Help with matchups?

Brendân·1/6/2015, 9:43:56 PM·1 votes·1,454 views

I wan't to know some match-ups for bot lane. By this I mean, An ADC with 1 or 2 supports that go well with them, Like Lucian & Thresh. I need to know because I'm becoming a main support, (Level 25) and want to know what ADC's go well with what supports so when I need to choose one, I know who is good.

9 Comments

Majidesuka1/6/2015, 10:35:01 PM1 votes

This is solely from my preference but one of my personal favorite combination is Graves and Blitzcrank due to it's displacement and potential for high lvl burst, there are flaws such as late game fall out in terms of scale and falling victim to early game poke.

Sohleks1/6/2015, 10:43:53 PM1 votes

Usually you either play a poke lane with poke, sustain, waveclear... Or more of a kill lane with high burst damage, hard CC, tankiness. Some champs are completely one style, most can work either way.

Like Graves has good burst damage and all ins because of his tankiness, but honestly his tankiness also makes sustain and damage mitigation more effective as well. Good in general

When you're playing with Caitlyn you'll usually want to add to her strengths and pick more poke/sustain. Either a mage like Zyra or a support like Sona or Nami. She's kind of an awkward mix with hard engage although with the right blitz or thresh hooks it's good (especially if Caitlyn can trap under those hooks). Kind of awkward with the likes of Leona though.

AmazingGoat1/6/2015, 10:43:54 PM1 votes

My advice would be to find a champion you enjoy playing and play them. You'll start to learn who you play well with and who you don't. You'll also start to learn who it is frustrating to play against. You can pick pretty much any ADC or support. Just make sure they are fun for you. If you constantly switch to try to optimize against matchups, it's going to take longer to get familiarity with matchups for all of those champions.

As a general guide, supports and ADCs can be judged based on their strength in various categories.

Poke - The ability to damage the enemy bot lane champs without going all in. Caitlyn is an ADC known for her poke. Most ranged supports are capable of poking. Some champions are good at augmenting poke. For example, Janna can shield Caitlyn which helps her poke.

Sustain - The ability to heal damage received from enemy poke and keep laning without running OOM. Sona and Nami provide the most traditional sustain, but champions with shield abilities (Janna/Lulu/Karma) can serve a similar function. Sustain from an ADC perspective generally has more to do with their rune setup than their kit.

All In - The ability to hard engage onto the enemy bot lane and kill one or both of them. Leona is the classical example of a hard engage support. Thresh/Blitz are also good at provoking engagements with their pulls. Generally these supports are tankier than the poke supports, but Annie also has great all in potential. For ADCs, high damage ADCs such as Draven or those who can output large burst damage such as Graves are generally better at going all in.

In lane, you want to recognize the strengths of your lane and the strengths of the enemy laners. If you are Caitlyn playing with Nami against Graves and Leona, you want to poke them down in lots of small trades and make sure they are low before any engagement, because they are significantly stronger going all in. If you are Graves and Leona in that lane, you want to avoid taking too much poke damage and try to find a chance to go all in while you still have sufficient health to win the all in.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that the game isn't won or lost in laning. Although it's important to try to play to your bottom partner's strengths in lane, equally important is how well you are able to fit into your entire team composition. If your team doesn't have a tank, it may make sense to play a tanky support. If your team doesn't have any hard CC, you may not want to play a support without any hard CC (e.g. Karma). If your team is all AD, you may want to play an AP support who can do damage (e.g. Annie/Zyra/Morgana/Karma).

Further, not all supports fulfill equal roles in team fighting. Some supports are great at engaging onto the enemy team (e.g. Leona/Annie), while some supports are great at disengaging and peeling for a carry (e.g. Janna/Zyra). Some supports offer a mix of abilities that can be used in different scenarios (e.g. Nami/Braum).

With that in mind, one approach would be to try to pick up one caster support and one tanky support, making sure that at least one of your supports has decent ability to initiate engagements (e.g. Leona/Annie/Blitz/Braum/Thresh/Nami/Morg).

BD Wilton1/6/2015, 10:51:52 PM1 votes

When I ADC, I prefer to have a supp with CC and tankiness. Thresh, Blitz, Braum, Leona, Alistar, or Lulu. If you must go AP supp then go all out with Zyra. Any of these supports will do just fine. It's really all about the bush control at bottom. Don't let other supp get into wombo distance of your ADC. The threat of Thresh/Blitz grabs will keep enemy bot on their toes. Final tip: Thresh/Blitz Top Tier Supps

BD Wilton1/6/2015, 11:05:23 PM1 votes

If not Thresh/Blitz then try Braum, Leona, or Alistar. Not sure if Ali has been nerfed, don't see him that much anymore but I remember Ali + Ardent Censer being OP

Sohleks1/7/2015, 7:40:11 AM1 votes

Ali is a very underrated support pick. He makes a great body gaurd and can knock enemies into fatal positions. His teamfight is exceptionally good as a peeler of melee assassins. Just need to be mindful of your ADC getting poked in lane. Protect him by threatening to Q them into danger so you take damage instead of your AD. Because if your AD is chunked that limits both of you. Gotta respect Alistar if he has flash and his jungle is there or if you're near his turret.

You probably won't see Alistar picked until Janna loses popularity though. The reason you probably don't see Ali in high elo is because Janna does more and safer. Unlike Janna Alistar can dive and tank stuff though. It just takes good judgement and a pair of balls.

Epicmaster12341/7/2015, 5:25:45 PM1 votes

It really depends on the playstyle of the adc and support, and how they synergize, For example, Graves is a bursty adc with the ability to dash into their adc's face, blow them up, and have enough tankiness to get out again. For this reason, aggressive supports work much better with him than defensive, or poke oriented supports. On the other hand, KogMaw is a long rage hypercarry who can and will destroy everyone on the other team, given he gets out of the laning phase ok. He also has no self peel, which means supports like Sona and Soraka , who can help him get through laning phase, but won't help in teamfights, are less than ideal. You'd want to pick a peel oriented support like Janna , Alistar , or even Thresh , so you can make sure your team is getting KogMaw insane damage. The final type of pairing can be a poke lane. Someone like Caitlyn or Varus have long range spells that deal high damage. These adc's rely on making sure when the fight finally breaks out, the enemies are already at 1/2 health. Supports like Lulu and Morgana , who can set up situations for easy damage while allowing their adc to take a lot less excel with these types of adc's. In the end, it's just making sure what you're adc needs to succeed, and the tool you have to make that happen. Playing Soraka with a Graves isn't impossible, it just requires aggressive use of her silence and snare, as opposed to the normal Soraka gameplay. Adapting your playstyle is what makes a successful support.