A single Sorc has a mobile Servo Skull debuff, and I heard people complaining about that...As well as having the choice of either a plasma gun charged shot or plasma gun shot spell, allowing you to add much more versatility than an Apothecary ever could.

I won't speak for the Painboy or Warlock as I don't have them leveled up much to experience that, but the Sorcerer by far does better in a game of randos than an Apothecary can, considering he has to open himself up at close range next to an ally to get anything done, god help you if your chickens running around sit still for 2 seconds. Sorcerer is just all too good at sustaining combat than an Apothecary can. On top of the ability to jump in and melee to even delay the enemy long enough for your team to gore them with their autocannons and the like.

So, referring to the support roles currently, the only true ranged support... is the Apothecary? Because if you try to tell me that the Painboy is a range support, then, this whole "support asymmetrical" role thing isn't working for them.

Like "Painboyz + Apothercaries" are similar with healing,
And "Warlocks + Sorcerers" are the other category,
But Painboyz do not get Shootas, and are limited in effective range, making them more up-close oriented,
Whereas Apothecaries get bolters and some of the most effective healing in the game,
And painboyz melee, if at all, is only slightly better than apoth--

Wait...

So, Apothecaries are the only true, ranged support, with decent melee and great healing?​

Yep, but i'm not sure taking away their ranged capability or giving ranged to another class is a good idea due to how the factions deisgned. Ergo, nerf them.

THAT SAID, there is some precedent for Sorcs wielding bolters and painboys wielding Shoota's makes sense if you really want to go down that road, I have no idea what you do for warlocks though.

Edit: Also i'd argue narth melee is better then most melee weapons, so good all around.

You know what bothers me? Apothecary has most of their gear from the lore plus what ever the devs have come up with. Meanwhile the other three supports are fighting for scraps.

Both Warlock and Sorcerer are missing a large amount of spells.

Sorcerers have no unique weapons that come from crates.

Painboy is missing their pain klaw, meat cleaver (meat choppa?), and much needed buffs

When are we getting our stuff?

I find sorc to be the best, having an easy ranged heal makes life so much easier then trying to chase people around as a painboy or apoth (by the time you get to them and they finally stop, you end up in a combat zone, and thus death be apone you....). Plus the power sword is great, especially against eldar. Haven't got much unlocked yet on my sorc in terms of other powers, but so far its a much easier time being a support than any other support (warlocks probably very similar). Don't get frustrated as much on this class. Don't die as much, I'm a very happy heretic indeed.

And the call for asymmetry when needed...
The apoth need a straight nerf on his versatility. It can be cost increase, heal efficiency nerf, damage or other.
Apoth melee is more than fine and can go even further if he take the right buff. Wot he cannot take defense buff if he melee buff? Well like warlock. Fine by me.

So there is a choice:

• buffing ranged capacity on other sup while letting them keeping their heal/buff efficiency like an apoth (not recommended IMO).
• Give a very good buff on psyker offensive power (since they choose it over heal/buff they cannot do both in the same time, unlike someone else...). And buff Painboyz ranged capacity (give him a SHOOTA, I WANT MORE DAKKA) or buff more his heal efficiency or melee capacity. (finally giving his beacon a right size is not a buff, it's something that should have been done already)
• Suppress an Apoth capacity in his versatility (heal efficiency or fighting capacity).

Servo Skull is passive, meaning you just chuck it into a room and boom the whole room is lit up.

Warp Instability is a targeted (you have to aim it but it locks on once started) and its AoE is smaller than the Servo Skulls. While its debuff is stronger, its not a debuff the Sorc can use, only help allies because as soon as he stops channeling it or the enemies walk out of line of sight the debuff stops. It also costs charge which means they can't heal as much, also because they have ZERO passive healing like beacon/medicae they are doing ZERO healing while debuffing.

In the long run if the Sorc just simply shoots people with his bolt pistol or plasma pistol he will have about the same effect as warp instability, without wasting charges that would impact his healing.
This is actually a recurring issue with most psyker offensive powers, you can't justify using them over a plasma pistol outside of "fun", if you want to min/max or be effective a plasma pistol is 100lp better spent than any offensive psycker power in the game.

I really want to highlight this part. You do realize an Apothecary can equip a plasma pistol at the exact same cost as a Sorc right? The exact same plasma pistol, same stats, same cost, same everything.
You know why nobody does it? BECAUSE A BOLTER IS INHERENTLY BETTER THAN A PISTOL! Why bother shooting a plasma pistol when you can just kill them with a bolter?

As to the "plasma shot spell" I assume you mean Daemonbolt which has over twice the cast time of a plasma cannons charge shot, costs 250lp which is super expensive, it can be destroyed by gunfire causing it to explode (if you see somone casting it shoot them and you will probably cause the ball to explode in their face killing them). Its also even slower than the plasma cannon.
It also costs a ton of charge to cast which again reduces their ability to heal.
Its another example of "why equip this?" in a min/max situation, it looks cool and its sorta fun but then reality comes knocking and if you want a long range AoE weapon why arn't you using a Plasma Cannon build that does everything Daemonbolt wants to do, but better and without about 20x less suicides from having it explode in your face.

The end result is most "serious" Sorc builds equip a pistol, the basic heal, and then just as much defenses as possible because none of the offensive powers are worth their cost over a plasma pistol or getting more durability (or usually both as in the case of say Daemonbolt). Some builds will even get rid of the pistol to get even more tankiness, and charge boosting stuff. Making them literally just a weak sword + heal beam... which is arguably the most effective Sorc build in game... just a healing beam that does nothing else, like the worst TF2 medic you could ever imagine.

Many of the support characters need more mechanics added/tweaked and buffed to make them feel more like support characters. I know that the devs did not want self-healing slay everything rambos and that's understandable. But they lowered their overall combat effectiveness so much that only the support with a gun was capable of contributing beyond healing.

Previous patch notes said that the devs wanted to promote 'uniqueness' but roughly all we've gotten is that 'supports must be healers beyond everything else.' It really sucks because they are shooting themselves in the foot constantly by doing this. If anything since all the factions all have different supports they should be all regulated in different ways to better promote unique gameplay and make them feel more than just 'medics with a different name'.

Unless of course we talk Apothecarys. I mean, the Emperor protects.

Poison Melee
Bolter
Instant-Heal up close (possibly including a buff!) + AoE ranged duration Healing.

You know how many spells i would have to equip on my Sorcerer / Warlock to come close to that?
And they all are on seperate cooldowns / ammunition pools, while spells all draw from the same