Today on MOBA Mondays, we’ll be looking at the role of support, and how it functions in MOBA’s. Supports are, for the most part….Support. They also usually have crowd control abilities such as a slow or a stun ability to impede your enemy’s movement speeds, or ability options – In a battle you can fight without a support, however, it does somewhat hinder your ability to sustain within a fight, especially if you get ganged up on from a team.
As I personally play the role of support more than any other role, I feel I must express some important information to you fellow MOBA players…Please stop running away from your support!! I’ve lost count of the amount of times that I’m trying to heal my ally, and they run out of my healing range and get slaughtered; it is a depressing sight, and honestly it’s not my fault you’re dying!
I understand that you might want to pull back and heal up, but you need to trust your healer; his/her role is to ensure that you live. Nothing else, so please give him/her the chance to do their job, and do it well – If you trust them, then they can heal you in a cinch, and you can turn back to the fight and hopefully win the match for your team.
In a team fight, without a support, any damage done is then permanent. This makes you a ticking timebomb before your invetiable demise – In some cases a support’s ultimate ability can significantly turn the tide of a fight too; for example, two heroes from Blizzard’s ‘Heroes of the Storm’ come to mind…
Firstly Rehgar the Orc Shaman; one of his heroic abilities is called Ancestral Healing, which, after a few seconds, you heal a target for a massive amount of health. As most heroes in HOTS have a decent health pool it heals them for about three quarters of their health, which is a darn good ability to have in tight situations. In the case of lower health heroes it heals them for their entire health bar.
When a hero is about to die, and then suddenly gains three quarters of their health it can really rally a team back to arms to regroup or flee; I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve won a fight because I’ve healed the tank in a sticky situation, then the tank turns back to the fight and uses his body to shield the team. Healing an ally who is on the verge of death can turn the tide of a game rather easily, since those extra points of health can give your teammate the time to get back to the well and heal up, and to fight another day.
The difference between pulling out of a fight to heal up, and being dead can be significant in the tide of battle – The experience the enemy would gain, bundled with significant late-game death timers can be catastrophic, which is where the second hero I want to discuss comes in Auriel, the Angel of Hope.
Auriel also has a heroic ability that can significantly change the fate of your team, since she has the ability to resurrect dead team members. You may be giving the enemy team experience, however with a dead hero returning to a battle significantly earlier than expected, the tide of the battle changes at breakneck speeds as a result. Say an ally was killed just as he was about to use his ultimate ability. He is then killed, the opposing team breathe a sigh of relief, and pull back to their half of the map to clean up a lane, or take a mercenary camp…
As Auriel you sneak back to your ally and resurrect him/her, where you two then regroup with the rest of your team and steamroll the enemy and win the game. Just one extra hero on the field of battle can tip the tide in your favour.
Auriel also has a worthwhile second ability, Crystal Aegis (I Googled it, trust me) which puts an ally in a Stasis Crystal for a few seconds that then explodes outwards, dealing significant damage. You may be now think well then the hero just gets killed after they have come out of stasis, which is a logical conclusion, but a few seconds is sometimes all you need to rally your allies back to the fight and help you survive. Combine that with Auriel’s healing being tied directly to the damage she and her chosen ally deal, and you have a lean, mean, healin’ machine! While you’re stuck in stasis, Auriel may be aiding another ally to be dealing masses upon masses of damage. You break out of stasis and receive a massive heal and dive back into the fight.
This is why I feel that Support and Healers require much more attention and respect out on the field – It’s surprising how some healers don’t realise the power they hold, and what good they can do for their team!
Have a good game and see you online,
Keljorn Ironfist