Hey guys!
I am a support main and I play solo queue 99% of the time. I would like to know how do I improve as a support. If possible try to take a look at my match history and if you can judge me according to that, I am all up for it.
Hey Epicomanage,
As a support main since season 4 I have been in bronze and all the way as low as Platinum II. All from playing support! Support isn't as easy as people think believe me and a good support can carry games. I took a look at your op.gg and you seem to be pretty good stat wise but let share a few tips since you asked. By the way there are tons of things to cover but I will cover the main things.
Minimize deaths- So important, trying to limit myself to 3 deaths per game made me a smarter player. Don't get this confused with being passive or conservative. I was just as aggressive as I was before but I made the right plays.( champions, summoner spells on cooldown etc)
Knowing your matchup- Every matchup you have has its strengths and weaknesses. Playing Sona against thresh would be a different experience than play against nami. Learn the matchups between you and your adc and their support and their adc.
Rush Sightstone and Pink ward asap( build items effectively) - So important to ward of course! That is how you protect your lane! I always pink ward tri brush on blue side and the tri brush behind the tower on red side incase for dives in a passive lane. If an aggressive lane buy pinks for river bush.
Map Awareness- Your adc is blind because they are farming. Always check the place you warded on your map and use pings to notify the adc!
5.Team Fight- One of the most crucial things other than the laining phase. If you can protect your team and keep them alive for as long as you can then you have a better chance at winning the fight. I make it a priority to protect my team with active items like redemption, locket etc. and using abilities. Be smart about team fighting because a support is the unsung hero in team fights.
Well, looks like you are in most of the kills in the games you won and had only a few deaths (lets be real, only a bit more than 4 deaths with over 19 kill pariticpation on average is pretty decent), died a bit more in the ones you lost.... But thats to be expected if you are in most of the team fights..... so chances are its not so much that.
I do see that you play only Sona and Janna pretty much though, and while they are pretty awesome (im partial to Nami myself), they are both always so squishy. Even Nami gets a few more defencive items on average than most squishy supports. This does not go so well if the rest of your team also chooses to have next to no defencive items and/or a tank.
I also see you pretty much have the same build on both of them with next to no variations..... Which if it works its fine, but when it doesnt.... Is there something else that might work better?
My suggestion would be try to find a decent tanky support and practice with them for a bit. Sona and Janna are still going to be there whenever you need them, but just adding that one extra champ or two to your pool could make a dramatic difference. Me personally i play almost every support because i like being a generalist, but i would highly recommend making sure to have at least one tanky support you are comfortable playing.
Also, in normals feel free to try out some builds based on enemy team comp. For example, have you done much with Knights Vow? Pretty nice item to have on Nami or some tanky champ...... How about Zekes Herald? Would work well with both Janna and Sona there, as well as a few other AP supports. Mikeals Crucible perhaps with a heal/shield champ if they have some CC on their team like Ashe? Theres many possabilities.
I did not check your ward score etc, but even with a high ward score you may just need to figure out more optimal places to put them. Have you been clearing wards etc well with your Red Trinket? Been grabbing at least a few Control Wards during the game and placing them well? Stuff like that.
Hope this helps :)
my strategy for playing support well:
step 1: play adc step 2: your support will suck. suck so much you want to flame them in chat but you can't because of the rules step 3: the next time you play support, do everything you wish your last support did.
