What are some pointers for a support main for ranked PvP? And for toxic players?

[Phazon.3975]

Hi all. So this is my first season in ranked PvP season I have participated in. Well PvP in general (if WvW doesn't count) since what got me to start was the bonus event about a month ago.

I'm a low Plat 1 Staff Tempest Support main (really love playing Aurashare since WvW), and I just want to know from experienced supporters of what I should absolutely be doing and avoiding in games besides trying to keep my team alive. I'm not a perfectly consistent player and I definitely have some rough games on my end but there are also times when I question if it's me or if it's just things like bad match-ups, teammates, or getting hard-focused by the enemy team. In situations where my teammates are respawning and I've respawned sooner than them or am still alive, is there anything I should be doing meantime? I feel pretty self-conscious during these downtimes because I feel it's better to wait for my teammates to respawn when the enemy team has the upper hand and have points captured or pushing. These moments also sometimes lead to some salty teammates calling me out even tho I feel I have my hands tied.

Also, how do you deal with salty teammates? I've been blocked by players for what feels like literally no reason lol. Players just telling me to "l2p" and blocked right after without any chance of even asking what I was doing wrong, hence why I'm asking here. And I just keep racking up blocks. Like why even play a team game if you are going to cut all communication for trivial things? And admittedly I also get tilted by this attitude where I just can't help but retaliate lately.

I don't feel I'm the worst support, like if I was as bad as they say I am, then obviously I would've dropped to a lower rank many games ago, but I do get doubtful and possibly lost when it comes to situations in the first paragraph. And I won't lie these kinds of players really damper my confidence as a player lol. Even if others have told me that I do amazingly.  Just have a bad habit of picking up the negative comments more than the positives.  Like it makes me feel as if I don't even deserve Transcendence. xD

Probably a worthless post and tbh I'm not sure if I'll continue to PvP or not since I only ever wanted to obtain Transcendence and Champion Magus and those are done with. I don't think I can deal with the kind of entitled, toxic players that I run to. But I want to at least want to see if I can obtain higher "Of The Arena" titles before the season ends so some supporter pointers would perhaps help clarify things. Thank you all and apologies in advance.

[Unknown.6851]

If you're Plat you'll get a title this season. 

As a support your goal is to match fights and support teammates in slight outnumbered situations. Like 2v1, 3v1 is iffy anything more is a no go. The node isn't priority for you so if you see your team fighting in roads, go help them. No sense in you fighting a 1v1 or capping to get insta decapped. You don't want to be in outnumbered situations (1vX) 

 

As for toxic ppl, they have trouble dressing themselves around lunch time when they finally wake up from their mtn dew induced slumber last week. Just ignore em. 

[StraightPath.3972]

First off don't listen to what your team/monkeys screech at you in moments of rage.
They rarely have any idea what they're talking about to begin with.
I had stuff like "gg" because I run warrior support and shared it with team.
Same if there were two supports (which is actually super strong).
Nevermind that I stomped these games.

Secondly it would be wise to get a competent duo.
Supports have their weaknesses which good enemies or teams will exploit.
Shoring them up with a non-random teammate is a good call if you ask me.

For example if you like camping mid and plain denying enemy the node and/or kills,
a side noder duo can be a great pick. If the enemy can't get rid of you, they can still outrotate you.
If you got a thief/mesmer who knows how to decap, or a spellbreaker that will keep pestering far you've just closed one big hole in your wall.

Alternatively you may opt for another support who shores up your own shortcomings, and vice-versa making you two near unkillable.
I had these scenarios where my warrior support coupled with tempest were practically immortal.
Scourges would also love a tempest healer at their side.
 

Edited February 24 by StraightPath.3972

[Endo.1652]

The advice on how to rotate Unknown is pretty correct about. Just with the situaions youre rotating into like an ally in 1v2 and whatnot, always think about how long you should stay. Its all situational.

On a side note, solo qing a staff tempest support your first season and is in plat. Thats not bad if im being honest

[maxwelgm.4315]

You have 95% chance of getting up to Baron of the Arena just for being plat. But keep in mind you will more often than not be up against duos of top players or people queue sniping/queue dodging with/against duos of top players. Therefore the absolute best way to get a title is to play the least amount possible, 150 matches only if possible and if you must play more just decay prevention matches after that.

Note how the advice for achieving a title almost makes how you play irrelevant. If you're already landed on Plat coasting on 50% winrate is more than enough to keep you afloat for the rest of the season as long as you never keep playing after 1 or 2 losses in a given day. As a support it's also better to be in a higher rank because just like you'll often be matched against top players you will also get top players to DPS for you and focus on the supporting aspect. My personal recommendation though is to not care about anything beyond "Baron/Baroness" as the top 25 bracket is completely dominated by duos and alts of veterans often occupying top 25 spots with more than one account of their own. There is nothing you can do against duos being potentially more organized than your team of randoms so either play with someone or live with that factor.

There's also no avoiding people flaming each other including you so don't bother much with the Team chat unfortunately. You're in the rank where people (for some odd reason) care enough about ranking so as to play as a duo and even try to manipulate the matchmaker, or play with alts to improve their chances, so they're bound to even more upset than normal if they're about to lose a match. It's rarely your fault even if you're just standing around people sending out boons and taking in pressure that would otherwise be directed at them (especially playing a spec with so much projectile denial and endurance output, people dying around you are just memeing).

As for actual gameplay advice (lol 3 paragraphs in), just follow what the others said, and absolutely don't stand on points if there's not a teamfight happening in one. Your goal is to ideally snowball through winning teamfights or at least just winning teamfights and then capping points. The best way to be safe is for the enemy to be back to spawn as often as possible, not by sitting on the point while your team is dying somewhere else. This makes it really problematic for you as a support though because if your team sucks at rotating and takes bad decisions you are kind of pushed into following those bad decisions - if pinging or calling out in team chat doesn't work it's tough luck, so again consider a duo if you just want a title.

[Phazon.3975]

Thanks so much for the advice guys!

17 hours ago, Unknown.6851 said:

If you're Plat you'll get a title this season. 

As a support your goal is to match fights and support teammates in slight outnumbered situations. Like 2v1, 3v1 is iffy anything more is a no go. The node isn't priority for you so if you see your team fighting in roads, go help them. No sense in you fighting a 1v1 or capping to get insta decapped. You don't want to be in outnumbered situations (1vX) 

 

As for toxic ppl, they have trouble dressing themselves around lunch time when they finally wake up from their mtn dew induced slumber last week. Just ignore em. 

Yeah, I think one of the problems I still have is that there are moments where the enemy team has one player chilling on an uncontested point (mostly mid at the start of the game) and my teammates sometimes are chasing the other enemy players around outside the point so I get OCD and try to contest the point so they don't capture it. I question why my team rather scatter everywhere/chase than fight on point but I'll just try to stick to the team until fights are 100% clear now.

17 hours ago, StraightPath.3972 said:

First off don't listen to what your team/monkeys screech at you in moments of rage.
They rarely have any idea what they're talking about to begin with.
I had stuff like "gg" because I run warrior support and shared it with team.
Same if there were two supports (which is actually super strong).
Nevermind that I stomped these games.

Secondly it would be wise to get a competent duo.
Supports have their weaknesses which good enemies or teams will exploit.
Shoring them up with a non-random teammate is a good call if you ask me.

For example if you like camping mid and plain denying enemy the node and/or kills,
a side noder duo can be a great pick. If the enemy can't get rid of you, they can still outrotate you.
If you got a thief/mesmer who knows how to decap, or a spellbreaker that will keep pestering far you've just closed one big hole in your wall.

Alternatively you may opt for another support who shores up your own shortcomings, and vice-versa making you two near unkillable.
I had these scenarios where my warrior support coupled with tempest were practically immortal.
Scourges would also love a tempest healer at their side.
 

Interesting! I've gotten the impression that having more than one support isn't optimal from some players but that's good to know. I'll see if I can find some players to duoQ.

15 hours ago, Endorphin.9147 said:

The advice on how to rotate Unknown is pretty correct about. Just with the situaions youre rotating into like an ally in 1v2 and whatnot, always think about how long you should stay. Its all situational.

On a side note, solo qing a staff tempest support your first season and is in plat. Thats not bad if im being honest

Yeah, I think sometimes I might linger around for a bit longer than I should sometimes. But sometimes I just want to make sure the coast is clear before moving elsewhere. And thanks! Yeah I'm low Plat 1, pretty much bordering Gold, as in I basically got there right when I got my amulet so all I've been really doing is just play every 3 days to counter decay. I sure hope I can stay there or at least at >100 for Baron.

14 hours ago, maxwelgm.4315 said:

You have 95% chance of getting up to Baron of the Arena just for being plat. But keep in mind you will more often than not be up against duos of top players or people queue sniping/queue dodging with/against duos of top players. Therefore the absolute best way to get a title is to play the least amount possible, 150 matches only if possible and if you must play more just decay prevention matches after that.

Note how the advice for achieving a title almost makes how you play irrelevant. If you're already landed on Plat coasting on 50% winrate is more than enough to keep you afloat for the rest of the season as long as you never keep playing after 1 or 2 losses in a given day. As a support it's also better to be in a higher rank because just like you'll often be matched against top players you will also get top players to DPS for you and focus on the supporting aspect. My personal recommendation though is to not care about anything beyond "Baron/Baroness" as the top 25 bracket is completely dominated by duos and alts of veterans often occupying top 25 spots with more than one account of their own. There is nothing you can do against duos being potentially more organized than your team of randoms so either play with someone or live with that factor.

There's also no avoiding people flaming each other including you so don't bother much with the Team chat unfortunately. You're in the rank where people (for some odd reason) care enough about ranking so as to play as a duo and even try to manipulate the matchmaker, or play with alts to improve their chances, so they're bound to even more upset than normal if they're about to lose a match. It's rarely your fault even if you're just standing around people sending out boons and taking in pressure that would otherwise be directed at them (especially playing a spec with so much projectile denial and endurance output, people dying around you are just memeing).

As for actual gameplay advice (lol 3 paragraphs in), just follow what the others said, and absolutely don't stand on points if there's not a teamfight happening in one. Your goal is to ideally snowball through winning teamfights or at least just winning teamfights and then capping points. The best way to be safe is for the enemy to be back to spawn as often as possible, not by sitting on the point while your team is dying somewhere else. This makes it really problematic for you as a support though because if your team sucks at rotating and takes bad decisions you are kind of pushed into following those bad decisions - if pinging or calling out in team chat doesn't work it's tough luck, so again consider a duo if you just want a title.

Yeah I've read a lot about how much matches are manipulated at the top ranks which sometimes helps me brush off toxic behavior from teammates. It's pretty unfortunate.

And you're right in the last part. I feel that as a support, I'm much more dependant on who I get on my team than vice versa. Like yeah, I can do great supporting but if they can't kill anyone, going to the wrong places at the wrong time, or just thinking I'm granting them immortality, which honestly feels it's what some players expect sometimes, then I just have to deal with it I guess. I've heard that some players just turn off team chat and just rely on pings/map awareness. I might try it but I feel cutting communication just goes against a team game. PvP for sure isn't nearly as abundantly toxic as I thought it was going to be but there definitely are players who just ruin the experience.

[Cuks.8241]

If you're plat 1 in your first season of pvp in a 10+ years old game (which means mostly veterans) you should feel pretty good about yourself, your gameplay and decisions. You'll probably soon be better than most of players you play with.

And people that leave a nasty /w and block so you can't even answer usually have some kind of personal problems, some kind of social phobias.

[ccccc.4963]

On 2/24/2024 at 8:34 AM, Phazon.3975 said:

makes me feel as if I don't even deserve Transcendence.

lol