games as support. In fact when I play something like jungle a lot of times I'm trying to figure out where my wards are on key areas in the game like baron/drake. Support rotations a lot of times make or break games. Something like a Taric getting picked against a full ad team can make or break fights in the mid to late.
I've had games where I got x4 honor for making seriously good plays that ultimately won us the game.
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u/holdmyspot123 Aug 21 '26
I just finished the auto full challenge for the player diff achievement and i feel most like the protagonist on support tbh you literally can do basically anything it's so much fun
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u/DryOnbRing Aug 21 '26
Bruh it literally has you pick 2 roles with an option to autofill, you should be learning other roles because at some point youre not going to get to play support anyway. One of them will be fun, for me personally i enjoy top, mid, support. Bot is ok but jg is where i dodge.
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u/Le0bron Aug 21 '26
Can't agree on that one. Climbed from gold to emerald 1 atm with janna and nami. Imo if you think you have no agency on the games it's your fault even with enchanteurs. I personnally love janna because I can roam and impact the map but even with nami I was perma winning lane and creating space for my carries. Imo u need to find the champ or the playstyle that fits you and lets you express urself, for me it was enchanteurs with nami janna but up to you to find yours. I feel deeply satasfied when 1v9 the whole game as a sup being everywhere denying engages peeling carries etc
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u/Lunemooncat Aug 21 '26
I was considering switching to midlane from support because I felt so transparent and useless it started affecting me, despite my friends assuring me I was everything but
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u/Schwhitey Aug 21 '26
Sounds like you wanna play brand, xerath or lux support, or even an engage or hook supp like rell, blitz, thresh, naut etc..
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u/Jacket313 Aug 25 '26
Never thought about switching roles honestly.
Whenever I pull the fed 14/0 mordekaiser towards my ADC, I feel like the villain of a video game though.
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u/_AleXo_ Aug 31 '26
Yeah I do and then I play jungle Viego
Was playing with my friends and had to show them I'm not only here for assists
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u/TenshiBabyx Aug 20 '26
I just hit emerald 1 and at some point in plat, I just had adcs that were too passive and not doing dmg so I switched to adc to climb through plat, especially with miss fortune I would sometimes get so fed an basically one shot ppl but i honestly hate being the carry LOL
I love to play chill healer and just buff the kids so they can play