Support needs help playing offense.

Support is the only class I play well, and lately snipers and gunners have been wrecking my turrets no matter what I do. I need a little help taking these guys out, and hoping for well skilled teammates who actually listen is not enough.

I also seem to lack the skill to toss air strikes quite as far as others seem to.

To take down a sniper, you are going to need to airstrike them. Throw the airstrike under the ledge, or try to stick them. You can try to get close enough to kill them with your shotgun, but that will be hard. Gunners can also be stuck, but if you ambush them, you can easily kill them with the shotty.

Sounds like your team need to watch your back to me, supports are not meant to be offensive even though people do use it that way. I played a few games with you last week when you were with john. Just ask john for an invite, if he has space he will invite you im sure.

Just stay behind the offensive players an watch their back, im sure they will do the same for you.

Also try this class if you dont do already,
rof
armor
skill regen

check out SDX's support guide

Ive played a lot of "offensive" support. I dont buy the notion that supports are a defensive class. I feel he best serves his team, setting up a forward position for the rest of the team to retreat to.

Dont be too aggressive with your firebase early on. Set it somewhere under cover from airstrikes, and out of the lines of sight for the enemy snipers. Hack it, overheal it and stay close.

Overheal, and assist your team mates. An overhealed gunner can be very problematic. Call out targets, watch their backs. Sometimes they wont hear assassins over their guns. If they are mortaring a turret, help out with airstrikes.

Basically, as a support, you have to engage the enemy indirectly or ambush them. The airstrikes will get better, just keep trying.nJ

Find a good tank or gunner to follow and constantly over heal them, it's pretty much free juice and defense.

Doug,
Send me an invite tonight, after 3 pm GMT. We'll play a couple private matches and I'll show ya some stuff.

^ :shock:

Stretch knows what i'm talking about!!!

Doug, you can't tell anyone what happens or you'll get in trouble...

Don't be a tease... I wanna know what you're gonna "show him".

I'll send you an invite too...

You like popsicles?

:| :ugeek:

Erm, I'm not sure but I think I need an adult.

I've been reading SDX's guide, and it has been a great resource. I just ran into a gunner and a sniper who would team up and take out my turrets.

It was Grenade 3 Arena and the gunner was hiding up on a ledge next to the bot spawn area, and the sniper was on the walkway just outside of my base. The combo of the two was killing me.

Now that I think about it I could have snuck up behind them and could have at least nailed the gunner.

I dont play support anymore because if i play with friends we always have at least two an if i play on my own with randoms we have at least four so i like to go tank or assault to provide the offensive. If you really wanna go offensive i would suggest picking that type of class as yo would benefit you and your team in doing so by using a more suited class.

But if you want an offensive support class maybe try
sprint
rof
armor
-Maybe play around with sprint and rof.

gold sprint will shorten the time it takes for you to get close to your target for the shotgun kill, plus i dont see many supports doing this so not many would expect it.

I ran gold speed silver rof and bronze armor for a long time. I switched rof and speed because the health drain on gold let me stay alive more. Its the best combo I've found and I'm a decent offensive support. I played around with skill regen in the bronze slot but the armor allowed me to win more firefights. The best strategy is to know exactly where you want to set up your fire ase, and run to it
do not stop to upgrade skills. Don't overheal. Just run, drop your base, upgrade base and hack, then hack your turret and start overhealing it. Generally the only classes you have to worry about catching you are assassin and assault. If you get your base up and hacked the opposing team has to deal with it. Even if they gang up and destroy it you have bought some time and some kills\assists.

You pretty much have to get the air strikes down if you want to be really offensive with support. Aiming higher than you think you have to then try jumping forward while you look up and throw them. I've gotten a lot of insight into loooooong distance throwing by trying to figure out how far away I have to stand to hit the enemy's money ball (usually mid field somewhere). I'd suggest running skill/rof/armor or skill/armor/rof to get as much practice as possible with the air strikes.

Once you have them down I like to lead with one in the escape lane then charge your opponent with the shotty. 9/10 times supports don't cover escape routes so just doing this will get you a lot of kills. It's really class dependent though, you have to know an assault will charge you to get out where a gunner may retreat for example and place accordingly. I think that's the real key to successful offensive support - strategy and prediction.

I think it has a lot to do with personal play style too. I use airstrikes as a deterrent and a last resort death exchange, not as a primary weapon. I can toss an airstrike in front of me to delay chase by opponents, or to force them to choose an alternate route, or to keep them holed up somewhere. It also depends on who you're playing against. I regularly get triple rains on Newbs, but I never expect to kill a seasoned vet with one unless I ground zero them in an open space which usually means I'm dead. Being a halo hopping shotgun bunny is more effective for me as an offensive support. Leading people into your firebase is a good strategy too. If you prefer the "bait" method then I suggest setting up your firebase where it doesn't have line of sight to turrets or bots so it doesn't get confused. This reduces your not control but helps increase player kills if set up properly. I prefer a well rounded approach. I figure if I damage someone some, another player will take them out and vice versa, while still keeping not control and having me free to overhead and run in for the finish. Every map has strategic vertices where firebases are most effective. If you learn those and learn how to hold them you will do more good for your team than just a decent kd score.

"Not control" is bot control... Stupid predictive text..

they have an edit button just to let you know