Mid Laners coming down to bot

nzkiwii442·Dec 10, 2017·2 votes·500 views

Hi all,

Recently I've been seeing a lot of what I'd call typical mid lane champions heading down bot as supports. While this is annoying, I understand that if it works, why not use it!

My question is, strategically, what does the other team lose by having a second mid lane champ, versus a more traditional support who builds support items? Many of the games I've played with this match up, I've found it to be extremely difficult to win lane, leading to a more difficult mid, and late game. I would assume that they would be punished by not having as much vision, or not having actives to help the team. However I find the extra damage they have to be significantly more useful.

Thanks, Nz

7 Comments

RenownedWheat42Dec 10, 20171 votes

You lose the utility of other supports for the damage of the "mid" supp pick which CAN be worth it if you make it snowball; however, should you fail at doing so it's more of a detriment than if you had, say, a Braum who was behind.

They're much more susceptible to ganks and hard engage due to a lack of mobility, though, so a traditional bot lane can definitely win if they fight on their terms, with or without jungle assistance.

Therion77Dec 10, 20171 votes

A good Veigar or Brand support is one of the most obnoxious things in League.

RenownedWheat42Dec 10, 20171 votes

But they gotta get ahead for it to work, and if they can't they're next to useless till lategame. Obnoxious doesn't mean good.

kattzkittiDec 10, 20171 votes

When you run kill lane support (which is what I'm assuming is actually happening here), you're putting your chips on the risk that having little to no utility (sustain, shielding, plentiful CC, etc) will be paid off in the form of much higher team-wide burst potential. Ideally, you would only do this in cases where the other team lacks significant innate durability (squishy jungler and toplane, etc), as otherwise it kinda... backfires...

It's high risk / high reward, which is why you won't see it as often as the standard "safe" supports.

Talon12Dec 10, 20171 votes

if your support can efficiently destroy wards, they will be severely lacking in vision and will have trouble doing much and makes laying traps by your team easier. The only issue for you that comes from their team not having extra support vision is if your team isnt denying vision, this vision is limited, and even more if you deny it, but if you don't deny it they won't have issues, as while your team can replace their vision, the enemy cant.

Final Spark LuxDec 10, 20171 votes

That's a pretty loaded question. It depends on a lot of factors, such as what both team comps look like, how well your lane goes, what the secondary mid pick would be, what items are bought, etc. Generally picking some mid laner over a traditional support, you lose either initiate potential or peel potential, sometimes both. If your team already has some champs that can peel / initiate, or your intended pick can do them as well, taking someone that just adds to your teams damage can be lucrative.

I don't think picking a mid lane to support with necessarily sacrifices the ability to build sightstone / active items. Personally I think sightstone is too good to ever give up, no matter what you're playing as support. As for other items, If your team is doing well, you can buy whatever you want; active items included. The tough decision is choosing what to buy if you end up behind. You have to choose between building defensively / active items to try and support your team, or building more damage in an attempt to get kills for your team, but sacrificing the other items in the process. That's something that needs to be decided during the game. You can't really plan how things will go. I do agree with you though; currently, having that extra damage usually feels very useful to the team.