What is a job of a support?

NuggeTech·May 29, 2016·11 votes·2,722 views

Hey guys! So today I played my very first ranked match and my team won. I had the job of supporting a Tristana. And by god, was that player amazing. However, the player kept on pinging me to be careful when I was not in any danger and when I asked him/her what was the matter, the player told me to not farm. That was odd because how can we get gold w/o farming. When I asked the player this question. he said to just support him or rack up my assists Now, I am not an experienced player at all, so my analogy might incorrect but is their something wrong if a supports gets a kill or farms. In fact during normal matches with Sona, I have done really well and besides supporting and healing my teammates, I managed to rack up a lot of kills. So my question is this, what should be the job of a support? Am I allowed to farm and kill my opponents or just sit back and heal and heal?

P.S. Also what to do if my adc throws a hissy fit just because I am farming and he is not getting a lot of CS.

Thanks guys!

37 Comments

21028037DEL1May 29, 201611 votes

{quoted}

Hey guys! So today I played my very first ranked match and my team won. I had the job of supporting a Tristana. And by god, was that player amazing. However, the player kept on pinging me to be careful when I was not in any danger and when I asked him/her what was the matter, the player told me to not farm. That was odd because how can we get gold w/o farming. When I asked the player this question. he said to just support him or rack up my assists Now, I am not an experienced player at all, so my analogy might incorrect but is their something wrong if a supports gets a kill or farms. In fact during normal matches with Sona, I have done really well and besides supporting and healing my teammates, I managed to rack up a lot of kills. So my question is this, what should be the job of a support? Am I allowed to farm and kill my opponents or just sit back and heal and heal?

P.S. Also what to do if my adc throws a hissy fit just because I am farming and he is not getting a lot of CS.

Thanks guys!

Diamond Support main here. Here's the general consensus of a what a Support should be doing:

At Start of the Game - Buying Items -First, you'll want to pick a GP5 (Gold per 5 seconds) item. -If you are a melee Support (Blitzcrank, Alistar, Braum, etc.) you'll want Relic Shield. -If you are a AP/poke Support (Karma, Morgana, Bard, etc.) you'll want Spellthief's Edge. -If you are a very defensive Support who won't be poking (Soraka, mostly), pick up the Coin. -The rest of your gold should be spent on Red Pots.

At the Start of the Game - Before Laning Phase Starts [at 1:55] -After buying your starting items, you're going to want to run into the jungle next to your starting lane to scout for possible invades. -Especially at lower ELOs, some teams will group up and invade the enemy jungle to try and secure an early first blood. -To avoid this, choose a strategic location (such as right in front of Dragon Pit if you are on Red Side, or in the Tri-Bush if you are on Blue Side) to stand so you can see them coming in advance. -Leash for your Jungler if they are starting in your side of the map. CC the jungle camp once if you can, or heal the jungler if you can.

During Laning Phase - Bot-Side -In this phase, it is important to quickly establish how the lane is going to go. Do they have an all-in level-2 dive with a Draven/Leona lane? Do they have consistent poke/heals with a Lucian/Nami lane? Is there Janna/Morgana protecting the enemy Jhin? You need to know these things early on. -Let's use Sona for this example as you mentioned you play her. Sona is meant to be hyper aggressive early on. You want to Power Chord your Q's, throw in an auto-attack and back off, letting them take a chunk of damage, bonus points if you are hitting a Soraka with all this damage. -Ensure you do not get caught by the enemy Support. As Sona is easily chunked down, beware of hooks. -Try to maintain vision of the river/tri-bush. As Sona is generally aggressive, after your first back to base, you should be buying a Vision (Pink) Ward and placing it in the tri-bush/river. This way, once you get your Sightstone (which should always be your first full-item), you don't have to spend 2 wards to grant vision against the jungler, only the one (with the Vision Ward taking the place of the other ward). -Your eyes should be 70% in lane, 15% skimming the mini-map for Jungler positions (and pinging those to your team), 5% top lane, 5% mid lane, and 5% in the TAB screen to see who has what ults and who has TP/Summoners. -You should not be farming minions. Now, Sona can accidentally farm minions when trying to Q the enemy and that's completely okay. However, you should be letting the ADC dictate the pace of the lane. If he is content to sit there and last hit so the wave doesn't push as hard, let him do that while you poke the enemy and heal. A great partner for Sona is Caitlyn as she usually keeps the wave shoved under the enemy tower. -Now, after saying you can't farm minions, there are some occasions when it is okay to do so. Namely, your ADC has recalled back to base and a minion wave is now under your tower. It is fine for you to take those last hits otherwise that gold is lost to the tower anyway. Also, if a lane needs to be pushed back in the later stages of the game and everyone else is busy/occupied, then that's okay too.

Outside of Laning Phase -Once towers begin falling, it is time for the Support to roam. You still want to protect your ADC, so keep an eye on them on the mini-map and give them some vision before you leave them to farm, but your job now is to help the team secure objectives and win team fights. Try to get the ADC to follow you to another lane is you took out the bot lane tower (if mid lane tower is still up, for example, you both can do mid). This begins to put pressure on the enemy team to respond or they'll lose their own towers. -Vision is key in the later stages of the game. You should have 1 pink ward and all 3 sightstone charges laid out on the map during necessary chokepoints, intersections, or objectives. Ideally, your team will have also each picked up a pink ward, but you can't rely on that.

Overall, a Support's job is to support the team, not just the ADC. There is a misconception that because Support is in the bot lane that they must only defend the ADC. While that certainly is true for the first 10-15 minutes, once laning phase end, the Support should be trying to help whoever is most fed, while simultaneously trying to keep as many teammates from dying as they can.

Weasel KenseiMay 30, 20162 votes

Well put sir.

I main support in ranked, but often in normals I play something else, and when I get bot lane... I get all the derp shit like "Talon support" building full AD no sight stone... so basically I dont get a support.

Anyway, well written post, aspiring supports listen to this its spot on.

BeldairMay 29, 20166 votes

As a Support main i shall help shed light as well...

A support's job is to harrass the enemy early game so that your ADC can get farm...While doing that, you are placing wards in sttategic locations like river bush, drag, tri bush, etc..and keeping an eye on the river for a sign that the enemy jungler is heading bot.

When playing melee supports, relic shield and uaing it's effect helps greatly. AP supports, Frost fang and just poke the enemy.

If you notice the enemy is in a position where y'all can pick up the kill, try and lock the adc down so your's can pick up the kill.

In regards to creep kills, if your adc is dead or backed to base then you can hold the lane. Hold it, not push.

If adc is near, leave the cs for them. They need gold more than us (even though we need some gold too for our supportive items).

The only reason a support should go for the kill is if the rest of your team is in no position to secure it, then you, as a support, can secure the kill.

In teamfights, you stick with your team and poke the enemy team down and provide the same support you gave to the adc to them..that is unless you are a tanky support, then you charge in and tank what damage you can.

NyanzaMay 29, 20164 votes

The role of a support is to support your team. Specifically the adc.

As a support your number one job is to keep your carries alive. You do this by shielding/ healing your adc and using your CC to keep enemies away. This is called peeling.

Supports are also the primary warder on the team. Everyone should be warding (They never do), but supports should be warding the most. Supports should always get a item 2049 and plenty of item 2043 .

The reason you don't farm is because your adc needs it more than you. Get a gold income item instead item 3301 item 3098 item 3302 . Supports are champions designed to be useful with very little amounts of gold. Moral of the story, don't farm unless your adc has gone back.

As a support don't be afraid to ~~take~~ secure kills. Especially as Sona . Your adc will still get gold. Too many times have I given a kill to my adc only for them to die, or let it escape. The enemy is always better dead than alive.

EDIT: Also why are you playing ranked if you don't fully comprehend the role? Go play some normals. Try every role a couple of times. Experiment with different champions. Always play a few games with a champion before playing ranked.

ArakadiaMay 29, 20161 votes

I'd also mention that supp items are very important as without them your very behind on gold. Also that supports dont want to take the gold because they cannot utilize it as well.

ÇhåryzårdMay 29, 20162 votes

Supports do not farm, as the farm is more important to the adc. Your job as a support is to keep your adc safe and also** try to land them kills**, however depending on the lane,** keeping them safe is much more important.**

Later in the game it is your job to help ward the map and to assist your team in teamfights. For example, I'm a Nami main. I keep the enemy cc'd and buff my team mates while also providing heals. My ult is great for engages and provides even more CC. Someone like Thresh or Leona will engage. If Thresh lands the hook, he can go in, flay the enemy back or even ult if he is in the middle of their team. Leona has her ult plus her grab+stun combo to engage. Your way of assisting will be different depending on your chosen support.

As far as kills go, do not try to take kills from other players (but hey accidents do happen. Every once in a while I have the W that bounces off my ally and kills their target) but if your team mate won't be able to reach it, take it.

In lane, both your adc and the enemy will be farming. Farming = gold = more items = more damage. I believe just having 15 minions above your enemy is enough gold equivalent to a kill but don't quote me on this. If your adc has more farm than the other adc, they are ahead, and this is good. CS'ing is probably one of the MOST important things in the game since it is your main way of getting gold and if you fall behind you won't have as much to buy as your opponent, meaning they will be stronger. Supports do not take gold as supports usually have ways of earning gold in lane. For example, item 3303 gives you gold every time you attack an enemy. This is good for poke supports, and even auto attacks give you the gold. item 3302 gives you and your adc gold every time you kill a minion, and it also gives them some health. This is good on tanky supports like Braum or Thresh. item 3301 gives you gold whenever you are near a minion when it dies.

Adc's do not use these items and get their gold from the cs, however you do use these items and should use them as your main source of income, not your adc's minions.

Supports generally ward the most for your team. item 2049 is a must, and later it is really reccomended to get item 3341 as it allows you to get rid of enemy wards. Vision wins games. If you can see your enemy, you know where they are, and if you know where they are, you also know where they aren't. Vision can save you from ganks, it can let you know where the enemy is so you can take important things from them like drag or rift herald. The support is expected to be warding (everyone is supposed to ward, but the support should be doing it the most). Depending on the enemy teamcomp, using item 2043 can be life saving. If you see than rengar "!" over your head, pop the pink down, it reveals im during the ult and gets rid of the surprise. If Vayne ults, put down the pink, you can see her too. It is good for Talon (and this pretty much directly counters his ult) Shaco, Twitch, Eve, and just in general if you want a bush warded for a long time.

There are many different types of supports and I'll mention a few.

Tanks/Engagers - Basically what the name says. They are able to soak up damage and engage for their adc. Braum Leona TahmKench are a few. They usually buy item 3302 .

Poke/Harass - They primarily focus on dealing damage to the enemy and harassing them in lane. Karma Annie Zyra . They may either start with item 3301 or item 3303

Utility/Healers - They can provide damage, but also give the adc buffs and heals. Examples are Soraka Nami Sona Bard . Some of these can double as poke-ers. Nami's W is good for both, since it heals allies and bounces off to attack enemies. Sona can do damage, speed you up, and heal. All of her abilities give you a buff and her augmented autos do different things to the enemy. These supports may also start with either item 3301 or item 3303 .

In general though, I see item 3303 used a lot more than item 3301

So yea, theres my long comment. Hope it helps you all out!

This is all coming from a support main btw, I mainly go Nami or Sona but sometimes I go Nautilus too :)

QjTHqo3RTqMay 29, 20162 votes

Well, there are three different types of supports, and I'm going to categorize them by the type of support item they build. However there is some general stuff a support _should _ do.

Making sure your adc doesn't die. How a support goes about this will depend on their playstyle, but every support will usually have a way to keep their adc alive, with differing levels of success. "You smell like BURNING!" "I KNOW, PLEASE HELP, THEY HAVE IGINITE AND A BRAND, JESUS"
Warding. Now where you ward will depend on the game time and who their jungler is, but usually early you wanna ward tribrush and river bush, though you can spice it up and place it farther down river so you can see drag, though you risk the jungler sneaking up if you dont have tribrush warded. Later, you wanna ward around baron or dragon, whichever happens to be up, or is going to be, this requires checking those timers almost as much your jungler. You can also ward a side of the jungle if someone on your team is spilt pushing, and you dont know if can keep pressure mid for them to keep the spilt push going safely.
Do NOT mess with the minions if at all possible. Expection occurs when you have a stack of relic shield, which will execute the minion if you're melee, giving you and your adc gold and health. Also free to last hit if your adc has backed or died trying to kill the enemy 1v3. However I wouldn't say try to push out by aaing them expect for the killing gold, you're alone and that's a very dangerous position for you.

So to talk about the type of supports, keep in mind certain supports can build more than one type of item, for example, everyone can build an ancient coin, but that also means conforming to the playstyle that ancient coin brings, so this is just a general overview, and not a case by case example.

item 3302 - "Here to soak up damage and dish out cc" Relic shield is built by anyone who tends to gravitate towards being a front liner, and often held by those who have monster cc and protective abilites, for themselves, their adc, or both. The item gives you a stack, of which you can have two, which will execute minions giving the full value gold and a small heal to your adc. Since the gold is given to both and your adc, make sure to a stack for the cannon that comes in between waves. Braum Nautilus and Taric are the guys who you can expect to be building targons almost every game.

item 3303 - "Death is the best cc" Spell thief is the only support item that gives out any kind of offensive stat, and is meant for those who are there to do damage and use their inert cc to stop any kind attempt on their adc. These guys almost mid laners in their play style, expect they have spooky ghosts and wards. If you ask me, most supports who build this item are just bored of waiting 20 minutes trying to get mid, so they qued support and locked in LeBlanc or something stupid. However, it is possible to play like a traditional support when you have this item. Bard Nami and Morgana all play like your average support, expect they do their best to poke the enemy down instead of waiting for all in like a item 3302 user. The more mid laner picks for spell thief users are Annie and Velkoz

item 3301 - "Farm lane" Now gold coin can built by anyone since the health and mana refund applies to everyone, however if they do build this item, what they're saying is "I don't want to fight, I just wanna keep my adc alive and let them farm out." This item is often built by Soraka and Janna These guys have super low kill potential, while also making the enemy lack kill potential in most cases. Hence making the lane a farm lane. In teamfights and all ins, they'll use their powerful defensive abilites to keep the team alive. Anyone who builds this item is accepting the most common image of a support, a backliner who acts as a cleric to keep their team alive

OwltearsMay 30, 20162 votes

There is a tree that you can get in Masteries called Cunning- Bandit. Each time you hit a champion it gives you X gold. Along with items such as item 3301 item 3097 item 3092 can help you with gold upkeep. I always recommend the Ancient Coin as you can kill minions and miss a few and still get gold for them. There are gold runes as well you can use but I don't recommend them as they take away what could be AP, AD, or armor runes.

item 3302 Relic Shield, this is a MELEE ONLY ITEM for melee champions. Executing, or Cs'ing a nearly dead minion with a charge of this will heal you and a random nearby ally and share the gold. If the minion you killed gives 50G both of you get the gold!I use it on Braum Blitzcrank Amumu Maokai there are other melee champions it works for too such as Mord!

item 3301 Ancient Coin- Gives you x gold and x HP per minion you DO NOT KILL. It is a slow but worth it item that is good on all champions I've used it on. I say X as in the upgraded item of it gives MORE hp and gold!

item 3098 Frost Fang - this is good for mage supports that deal lots of damage, poke or snares. It's passive procs after hitting an enemy champion or basic attacking them gives you 15 gold a hit. This also does 15 damage more against turrets and it can happen 3 times every 30 seconds. I'd recommend it on champions such as Lux Lulu Morgana Nami You can always experiment on who it works best for for you, there is no error in experimenting and trying!

All these items turn into other items these ones give wards item 2303 item 2302 item 2301 where as these ones do different things item 3069 speeds you and teammates up, item 3401 gives an %HP shield to a teammate or yourself and when it expires or explodes slows down any enemies near you, item 3092 slows down 2 enemies and reveals their position to you and your teammates.

TIPS:

Unless your lane partner is nearby, do not take any minions. If they died and are respawning or still near the base, kill the minions so they do not push your tower. Even if they get mad that you're "taking my cs!" do it until they are about a third of the way to your tower, once they get that close stop and lower minions that remain for your partner to take.

Some people will get PISSY if you take minions even with Relic Shield and it's upgrades, do not listen to them, so long as you watch the charges you are FINE. remind them you BOTH get gold and a small heal.

Some really good supports I'd recommend you learn to play/get/test the waters with at some point

There are MORE support champs, even those not labeled as one you can use/try as a support such as: Veigar Ziggs LeeSin Heimerdinger Illaoi give any champ a try! (so long as you try it in bots or normals before ranked, that way you wont get people AS mad if you do bad)

You can also do what my husband does AD Thresh, it's a good way to support and at mid to late game can keep enemys away with a single whip.

if you have any other questions or clarifications I'd be happy to answer them for you ^u^

President Swa1nMay 29, 20161 votes

Supports should not take farm when the ADC is around. This is because the support will not be able to contribute as much to the game as an ADC would after obtaining items. I am not fully sure to what extent the ADC was getting mad, but if it was only limited to pings, I think what he was doing is justified.

To prove this point, look up professional games and see how much cs the support has by the end of the game. It'll usually be less than 30.

PS: when the ADC has recalled, of course then you should farm.

NuggeTechMay 29, 20162 votes

Oh! Thanks a lot man. Looks like I was wrong. I guess I became overconfident and wanted a lot for myself. Hey is a 0/4/14 good score for a support on the winning team

CyndercatMay 29, 20163 votes

The score really depends on what champion you are playing, and how many kills in total there were in the game, but in general its pretty good.

President Swa1nMay 30, 20161 votes

No problem :)

As for the score, it really depends on many other things like what objectives you helped take, how many wards you placed and what percentage of kills those 14 assists were. In general, for a game of average length, I would say that score would be a good performance.

President Swa1nMay 30, 20161 votes

I also forgot to mention, if you have Relic Shield and stacks up on it, there should obviously be no problem with you cs'ing. Just make sure you buy it on the right champs though.

BeeCuzMay 29, 20161 votes

My opinion is when you are a level behind your ADC get some creep kills to catch up. When you are the same level, let the ADC gather and use gold for the gear that will enhance team damage output.

http://img04.deviantart.net/bea8/i/2009/061/b/2/libra_by_godofwar.jpg

To watch the replay of that game, paste this into a cmd prompt (make sure LoL is running first):

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ZachGrady4everMay 29, 20161 votes

you don't need to kill the creeps to get xp.

FourVsFiveMay 29, 20161 votes

make sure ADC can safly farm minions, make sure to ward to avoid jungle/mid ganks, after laning phase ward objectives and keep adc alive in team fights, or who ever is carrying game.

DemonBoneJanglesMay 29, 20161 votes

ive noticed there are a few kinds of supports as follows

Shields: these are any support that can soak a lot of damage for the adc, these are consequently the supports most likely to either A:die early, or B: make their adc near unkillable due to sheer tankiness. normally even in gold with adc depending on runes and masteries

Medic: standard buff and heal supports, they prolong the time the adc is in lane through either damage reduction or strong healing effects. Normally slightly behind in gold depending on runes and masteries

Flanker: unlike its name suggests this support type is there for harass and is most likely to either get a kill or sometimes steal the kill from the adc, runs even or ahead due to runes and masteries

lastly Replacements: this is also known as a kill lane, the reason this is a support type is because it defaults to whoever is more behind, if your ahead you're the adc if your lane partner is ahead they are adc, runs even or above depending on kills and creep

This is my view of supports and that's mostly because I play very aggressive supports, however the supports main job is to ward and secure kills for the adc and sometimes, sacrifice themselves to save the adc

BeldairMay 29, 20162 votes

Very true...There have been numerous occasions that i've turned when fleeing and charged right into the enemy team to buy my adc (and jungler sometimes) time to escape.

No flash no lifeMay 29, 20161 votes

Different champs do different things, as a support, so I'm going to leave the variables and minor details, and go for the general expectations from a support.

You are expected to provide vision for your team. You can't play this game without vision.
You need to deny vision from enemy team, similar logic as first point.
While you make your own call and act in however way you deem most beneficial for the team, you need to peel for your squishy adc. As someone else has pointed out, support is the counter against assassins simply because you prevent assassins from assassinating their targets, and if they target you then that's perfect - trading a support for assassin is a steal.

Anything else besides that, such as harassing, roaming, diving, etc, are crucial but relatively insignificant and not necessarily expected from you, especially when doing so may not be the best course of action given the situation.

KVbqbFsC8eMay 29, 20161 votes

Know your place. Never speak unless spoken to, and get carried.

BeldairMay 29, 20165 votes

Perhaps you should know your place. Us supports carry, in our own way. Allies wouldn't get fed enough to carry if not for the support.

DemonBoneJanglesMay 29, 20165 votes

true supports carry the carry ^_^ and they never even ask for a thanks because they know they wont get it, a true support is the silent guardian, the shield to defend against foes then moved aside for the sword to strike

BeldairMay 29, 20163 votes

Exactly.

Weasel KenseiMay 30, 20161 votes

How do I join the church to hear you preach it MOAR!?

Pretty much how I feel.

SOLOQSUPERHEROMay 29, 20161 votes

I'd mention here as your new - some friendly late game advice.

Peeling well at lower Elos especially for more imobile hyper carries (jinx, Ashe, twitch etc) is one of the best ways to win. If you peel well for that kind of adc - after a certain item threshold there isn't much the other team can do, except kill you first.

Athenes LuluMay 29, 20161 votes

Anything to make sure your teammates are doing their jobs.

So for example if your ADC is more comfortable and will be better off by just farming, protect him and try to zone the enemy laners. It can be either poking or just even existing.

If he is better off killing shit in lane, do something so he will get kills more easily. It can range from making picks, poking their eyes out, or just handing out buffs and debuffs so they can kill shit more easily.

This is pretty much the most general advice because botlane is mostly trying to form a quick yet coordinated compromise.

If anything, don't touch the wave, ever, unless you are defending a tower. Many ADCs know how to control minion waves, so even though he is dead and/or just recalled, you may not want to shove the wave. Instead, just last hit when he's gone. If you are trying to touch his wave (cough like last hitting), you are already screwing up how your ADC wants to control the wave, as well as his last-hitting farming patterns. Starter advice, just don't do it.

MunchCrunchLunchMay 29, 20161 votes

it depends on what kind of support. for example. thresh and blitzcrank initiate. soraka and nami heal and stuff. keep team mates healthy. but some do more than one thing. thresh and nami keep their team mates safe in some situations and they have engages. bard too. someone like blitzcrank or leona though do one thing which is engage.

support doesn't mean just the role. its the way you play. for example if you look at maokai top in lcs and stuff. they call him a supportive tank top. because he does things supports do even if hes not in the support role.

and there are supports. i mean "supports" that their role is to blow you up and let their adc last hit you like Velkoz Annie Karma which are complete bullshit to deal with.

also warding and providing utility such as buying support items like locket or mikaels.

DarkRitualMay 29, 20161 votes

For gold income, that's where your support item, and the Bandit mastery come into play. Assists will give you gold as well.

There are times when you can farm. Untill you're much more experienced, I would not actively push a lane unless it's shoved into your tower. It's fine to sit near the wave and attack just once to kill a low-health minion, if your adc had to recall or is dead. Later in the game, you should be spending your time roaming to help the rest of the team (you're the team's support, not the adc's support) and let your adc farm the wave (hopefully they have the sense of mind to know when to push a wave and when to freeze it, but either way it's never your fault if they make a mistake). Wave manipulation is a skill that most players in your ELO (specially just getting into Ranked) won't have a great grasp on, but it's something that's important to learn even as a support.

Now, taking kills is the tricky thing. Yes it's fine to take them sometimes. If your adc is trading and it's REALLY close and they may lose, just help them. Better to have them live with an assist then die and you get the kill anyhow (they won't understand this, but you do what you need to do). If your teammates have no way to get the kill, or doing so is incredibly risky (low hp for example), take the kill. It's better for a support to get a kill and spread some assists than it is for the enemy to walk away free. Just don't risk yourself too much for it.

Sona is a support that thrives on kills more than most.

RisenDarkKnightMay 30, 20161 votes

Generally a support should not be taking farm (you should have a gold generation starting item: spelltheif's on Sona). Ideally you should give kills to your adc too, but it's not important unlesss your adc is Draven (Draven gets A LOT of extra gold from kills but not assists so you should give him kills whenever possible).

What you should do is build a sightstone as early as possible and try to keep dragon warded when it's up/about to spawn, and keep your adc safe from ganks with your wards. You want to poke the enemy bot lane, (and ping then go all in if you have an advantage).

In the mid/late game you should roam a lot and try to get vision safely in the enemy jungle and of baron. Focus on peeling for your adc in teamfights if they are doing well, or protect a more fed teammate or cc the enemy carries if your adc is not doing well. If possible, look for a ping then flash + crescendo combo on the enemy team.

You are allowed to farm whenever another ally isn't there (IE if your adc died/recalled and you are alone in lane) or anytime after 30 mins. If your team has an inhibitor dead, everyone should be killing minions to keep them away from your base, so you can feel free to farm at that point if it happens before 30 mins. That said, sona is not very good at killing minions since she has no AOE abilities (Q only hits 2 minions, ult has a long cooldown and doesn't affect minions), so you should generally let teammates take the farm and just try to get vision and group with your team. You really don't need farm anyway, as making good use of you spellthief's/frostfang plus the passive gold, assists and gold from towers means that you'll usually end up with around 80-85% of the gold of the people that were farming anyway.

I'm a gold IV support main btw feel free to add me in game if you want to duo for a few games!

AptestMay 30, 20161 votes

So my question is this, what should be the job of a support? Am I allowed to farm and kill my opponents or just sit back and heal and heal?

The actual, real role of "support" is to be the pauper who does not farm such that other players can gobble up as much CS as possible.

Its ok to kill your opponents. It's ok to set up plays. It's ok to not protect your ADC (especially if he sucks) and it's definitely ok to decide another players is your win condition and focus on working with that player instead.

But at the core - you are attempting to concentrate as much gold as possible on the 4 other players.

Irelia BotMay 30, 20161 votes

the best way to explain a support is 2 things

Warding

Enabling the rest of the team to have the best chance of carrying.

HigeMay 30, 20161 votes

During season 1 to 5, Supports were meant to... well support, you weren't supposed to do much honestly, just ward and not be a nuisance in lane.

During season 1 the support role really didn't exist much, you were the fifth player on a 4 lane game, you were supposed to starve so if you had some CC on your kit you were ideal, also heals were really appreciated back then. There was nothing for you to build specifically to support though there were several items with auras attached to them so you were expected to build some of those and gp5 in order not to starve too much

During season 2 the role was starting to be defined, vision was completely relegated to supports, even though everyone was able to buy wards, it was YOUR job to do it since you weren't doing much else. Same deal than season 1, stay back so you won't die and feed but since the game was growing and people saw the strategies on the first tournament, meta was starting to settle down so you were judged by your warding skills. Leona was added and things started to change because there wasn't really a lane where she could fit alone.

During season 3 Sightstone was added, this time you had no excuses, you had an item for warding so you better buy that one plus as many wards as you could, also, Riot officially released the third and last healer, nami, who happened to have quite a bit of CC, so champions with CC started flowing towards support as well, Leona shined like the sun and Thresh was released. Aura items disappeared on this season I think.

During season 4 support items were added, talisman of ascension and the like, now you didn't have to spend money on mage items with gp5 tacked onto and you were able to build onto a supportive kind of path. Spellthief's edge empowered a lot of mages to go as a supports, so healers and tanks got relegated, kill lanes became a thing. Trinkets were added as well so warding became a team thing, still you and the jungler were tasked with buying extra wards for good measure...

During season 5 Supports received buff across the board, mainly as scaling utility in order for them to compete with their damage counterpart, now when you inevitably gained AP through your items, your power would be comparable to that of a mage... or so Riot intended... instead Support champion started flowing to other lanes, with Top taric or mid lulu or top Soraka, also, adcs were slowly loosing power so peeler supports were really appreciated, Braum was added so the balance tipped towards tankier peelers. Wards were changed, pink wards were visible now and you could set only one, green wards had a maximum amount while sightstone wards had their own counter, Supports bought the two and warding still was his most prominent job

Lastly season 6... the tables turned, supports became a force to be reckoned, adcs got reworked and while a lot of them ended up being really strong on the offensive side, defensively they were really behind, but as you can see, a lot of work has been poured onto the support role, and as such it became the most diverse role, Supports now determine a lot of the outcome of a lane, aggressive supports have a place on the game as well as reactive supports. Green wards were removed and trinkets became permanent, vision is not your game anymore, your game is winning lane by any means possible, you have become an enabler now, protect your adc actively or watch him fail.

It's been a long road but the support role nowadays is a much MUCH rewarding role, in the past you felt like you were hopeless trying to carry as best as you could from a role that wasn't even thought about, but today you have all the tools to win lane and dictate the pace of a game... sadly, passive supporting is a thing from the past, and those who play like that are having almost no success on the role.

ShadowatomMay 30, 20161 votes

Er, vision is definitely still the supports game (I'll be honest and say I didn't read your entire post, so I apologize and plan to read it in a second). Vision supplied by the support can create so much objective control when it comes to baron or dragon. If you set up correctly, you can really effectively take dragons/barons because you'll either know the enemy team is there or not. Obviously this isn't the sole job of the support now as you said it was in season 2, but vision is and probably always will be one of the support's jobs.

HigeMay 30, 20161 votes

I agree.

Vision as you define it became more of a job for the jungler and the laners themselves since wards are limited and each person can cover more range of vision than 1.

Now, denying vision is kinda more your thing during early game, you need to pay close attention to were the enemy wards are and be ready to take said wards down, the support who has control over the enemy's vision is the better support at least during this season. You also happen to buy a sightstone just because your trinket is the red one, so you replace it for a sightstone in order to keep dishing out wards.

During late game, you are (or should... the amount of supports without sightstone these days...) the one with the invisible wards at hand so yes, strategic vision becomes your game after laning phase.

Naag OneMay 30, 20161 votes

a support's job is to get me a game faster after I queue up :D

Weasel KenseiMay 30, 20161 votes

I made a video on the "BASICS" of supporting. One of the feedback comments I got was that it didnt include the niche reasons a support may take ignite (but in my mind niche reasons are out of the scope of basics).

Anyway, maybe youll hate it, maybe it will help you.

FeelsBardMain gave you some good reading material.

Short reason on why you dont take farm in the bot lane is: The ADC scales with items, if they dont get farm they dont get items. This will mean they will be useless and you are contributing to their ultimate failure by starving them of farm. Supports have utility that benefits from items, but can often still be accomplished without loads of AP/AD/Armor/MR etc. An example is Sonas ult, it is good from level 6 and stays good because of what it does.

Here is the guide, maybe it wont bore you too much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qotKTLKEfXE&index=4&list=PLNvXxO-JU2bWqt03NJn-mk98qbG8n2Za_

Weasel KenseiMay 30, 20161 votes

Id go so far as to try and support you in a few matches as different supports if you would like.