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How do I Teamfight/Lane as a Support? (Nami Main)

kVaixen··1 votes·1,481 views

For a while I've been stuck not 100% knowing when to play passive or when to play aggressive. Whenever I play Nami the way I normally play her (passive), my ADC gets angry and tells me to walk up/play more aggressive. I do that and end up feeding the enemy bottom laners, only to get flamed again for not playing passive enough.

Recently I've started trying to find a balance between passiveness and aggressiveness, but my teammates still get angry with me for not playing aggressive enough. I had a recent match when I outright told my ADC that I played a passive Nami, only to get the same "WALK THE FUCK UP. ENGAGE WITH YOUR Q. DAMNIT NAMI LAND THE STUN SO I CAN KILL. ENGAGE WITH THE ULT. FIGHT NAMI YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO HELP ME. NAAAAAAMIIIIIIIDASGGASDGA."

Another problem I've been having is getting caught in losing teamfights and not knowing what to do once 3 or all of my teammates are dead. Most of the time, I panic and run in the first direction I think of. In a teamfight, I usually land as many of my Qs as I can, E the ADC/middle laner, damage/heal with W, and ult to chase/escape/finish off severely low health targets.

The problem starts when I do all of that, but my team loses and I'm left with my abilities on cooldown. Sometimes there's one player who's still trying to 1v3, and only starts running when they're at like 200 health. When I start running and end up the only one alive, I get flamed by my team for not helping the 1 player that decided to play suicide.

So I guess I should get to the point now. You're probably tired of hearing me whine.

How should I play during the laning phase? I poke whenever possible and help my ADC do the same. Should I be the one always engaging, or should it be the ADC?

If I'm supposed to be the one engaging and poking, how do I do so without getting myself killed?

In teamfights, how can I do better at keeping my team alive so they can win/manage to at least escape if they lose? What do I do if I get focused or caught in a flank?

How can I improve at landing Nami's stun? I've been playing her for about 2 weeks and I figure I should be landing it more than I do (which is about 45% of the time).

Thanks! I know this was a lot to read. :)

9 Comments

FOR JUSTICE4 votes

depends on the lane. this is coming from a fellow nami main:

ill start with playing aggressively.

  • For lanes that aren't hard lockdown CC, such as leona, nautilus, or blitz (all of which are your hardest counters, along with zyra) you'll generally want to play forward enough to use w when the enemy adc goes for a last hit. as long as you stick to a good w-auto trade you'll be fine, considering because of the w bounce mechanic you win the trade by default, barring maybe a draven pick or if you're forward enough that the enemy can hack at you for free.. basically a good rule of thumb is if you're at 3/4 mana or higher you're not being aggressive enough. now this doesn't mean to oom yourself by using it off cd, but put your mana regen to work for you. generally doing this is fine, but q isnt required to be aggressive, in fact once you miss it all you can do is hope they don't capitalize on it being that they can with no fear of cc, especially if they're one of the lockdown lanes. try and save your q after you poked them to around 75% health though. its just better for mana that way.

  • for the ones like zyra, expect to be afk shoved in, because there isnt really much you can do unless she seriously misplays it, because she out pokes your sustain as well as out shoves you by nature, so the majority of this lane will be you and your adc sitting under tower.

  • for hard lockdown lanes, just go for whatever w's you can land, as safely as possible prefferably from behind minions (more then normal).

for the lane phase, youre going to be the one dictating the flow of the lane the majority of the time. using an auto but e'ing your self while the auto is in midair WILL still proc the slow, so you can use that to help land a q, because unless the enemy can recognize they're either stronger then your adc 2v2 their first instinct will probably be to run backwards, making the bubble easier to land. also side tip. if youre being ganked NEVER throw your q immediately, wait for them to show obvious signs of a target to help aim it, because the majority of the time you have a single use of it during the gank before having to burn summs or ult.

if your ult is your only teams engage, and theyre dependent on it to open a fight, just dodge the match entirely. you ult is best used to stack with someone elses, or disengage from pretty much point blank, because its slow travelling and unreliable (being they can literally walk around it)

edit: also a better word for those lanes i mentioned would be "kill lanes", think braum lucian, maybe tristana thresh, champions with very strong level 1-3 all ins. just make sure if you get to lane first, and your adc is at a damage disadvantage at the early lane stages, auto the wave to help secure level 2, which forces then to give up out of fear of a really bad trad, thus negating their pressure.

edit 2: on a side note ive decided to look into your rune choices, for starters its best to stick with either aery or guardian, grasp does you little good because sustain with it is minimal on ranged champions.

secondly, almost always use ignite, much better for kill pressure in your favor. in this meta exhaust is almost never a good choice unless your lane opponent will 2 shot you.

thirdly, try to avoid taking water walking because that implies you're roaming a lot and nami doesnt exactly have the best roams so scorch is the best option of that row, and go for the second adaptive force rune instead of the CDR one, as early game (when youre strongest) will legit only give you like 1%, which is pretty trivial for the potential damage youre sacrificing, as well as the fact you will probably cap at your second support item, making overcapping pretty useless.

i would give more tips but i would need to actually spectate how you play. this is just based off of what i see on op.gg.

kVaixen1 votes

Ah, thanks! When playing Nami I'm always told to take Exhaust whenever I switch to Ignite.

For my runes, I've switched the Primary to Sorcery and am using Summon Aery, Manaflow Band, Transcendence, and Scorch. Secondary is Inspiration with Biscuit Delivery and Cosmic Insight. I have 2 Adaptive Force runes and 1 Magic Resist one.

(Sorry for the late post.)

BLACK REALM GOD2 votes

nami is a healer. or if you've got a hard on for those stupid riot dev team titles an "enchanter"

you player her similar to how you play soraka. from behind the minion wave.

your goal is to react to your opponent's advances and land your Q while retreating - not while pushing towards your opponent.

your tide caller's blessing is how you help you ally be aggressive. give them the 3 bubbles to deal bonus on hit damage and extra movement speed.

when your ally overcommits drop a q on the path their opponent is taking to make that opponent either go around to avoid being bubbled or get bubbled and possibly turned on.

your goal is not to engage. that's not your job and any marksman bottom that tells you it is is worse than I am and I'm iron.

grant yourself the on-hit bubbles to gain your thief gold and if your jungler is a diver walk up and land your siphon on the oppent so it bounces between your opponent to the diver and back to the opponent.

at no point in time should you ever be the aggressor with nami unless you're just running a meme build from the start.

Zardo2 votes

You don't play nami aggressive in lane by going for bubbles. Instead, you try to punish the enemy adc for stepping up by using w and empowered aa's on them. The only time you want to bubble in lane proactively is:

  • The enemy AD is currently locked in an animation(ie csing a minion)

  • The enemy support has no engage ability or used it already(think rakan w)

  • The jg is not near your lane.

You also generally don't engage teamfights. Your engage isn't very reliable. You can use it to get picks since the MS boost is extremely helpful even if they dodge the knockup, but your ult is generally used to follow up someone else's engage or used as disengage.

As for staying alive, that's positioning. As a squishy, it's your job to keep track of enemy threats and make sure you're never in a position to die to them. If you have no vision on them, pretend they are sitting in every area you don't have vision of and play around that.

BLACK REALM GOD1 votes

{quoted}

You don't play nami aggressive in lane by going for bubbles. Instead, you try to punish the enemy adc for stepping up by using w and empowered aa's on them. The only time you want to bubble in lane proactively is:

  • The enemy AD is currently locked in an animation(ie csing a minion)

  • The enemy support has no engage ability or used it already(think rakan w)

  • The jg is not near your lane.

You also generally don't engage teamfights. Your engage isn't very reliable. You can use it to get picks since the MS boost is extremely helpful even if they dodge the knockup, but your ult is generally used to follow up someone else's engage or used as disengage.

As for staying alive, that's positioning. As a squishy, it's your job to keep track of enemy threats and make sure you're never in a position to die to them. If you have no vision on them, pretend they are sitting in every area you don't have vision of and play around that.

i literally said everything you just said... and gave more details... and got fucking downvoted.

this community man...

OtterlyLost1 votes

Because in the right lane, you can 100% play Nami aggressively. She is fully capable of playing aggressive and in your face, similarly to Sona. If you're just sitting on your ass healing and not looking for picks or going for safe AA harass on the enemy ADC or support, you're not playing the champion right.

NIKΟ2 votes

I think it depends on your lane. If your playing VS other healers or supports who oppose low threat (little to no cc) you should probably try and gain pressure by throwing your bubbles. Playing VS high threat supports like Thresh or Naut I'd stay at the back giving moovement speed to my ally and using bubble to peel the other laners away from your adc. I aswell struggle a bit with your concerns on mid/late game. Its a hassle everytime

OtterlyLost2 votes

As someone else has said, it depends on the lane but as a general rule of thumb, don't stand behind your ADC. This leaves them feeling like they're in a 1v2 and that can make them be zoned. Stand next to your ADC instead; this shows you're an active participant of the lane, it doesn't leave your ADC vulnerable, and makes things more of a 2v2.

It reminds me of a youtube video from a college professor who taught league(yes, those existed!) and he called bot lane a lane of Zones. Every champion has a zone or a circle around them that is the area by which they can interact. As a support, you generally want to have your zone overlap with your ADC's as often as possible; that isn't say by right up next to them but at least have your "zone" edges touching.

CurS1VE1 votes

you play nami like you would play janna in lane with her W and Q it's essentially the exact same premise(ofc like ppl said you do have to know the matchups)

You start W and any time it's off CD you hit the Enemy with it whenever they are trying to CS. DO NOT just throw out random ass Q's tho, honestly Q is something that you hold onto for when you are trying to either go all in to secure a kill or to disengage with early pre-6.

W poke on CD simple lane phase and try and heal your ad and get that wave to bounce to enemy whenever possible.

R is main Engage and Disengage, so if you have been doing well in lane and poke down the sup / adc on enemy team, when you hit 6 you should be able to just R into Q and secure easy kills

As for team fights, I suppose the same premise is there but now you are looking for big ulti's to either engage or disengage. your R is kinda like a Sivir/Kled R in terms of how ppl react, when you R almost always ppl will Run with you to whatever it is you are aiming for and when you do that you need to hit your Q and then just let your team clean up, after that you just W and E whoever needs it on your team (i would stop using W on enemy players during team fights, only use it on your team mates)

Biggest thing is knowing that you can actually be a engage for your team, you have to setup fights with your R whenever its up and you have your team with you. Don't hold onto it

Also things like Shurelya and Twin Shadow early really really help with this, honestly even though i don't play Sup anymore those 2 items on nami make her engage tools and disengage tools so effing good! Anytime you want to force a fight you can just use Twin Shadow active, slow the ppl, R and then (if need be Shurelya) Q easy peezy

I think the majority of Nami's that i see in my elo at least don't understand that she is actually a pretty aggro enchanter in and out of lane phase which is a little different from janna because janna is generally a really strong laner but in team fights she doesn't have quite as much presence

The biggest thing i would say is don't play nami passively during group settings especially if your team lacks hard CC or engage tools, literally its all on you to do that.

I downvoted everyone who suggested (or hinted) that nami R isn't a engage tool, this is wrong.

Honestly @OP build Twin Shadow or Shurelya first 2 items and every time you guys group mid, just press one of those and then hit R onto whoever is closest on enemy team this will give you a better idea of how important your R is for starting a fight and then as you get more comfortable with that you can start picking your spots better.

I would say with nami specifically the thing that really puts her above janna or raka is her team fight presence and that is specifically because her R and Q are so much stronger than either of those other 2. So nami has similar things with both of them but the big difference is she is much more aggressive in 5 v 5 settings whereas janna and soraka are more "I play back" Nami is "I'm fishing for Engage"

I don't know if you play Bard at all but the same way he can start up fights with his R Q is basically the exact same way Nami can; so if you can setup engages or disengages with Bard you can do the exact same stuff (with similar patterns) with nami.

Abuse Twin Shadow tho and also Shurelya it'll make things SO much easier

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