Need advice on support play.

Kaelnor·9/26/2015, 9:09:21 AM·1 votes·838 views

Hey guys, I'm wondering if I can get some relatively good advice on champ type, strategy, and forms of playing support. I understand the goal is the get the ADC fed, and get a good performance out of lane (basically winning). However one of the things I don't seem to get is which type of support is best. The tank-like kind? ( ) the utility based? ( ) or the
more aggressive support? ( )

Also one thing I want to know is when I should harass the enemy support or ADC? When my ADC does it, or to setup for the kill, how?

15 Comments

HentRex9/26/2015, 9:20:24 AM2 votes

There is no "Best" type of support. I'll play Anivia Azir DrMundo JarvanIV Rammus Bot lane is more knowing what you have vs. what they have. I personally like to be a Tank that initiates the fight. So I'll play a lot of Thresh, Leo,Ali, and Taric. What style of champs do you normally play? If you play back line champs then it would probably be easier to learn Utility supports. If you play tanks then vice versa. http://nashor.com/fun.php?st=3002 This is old but it gives a basic layout of support style.

Fiveofswords9/26/2015, 9:39:26 AM2 votes

harrass the enemy to whatever point is safe. basically you would prefer to harrass the adc (who should be busy trying to farm) but if the other support is making this difficult then jsut do what you can. Also if the enemy support is something very dangerous like blitz or leona then you have to respect the sudden kill potential. In overall performance the ultility/sustain type supports tend to be best but this depends on various things...you need to cover whatever area your team is weak in composition...for example if your team lacks a good engage/tank/cc then you would probably want to go for leona. If your team lacks poke/seige potential then you could consider lux. etc. getting the adc fed is not your only role. its also important to help the entire team in whatever way.

do not attack minions. the only time you might want to attack minions is if the opponents in the lane when back and u want to push a wave to tower quickly (to either kill tower or go b yourselves) Otherwise jsut trust the adc whether they want to freeze lane or push.

ward. ward the side brush and gank entries. you want to be careful about who the enemy jungler is also and whether they have potential to solo dragon early...liek say fiddlesticks. if its that sort of jungler then you want to ward dragon early. If its a more typical jungler who is going to need help from bot lane you actually can wait for a while before warding up there.

try to stay close to your adc. closer than you probably think is necessary. most stupid deaths in lane seem to happen because one person is jsut too far from the other.

often depending on how bot lane is doing and the matchup you dont really have much you need to do, your adc is safe, but you cant kill enemy adc either (enemy support is soraka), or maybe they have simply abandoned bot lane for a bit. In those cases you often can consider wandering to mid and trying to help gank there...supports often have good cc so are good at ganking.

AyRe CoNteMpT9/26/2015, 11:11:15 AM2 votes

i know many people have many different blablas to share, but there is one very important thing to understand: the easier your champion can be played at high efficiency, the more you bring to a game. if you play janna or thresh supports, which both rely on "outskilling" the enemy somewhat, you will have a much harder time than you would have if you played straight forward champs like leona, nautilus, kayle or lulu. or even braum.

those champions have very distinct playstyles and roles that are extremely straight forward and dont require you to do much else than your job.

i can only recommend to play simpler champions and play them better instead of playing more complex champions and suck with them.

Sònatique9/26/2015, 10:27:37 AM1 votes

Tbh, I would put Sona in the "More aggressive) support tab, if you build AP on her, she's an amazing support still, ans her Q deals an insane amount of damage + her passive. Then there's her ult and W, wich makes team fights quite a bit easier... But that's just my opinion!

Aeolian Melodies9/27/2015, 2:06:17 AM1 votes

Currently, engage supports Alistar Annie Blitzcrank Thresh Braum Leona Nautilus kinda reign supreme, alongside Janna and Morgana (and for a good reason, these two are very good against hard engage, Janna is the queen of disengage, Morgana is good at counter-engaging and snare + Black Shield works wonder).

Pure poke supports Sona Karma Zyra Nami and sustain Soraka are kind of in a hard spot due to the popularity of their bad match ups, however if you play them well and aren't a highly competitive player, there is no reason you can't do well with them.

Personally I would advice taking a look at the kind of champions you play in your other roles/lanes. ADC main who plays pokey champions? Try out Sona Karma Lulu . Jungle main who plays mostly tanks? Go for Nautilus Alistar Leona . Mid main who plays mages? Most of them can work as support if they have some form of CC and you are good with them, see Morgana Karma Annie Veigar Velkoz who were all played as support competitively.

As far as positioning goes, that depends on your pick. Squishy poke/utility supports Janna Sona Soraka Nami should be closer to the back line as they have little business being in the front line. Tankier supports and supports with better engage Annie Leona Braum Thresh and so forth can afford being closer to the front line and support the allied front liners; however, no matter who you play as your support, you should always be in a position where you can turn around and assist your ADC with buffs and CC as soon as it is needed.

lofi n chillhop9/26/2015, 3:14:22 PM1 votes

look for opportunities to roam. in a skirmish, peel for your ADC, this means body block blitz grabs, and focusing the same target your adc's focusing.use cc if you have it, try to use it at key moments tho that's a skill to always work on. avoid dying, altho be aware of shutdown gold. don't engage when the enemy's minion wave is large. when ganked, look to learn when you want to try to focus the enemies one at a time and fight and when you need to hightail it back to the tower.

look for vulnerable moments, altho in low elo no one jumps on those: when a support leaves lane to ward, you might be able to cut then off or five their adc. if one backs, especially in a bush you've warded, you might have a chance to jump the other the second recall finishes. if you got three or even two high health teammates itching for a kill and they have one mid health or lower hugging turret, it can be worth aa dive, tho at low elo your allies aren't gonna be on the same page. if you five get used to how many tower hits you can take before leaving, sometimes it's just a matter of forcing the tower to target you then stand on the edge tanking a few hits while your ADC finishes the job.

mid game look for picks with your jungler if you can. ward the river and keep an eye on your map so you can warn your farming arc when someone coming, but don't leave them 1v2.

sometimes when they're farming you gotta be there at they're side to provide a zone of support so that the event can't poke or five your ADC without you counter engaging. be aware of cooldown's, when thresh hook is down be aggressive on them when your abilities are down you are vulnerable. be aware of level and item advantages.

if both the enemies recal, your ADC might try to push lane, help them do that. fall back once you push the lane to the tower, perhaps recall also.

think about dragon plays. don't force dragon without your jungler, danger ping if your allies are low or the enemies are on their way from base because the call took too long to make.

tonzillacrayon9/26/2015, 9:36:14 AM1 votes

watch high elo adc's steam not bad ones good ones like aphro ,pyl ,mata,

TouchpadExpert9/26/2015, 4:50:36 PM1 votes

I made a guide a few months ago about the 3 styles that make up the laning phase. It's a long read but also really informative. It tells you all about matchups and how to counter pick your opposing laners effectively. Granted, sometimes you want to forego an easy lane in order to pick a more well rounded champ for the mid/late game.

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/tips-tricks/5BK3mUsE-the-three-types-of-laning-styles

You should also focus on positioning too. I have seen many Leonas get too far ahead of their ADCs, charge the enemy back line and then complain about why there was no follow up. Its because they ran off ahead way too far and their ADC didn't have the time or range to get into proper position. So try to stay in range of your ADC.

There is also the topic of peeling which many people say they understand but really don't. Peeling is more complicated then it looks. Like when the enemy Alistar does his headbutt pulverize combo its pretty pointless to peel him off when the enemy ADC is about to get into the fight with all their abilities still up and ready for use. In a situation like this getting the enemy ADC off your ally is a smarter plan of action. I see many people peel the enemy Alistar off their allies only to have the ADC swoop in and finish off rest of the team.

And to combine the two topics listed above, there is an ideal formation when you gather up for a team fight.

Enemy formation <= Tanks/Fighters/Bruisers --- Assassins/Supports --- Marksmen/Mages

As the support you want to be able to stand in the middle regardless of whether you are a tank, utility or mage support. From this position you have the most effect on how a team fight turns out. In this position you have the option to engage or peel depending on how the fight goes. You should plan out your abilities accordingly. Try not to use them all in one go as this leaves your back line very vulnerable to enemy assassins or engagements. Try to save your "peel move" for peeling rather than engaging. Peel moves are things like Thresh's flay, Alistar's headbutt, and lots of other stuff. Some champions have more than one ability that can be used to peel. For instance Thresh's hook can be used to pull an assassin off his ADC just as much as it can be used to grab the fleein enemy ADC. Prioritize peeling over kill securing, but take into consideration the "importance" of your allies. On equal skill levels it should run as so: ADC > Mid laner > Jungler > Top laner. That's assuming everyone is of equal skill level. But if your ADC is 1/9/2 and your mid laner is 15/2/18 then by all means save that mid laner first. And the jungler is more important than the top laner simply because of the smite summoner spell. Without your jungler alive the enemy is much more likely to take dragon or baron without you being able to contest it. That and because most top laners run teleport so they return to a fight quicker than the jungler would.

And one last tip involves extending your warding range. You can safely place wards in hard to reach places through the trick. If you try to place a ward inside of a wall the game will see this as an invalid ward spot and will forcibly move it to the closest valid location. So if you're red side and supporting you can ward your river bush from the gap between your tribush and the river by attempting to place the ward in the wall and have it "push out" the ward into the river bush revealing the hidden Rengar waiting there :)