Skip to content

Tips for AP supports in low elo

UndeadYoshi··2 votes·1,594 views

Often times, in a draft game, you'll be stuck as support. I try to take it in stride whenever I draw the short straw in draft, and grew tired of committing to being a tank because my team needed it, when very often, no one capitalizes on the opportunities you present them and end up walking away saying "why do i bother?". So, if you feel like you don't get to carry hard enough as a support, I'm here to tell you that you can.

Pick an AP specialist, like annie, lux or vel'koz (I know some of you are going, VEL'KOZ?!?! nub fk idiot!!). Anyone with easy-to-hit cc and good base damages and okay scaling will do. Mostly, people with low mobility will have higher ratios, but if you pick brand, you're going to end up pushing the wave. Annie is cool and everything, but goes best with someone like kalista, who can throw her at the enemies, creating cc-lock oppurtunities. kalista throws you at the enemy, they get knocked up, you throw down the tibbers stun, incinerate disintegrate combo and kalista rends everything to death. gg scrubs. this is the easiest example if you have someone to duo spam it with. But you wont always have an adc you can trust to help you carry, sometimes you need to take it into your own hands.

But, I didn't come here to tell you things you already knew. I came here to open your eyes to a possibility you might have missed, and this is the reason they need high base damages. What you have to do, is buy the first part of frost queen's claimitem 3303 to start the game, in bronze you can go 21-0-9 with ignitesummoner 14 (or exhaustsummoner 3 if you think you can kill the enemy without it) for the most damage possible out of the gate and just rely on your positioning to keep you alive when you're harassing. DO NOT FINISH FQCitem 3092 . DO NOT RUSH SIGHT STONEitem 2049 . rush tear of the goddessitem 3070 right away, and thenitem 3010 catalyst the protector into an immediate rod of agesitem 3027. This will give you two sources of damage scaling and will make you really potent as a damage dealer all game, although it is kind of a slow start after the early game. your main source of income is going to be stealing kills because you believe you can carry, right? As vel'koz, those kills are rightly mine as i make the knock-up oppurtunity, i lay down the q-w, and i ult them as they run from my crazy and unexpected piles of damage i have dished out. I choose vel because being able to obliterate any number of enemies with a mountain of aoe is just fucking crazy, and being able to shoot people around corners is a great way to ensure i hit my skills. now, mind you i have a pretty consistent ping of 30 ms in all my games so i've never had a problem landing skill shots, but if you do, then you should not be a skill-shot champ right?

ALWAYS PURCHASE WARDS WITH ANY LEFT OVER GOLD UNTIL YOU GET FINISHED WITH ROD OF AGES. Then get your sight stone and finish fqc and just build whatever feels right to you, but archangels staff and rod of ages are core purchases, or you just wont have the damage to be effective as a zoning god and you wont be able to duel anyone if they catch you out.

after all thats finished, i usually get rabaddons because 35% of 530 ap is like 150 putting me at an astonishing 680 ap. pretty good for a support who actually got a sight stone and gp/10 right?

Now, go! carry like you've never carried before. who needs an adc in bronze anyways? they should be happy they have 14 assists, and if theyre smart they will use that advantage to get a few triple kills later on in skirmish phase. if not, you're you. protect them with your crazy zoning and kill potential and win da gaems.

Happy hunting!

27 Comments

Archon X3 votes

don't tell supports to not build sightstone thanks

UndeadYoshi1 votes

when you can just buy wards in the early game, why rush it? it doesnt provide you with any survivability. a small amount of health, oh yea, that's what i want first. any time i back in the first 10 minutes of the game, im getting at least a pink and a ward if not 2. rushing sight stone just makes you an easy target thanks

Archon X2 votes

you're bronze 3

I'm a plat 3 support main

go check probuilds.net and see how 100% of pros build sightstone on 100% of supports in 100% of games

Tyren1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Archon X,realm=NA,application-id=WEuoGbmp,discussion-id=Y0YT5sBO,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2015-10-13T06:46:52.405+0000)

you're bronze 3

I'm a plat 3 support main

go check probuilds.net and see how 100% of pros build sightstone on 100% of supports in 100% of games

I'm bronze 2 support main. I even rush sight stone, switch to sweeper trinket when I get sight stone, If I have enough gold I buy a pink (if not I stock up on pots). I do this no matter the support I'm playing that game.

There's been many times my pink doesn't get killed until I place another pink in an area I feel like it would be more beneficial.

Edit: I only take ignite if they have a support that can heal like Raka or Sona.

UndeadYoshi1 votes

the thing is, i know who im playing against. and because of that, i can easily win trades without the help of my adc simply because i can spam for days and hit every shot, waste all their sustain, and when i get the kills, i can AFFORD to simply purchase wards until i finish tear of the goddess and rod of ages, then i buy sightstone. I DO BUY IT. IM NOT SAYING DONT BUY IT AND IF YOU COULD COMPREHEND ENGLISH YOU WOULD KNOW THAT. i just dont want it as a first item, why? because i would like to have the ability to never run out of mana, even though im constantly trading and winning said trades. in bronze, they dont expect you to have the DEEPS to do that, so when you do, they dont know how to play against you. in bronze, you must already know that bot lane is the most INCONSISTENT lane in every game, one team does a barrel roll, and the other gets raged at for feeding, all because no one knows how to win trades. i already know that stuff, and if i dont have to cs, but can still win trades all day long while my adc doesnt even pay attention to me and just farms, then we get a cs and xp lead while they either recall or DIE. when i have all that income, i should be able to just DECIDE to snowball. what is stopping me? Oh, nothing is, thats why since i started using it i havent lost on vel'koz support. you look at me like i must be a feeding retard, but thats not the case. I'm the most consistent person on my team 100% of the time, and THAT is why i have been climbing out of bronze ever since i made these tweaks to my support gameplay as well as picking up zed mid.

UndeadYoshi1 votes

i know it's cheese tactics. but cheese tactics win games at low elo. i dont know when ill meet the opponents that it doesnt work on, but i havent yet. thats what makes it great at my elo. like the title says. AT LOW ELO

UndeadYoshi1 votes

and like i said, this DOES work in bronze because if you read, im still buying wards all through the early game. i know it wont work in plat, i know "the pros" build it. and im not saying dont build it, im saying "don't build it FIRST" i would rather have my tear stacking at the very least before i stop buying green wards and get a sight stone. why? because i dont trust my bronze peers to be as precise as me, or put out their max dps, and i DO trust myself to do so. i'm bronze 3 NOW, but a week ago i was bronze 5. these adjustments help me get there, and that is a fact.

UndeadYoshi1 votes

and i dont know if i'm done climbing yet, because my win ratio is steadily increasing and i haven't hit a wall yet.

SSJTribe2 votes

haha that's actually my main Vel'koz build for midlane. Love me some item 3040 item 3027 synergy. Throw in item 3151 item 3116 and you've got a pretty tanky lazersquid with huge tank busting capabilities.

TouchpadExpert1 votes

I love going against these supports. They're a pain in the laning phase but their lack of a sight stone makes for great pick opportunities for my jungler and my mid laner. Easy first dragon too. As long as you can avoid their wombo combo centric kit you will out smart them at every turn due to your superior vision.

UndeadYoshi1 votes

when i get wards every time i recall, how is your vision superior? we can only lay down three at a time plus a pink, so your point is moot. buying regular wards early on is just fine.

UndeadYoshi1 votes

besides which, when you kill the enemy laner, they are behind in farm and xp and come back to lane weak as fk. wombo combo? oh no. you misunderstand. try superior poke because i can just q you over and over until you're zoned hard, and i still have more wards then the other team because why? cuz like i said, this is for bronze. it's not going to work in plat and that's obvious. last game i played it i was something like 6-2 by the time first drag rolled around and i had vision down on it so i ran in and got a triple kill and my team grouped up for dragon. easy take? no. buy regular wards, it isnt your job to carry cuz you're a support? try having that mentality in bronze where if you dont carry, you lose.

UndeadYoshi1 votes

also, the weakness is the mid game when you're stacking tear and waiting for rod of ages to fill, but late game, you're a monster. If you don't have any kind of front line, yea go leona, but otherwise buy wards, lay down your vision, and keep your eye on the dragon. its not as hard or as bad as you think. yea no one in bronze plays it as well as me, and thats a fact. will i continue to climb this hard? idk. ive only recently really started to learn the skills i needed to leave bronze 5 but i havent come across any players that have stopped my from climbing yet.

UndeadYoshi1 votes

the fact is i havent met a single team that wasnt pleased as punch about how well i do with velkoz support. and my zed mid isnt too shabby either. ill be back to delivar if i really am the prince that was promised. <kek

Silver Don1 votes

As a brand support...i rush sightstone because as an sp, this is a must for the team. Immediately after that i go for Rylais because my job as support isn't to be the carry, but to support. So any and all cc i can provide to the team is a blessing.....

UndeadYoshi1 votes

in any bronze game, no matter what role you play, it IS your job to carry your team. Do you really think its wise to trust that to strangers you have no idea about? if my enemy laners are dead, they cant kill my adc no matter how bad he is. I can solo kill these scrubs and stack tear all day.

50000000000000003 votes

Damage isn't the only way to carry. Making decisions and pinging objectives can help win games, and if you're support who doesn't have to focus on CS, you can look at the map and see what the best course of action is.

I'm not saying mage supports are a bad idea (a lot of them are amazing supports), but the idea that you should always try to do damage to carry is horrible. Tanks can carry too.

UndeadYoshi1 votes

i already ping objectives, im constantly staring at the map and calling all the shots, just killed bot, get drag, push tower, take their blue, get scuttle, drag is about to drop, gank mid and push outer. these are givens for me, personally. I just feel that with a good amount of damage, i can better ensure we have more opportunities to actually take all those things i just listed. i ward the right places, I DO WARD, i dont understand why no one has the reading comprehension to see that i'm saying that. its honestly not even about the damage, its about the fact that i can spam abilities and set up more opportunities for kills, take them, have a DRAMATICALLY high gold income and use that to just BUY as many wards as i want AND get my damage items.

CPU BIanc1 votes

I go frostfang -> SS -> Athenes ( im mostly playing sona so the mana refund and cdr is great for me) Then ill pick whatever the team need.

TouchpadExpert1 votes

This build style only works when the enemy makes frequent mistakes as you can punish their every misstep. A good Soraka or a good Braum can mitigate your effectiveness significantly. So ofcourse it will work in Bronze because everything works in Bronze.

UndeadYoshi1 votes

i already said its for bronze. lol no objections here.

Raemnant1 votes

I love all of the people posting who have zero reading comprehension. You don't need to rush sightstone if you can still manage to buy wards. If your strategy is to steal kills, you will have a much larger gold income than a standard support, and you can buy your AP carry items, AND still manage normal wards.

This guys post has NOTHING to do with not having wards, and everything to do with helping the team output damage to carry the game

UndeadYoshi1 votes

-insert thankyou.gif-

Aeolian Melodies1 votes

Honestly I don't care who you're playing and what you build after, but if you don't go item 2049 + item 3341 ASAP, you're doing it wrong, because:

A) If you're not warding enough for SS to be worth, you're doing it wrong B) If you're spending all that money on wards, you're doing it wrong

UndeadYoshi1 votes

i'm not saying it isnt worth it, im saying if you dont get tear and rod of ages right away, theres no point in getting them at all because of how they scale. later on in the game, you may never complete seraphs embrace

UndeadYoshi1 votes

besides which, if i am getting kills, i have EXTRA INCOME to spend, if i was supporting like normal, i wouldn't have that extra income AT ALL. see the whole point of this build is making extra income. if i can solo kill BOTH PEOPLE in the lane (and with a 100% win rate on vel'koz from doing exactly this strategy, i'm sure as shit that i can) then my adc can farm for free, putting us ahead, and making sure the enemy is behind in levels and cs. do you think i haven't tested this? i dont need supporting "advice" so i dont know where you're getting the idea im doing it wrong when i win 100% of my vel support games. if that changes ill let you know, but for the time being 100% is 100%. so either im good at "doing it wrong" or you're just narrow-minded.

Shonjl1 votes

I wish you never mentioned this since this is what I do on Morgana as support and Mid all the time and it works wonders, now people are gonna copy it.... When I support as her I just get coin to keep an income and use shield to help the adc when they get jumped on, but I focus on trying to kill people myself. While the ADC could use kills as well, they can farm their way to victory as well so I don't wait for them, if they get a kill good, if they are too slow and I get it, I get to being a monster quicker and they can suck it up. You would be surprised how scared people are of you when you have nearly 3k hp by 20 minutes and hit like a truck.

I am sorry Morg, you being the high roller with 2 items and already having 300-400ap is over now :<

More from Tips & Tricks

More by UndeadYoshi