What are the advantages and disadvantages of playing a support role in Smite?

I often hear folks say that they don't want to play support in league because it is so much harder to carry a team to a win.  Don't believe it!  Any position can help carry a team to a win. There is a reason we track KDA and not just KD ratios.  The players that complain about not being able to carry a team as a support are the ones that play a guardian as if it were a carry and expect that it will work out to get them a high KDA and therefore a win.  Playing support is not just being a tank!  You obviously want to build as tanky as you can but you also want to play to keep your dps alive.

Here are some of the symptoms of a damage minded player trying to support:

1. Chases fleeing players because he thinks one in hand attack will get the kill when in reality his low damage would require at least 3 hits that he will not get before the enemy team collapses on him.
2. Lunges into a group of players and then engages the enemy tank while all of the dps players walk around him and kill the back line mages and hunters.
3. Never seems to have any wards in inventory and there are none on his side of the map, nor on the Gold Fury or Fire Giant.
4. He rotates to mids and then tries to gank and then failing that sticks around to leach a wave of minions instead of taking down the harpies and going back to duo lane for farming.
5. He buys CDR boots instead of Midas Boots because "Damage!"
6. 20 minutes into the game and he still doesn't have HoG 3, but he does have Blink 3.
7. He seems to think picking a warrior is viable in league.

This player might be an amazing mid, adc, jungle and/or solo, but really needs to read up on what he should be doing as a support.  Support is unlike any of the other roles, and playing it like any of the other roles will not only not allow you to carry but it will get you the loss.

So let's form a priority list of what a support needs to do during the game.

1. Rotate to mid harpies every 3 minutes
• Uncontested mid harpies will allow the enemy team to snowball quickly, it is not just your team losing the xp/gold but their team gaining the xp/gold.
2. Sentry ward on Gold Fury at the 6 minute mark and ongoing.
3. Sentry ward on the Fire Giant at the 15 minute mark and ongoing
4. Be sure to not use your HoG 3 if there is even a chance that someone will call for GF/FG
5. Call for GF/FG at appropriate times:
• Opponent's Support and any HoG 3 players are dead
• Support is seen backing when 3 or more of your allies are around GF
• You Sentry GF/FG and see that it is unwarded and all players are out of line of sight of the enemy.
• More that 3 of the enemy team are dead.
6. In group/team fights, prioritize your CC to set up your team for big damage or to save a teammate's life, do not use CC to set up for your own weak damaging abilities.
7. If all of your abilities are on CD, body block!  If one of your squishy dps is getting hit the best thing you can do is try to stand in between them and the opponent.

Build tips:

1. If you have a mage/assassin in solo lane and your team seems to be doing well in the damage department:
• Watcher's Gift, Midas Boots, HoG 3, Sovereignty, Stone of Gaia, Hide of the Urchin, either Voidstone or Witchblade and then the other.
2. If you have a player building tanky in solo lane, usually a warrior like Chaac or Vamana, you can go a little more damaging/CC:
• Watcher's Gift, Midas Boots, HoG 3, Breastplate of Valor, Voidstone, Hide of the Urchin, Witchblade and then either Soul Reaper or Bancroft's Talon.

Alright, so now to the task at hand, carrying a mediocre/bad team to a win.  First off, your team's ELO is going to be close to your own, generally, so no matter how bad they seem, they have earned the right to be in this game with you; and even if they haven't, it will do your blood pressure good to just assume they have.  That being said, you may end up with a person who mostly jungles playing adc or a player that only plays solo attempting mid.  The best thing you can do as a support is to figure out the weakest link and protect them, while ensuring that the best player is getting fed.

Let's take a look at the advantages of playing a support over any other role:

1. You aren't expected to land auto-attacks
2. Support favors intelligence over reflexes (though good reflexes don't hurt)
3. Support favors teamwork over individual skill
4. Building tanky will give you a larger margin for error

The disadvantage are:

1. You won't do much damage, so if everyone else dies, you are pretty useless unless you have blink and HoG3 and they are pushing GF/FG
2. You don't have your "own" farm, so you will always be leaching off of the adc/mid/jungle.
3. Even though you are expected to roam, your ability to gank is heavily reliant on dps following up on your initiation.

So that's the jist of it.  Don't assume players are bad.  Let your dps get the last hit on everything.  On the rare occasion you do go to gank, be sneaky: hide behind walls, avoid walking through common ward locations, use sentries at common ward locations.  And lastly, check out streamers like Incontinentia, Eonic, and ShadowQ for support tips and tricks.  I don't think any of them are particularly great casters, but they are clearly great supports, and you can learn a ton from just watching a game or two.

Have fun!