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How do I bottom lane properly as Support?

Glue Connoisseur·1/22/2015, 5:01:16 AM·4 votes·6,120 views
League of Legends Match History

Salutations Lolers, I am coming onto the board, seeking help with trying to properly build the bottom lane (sorry if I am not using proper lingo) while I am playing a support character.

I play as Soraka for almost all of the games I have played. I tend to lean towards support jobs in most games I play (Red Mage, Bard, White Mage in Final Fantasy XI; Priest in WoW, etc.). So, Soraka fills traditional support role pretty well. Healing, silence, binding foes, etc.

I have ran into this problem a few times while playing: I am with an ADC (usually an Ashe player) with me as Soraka on bottom lane. As soon as that first wave of minions come and the first auto-attack that I land onto a minion, I get an immediate chat box message stating "Do not attack the minions."

I do auto attack minions, but usually I attack the back of the wave, trying not to kill the the minion the ADC is on. I do not go for kills, but instead, just lower the minion's HP so that the ADC does not have to work very hard on killing minions.

If I am told to not attack minions, I go back to my mental Final Fantasy XI days and go behind the ADC, far enough for my auto attack not to go off. A problem with this is that now I cannot assist the ADC offensively against enemy champions. If I am too far back, I can't summoner 3. By the time I get in range with Soraka's E or summoner 3 , the enemy Champion has ran off. The ADC chases the enemy Champion, minions are all over me. If I heal, I lose HP... it's a mess. Also, if I use Q with a goal to hit the Champion, that can deal damage to minions... which I am not allowed to do. So I am even more restrained.

I do get blamed for lost potential kills, not supporting offensively, etc. They are correct. I am not being a proper support. I cannot blame it on the "Do not attack the minions" line. I try to work within their frame, and all it does is frustrate the crap out of me.

  • I can't Q, because I will hurt minions.
  • I am never in range for an E or summoner 3 if I sit out of range of the minions and behind the ADC
  • I blow more Health and Mana healing someone who is trying to basically solo the lane (by my perspective) than allowing me to help weaken things.
  • I get blamed for being bad support and told to stop playing the character all together.
  • It causes the rest of the players to get a biased view of me (they have nothing else to go by other than what is in the chat log), which can break any team cohesion when we are pushing.

Though 80% of the time or more, I never hear the "Do not attack minions" line at all. I attack minions, I am up front, I help soften the Champion for the ADC to kill. If I happen to take the KS by accident, I apologize for the KS.

I do want to be better at Support. I like the role. I like seeing "thx" and getting "Team Work"and "Helpful" after the matches.

I would like it if I can get tips or tricks on how to support better. Also, if these can be addressed below:

  1. Does me attacking a minion as a Support player hurt the ADC in any way (experience point loss, gold loss, etc.)?
  2. If I am being told to not attack minions, where is the best place to stand or be near where I do not auto attack (I presume by constantly just walking around) and where I can be in the offensive when enemy champions arrive?
  3. In Player VS. Player matches, does support normally not attack minions?

I have not played a PvP match yet. I have nothing but PvAi matches. I do not feel I am ready yet for PvP.

My match history: Match History

Thank you for reading this and providing feedback.

Xtrasweettea

30 Comments

Kitto1/22/2015, 2:07:38 PM3 votes

It's good to see people actively trying to get better the game, and as a support main its great to see someone trying to better themselves as a support, something we all do everyday!.

I'll try to highlight a few things as well as give you some general tips on supporting as well;

  • Not attacking minions - This kind of really depends, like someone stated earlier, you need to know the appropriate times to start taking minions out and when not to. An appropriate time would be: 1. When you and your ADC are trying to push to the enemy turret as fast as possible and 2. When your ADC is out of lane and there are enemy minions at your turret. These are some acceptable times to get or damage minions. Otherwise, you'll need to learn how to freeze the lane so that your ADC misses minimal CS.

  • Playing as Soraka - As someone stated earlier, playing Soraka early can teach people how to be reckless, and may make it harder for newer players to learn other support champions. But Soraka is a great champion to know and have in your pool, so I'll do my best to explain to you, a good way to play her, I way I find effective at least. While playing Soraka, using your Q is a good way to heal yourself and to poke your lane opponent, Usually the other support is hiding in a bush, away from minions, but if you land your Q on the ADC and it hits a few minions, thats fine. This is where your prediction skills come into play, usually you should throw your Q behind the lane opponent as they tend to run backwards, but eventually they learn and you'll have to think of more clever ways of landing the Q. Your E is VERY, VERY, crucial in both saving your ADC, and your team in mid/late game fights. I usually reserve my E for fights that are initiated by the enemy. For example, if your lane opponents are trying to all-in you and your ADC, throw your E onto the enemy ADC and run away if your ADC does, this applies in teamfights as well, if you see a good cluster of enemies, use your E for a great silence. One last great way to use your E: this takes some prediction skills as well and you will learn over time when people do it, but if your are chasing someone that hasn't used Flash and your team is hot on their tail, try to land your E so they cannot Flash and so your team can secure the kill. Her ult is pretty self explanatory and is very clutch in many situations.

  • Frost Queen's Claim vs Talisman - I too like the FQC, early game that is. I usually buy the FQC tier 1 item and then sell it back for the Ancient Coin a bit later. Personally I feel that the Talisman provide better team benefit. You can get out of sticky situations with it as well as chase people down. It has a low CD as well!

  • Be Aware! - Part of being a support is being the eyes and ears of the team, while each person should be holding their own when it comes to avoiding ganks and what not. If you keep your eyes peeled around the map you can save a lot of people from mistakes, this obviously applies more when your get into PvP matches.

  • Warding - Keeping vision for your team is half of the support job, you need to have good warding habits, you can easily find guides on this! Its not hard to explain but I'd rather show someone than explain it :P.

If you want some help in game just add me and I can give you a few pointers, I'd be glad to! -KingSaiBott

P.S - Sorry for the lengthy post :P

Tis a nice day1/22/2015, 5:18:14 AM3 votes

To not attack minions, you have three options:

  1. Turn off autoattack (it's in the gameplay options somewhere)
  2. Keep moving around by constantly clicking on the ground
  3. Press "s"

Attacking minions means both you and your partner must go further away from the safety of your tower to kill minions properly, which may be a bad thing if you do not know where the enemy jungler is. And yes, as a support, attacking minions during the first 10 minutes of a game is generally seen as a bad thing unless you think you can kill a tower within the next minute or so.

Also your match history links are invalid.

2000boxes1/22/2015, 7:21:35 AM2 votes

if you are in lower elos dont play soraka

when people see they have soraka support their play style becomes moderately stupid and reckless

AFK Push1/22/2015, 2:19:41 PM2 votes

I see that you are purchasing stuff like item 3083 and item 3003, I'm not saying that they are bad items per se, but there are better items as a support. For more damage, but still helps out the ad item 3504, if they have a fed ad item 3110, if they are cc heavy item 3222, and if they have tons of poke item 3190. Those other items you were getting cost too much gold, and are subpar in what they do for a support like soraka. That is just my two cents.

Edit: also, I see that you almost always get item 3111, being a ranged mage like soraka you shouldn't be getting too close or the one cced all of the time, take item 3117 to get faster to people who need to be healed, or item 3158 for the cdr.

PikaCHU5671/22/2015, 6:51:54 PM2 votes

I'm a Mid/Supp main and I hope this helps. :o

I don't really play Soraka that much anymore so I'll try to do my best to explain.

When the game starts, always get your W. You'll need to heal your ADC(Even your Jungler) early game. I would usually start off with Ancient Coin item 3301 with two health potions item 2003 and one mana potion item 2004 . I would save up to about 900 and buy a Sightstone item 2049 and a Vision Ward. item 2043 If I have enough gold, I'd buy some boots item 1001 and more potions. I don't have enough time to get to mid game and late game so I'll try to come back and post more stuff.

EXAMPLE OF FULL BUILD: item 3069 item 3274 or item 3279 item 3504 item 2045 item 3027 item 3222 item 3364

Khell DarkWolf1/22/2015, 10:14:17 PM2 votes

Hi XtraSweetTea,

I'm a Jungle/Support main and I can relate even more because I used to play FFXI as well for a solid 6-7 years when it was first released so I'll also try to help you out.

It is understandable that since you liked to play the more support roles of bard/whm/rdm that you make sure you keep the party running and healthy and soraka probably does fit that bill more then any champion in LoL.

I sadly though don't play Soraka as my main as I'm a different variety of support main, I enjoy playing the tank supports like Leona, Taric, Blitzcrank and Alistar.

I'll better explain this contrast.

During the leveling periods of around 25+ to 40 you might remember parties picking up a single tank (PLD) and then filling in with other damage dealers and then having the mages (Whm/RDM etc etc) to run healing on the single tank to maintain hate and keep them alive right?

You might remember as well that during those times you sometimes couldn't find what you were looking for so your party leader had to opt for a type of duo hate juggling like a War/Nin or Nin/war bouncing it back and forth.

It changed the way you had to utilize on priorities and focus on what you had to do. It was also a different variant on how players played their role.

Back to topic, Soraka isn't a bad champion but in the way the game currently works in PvP it just means having to shift around how players work that into the team composition. I feel the Player base doesn't quite know how to factor that because they are used to playing a certain a way.

It is just like me, if I pick Leona first in ranked. What I want is not to have the ability to only peel, but because I'm probably going to want to go ham on my enemy with my ad carry following in with me. Something like a Draven Draven , a Graves Graves , maybe even a Vayne! Vayne Depending on how that player plays his/her Vayne.

But being the Leona main, when I get that Ashe Ashe on my side. It forces me to change the way I have to work that in. Because I already know that an Ashe player just wants to farm safe and not engage unless they feel they have the item/damage advantage. But for me it makes my job harder because I have to try and zone out two other players that are possibly playing two very aggro oriented champions to try and let my Ashe farm. I may not be able to do it because they do too much damage during trades which then just self zones Ashe since I rely on her to be the damage.

This is kinda where I feel Soraka is at the moment. As I said she isn't a bad champion but you also need to look at the broader picture on what else you can bring to the table in the event that maybe your team composition requires a more aggro support or a more passive support. Cause you need to play to your team.

You got the right mind set that you want to be "supportive" in the sense of being back line since you understand it, just keep an open mind that you may have to fluctuate on how you play during the match.

To answer the question regarding where do you go or do in lane phase when you're with your ad carry. Some people already suggested you keep wards up of course to maintain vision, but where you should be is this as rule of Thumb:

  • Maintain a distance far enough that you can't get poked/harassed by damage. Know your zoning
  • You yourself should be trying to zone out the other two players by damaging/harassing them to force them to blow summoner spells or potions to make it harder for them to want to engage on you.
  • Stay on a parallel distance line so to speak between you and your ADC, so that you both can choose when to harass or turn back around onto your enemies.
  • If you have to ward, don't ward too deep if you know it might be dangerous to face check that deep unless you know your duet at bottom have been forced to go back (or their jungler died/spotted at top) which gives you the opportunity to deep ward
  • Always make it your prerogative to be the eyes of your team. Keep an eye on the minimap to see where everyone is at (enemy team) and whose missing. Do this and also get in the habit of tabbing to look at the score screen to see who is Missing in action on the enemy team. You then count how many are missing and it usually is a telegraphed what they might be doing like an early dragon, someone is about to be ganked/dived since you noticed your teammate is being pushed to tower with low HP against his high hp opponent etc etc
  • Always, ALWAYS watch their support (and jungler) and see what they do. Check their items. Do they have only one ward? Did they leave into bush/fog of war but then come back and find that the ward is missing? You can probably guess they placed that green/pink ward somewhere near or try to triangulate where they put it by how long it took them to walk back to lane.

This is probably alot to take in since you aren't level 30 yet, but it is all a learning experience and you'll get there with time.

It like Chess in a way.

If you ever have trouble along the way in understanding why some players play their champion in a certain way, you can always try filling in their shoes to see how it feels to why they do that (jungler is a good example of this).

With that said, I'll give you a few links to check out. Some might be old but the principle still applies. I also suggest watching other high elo players on twitch.tv and see what it is that happens during their laning phase to get an understanding on how they do things and then think to why they did that.

Shurelia's Zone Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kxGQ3gWdrM

Warding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li0rpR6mwR8

note: This warding tutorial is very old, some principles still apply but also take note of how you may have to change the placements of your wards depending on situation. I'll have to find a more updated ward guide to properly illustrate current season warding

I do recommend watching NightBlue3 and VoyBoy (they aren't support main) because seeing through the eyes of how a jungler (NightBlue3) and a decent laner (VoyBoy) plays to give you insight to how your team may think and play. Plus these two as starters are just informative as they like to talk and explain why they do things the way they do and aren't assholes while streaming.

http://www.twitch.tv/nightblue3/profile http://www.twitch.tv/voyboy/profile

AFK Push1/23/2015, 12:14:06 PM2 votes

Glad I could be of assistance :p

draken161/24/2015, 8:03:38 AM2 votes

It seems a lot of people have already highlighted the things like warding, awareness, etc.

But no doubt the most important aspect of support is reading your adc. When your adc goes to cs you apply pressure with threat of skillshot, when their adc goes to cs you harass, you break vision in bush to lose minion aggro, you help push wave to turret when their laners b so they lose minions (gold/xp), dont just stand in the bush waiting for your adc to push (also don't last hit, let adc last hit but you should still be attacking minions to push at appropriate times). Even early pushing the first wave in order to hit level 2 first and surprise drop the enemy adc like a sack of freaking potatoes. There are so many elements left untold when teaching support, but it's not because good players don't know this, it's because it's not something you teach, it's something you learn through experience.

My point is, take all the advice you can from people on matters like ward coverage, awareness, etc., but remember to improve your synergy and ability to read your carry through experience.

Evase1/24/2015, 3:38:40 PM2 votes

This is how i support. Your choice to follow them or not xD HEHE

01 Make sure you look after your ADC and see what she/he is doing, especially during the early bot lane phase. Make sure you sync in with your ADC, and keep them fat and fed :DD That's the point of being called "support".

02 Don't steal farm, unless it's necessary

03 Make sure wards are placed around the map. As support, you're the main person to place down wards C:

04 Don't stay in front of the team fight, unless you're a tank support.

05 Try not to feed or kill steals. Even though it's nice to be a fed support, it's much better if other players had the kill.

Dryditch1/22/2015, 6:08:59 AM2 votes

When an ADC asks you not to attack minions, it usually means they want to freeze the wave--they want to make sure that minions are dying at roughly the same pace, so that they can control where it is that a minion wave comes in.

If you want to be most useful as a support, try focusing your attention on warding well and generally providing heals to your ADC and serving up some sweet debuffs to the enemy team.

I highly recommend checking out LemonNation's streams if you can ever catch them. He's one of the best supports I've ever seen. A great laning partner and playmaker.

rth21/22/2015, 11:36:12 PM1 votes

Hello! I play all of the roles, but I main ADC and have helped teach people how to play bot lane. I will try to help you with some bot lane concepts that I tend to use, although remember that each game is unique so there is no real "do this no matter what" mantra that you can go by and expect to keep improving.

"Do not attack the minions." This is honestly a sentence I hate seeing people use. It usually gets tossed around for a few common reasons I've noticed :

  1. The support is trying to prep minions ("soften" up the minions) for the adc and it is making the adc lose cs (creep score; minion last hits)
  2. The adc is trying to control the wave (manipulating minions to get the wave in a certain position) and the support is affecting that plan by changing minion health totals
  3. The adc is having trouble last hitting and is looking for a scapegoat for why they are missing last hits. Then, "oh the support is attacking minions. Stop you are ruining my cs!".

Here is a rule of thumb that I use in bot lane : Let the ADC control the wave; let the support control the engagements.

This basically means to not worry about attacking minions. You can let the adc worry about killing the minions, that is their job. It is part of what they do. You want to be more focused with the overall aggression of the lane and how often fights are breaking out.

When do I attack minions One common time to attack minions is when your lane is level 1. You want to be either attacking minions or the enemy. This is for two reasons :

  1. In a two person lane, you will hit level 2 after 9 creeps (6 melee creeps, and 3 ranged creeps). Once you hit level 2 you will have twice as many abilities as your opponents. This is generally enough damage/power that you can win an all in fight as the enemy team is still level 1. So they either have to back up and concede lane dominance to you (at least temporarily) or try to fight for cs (in which case you have a level advantage). Note that this is really strong as the difference between level 1 and 2 is really big. The next real time that this happens in the game is if you are level 6 and your opponents are not. This is based on champions but generally if you have your ultimate abilities and your opponents don't, you should be able to win that fight.
  2. If you are not helping attack the minions you generally want to be trying to zone the enemy. This means trying to force them away from the minion wave. This should be done so that the enemy cannot quickly push the minion wave and get all the benefits from the previous point.

Remember as you are turning level 2 the enemy could also be finishing off the minion they need to hit level 2. So be careful engaging if the enemy may also be hitting level 2 very quickly. An easy way to let your adc know you are going to help push for level 2 is to just tell them "I'm going to help push the first wave so we can get level 2 first".

Prepping minions under turret. This can be difficult and does not always need to be done. However, early game most adc's cannot kill all of the minions under turret with just one auto attack. Generally, a melee minion takes 2 turret hits and one auto. This usually is fine. However, a caster takes one turret hit and one auto. However some adc's do not have enough damage at the beginning of the game to kill the caster. So usually a support can help by hitting the caster minion and letting the adc finish it. However, if you have your minion wave with you they may steal the last hit. So this also takes practice on knowing when a minion needs to be prepped and when the wave will do it for you.

You are trying to push the wave so that you can go back to base. Generally your adc will say they need to go back to base or will ask for your help pushing. If they ask for it, then by all means start pushing. If you take some cs don't worry about it. Don't just steal cs from the adc but if the goal is to push to the turret so you can get back, don't worry if you take a cs or two.

Versus bots You said you were trying to think within their frame of mind. So especially against bots I would recommend thinking about hitting minions this way. For an adc to improve, they need to practice wave control. So bot games are a good way for an adc to practice controlling a wave. This also gives you the freedom to practice harassing the bots. Bots very rarely ward bushes. When you attack an enemy you will draw nearby minion aggro. However, if the minions lose vision they will switch aggro back to your minion line. So you can practice harassing the bots, dropping back into bushes so you lose aggro, and juggling aggro that way.

Also, you should get in the habit now. After you get your sightstone (which you should get decently early, as you will save money overall and have better vision control by getting sightstone early) swap out your yellow warding trinket for a red sweeping trinket.

You can also take this time to branch out your support pool a little bit, as you generally want to be able to pick a support to help against the lane you are fighting. As soraka has some exploitable qualities. For example, if you choose soraka, and the enemy chooses a leona, it will be very hard for you to assert any lane presence.

It is also worth noting you can get away with builds and tactics against bots that will not work against players.

This post is already pretty long, and this is a very deep topic. Hopefully some of this helps, makes sense, and isn't too rambly!