Thinking of shifting to support for climbing.

The entire team·Apr 10, 2019·5 votes·6,213 views

Now that ADCs are much more impactful than ever, I do think it’s a good idea to learn how to help. Any tips for supports?

19 Comments

DODGEORLOSEApr 10, 20193 votes

Zyra. Your adc can't get killed by the enemy bot lane if you kill the enemy bot lane first.

ChaosReynApr 11, 20193 votes

I will preface this by saying it's a lot harder to climb as a support than you might think. I main both halves of bot lane...so honestly I'm gonna break this into 3 parts: vision, positioning, and communication (and as a bonus: psychology)

#Vision Vision is one of the biggest influences you can have as a support. Obviously, as a support you will be the one who almost always gets the heat for a lack of vision...don't worry about the heat - if you're alone in vision control, you're still doing your part. The key is that you should do your absolute best to monitor specific areas with your wards, and shut down the enemy vision of these areas, so that your adc can ward more reactively in the early game. Mainly speaking, gank paths: river bush, tri-bush, in front of dragon, and if possible, some deep wards in the bot side enemy jungle, all of those are wards you should be looking to place any also deny from the enemy once you can switch to sweeper. Let the adc ward the lane bushes when they need the vision - this is what I mean by allowing your adc to ward reactively.

By mid/late game, your vision goals switch to areas around objectives, and your team should be working with you to ward everything around the objective you're looking to take. Specifically, you and your jungler should also be attempting to deny any enemy vision around the objective with sweepers and aggressive pink wards.

#Positioning This one can get a bit tricky, and it'll also vary depending on what you play, and how both your adc and the enemy bot play. For tanks with a lot of crowd control, you want to be in range to threaten pressure, but not in range to take a bunch of free poke damage. As a mage or enchanter, you want to be in range to both catch the enemy in a painful combo, and in range to immediately punish the enemy for trying to combo you or your adc...again, without taking a bunch of free damage. With some special exceptions like Braum, Janna, or Kench, you want to take a more defensive position, ready to de-initiate your adc from the fight, and stop the enemy from reaching them. These are all general styles and examples...positioning changes with every game, and every situation.

Essentially, the optimum positioning during teamfights isn't all that dis-similar to how most other cases work - if you're a tank, you're a frontliner. If you're not a tank, you're a backliner. If you're playing Sona and are standing 20 units away from 5 people, you're inting. If you're playing Leona and you're standing behind your adc, your adc is the one wearing the pants in this bot lane relationship, and you should probably not play tanks. :P

#Communication The great divider...and also the reason I need to throw in the psychology bonus. A lot of people lose bot lane from a simple case of "I'm sorry, I thought you were going to hit them when I went in and beat them up!" and the resulting flame war thereafter. Proper communication with your team, and particularly your adc, is the most notable difference in handling bot lane efficiently. What good does it do blow your full combo on a catch if your adc's playing too passive to follow up? What good does it do trying to run out and save him if he flash/heals forward into a 1v4 as the jungle and mid collapse? What good are pings if nobody listens to them?

You personally can only give 1/2 (or 1/5 in teamfights) of this issue any effort. Be sure to always ping mias, try to ping or indicate vision to your jungler, and basically be sort of like a global shotcaller. If the jungler is the "captain" or the team, you are its "strategist." The jungler will come through and ping objective calls and ganks...a god-tier support should be pinging areas where they need vision, the enemy has vision, or the enemy is missing. If you're a true god, you can also ping the mias of other lanes (since we all know mid pings mia only once every 7 millennia) and essentially be the backbone of your team. What you lack in strong kill potential, you more than make up for in map control, map awareness, and overall just being the voice of reason for your team. Most junglers will respect the opinions of a support's shotcalls - if you ping that you shouldn't do baron, they're more likely to think twice than to force the issue, simply because the jungler is the closest player to understanding your position - they're basically roaming supports in their own right...though their way of supporting is usually a lot more brutal than your own.

#Psychology I'm specifically including this as a sub-plot to points 2&3. If you can figure out a general idea of how your team or the enemy team play, you can use it to get in their heads. For example...you recently cleared their vision in river. You have a pink ward in your river bush, so you know for a fact they haven't re-established it. Here's where you can play some mind games. >:D If your adc is a passive player, you can utilize this moment to scare the enemy team by shoving super aggressively at them - as if your jungler was about to gank for you. If nothing else, this gives your adc just a bit more breathing room. If your adc is on the same wavelength as you, this can also equate to a ton of free damage if they follow up, before you back off and reset.

Another example: if your jungler is sitting in that same bush waiting to gank, you can effectively "mind control" your enemies pretty much right to him: you and your adc simply need to walk towards your lane bush together, as if trying to land some skillshots from that angle, and the enemy team will almost always walk pretty much right to it if they're pushed in, or they'll run under turret in fear of falling for that bait and give you some breathing room.

The key to mindgames is to not get repetitive.

You can also use psychology to get a general reading of how your adc expects the lane to run by their positioning and their playstyle, and position yourself in a way to supplement them. Look up "The Playstyle Triangle" for a quick psychology lesson there...and keep in mind that when specifically attempting to supplement your team, you kind of want to reverse how it works - you don't want to try to bait people with a passive adc - you'll die. You don't want to play super passive when your adc is in their face - they'll die. and you don't want to play super aggressive when your adc is trying to set something up - you'll piss them off and they'll more than likely die trying to force their setup in frustration.

l MrD lApr 10, 20192 votes

play real supports not these fake AP supports such as brand and zyra ... Prioritise on keeping your ADC alive even if it means sacrificing your own ... treat them like a baby basically lol

DODGEORLOSEApr 10, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=l MrD l,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=TVTdKnzQ,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2019-04-10T21:52:40.933+0000)

play real supports not these fake AP supports such as brand and zyra ... Prioritise on keeping your ADC alive even if it means sacrificing your own ... treat them like a baby basically lol

Who's the real fake support? The ones who do well in every meta? Probably not.

l MrD lApr 10, 20192 votes

{quoted}

Who's the real fake support? The ones who do well in every meta? Probably not.

the ones who actually savrifice damage in favour of strong utility to aid the team

DODGEORLOSEApr 11, 20193 votes

[{quoted}](name=l MrD l,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=TVTdKnzQ,comment-id=000300000000,timestamp=2019-04-10T23:27:18.169+0000)

the ones who actually savrifice damage in favour of strong utility to aid the team

Why bother helping your team when you can just kill your enemies?

Sir SaltarinApr 10, 20192 votes

Now that ADCs are much more impactful than ever

Wait what

ChaosReynApr 11, 20191 votes

to be fair, compared to seasons 7 and 8, this is an accurate statement. Not everyone was around for season 2 and 3. xD

JhinuinelyDunkApr 11, 20192 votes

Season 7 was ardent meta

Jerry SeinfeIdApr 11, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=Sir Saltarin,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=TVTdKnzQ,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2019-04-10T22:20:23.187+0000)

Wait what

did you not know that if they're not in the gutter they're more impactfull than ever?

MorgManBasherApr 11, 20192 votes

Flame your adc whenever you can. Take as much farm and jungle camps as you can, while rotating mid to take towers and as much CS as you can. Taunt enemy bot lane while spamming mastery 7 as much as possible. Flame your jungler even if you are winning because why not. Buy pinks and then flame your team for not buying any so they can know you are the superior player. Only play mage supports Zyra Velkoz Fiddlesticks Xerath 1 v 9 and talk shit about having the highest damage done in the game even though you know you were poking 2 people all game and building a item 3151

Congrats, you are on your way to diamond.

FSRERApr 11, 20191 votes

Nononononono, no You start one tricking Morgana and Thresh , beating every adc and support you see and with them you clinb to challenger

KalikainApr 10, 20191 votes

If you're looking to impact the current game state better, and not wanting to be the solo laner/adc, I'd pick jungle and camp top lane. Top laners right now are the most influential outside of the occasional fed mid and vayne adc.

GodlyBaneApr 11, 20191 votes

{quoted}

If you're looking to impact the current game state better, and not wanting to be the solo laner/adc, I'd pick jungle and camp top lane. Top laners right now are the most influential outside of the occasional fed mid and vayne adc.

Jungle isnt as good for carrying sadly.

Silly NeekoApr 10, 20191 votes

Yeah, expect that the ADC has no clue what they are doing.... and be pleasently surprised when they do. (They are doing the same with you)

Quite often the Support is the actual carry until the ADC can just stat check, at which point the ADC becomes the carry. Do not expect praise, do not take the farm unless they are not there, and if you can hold the wave by body blocking the minions before they reach the tower.... do so.

Learn good warding habits, there is many videos on this.... and it nearly never goes out of date. So learning where to ward is very good indeed.

Be ready to mute. It is not needed all the time, but just be ready.

If you are playing Nami.... REMEMBER. Your Q when cast on an ally will give move speed boost. Your E will as well, and your W. This is because of your passive. Use an alternating E and Q to help get back to lane faster, feel free to heal the jungler when they are around bott side as you are going through. When in team fight situations.... stand slightly behind your team so when you ulti, your team gets move speed boost that is double the passive. Aim it at the enemies for a lovely little boost for engage and also for knock up. Your E can be used to help your ADC farm caster minions under tower. They can take the casters with 1 auto after a turret shot rather than 2.

There is more champ specific things but yeah. People dont always understand Nami even if they can do well with her. So I figured i would explain for her because nobody usually covers that stuff.