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Transitioning From Poke Support to Tank/Engage Support

MathProfessor314·8/10/2015, 1:45:19 PM·1 votes·1,460 views

Hello!

I was hoping to get some help with trying to pick up tank supports which seem pretty strong in the current meta. I have only ever played poke supports like Sona, Soraka, Morgana, and Karma. My playstyle was always to play aggresive with poke early on to gain an advantage and then to just consistently pressure the opposing adc while my adc can farm safely.

It seems as though right now tanky supports are "better" in the sense that most of my games no matter what happens early on end up turning into who can win the big team fight. While some of the champs I play have team fight presence, I always seem to be out done by the opposing teams tanky Naut, Ali, Thresh, Leona, etc.

I guess what I am looking for is some tips on what mindset I need to play these champs. When I play them I end up dieing a lot or just having no impact from being too scared to go all the way in. On top of that I believe I am having trouble switching from my GO HAM poke playstyle at lvl 1 to a more passive farm up a little bit playstyle with the tanks.

Any tips would be appreciated!

TLDR: I play Poke supports, I suck at Tank supports...help

5 Comments

Häßlich8/10/2015, 2:42:50 PM1 votes

Melee supports are more about direct all-ins and peeling ability, so your goal should be to either engage, trade, and disengage better than the enemy, or just straight up kill them if you can. In either case, you can't afford to play passively or be wishy-washy with your decision making. Above all, as with everything in this game, just practice a lot.

RogueWill8/10/2015, 3:08:17 PM1 votes

Is easy. 1.Pick a champion. 2. Check when he gets his powerspike early game (Leona for example gets it at 2 and 6) 3. Wait for the powerspike. 4. Check your adc hp, your own hp, the enemy adc hp and the enemy support hp as well as minion positioning. 5. If your hp>enemy hp then initiate (probably should ping unless you are on a call so your adc can follow) 6. After burst, if enemy hp higher than half then retreat, if enemy hp lower than 25% then pressure for kill anything in between can go either way. 7. If you win trade go back to step 4, if trade lose go bact to step 3 8. rinse and repeat

Miror B8/10/2015, 3:29:39 PM1 votes

Yeah, tank supports are simultaneously easier and harder to master as although the movements are more simple (you either go all-in, or don't), the prediction required is arguably more difficult as you don't have that "backup" hook you can toss off willy nilly. I'd reccomend trying out alistar if you want to get into them, as he's the easiest to master (just put a point into pulverise and you're good until lv6) and the all-in's are a bit safer due to unbreakable will being able to soak up all that damage. Alistar

Mystagent8/11/2015, 3:11:18 PM1 votes

One champion that can be amazing at engage, disengage, decent poke against low sustain comps, great team fight, good peel, is none other then the poro loving man himself Braum

GummyBearWookiee8/11/2015, 3:57:38 PM1 votes

Huh...honestly I'm a bit confused as I don't see Tank supports as passive farm ups...just the exact opposites...I see poke supports as passive farm ups. On tanks...if I'm level 2...I'm going in trying to make plays. Thresh Hook flay combos...Leona Zenith Blade stuns...Alistar's headbutt pulverize. With Tank supports I look to make plays and go in early...the key is to chunk them down with only you taking the damage in return as you slowly backoff...then pop some biscuits while snagging a few last hits with a relic shield to heal back up...then your next engage can end in a kill, especially if you have level advantage from pushing them off with your first engage.