How does a support main climb the ladder efficiently?

ZarProductions·8/5/2015, 11:42:53 AM·3 votes·3,963 views

I've been a support main since season 3, it's a role that I thoroughly enjoy as it identifies towards me. Currently, I am Silver 1 and I'm stuck there. I have a large pool of champions as support and I always pick my support to what my team currently needs such as:

Alistar for pure CC
Janna for major peel/disengage
Soraka for really weak early game ADC's

Are there any other support mains out there that have this same problem? Or are there people that have conquered this problem and could share any advice? If so, I would really appreciate your input.

31 Comments

joebobby14128/5/2015, 10:37:54 PM6 votes

I don't really feel like Support mains facing any extra challenges in climbing. I know, most people think so, but everyone complains "my team is so bad" everyone asks "how do I climb?" everyone complains "I'm stuck/I'm in ELO hell".

I can understand the logic of: Since you rely on your teammates for damage you are putting the fate of the game in your teammates hands, but that's not totally true. Yes, you rely on them for damage, but you should be able to make it super straight forward and easy for them to do their job.

Think about how you play with your ADC, your ADC has 1 job: do damage. Now, they are all literally dead gophers so this might be a challenge. It's your job to protect them, empower them, CC the enemy, ward as much as possible, and sacrifice your self for them. If you manage to do all that as effectively as possible, your brain dead ADC should be able to melt the enemies faces with damage.

Is your job harder than anyone else's? Maybe, maybe not- it doesn't matter. If you expect to be able to climb, you have to be able to carry. That means regardless of your role you have to do more than what is expected of you, you have to win your lane as well as help your teammates with theirs, you have to be able to dominate a teamfight (with damage/CC/tankiness/buffs for your team).

Also, while I'm not personally a fan of Soraka, I applaud your ability to pick something to fit your team and ADC match up decently. I feel like most people still don't do that, even in Plat.

Valhalla Rising8/5/2015, 2:03:44 PM3 votes

my advice which might not even be good, dont rely on your adc.

let them have their farm but dont expect them to follow up your engages, and dont let them have kills if you sense the gold is going to be wasted on them.

basically, get a feel for your adc, if you think they are good let them get kb's and engage for them, if you think they stink, just peel for them and if you can, ks them if you manage to counter engage.

I personally only play poke/kill supps because whats the point in healing/shielding a baddie for 20 minutes just to have them throw late game. while you watch helplessly with peanut gold earned.

Aeolian Melodies8/6/2015, 3:43:44 AM2 votes

{quoted}

I've been a support main since season 3, it's a role that I thoroughly enjoy as it identifies towards me. Currently, I am Silver 1 and I'm stuck there. I have a large pool of champions as support and I always pick my support to what my team currently needs such as:

Alistar for pure CC

Janna for major peel/disengage

Soraka for really weak early game ADC's

Are there any other support mains out there that have this same problem? Or are there people that have conquered this problem and could share any advice? If so, I would really appreciate your input.

Our of those you play, only Alistar has a real potential to be threatening, and even that is dependent on his ADC actually doing something when he delivers an enemy on a silver platter. Annie, Zyra, Morgana, Karma, and even Sona are more independent. They don't really need their ADC's contribution to poke and zone the enemy lane.

And, of course, and even if I don't play him myself because principles, one can hardly talk of support without mentioning Thresh. Engages? Check. Disengages? Check. Poke? Check. Wtf free armor on his passive? Check. Decent base damages for no valid reason at all? Check.

Janna and Soraka are 100% dependent on their carries; they are pure enablers, only as good as the person they are committed to keeping alive. Think about it: if your teammates are worthless, what good is Monsoon or constant heals? Janna, especially, I feel is not that good if you aren't with a carry who somewhat knows how to farm and how to trade. Her lack of sustain and her lack of hard engage can make her hard to succeed with in low elo - her success rate AND her popularity in ranked yoloQQ increases with ranking.

I got to gold in S2 and S3 and to plat in S4 by maining support: really what you must do to climb as a support is be aware.

Aware of what's going on - if the jungler just showed top, it's time to be aggro bot because you know for sure he's not coming, if your jungler just came for a double kill bot, it's perfect time for either a tower or dragon, ping it! etc
Aware of match ups - you need to be aware of your ADC's limits (as a champion), your limits, and the enemies' limits. Like, don't try to lvl 1 trade Annie + MF as Janna + Vayne. You're going to get stunned, you're going to get shredded, and then zoned. You must understand how to play from behind (play conservative, don't let them feed off you any more than they already did), and how to play when you're ahead (put pressure on them, don't let them come back in farm, don't let them get ganks to get the shutdown on your ADC, shove the lane, take the turret, move your power and pressure to other lanes, MAKE AN IMPACT).
If you pick late, be aware of your comp and what it lacks. If your comp lacks hard engage, it's probably not a good time to play Janna - think Sona, Alistar, or Blitzcrank instead. If you have a poke ADC like Ashe or Cait, don't pick Leona who's an all-in kind of support. If you have a burst ADC like Graves who wants you to stun them and blow them up, don't pick Soraka. etc.

Also, move. You are the team's support. You aren't tied to the ADC. If he's farming under turret after you just killed the enemy ADC, you can potentially move out (with or without your jungler) to try and make a play either mid or in the enemy jungle (with your jungler), or at the very least drop a ward in the enemy jungle so your team has knowledge. Your ADC doesn't need your presence to last hit, and generally speaking they should be able to handle being left alone in an empty lane/vs the enemy support alone while you go and make an impact somewhere else.

Learning how to adapt builds is a good thing, too: as a support you generally don't care about dmg and your build is reactive, depending on what your team needs and who is a threat on the other side. I mean, for instance Crucible is good and all, but really is the enemy team is WW - Janna - Yasuo - Kalista - Jayce, what in the hell are you going to use the active for (besides the heal I guess...)? What are you going to cleanse, Janna's W?

Last but not least, and especially if you play Soraka and Janna: know who is worth saving. Know WHO is ACTUALLY carrying your team. Found that guy? Keep that guy alive. At any cost. HE needs your Talisman flash Monsoon Locket save. Not the 0-10-0 Nunu who hasn't done a single worthy thing in the entire game.

Big Pops8/6/2015, 6:36:14 AM2 votes

I would recommend being the eyes for your team if you aren't yet. By that I mean is when I support which is my main role I keep checking the map and ping for my team mates who may otherwise be lacking map awareness but this happens more since I'm in S3. Other than that idk what else to add but I'd recommend you master good warding position. By this I mean that warding in the bush isn't always the best place to ward but you may know what all ready. Also I'm a Braum main and after going on a short solo queue hiatus I've come back to go on a 9 ranked game winning streak only using Braum (S4 0 Lp to S3 17 Lp). Anyway I hope something here helped and good luck!

Tyren8/5/2015, 3:08:34 PM1 votes

I'm also a big fan of Lulu and Annie support, that way if your adc and you are not on the same page you can still be a threat with damage and cc. You also don't have to pray your adc will follow up.

NERDSMASHER50018/5/2015, 3:09:22 PM1 votes

janna is the equivalent of elo boosting

colesy8/5/2015, 6:39:49 PM1 votes

if you want to climb, pick playmaker supports. blitz or thresh hooks, tahm carry saves, alistar 3-man knockups, nautilus hooks or ults through an entire team are things that can decide games. get your carry fed early on, leave them and start to roam. your top and mid laners will most likely have the most impact in the early and early-mid game so getting them ahead increases your chances of winning massively. support kits function independent on XP and gold so it's not even like the loss of xp by roaming even matters that much.

TheEvilQueen1358/5/2015, 2:18:23 PM1 votes

I also seem to have this problem :p i tend to go braum though to make sure my team has a decent tank, it's got me from b4 to b2...

UnluckySupportQ8/6/2015, 12:21:57 AM1 votes

I feel the best way to climb ladder as support is with Nami. She's like Sona but only 1000000000000000000000000000000000000times better just without the really cool DJ skin. I main her in my ranked games. If you are smart with your Q you can stop an enemy engage or start your own. The hold is sooooo long it's equal to just having a poor mans Sona ult. (Smart meaning if lets say ur vs blitz and your ADC gets grabbed you Q the ADC. Blitz wont solo kill you ADC. Esp. since you have heal and dmg buff. This really goes with any "hook" champ.) If your ADC lacks dmg or just bad at last hitting you can throw tidecallers blessing on them. I depending on how my ADC plays by level 3 will either go max E first or Heal. Heal if my ADC is getting poked. E if I'm with a Vayne and I want the lawn mower to just cut the grass or my adc seems to know how to avoid poke and engage. Yes, I realize it's easier to poke with the heal, but an Auto with an E is more dmg plus a slow. (should note I personally dont run the frost item. I realize it's more gold with poke, but I like the heal and the speed boost with ult. Just overrun the enemy and kill important targets fast.) Last Nami's ult is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO far. Great engage with JG coming in (best with WW. Ult, then he ults then follow up with Q... yea that person is dead.) Also great disengage from a bad team fight or jg gank. Should also add he W and E give speed boosts.

Zheak8/6/2015, 12:42:37 AM1 votes

Play Janna Janna Janna Janna Janna Janna

Let's explain

She's fast, can roam extremely effectively, counters the initiating support meta (ali, braum, leona, trundle, etc) She gives fucktons of damage (it's really hard to lose as an adc when your support gives you an extra bfsword, like wtf.) If your lane fails, make another lane succeed.

wwwdots8/6/2015, 6:18:15 AM1 votes

bait, shot call, vision obviously better make it at min of 30 ward rate per game, pressure/zone, roam, gank other lane, peel , keep track of cd on champs, keep track of where jungler be at, keep track of assist of who kill what, ping ping ping

Wakamune8/6/2015, 7:00:59 PM1 votes

I agree that Janna isn't the best lower elo support unless you have to deal with leona's and xin zhao's on the other team. If you start with a spell thief you can zone pretty well for the first few levels with AA's, shield, and her W but after that your zoning/poking is match up dependent.

If your adc is Cait but there's is Vayne and your Cait is just letting her farm because they want to "Feel safe" farming behind a 650 range, is Cait still worth peeling for when Vayne outscales her that hard?

The "problem" with pure peeling supports is that even if your adc is good, it doesn't mean the rest of your team understands the value of disengaging and re-engaging (or ....just disengage and move on after 2 kills while they can get away with no deaths). People also don't always recognize a bad teamfight comp from the get go because the poke-splitpush-disengage strat takes co-ordination.

As soon as I switch to Sona from Janna, I start pubstomping like mad:

http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/39148513#ranked-stats

Granted, it's easier to make mistakes on Janna but playing AA-poke supports that get punished harder for positioning might be the learning tool I need atm.

SadBoyRhymes8/5/2015, 2:28:07 PM1 votes

Morgana, Thresh and Leona. You can easily carry with these 3 champs

Who Dat Boi8/7/2015, 9:53:33 PM1 votes

DUO PARTNER

AZAR0TH8/5/2015, 2:58:33 PM1 votes

Maybe you could try to find some duo partner?

Im really confident in my ADC skills. I'm working my way out of silver. I have another account on which I trained and play normals against higher elo ppl so I have no doubt I'll get out of silver in no time.

Even more easier with a support main that knows what to do ! I can play all 5 roles efficiently. If you want to add me you can. I could duo bot or fill if anyone else wants ADC