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Would like Support Advice from Plat/Diamond Supports (Gold Player)

TotalSilencey·12/3/2019, 7:23:38 AM·0 votes·2,312 views

I am looking for advice on how to reach Platinum from Gold as a SUPPORT main.

I was a Silver player for the past year or so. I recently reached Gold and have posted some strong snowball & comeback wins so far. I have even felt consistently strong in the few losses I've had in Gold. Enjoying it much more than Silver already and I don't feel like I'm getting stomped. I do however notice the level of play from everyone is MUCH higher and the wins are HARD EARNED.... I expect to be suffering some heavy losses soon enough along the way before / if I ever reach Platinum....

My strongest champs IMO: Morgana, Zyra, Karma

How I reached Gold:

1. I bought a new computer. Was playing on 2009 Toaster, now have core i7. YES, it made a difference because my old computer was that crappy. Started landing my spells more consistently and noticed MUCH less latency issues, FPS loss/glitches overall etc....

2. Stopped flaming/toxic behaviour/chat 100%. THIS IS LEGIT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I DID. If someone flamed me, I just helped them in game and ignored them in chat. The FEW encouraging words I used in chat worked a lot. Many games where a team had 3 votes to FF at 15 with toxic team mates turned into Victories and Honors for all simply by being the voice of positive reasoning and calm attitudes for our team. I also enjoy ALL my games now, even my losses as I learn from them and don't sweat it.

3. I really tightened my game up. Started letting my opponents make more mistakes and being more conservative with my spells/playing safer (I am an aggresive player by nature). The threat of having my spells up is very powerful and I am now much more ready for surprise ganks/engages now due to spells being up and more awareness.

**4. ** I committed to playing my support role as best I can as support. Not going for damage or to be the all-star, but to be the tool that my team needs to win... I roam more with my jungler, I focus hard to ensure my team mates look the best. I REALLY focus on protecdting my ADC, peeling the correct (IMO) targets in team fights and protecting our CARRY, whoever it is in whicever team fight breaks out.

**5. ** I am 100% open to anyones suggestions/criticisms in/out of game. They all help me improve & I actively listen and respond.

I feel like my vision game is very strong as I consistently have the highest vision score (many times double anyone else including other supports/junglers).

I could list more but these are just a few of the main things that have brought me to Gold from Silver.

I am dedicated to the game, want to learn more and eventually reach Platinum as an end Goal.

If there is any advice at all that Support Mains in Platinum/Diamond could/would give to a support main in Gold, I'd love to hear it.

My biggest questions I could think to ask specifically...

When to roam Mid or gank a top lane. I've seen some guides suggest roaming as a support if your ADC can handle the lane and I have been able to pull off many successful roaming ganks in the jungle, mid and even top lane as support... The problem is sometimes my ADC will complain or yell. I'm not always sure if I'm the one making the good play securing another kill in another lane or just wasting time...

ALSO, many games I find that our Bot lane can do well, our ADC can get a couple kills, have a CS lead but our Mid, Top & jungler are having a rough game.... It's really at this point where I have a hard time deciding whether to stay with my ADC or let them solo bot and roam for some kills/pressure (I feel confident that I can secure the kills & as I said often I can)… Just never sure when it's time to really help the other lanes or just always 100% stick to the adc...

Really would love some overall advice though from vets that have been there before and ranked up from Gold.

Thank you so much!

6 Comments

Speeedy12/3/2019, 2:28:33 PM3 votes

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVDepsrgho0zQxMvkik7KUw

corejj is making how to videos and is one of the best supports in NA currently

Josh Sand12/3/2019, 7:31:59 PM3 votes

A good general checklist to follow when roaming:

  • You and the ADC just backed
  • You just got mobis / pen boots
  • You have Flash and Ignite
  • You have a Sweeper or Pink
  • Target opponent doesnt have Flash
  • Target opponent isn't mobile
  • You or ally have CC

If most of these are true, its a golden opportunity to roam. You dont have to have all these boxes checked off, but the more of them that are checked, the higher the % of success your play will have.

C0NCH0BAR12/3/2019, 11:15:02 PM2 votes

You seem to be focusing on a lot of the proper stuff. At the core, support is a role designed to best set up and allow your teamates to come out on top.

How do you do that?

  1. Vision control
  2. Map Awareness
  3. Understanding how your champions mechanics interact with the opposing teams mechanics
  4. Macro play (i.e. objective priority/control, wave management, optimal pathing)
  5. Micro play (i.e. individual skill in a dozen different fields)
  6. Positive mental attitude

These things all lace together and lean on each other. Explaining how they all did would be a novel, so I'll trust you to find the connections and how each point impacts the others. Keep working on ONE thing at a time! I'm currently working on making sure my carry stays alive. Other things may suffer because of it, but if I accomplished that one thing, then I consider that a success. The previous thing I worked on was vision control. I worked on that for a month and within that short time of focus I went from an average of 1.5 vision score per minute to 2.5 - 3 vision score per minute.

Don't give up. Don't give in to frustration. Use mistakes as learning opportunities. Use triumphs as a point of reference of what works and find ways to make those triumphs even stronger. Identify weaknesses, improve them. Identify triumphs, enhance them. You can make it to plat next season. :)