Support main here (though I'm only Bronze 1), and I know what you mean by carrying your ADC, even your game.
If you think anything like me, in our lingo, carrying doesn't mean killing everything in sight, its more about setting up the plays and setting up your team for success. There are many games that I would feel that I'm the carry, despite the fact I don't have any kills (but then again, I would have 20+ assists). This is what I do:
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VISION OP !! especially if you can get a pick off someone that is roaming. Also, if the enemy team has a champ that goes invis. Please carry that pink ward with you in your inventory at all times. you want to know where that WK/Talon is escaping to after he jumped into your team.
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Good zoning, in lane or in team fights, its not always about the damage you deal, but how much dmg you've prevented without the enemy being able to do it. Nami does that a bit better within your champion pool
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Map awareness and letting people which enemies are moving in which direction - typically done by wards or just being able to predict where enemies will be moving next based on objectives and positioning - can make good shot calling as well if people are willing to listen to you
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denying farm - by zoning in laning phase. Make the enemy think twice about last hitting that cannon minion, of course ping your adc to let them know when you are going and when you are posturing
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Getting picks / roaming ganking - flash solar flare following up with a zenith blade typically gets the job done nicely
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disengaging the priority targets, like speeding up your carry, and they don't have to be the adc - if your adc gets jumped from a tri-force jax, make sure you have W's power chord ready, reduce his burst, then switch over to your E ASAP so your ADC can escape
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shield your allies during trading - again, its about when you use it. shields are a great way to have your team out trade the enemy .. if they know what they are doing
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positioning / repositionings - more for something like janna, where you can move the enemy around - ever tried a flash monsoon and the enemy is in the tower and the rest of the team pushed back? thats a great feeling. especially when your who team survives and they don't after.
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body shield - thats right, block that cait's snipe, that lucian's culling, sometimes even that sivir's boomerang just to reduce its dmg. if you are reducing the dmg, most people don't notice it, but you'll know what you did.
Overall though, I personally see that support carry plays are very ... not visible to others. If you zoned the enemy during laning phase, its typically not too visible. your vision saved a gank a mile away, well, you've backed off already, so there is no "clutch" involved. The pink ward in the middle of the team fight to reveal WK, your team probably won't even notice it until alot later. That body block to reduce 15% of sivir's boomerang dmg, even though it still hit the adc, he survived with that body block and he won't notice it. If the shield was place on the carry the right time, the shield may have exploded right away, they won't notice it.
This, is why we say support is a under appreicated role.
- I carry by not building as a Support. If I have a crappy ADC who can't secure a kill you better believe that I'm taking that kill. It's going to keep happening unless they secure their kills that I set up.
- Drop that Bomb. 40 Starting AP is more than enough. I've gotten kicked out of 3 different lanes once and was 9 - 0 - 0 before I died.
