PSA: Support Picks!

Hello everyone, I made a post a while back explaining some basic concepts surrounding the support role since many people who get stuck with support may not be familiar with it, unless of course you are like me and make support the primary role (here it is if anyone would like to read it: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/GKYEuJrE-psa-to-players-from-a-support-main)

So today, I wanted to follow up on it by explaining some good support choices to go for if you end up with support. It's hard sometimes to choose a good one if you are unfamiliar with the role, so let me tell you a few!

DISCLAIMER: I am not an amazing diamond 1 support, but I have played the role for a long time, so I know the many basics that revolve around it, and thus, some good choices for support

Simply Support: These are supports who, for lack of better words, aren't demanding. They do not have complex mechanics or skills and are actually quite straight forward. I do not want to say a champ is easy as that is entirely subjective.

ahhh, the dark child. a literal stun machine if I have ever seen one. Annie's been picked bot lately, especially in lower elos, because not only can she keep the adc relatively alive with her cc, but her status as a mage lets her build damage at the same time, helping her scale late game. The primary thing that makes annie so good is her passive: after 4 spells are cast, the next one stuns. Basically, if you see an Annie with white stuff glowing around her, she can stun the enemy with her next spell. This is super easy to get going especially with your e, molten shield: annie creates a shield around herself. So just spam this puppy a few times walking to lane and youll have a stun ready.

This man is on fire! Literally! Brand's been seen a few times bot for the same reason annie has: great damage and has some utility to keep carry alive. He also has, imo, one of the best team fight ulti's in the game. His poke in the laning phase is also so good because of his passive Blaze. Blaze essentially sets the target on fire for any time they are hit by your spells. Additionally, blaze enhances your spells, giving additional effects if you hit another spell on a target already with the blaze debuff. For example, if I throw out my q on a blazed target, they get stunned.

WARNING: Brand and Annie bring alot of damage, but they are not tanky fronliners. If they get focused or caught out they will die. Try to avoid picking them if your team does not have a lot of tank.

"R" Supports: I call these set of supports the "R" supports because their ulti's are incredibly strong and can swing teamfights in their favor. Their kits are also full of utility.

The sunny girl herself. Leona is a tanky support who has a ton of cc. On top of that, she has a great early game with zenith blade, a skillshot that, if it lands on an enemy champ, stuns the champ and pulls leona toward them. Being in the middle of the fight, her w gives her resists and her e lets her next auto stun the enemy. We aren't even talking about her ulti. Literally call a sun flare down on your enemies, if enemies are caught in the middle, they get stun. You literally can start a teamfight from a point where the enemy can't even go on you!

The star child, bane of every enemy team's existence. This girl here has heals to keep even the worst, most reckless of team mates alive. Her starfall makes poke in the laning phase great, as it not only damages the enemy, but if landed properly can also heal you. Her ulti literally heals everyone on your team. Everyone. Doesn't matter where they are, so long as they are alive to get healed. Soraka is going to require a bit of map presence as a result.

Playmaker Supports: These are supports that can take an enemy out of position and make a team fight happen in their teams favor. Regardless of what your team comp is, these fellas are always welcome.

The one, the only, Steam Golem! Blitzcrank is one of the most annoying support champs in the game. And he's not even suppose to be a support. His ulti is an aoe silence and damage burst, while his w and e give him move speed and a knock up respectively. But so what? Well, Blitzcrank is infamous for his Q, Rocket Grab: a skilshot that, if landed, pulls an enemy towards you. Now, this can either be amazing or terrible. Amazing? You hook the mid or adc out of position and turn a team fight into a 4v5. Terrible? You hook someone with a devasting ulti (i.e. ) right into the middle of your team and you all die. Definitely use this skill with caution.

Thresh oh thresh, how i love you so! This guy is, imo, one of the strongest supports in the game and is my personal favorite. His q has him throw a hook out similar to Blitzcranks, but instead of pulling the enemy to you, you go to them. And its not some automatic fly to the enemy. You can pull the enemy a little bit if you want and re-activating q will allow you to decide whether you want to fly to the enemy or not. His w throws out his lantern to provide a small shield and can be used by your teammates to make a quick escape. His e lets him disengage or engage the enemy, depending on what you want to do, and also gives your auto's a bit of punch every so often. His ulti, while not some devastating aoe stun like Leona's, is just as amazing. On activation, you summon walls in an area that act like a box. Enemies who go through the box get slowed while also taking some damage (but only on the first wall they trigger, the slow can get reapplied but not the damage). This is amazing in teamfights for keeping the enemy team from escaping or protecting a teammate. All in all, combined with some items, Thresh can be a pain to deal with. WARNING: Thresh has been around for 3 years, but if you play him realize this: there are people who don't know what the lantern does. This has become a recurring joke that sadly has a lot of truth. Make sure your teammates know what your lantern does. It is so frustrating having someone in the chat ask why i threw the lantern at them and didn't try to save them.

Supports to avoid: These are just some picks off the top of my head that one should not pick if they are new to support. Understand that this does not mean they are bad picks, but simply are ones who are easy to mess up or may simply not work.

Doot Doot! If I'm going to be honest, this guy is actually a really good support. His laning phase is strong, he can scale decently with his passive and his ulti, Tempered Fate, can be a huge game changer. So why is he in the avoid list? Bard requires one thing that soloque and sometimes in some teams lack: Communication. His kit revolves around your teammates knowing what you want to do to execute a play properly. Communication just isn't there in solo que, especially in lower elos. His ulti is also very VERY easy to mess up. For those unfamiliar with it, It essentially freezes an area and turns them untargetable, which works on everything from towers to baron. So you can imagine how you could mess it up in a teamfight if you are not use d to it.

Sona is bit complicated for those who have never played her and does require a little bit of adjusting to her kit. The biggest issue with her, at least from my experience, is how easy it is to predict her. You just know a Sona is gonna try to poke you when she moves toward you. As , I've taken advantage of her poke to hook her and score an early kill for my adc. She can be very strong, however, and her skills bring alot of ultity.

Janna is like thresh in that she is great at engaging and disengaging. She can throw a tornado that knocks enemies up, her ulti is basically a reset for her team, knocking enemies back and healing those in the ulti range. Her shield is amazing in laning and teamfights and can evening be applied to towers. The difference between her and thresh, however, is that she is not tanky. One stun and a few autos from an adc (not including any other damage being done to her) and she can get melted. There is also a delay on her tornado. She can activate it early rather then letting it wind up, but the knockup is going to be much shorter and at close range, aware players can just move to the side.

I've seen this a few times and tried it myself. The idea here is to poke with your cheese wheel and just keep the adc away from the minion wave. It doesn't work well. Malp already has issues with mana top lane, so putting him bot where he is going to have an additional champ to deal with is going make him oom fast. Yea, he's tanky, making him not a great champ to focus in lane, and he's got one of the "R" ulti's, but it'd be better to put him top, let him farm and get items and let another, more suitable support take bot.

Just don't. Please.

Thanks to those who read all the way. Alot of posts recently about supports and their maltreatment so I thought a post in a different direction that sort of helps people in the support role might help. If enough people found this helpful then I'll be more then happy to keep this sort of post series going. If you think of another support that I didn't put here, feel free to put it in the comments.