CARRYING as support? (advanced issue, ROAMING vs LANING)

NekoniClaws·4/13/2018, 12:15:26 PM·2 votes·898 views

Recently my roams are seeming to dud out, especially 2 types.

Roams where my team is already behind- I can equalize their KDAS and then they fall off again quite reliably.

Roams to save the jungler / counter frequent invade. (it's as if I have no jungler and now like my AD has no support)

It feels like I'm just wasting my time, cooldowns, sums doing nothing and it's at the expense of my lane presence. Is this perception correct?

Should I be staying bot? Focus on forcing the tower / drawing attention to stop my team from feeding, rather than direct intervention? Tailor roaming/ non roaming more to my teamcomp? Any tips on the issue? TY in advance.

(both low elo and mid elo (gold/plat) tips welcome)

9 Comments

Cynikul4/13/2018, 12:45:03 PM2 votes

Yeah, personally I think you have the right idea already. Support roams usually end up useless. The thing that makes them good is they're super unexpected because what I've found at my Elo, its rarely pinged out (which isn't their fault, but oh my god, if you MIA the bot lane- me as a mid player, I will play more cautiously and respect that ping until he shows up).

So yes I'd focus bot lane. The rare exception here is when you KNOW the enemy has backed. At this point, I think your time is better spent- not helping push in, but THEN looking for a roam, that way your back timings are still synced AND you potentially get a pick while your AD farms it up. Yes, it will get shoved to tower 2-3 seconds later and they might catch an extra CS or two, personal opinion is that the roam pays off. The only exception here is if you can tell the enemy mid laner is playing super defensive or safe.

Hope this helps in some way.

ViciousSummoner4/13/2018, 1:47:32 PM2 votes

Your roams have to be during opportune times. You can't just randomly roam and expect to get something out of it. I'm not the best at explaining such mechanics. It's more a gut feeling type of thing. You'll slowly get better at it over time as you learn how to roam better.

Also noticing that you finish your sight stone very early. You should never go beyond the T2. You might think that it's bad or counterintuitive to do something like so, but you're putting yourself behind if you rush to finish your sightstone.

You should take Unflinching instead of Overgrowth if you're playing Aftershock. While Overgrowth does make you tankier you're able to do much more with the extra tenacity in team fights.

Ultimate Hat + Transcendence is okay, but Legend Tenacity and Triumph are much, much better when playing Aftershock.

You should also look to rushing Righteous Glory when playing Leona, Alistar, or even Thresh. This makes your engage much better than it already is. With that you can also adopt playing with Ancient Coin instead of Targon's Brace. While you do lose the ability to heal and wave clear you'll be generating much more gold with Coin than Brace. This in turn helps you snowball/makes your spikes towards rushing Righteous Glory much faster. Come mid game Coin is also much better than Brace and Spellthief's in terms of gold generation.

With your Lux you should more look to go with item 3504 item 3174 item 3905 item 3158 item 3190 item 3092 as your build. Instead of using Scorch go with Water Walking to improve your roaming. While Presence of Mind is also good you're much better off just running Cosmic Insight + Future's Market so you can snowball faster as an AP support. The above build will also put you over 350~ AP thus covering your need for damage and also giving the utility needed for team fights. The above build also works for any other AP based support that can heal/shield.

Whether you take Ultimate Hat or Manaflow Band is up to you. I personally prefer Manaflow Band is most situations as mana sustain is very important especially mid to late game where team fights are bound to happen.

Draehl4/13/2018, 2:33:25 PM1 votes

It feels less viable than it used to. The combination of damage and mobility creep makes the jungle and river much more dangerous than it once was. I find I roam a lot less than before Runes Reforged, even as a Bard main.

Azadethe4/13/2018, 2:42:32 PM1 votes

Your roams basically depend on your evaluation of your adc.

If your bot lane is going to be 17 minutes of doing nothing but farming, which isn't stacking your Eyeball collections/Legend runes/getting you assist gold while the rest of the map is becoming a high kill-death game, then by all means, leave your lane. You're better off helping top eek off a win or mid, than letting the game snowball to a point where you're only 7k Gold while the other team (except bot) is already at 12-13k Gold, and by the time you encounter them, the game is already over.

If your bot is competent and making plays, keep an eye on local jungle ganks, and see if you have a clear ward path to reach there and the right geometries to help. If you do, take 30 seconds to help but ping your adc that you are leaving. They might as well come too, and attempt a 3v1 vs the invade. Don't chase beyond what can be realisticall consider a counter gank shutdown. Get your bot fed and rolling.

Your decisions should really be about you. If your lane is systematically keeping you 0/0/0 or worse, it's not working when top is a 12 kill lane and mid is a 10 kill lane and jungle on both sides has been about a 10 kill game combined. That means their lanes are advancing exponentially versus yours. If leaving bot can help those lanes even out and get you back into the resource game, do it. And sometimes, even ask your adc to come along and explain why. They may be sucking at controlling bot lane or at least a stalemate, but they very well may be what top needs to counter its counter, and suddenly line up 2-3 kills by moving in on Top.

1-2 Turret sacrifices aren't the end of the world as long as they aren't also accompanied by a drake at the same time. If you're roaming Drake times, you're probably going to have a higher chance of losing.