How to get an S as support? (last game linked)

Nova Skye·10/4/2016, 5:57:47 PM·1 votes·694 views

This is my last ranked game as Nami support. I got an A. What does a support have to do to get an S- or higher?

For instance, I know for most other positions CS comes into play but obviously that shouldn't be the case for supports. So what am I missing here? ~64% kill participation (could be better, but my team was split all over the map trying to stop split pushes, so at best I was only getting half participation for stopping half a split). Is that what kept me from S this time?

The fact that I was the one to turn several plays around as support (stopped so many kills for the other team that didn't necessarily end in a kill for us, but just an escape) kinda stings a little. As a programmer I know it can probably only look at stats, and there's no real way to track saves, but still...

12 Comments

LoomberFoot10/4/2016, 6:00:39 PM1 votes

Wards

Kempachi Taichou10/4/2016, 6:07:40 PM1 votes

Queue up with a decent ADC/JG... Your grade really relies on them being good too.

ghaoul10/4/2016, 9:11:44 PM1 votes

TL;DR I recommend Janna

Which may sound like a harder task, but because she's so squishy it means what you do that's comparable as Nami is worth more with Janna...?

Just kidding. Her squishier self might lower the margin a bit, but at the same time with all your CC the bar might raise more than it lowers. So really Janna, I feel, is good for learning how to play an extremely active, often in the eye-of-the-storm, support (sometimes to the point where you're accidentally getting kills with your W) that is, in fact, a support character - as opposed to being Veigar or heaven forbid another Brand.

At least, that's my experience. I went from playing Leona, Blitz and Morg for supps, starting to experiment with Nami, Soraka and finally Janna. Before I knew it I was getting the S range of rankings with Janna without even meaning to.

Perhaps it was getting Forecast and then FNATIC from hextech that subconsciously motivated me, who knows.

I'll be the first to admit that my most recent match history hasn't been stellar - the curse of the final key fragment quest! Among them, though, there are more wins with Janna than other champs.

One thing that's a fine art and perhaps more possible to learn with Janna than with any other champ: the art of being all but always helpful, while earning not but a single death. Her kit just feels designed for it, even if you don't get CDR boots. I'll never forget that 3/0/29.

If I die even once in a match as Janna now, I'll almost always find a way that I could've avoided it in retrospect. Again, it just feels like her kit is designed for it.

ghaoul10/9/2016, 7:42:35 PM1 votes

Jumped in the other day after days of not playing much. 2 straight up S-ranks back-to-back, an abysmal game and then finally the 3rd and still unexpected S-rank for all 3 Mastery 7 tokens. I had over 50% kill participation in those matches and my team was great, but I just believe all the more that Janna really trains you to learn how to be as efficient as possible while minimizing casualties - your own and those of teammates.

I really think that experience can be valuable to earning S-ranks with other supports who train you to be a little too aggressive thanks to their kits, but I'll see about getting S-rank with other supports now, among other roles.