Since courage of the Colossus, and Redemption are getting nerfed, I've seen a lot of players shift their focus from Sustain/Utility champs (
) for mages, and weird ones at that. I've seen a lot of Vel'koz supp, which I didn't even know was viable (is it) and that left me wonder, what are the current viable good Support champions?
Prestige AkaIi3 votesThresh is never going to be bad. Enchanters are going to be just as strong if not stronger because a lot of their itemization is getting buffed. (despite the redemption nerfs)
Shadòw2 votes
Oleandervine2 votesI've never seen a shift away from Morgana or Soraka. Both of them aren't required to take Redemption or Courage to do what they do best. Soraka can still function very well with the nerfed Redemption, especially since it still flows into a Warmog's build for her, and she also still uses the other Forbidden Idol items really effectively. As for Morgana, Redemption didn't really do much for her aside from it's active - the stats and passives on it don't benefit her as well as other items do. I don't foresee either of these champs falling out of favor, most especially since they stated they'd be making buffs and changes to the now horribly gutted Mikael's and Athene's, which will directly benefit both of these champs. I think the go-to support is still Thresh though, and it will probably be a good long time until he's ever knocked off of being the universal support.
Aptest2 votesThresh is the universal go-to best overall support.... ...but his stats don't support the idea that he's winning games. with an absurd pick rate and a sub-par win rate, I can only surmise that either he's played by people who can't use him, OR he is picked early a lot and is countered, whereas he does not specifically counter the other supports well enough to offset that.
I'm not sure what the best play style for supports is right now. Zyra has the advantage of serving as both a redundancy for the ADC due to her insane damage, as well as "peel through death is the best CC" which answers cc-immunity and "outplay champions" quite well.
sheldonbunny2 votes
Thanks! :) What do you think about mage supps like Brand/Vel?
Paquay1 votesI will say another one that is fun to play with as a support and that if used properly can be really good is Anivia. I've played with her a few times and with the right team comp, she can be really powerful.
Downsides are she is really mana starved early on until you get a tear but then she's ok. Also since you won't be stacking as much AP, she's not going to be bursty like a Zyra or Brand and will rely more heavily on team play.
Most people build Q first but I like to max W first as I feel that provides more utility. With Q you are just gaining .1 extra second of stun if you land it per level. With W your wall gets substantially wider. If the enemy ADC or supp get too close, you can throw a wall up behind them which usually results in them fleeing in terror while your ADC has free reign on them. If you throw up a wall make sure to use your Q towards the edge of the wall with the shortest distance to saftey for them as they will likely flee there and you can stun them. It's also great for shutting down incoming ganks as long as you're warded and can see it coming.
Moetaro1 votesI dont like nami, for whatever reason I dont get to get success with her. At least in my hands, nami is BAD.
Zyra is super fun to play. Good support after all. But I feel the need to push at every moment with her, and it exposes me a lot to ganks. In this meta, that's a death sentence. Be careful with that, but super fun to play.
Jana is OP.
Just in case you need the opinion of a bad support.
Dolasaur2 votesVel'Koz has been a viable support since his release. It's never been quite as popular as mid for him, but it's had a consistent pick rate. He just never became FotM.
Admittedly, last year's mid-year mage update made sup VK a lot weaker. A lot of his base magic damage got converted into true damage, and his true damage gained AP scaling. So the previous MPen stacking strat (that still works very well on Zyra and Brand) got weaker on VK, and his need for AP increased.
Why does VK support work?
First, even after the MYMU, his base damage is still respectable. He still competes (and often wins) against Brand in the support damage charts.
Second, his Q is a low-ish cooldown ability with a very low mana cost for a mage Q. It has very high range (even discounting GEOMETRY). It travels very slowly, and it hits for a high strength, long duration slow (70% decaying over 2.6 seconds at max rank. 2.6! Great Liandry's synergy if you pick it up.) The fact that his Q moves really slow is a weakness for offense, but a great asset for defense; enemies have to choose between staying entirely out of its super long range, or trying to dodge to the side. And since you can split it, you can force them to move backwards after they dodge to the side.
Third, he has a variety of different strengths you can play to, depending on matchups, team comp, gold income, who's strong, etc. If your lane opponent is bad at dodging skill shots, you can just dominate lane and singlehanded carry the game as sup VK. If your team is behind and lacks wave clear, you can max W second and safely clear (having 2 W charges up per wave, plus a Q to kill the siege minion and E to finish off the melees if necessary). If you have a poke comp, you can focus on using your Qs to herd the enemies into your allies' shots (or slow them by 70% if you get a hit). If the enemy has a pick comp, you can rush FQQ and then use your Q's geometry to scout bushes from an untouchable 1400 range. If the enemy doesn't have strong engage, you can poke the hell out of them on your own with just Morello + Liandry's (leaving 4 slots for boots, FQQ, sightstone, and Locket/Redemption/???).
Juichibey1 votesThanks :0 this helped a lot!
khorney1 votesmorg isnt a utility champ.also so what if it is losing the a amount of the healing i still get it just for the passive for increasing heals and shields still worth
Attticus Finch1 votesMorgana is absolutely a utility champ. She sure as hell isn't a damage mage.
Hochelaga1 votesLulu ! Lulu !
sheldonbunny1 votesThanks! :) What do you think about mage supps like Brand/Vel?
I like Brand but he doesn't have the range that Zyra has or the mobility that Karma has. I prefer both more if we're talking AP supports. (Karma can definitely be built utility, I just play her more aggressively with thunderlords, etc) Velkoz is still on my to do list actually. I keep putting him off with others for niche picks like Orianna, Fiddle, Maokai, Galio, etc. All fun, but not necessarily strong in the meta. From what i've seen though Velkoz has good poke, but with most poke supports, it's all about positioning and good map awareness.
I dont like nami, for whatever reason I dont get to get success with her. At least in my hands, nami is BAD.
Zyra is super fun to play. Good support after all. But I feel the need to push at every moment with her, and it exposes me a lot to ganks. In this meta, that's a death sentence. Be careful with that, but super fun to play.
Jana is OP.
Just in case you need the opinion of a bad support.
They key to Nami is landing good bubbles and knowing when and how to use her other skills. She's one of the ones I run utility based with 
. I find it far more useful than 
because early game if you're harassing that much you will have no sustain for the lane. Just personal preference. Redemption goes well with her kit.
Zyra is the queen of lane domination and manipulation. You are right that she pushes lanes and puts you into the position to be ganked, which is why you establish constant vision in river and enemy tribush after first back and if you're positioning properly you will have a string of plants ready guarding river. One Q sets off a good deterrent from most junglers trying to get into lane to gank. .. Janna is the very definition of a vanilla support. Nothing terribly exciting but she does it well which is why she has never not been in the meta for every season. Currently she is a solid pick with redemption synergizing amazingly well with her.
End of the day best support also has to do with playstyle. Depends on if the player is more passive or aggressive. The reason i'm so successful on AP Sona for example is the fact that I dominate the lane through pure aggression. Unless I have an enemy team realizing she's a frail glass cannon it goes in my favor. The higher up in elo you go, the more likely that is sadly. Still, lots of fun in normals.
[{quoted}](name=Attticus Finch,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=0fHJld1p,comment-id=00040000,timestamp=2017-01-20T19:57:44.519+0000)
Morgana is absolutely a utility champ. She sure as hell isn't a damage mage.
Depending on her build she definitely can be, same as Sona. Mid Morgana does amazing amounts of damage, so if someone was inclined to build her that way in the support role she would. I'm more inclined to build her hybrid the way I do with Karma. Some utility, and a splash of damage. Though honestly I prefer her mid if i'm going to play her at all.
deoje2991 votes
WingsofGulgazor1 votes
pretty much, it might change a bit depending on the meta like maybe tank supports like trundle and tahm kench might be good if the game changes the right way and maybe Brand and velkoz would be on the list instead of say nami especially since brands problem is he has a lot of aoe damage but it's not as strong as the aoe heals and shields and utility of other supports and with these items nerfed brand might be super good. Thresh is probably a good candidate because he honestly doesn't have any scaling with redemption or aegis but he has to build it right now so it might be good for him if it's nerfed cause it will hurt other supports more and he will still have all-in potential against say mage lanes. Malzahar is currently already the best support and he doesn't build these items so unless he's nerfed he will prob remain number 1 and I would like to say Lulu would be strong since she has fairly good lane pressure and teamfight presence so she's like an inbetween for a mage and a utility champion and she can deal with tank and all in supports but there have been several times were I though lulu would be good but just hasn't been