Who should I get for support, Leona or Nami?

i hate tryhards·7/13/2015, 4:08:24 AM·12 votes·9,288 views

Hi, I'm a Silver V player maining support because players in low ELO don't like playing the role and I find it very rewarding. I'm looking for a support that can take me to atleast Gold V (or help me climb fast I just want season rewards ).

Most importantly I need a support that can do _all _of these:

Lane well and get ADC fed
Be useful in teamfights
Be useful lategame

I hear a lot about Leona being great, but Nami's kit also impresses me. Who should I pick up and why?

**Some supports I already own: **Thresh, Lulu and some other AP champs I use as Support such as Zyra and Morgana.

Honestly I don't have a feel for Thresh, his kit, while really effective, can be fully utilized if there is good communication between the him and the team. Right now I'm just focusing on Nami/Leona.

Thanks :D

36 Comments

RiotPhreak7/13/2015, 5:06:53 AM28 votes

Had to come for the ward pun.

Leona is the more swingy of the two. And I think she's also better at sort of signalling "GO!" to your team. Solar Flare tends to get people moving.

Nami's definitely strong and one of my more-played supports. She's consistently powerful but lacks some of the big play moments, or at least they're harder to land.

So to your points:

Nami is a more consistent laner. But Leona can guarantee kills if your lane's stronger. Failure case is worse for Leona.
Leona is definitely a top-tier team fighter. Big moments with her stuns. Nami is average.
Both are good late game. Leona's riskier, but is better at starting fights lategame.

JustCallMeSpud7/13/2015, 4:39:07 AM6 votes

Leona is one of, if not the, most devastating and game changing supports in the entire game.

That being said, get Nami. Leona will frustrate you like no other, when you see the opening on the low opposing adc, and you all in...and your adc is stops to get a couple minions before joining or doesn't even try to follow up, resulting in your death.

Leona is all or nothing. When she commits, she's in it 100%. Your adc MUST be on the same page as you, or you're fodder. At silver 5, too many adcs that will leave you hanging. You'll have massive wins...and other games where there's no synergy and you'll want to ragequit. I suggest waiting till at least mid silver if not low gold before playing her in ranked.

Deep Terror Nami7/13/2015, 4:21:59 AM3 votes

Nami is my favorite. She's picked and banned far less than Leona too.

ShaftyMegee7/13/2015, 4:13:44 AM3 votes

If you want an up in your face support leona is your champ. If you want to poke harass while keeping allies alive Nami is your chanp. They both play the role very differently, I personally like Leo more.

Mister Support7/13/2015, 3:18:28 PM3 votes

Hi there! I'm a support main like you currently in Plat V. When it comes to currently strong supports my recommendations are Janna, Nautilus, and Nami.

Janna is a peeling powerhouse that will keep your carries alive if you can master her and all the same you can use your W and Q to effectively make picks. Every single one of her abilities can be used for peel, especially her passive. She is great with sieging comps due to the bonus AD from her shield and dissipate almost any form of engage (except Sion, Vi and Malphite) with her ultimate and Q.

Nautilus is currently a better version of Leona. Leona holds a bit more damage in her kit, but Nautilus is a tiny bit tankier (a lot tankier late game) thanks to his W and base stats. Leona is great and holding one target still for a kill which makes her powerful in teamfights, and nautilus is great at the same thing with his R and Q. HOWEVER, he offers more AoE damage through his W and E, and can peel for his carries with just an auto attack.

Nami sits nicely between being a peeler and engager. Her kit allows for both but isn't top tier at both. She works well against hard engage and poke comps, but is weak to siege comps. She excels at making picks with her E and Q, while can be an excellent peeler with her W and R. Only downside to Nami is that her best support builds involve high Mana Regen and tank, while her kit doesn't synchronize well with the tankiness.

If you can master these 3 climbing should become easier for you. If you want help learning some things with Thresh or any of these supports feel free to hit me up. IGN is same as boards name.

LionKingonVHS7/13/2015, 3:48:14 PM2 votes

If you like champs like annie go for Lissandra. She has great poke and cc. Plus you can single-out a target with your ult.

warpenguin5557/13/2015, 4:16:54 AM2 votes

i like leo better personally

pE4CbxDPQO7/13/2015, 5:14:53 AM2 votes

Phreak, tell the other Rioters to post things from time to time.

Harrys Nut Shack7/13/2015, 11:00:42 AM2 votes

Nami has very strong early game harass and sustain, and transitions flawlessly into lategame with her ultimate being absurd in teamfights. However if you get hooked or grabbed or any kind of focus you will explode. She's great if you've got tanks on your team but if not, Leona is a good support/tank.

Nami- Harass and sustain. Great babysitter for champs like Vayne and Kog'maw, but also very strong with a bully like Draven. She's basically Sona.

Leona- Incredible all in potential, hard cc, and burst. You can kill their adc or support before they have a chance to react. Great if you aren't losing the lane badly and your adc knows when to follow up. Bad choice vs strong early game ADCs like Draven and Graves, great with them.

Ariel the Cruel7/13/2015, 11:18:31 AM2 votes

Warning: This post was created by an unranked scrub. Take nothing it says seriously. Nothing good can come from people that only play normals. No seriously, you've been warned.

Nami is the more well rounded of the two. There aren't many scenarios where she's a weak pick. She's also the more stable of the 2. She's not going to create a snowball, nor is she going to fall behind super hard.

Leona, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Where Nami creates a stable lane dynamic, Leona creates a volatile one. Leona is designed to snowball lanes. She has a lot of scenarios where she's a weak pick, but also many scenario's where she's overbearingly strong. Leona's only goal in life is to engage. It's the one thing she does. And by the nerf bat, if she isn't terrifyingly good at it. If you lane partner/team is able and willing to follow-up, you can snowball harder than an Akali free week in Bronze 7. If you're allies are unable or unwilling to follow up, then you basically commit suicide all game. (Leona's are known for having itchy trigger fingers for a reason.) Leona also suffers a bit from poor communication in that she has no natural peel. If you're ally needs an out, you suicide dive. If you're ally can't read the situation, the might just confuse your peel for an engage and feed a double kill. This is true of all supports, but Leona experiences it more often.

Overall, I would favor Nami simply for her consistency. She'll be more useful more often. Leona is a god in her niche; but it's just that, a niche.

Scrimshäw7/13/2015, 3:54:46 PM2 votes

If you want to play a broken champ and never let someone move ever again, play Leona.

Delphinium7/13/2015, 4:19:44 PM2 votes

I personally scared to play Leona in soloq because there is always a time where adc or teammates won't follow up for damage and I ending up dying. Nami is the best because of the heal, poke, and cc. Sometimes Nami's ult can turn a whole teamfight around. Nami main.

rockdalian7/13/2015, 4:26:16 PM2 votes

I personally prefer Nami her ult is team fight changing and timing her heals right can garunteed survival and/or kill it's just your preference of playing passively or all in Leona can carry a bot lane better than Nami but if you fail Leona far worse consequences

manbearswine7/13/2015, 6:34:10 PM2 votes

Leona is easier and stronger atm,so might as well go for that.

English Teacher7/14/2015, 2:34:47 AM2 votes

Hi there, as a support main i have played both of these champions and like a lot of people have said Leona is either great or suicidal.

There have been too many games where i have gone in, hit the ADC with all of cc and no one followed for me so i get destroyed HOWEVER on the other side of the road i have played many a game where i went in my full team followed and ACED them for us to snowball the game.

Nami on the other hand is a fun and very safe yet powerful support, giving the chance to crowd control someone who is trying to initiate or throwing a GNARLY wave at the enemy so anyone and everyone can ride into the fight. However people often (ADC usually) overestimate Nami's damage or tankiness and that leads to easily losing a fight or trade.

In lane however Leona has the ability to get her ADC fed and snowballing, but she has very little peel, poke or lane presence apart from every so often throwing a blade at the enemy, hoping the thresh does not flail her off. However Nami can poke, annoy, cc and even heal her ADC all in the comfort of behind the minion wave.

In my opinion Nami would be a better choice, she is safer and lets you work on actual support mechanics and decision making without dying from a simple mistake or slip of your "e". BUT dont be devo if you get her and things dont work out, she is a tricky support, but hey, im a Thresh main, i think he has a great kit, good poke, good engage, good escape, good cc so maybe try picking him up and seeing if he fits your needs (Another tricky kit however)

Anyway Good Luck with supporting and if you have any question throw them my way mate.

i hate tryhards7/14/2015, 6:15:31 AM2 votes

After much thought and consideration.....I decided to get both. Trundle

That being said I will try both of them out in ranked, and keep alternating between them depending on the team comp. First I'll play a couple of games on normal with them. I can already say that Leona can hold a lane on her own given her innate tankiness, whereas Nami is squishy but provides excellent utility.

Thanks for the excellent feedback, and more is welcome!

Revering7/16/2015, 6:48:54 AM1 votes

I like playing Nami, due to her Crowd Control and W. W is good for ANY situation. Your ADC low on Health and the Enemy is chasing them? W on the Ally to heal them, and well as get some free damage on the Enemy. In an all-in Team Fight? Throw a W on the Ally closest to the Enemies, and watch that puppy go. You can use your E to empower either your ADC or APC in a Team Fight, dealing so much more Damage. If your Ally is chasing a low-healthed Enemy, throw an E on them and, upon hit, the Enemy is slowed. Follow a Q up with an ULT on the ADC of the Team Fight, and there's practically a guaranteed kill if your team focuses on them. Q can be a bit hard to hit, but it can be such a game-changer in a Team Fight if used correctly.

I Play Taric7/14/2015, 7:27:28 PM1 votes

Alistar

Played him from S5 to G5

shits easy fam

Linthe7/13/2015, 10:24:36 PM1 votes

I have both. I think Nami is better for low ELO. The problem with Leona is that if you E in... and your team isn't on the same page, you are toast. (As opposed to say Thresh's Q where you hook and pull-pull... then you can just NOT Q into the enemy if you want). With Leona, you E and you ARE in.

Since she was brought up others.. I also love Janna... Her shield is really good. And team movement speed never hurts.

01iver7/13/2015, 10:35:14 PM1 votes

As an AD main, I prefer Leona over Nami. Leona's cc is op.

TouchpadExpert7/13/2015, 2:48:40 PM1 votes

Leona is my 2nd favorite support, Nami is my 3rd favorite support. From your repertoire of supports you already own Nami would be easier to pick up. She is a poke/sustain support and has some range in her kit. Some of the ADCs she meshes best with are Varyne, Varus, Caitlyn, Miss Fortune and Lucian. Nami is bad against mobile champions (Ezreal, Leona, Lucian, Graves, etc.) who can dodge her sill shots or close the gap and outtrade her poke with their all-in potentials. I like Leona better and if you pick her it would give your roster much more versatility as her style is different than what you're used to. Leona is an in your face, all-in, kill-or-be-killed style support. She is a kill/poke style support yet her lack of sustain leaves her vulnerable to poke. Leona is a much better team fighter than Nami is as Leona likes to be in the middle of the action whereas Nami skirts along the outside of the fight poking, peeling and healing as she sees fit. The ADCs that Leona meshes best with are Draven, Quinn, Jinx, and Graves. What counters Leona the most is anything with disengagement and poke. Typical counters include (but are not limited to) Vayne, Alistar, Janna, Tristana, Corki and Ezreal.

Emperor Time7/13/2015, 11:46:21 AM1 votes

Don't get Leona, get Nautilus because he's basically a stronger version of Leona.

The12thman947/13/2015, 3:34:26 PM1 votes

Leona and Nami are my two main supports. I love Leona because the crazy amount of CC she has in her kit. I find that if I get my adc a kill when I'm playing Leona its easier to steamroll a lane. However, she can really only engage so if you are behind or need to disengage she isn't the best. Also it doesn't seem like you have a tanky support so she might be good for you to get. I love Nami, because of the versatility she has. She can both engage or disengage using her bubble or her ult. The thing with Nami is that landing her bubbles can be hard, but then again it can be rewarding. It's so fun to bubble three of their team and see your team start to win the right. Overall I think Nami is harder to use in solo que because as I tell my team "you need to trust me to keep you safe". A lot of time I could turn the fight but my team runs.

I love playing both of them, but right now I find myself playing more Nami for no apparent reason.

Lugg7/13/2015, 7:15:48 AM1 votes

For low elo, Leona all the way. Most low elo players have no idea how to work with Nami for some reason. Leona makes it easy with her CC and tankyness.

NorthernDruid7/14/2015, 2:16:53 AM1 votes

Well, Leona is a tank. Nami is a utility mage.

To me, Leona feels less useful outside a direct engagement. She needs to be in the thick of it, and she can only rarely do it alone unless she's really fed.

Nami on the other hand, can heal, she can harass the enemy, she can both engage and disengage kinda well if you can land her skillshots. She's got a damage buff and unlike Leona's passive you can use it by yourself, and she can also speed people up when needed.

I'd say it's a preference, would you rather have another utility mage (you've already got Morgana and Lulu in there, so you've got decent coverage on the plain utility front there) or would you have a stronger frontliner than thresh, a pure CC tank rather than a utility tank.

Makior727/14/2015, 7:43:25 PM1 votes

Out of the two i would say leona. That said i wanted to throw one more pick in there for consideration. Braum Braum can play both passively AND aggresively. WHILE Leona has a stronger engage braums isnt bad by any means. Also when you get into a fight in the jungle braum is the better pick due to his ult slowing the enemy team in the narrow parts of the jungle. His team fights are easy as well. Go in hit a few people to apply your passive stun then leap back to your carry with w if needed and shield up for incomming attacks. Tip with braum tho, his ult is better for disengage than engage but can still be used for both.