Supports have always been one of the most important role in every MOBA game. Their role is to help their team through buffs, heals, nerfs to the enemies or crowd control. However, in Heroes of the Storm the support role seems too much more like a healer role instead and this has been the subject of many discussion and controversies around the community. This article tries to wrap up the current state of the topic.

Unable to carry a team

One of the discussion's point is about the lack of chance to put a huge impact on the game. In an interview, MVP Black's support, Tae Jun "merryday" Yi has expressed his frustration for this issue, saying "[...] What I want to say is that there is nothing a support can do to lead a team in a Hero League environment where you don't know the strengths of your team and there aren't any proper communication. [...] Right now, everyone but Tyrande is all focused on heals. Simply saving a teammate. That's the biggest problem why it's called a "heal slave (bot)". If that's the intention, might as well call it a Healer, not a Support. [...]".

Most of the supports are really based on their healing output rather than on their utility with some exception (e.g. Tassadar or Tyrande) but most of the time people think you don't have that huge impact as an assassin or even a warrior besides a good Ancestral Healing or a well timed Divine Palm.

Merryday kept going to underline that "Honestly, there aren't any Heroes that can lead a game among Supports. If you want to win, play a Tank or Assassin".

Rehgar was even nerfed, disabling the self-cast of his Ancestral Healing and changing his playstyle in a less aggressive one

A 'healbot' feeling instead of an actual support role

While playing on support, it feels you have to keep alive your teammates rather than helping them to wipe the enemy team away. Almost every support has in their basic abilities' set the healing function and this can lead to boredom for the players because they are limited to a healbot role.

Also after the addition of Medivh, many people thought he should have been put into the support category instead of specialist and someone read it as a will of leaving supports just as healers.

Another complain of the community about Supports is that it is actually boring to fill this role. You cannot make play for yourself but you rely on your teammates plays. Some of the most "active" support like Tyrande or Tassadar actually struggle to be solo support so again in this case they need some help from other character.

Many people asked for more buffing or nerfing abilities like Malfurion's Innervate or Tyrande's Hunter's Mark or talents like Shrink Ray but so far their requests have gone unheard.

However, we are waiting for a new support addition that could go on this path: Auriel. It seems she will be a ranged support whose healing capabilities will be dependent on the damage she and her allies deal. Moreover from her preview's video it looks she has some nice crowd control abilities and it will be curious to see her in action.

No playmaking? Not completely true

The community isn't actually united on this topic: some people say a Support can be very impactful other than through the healing or damage output. A good example is Uther: he could be thought as a classic healer, but his piano build is really hard to master and provides more than just simple healing.

Uther is a good support overall: simple healing skill, a skillshot heal and a utility stun

Another point is about the healing itself: sometimes it happens that people don't like support just because they don't deal a lot of damage and this means they cannot be the main character of the action. This is true to a certain extent but filling the health bar instead of decreasing it can be considered a big play as well.

Also a good support in your team composition is crucial. You can lose a teamfight with a bad timed CC made by your tank player or for a poorly timed Divine Shield by your Uther or a Divine Palm on the wrong player.

What can we expect from the future of the Support in Heroes?

Probably there's no perfect fix for this situation and Blizzard will have to find a good way to make everyone happy somehow.

In a forum discussion, a Heroes of the Storm developer, Matt Cooper, has opened a discussion on some points with the community. From his latest post he told us to expect more Support characters in the game, starting from Auriel coming out in the next few days. Moreover, the development team will also try to look for new support-style abilities while trying to maintain the unique identity for each of them.

So what do you think about the topic? And what can be done in order to change things in your opinion?

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