Support life

Chardor42·1/27/2015, 2:26:20 PM·1 votes·2,144 views

Was wondering if people had any solid advice on how to carry yourself through ranked as a support. I play fairly well, mechanics need work, warding is on point and have a great champ pool, but for some reason i can never string wins together, i only care to play support but damn it can be so rough, the last game of my provisional i went mao supp, Adc was afk and i won lane 1v2 and finished an even 5-5 going against sivir and braum. The first 3 games in my provisional had an afk in each as well... Im just beginning to think that i can not carry myself out of bronze as a support and a true support at that. Just looking for some advice from support mains who typically only play support on how to carry myself through bronze

30 Comments

TurtleHumper1/27/2015, 3:22:13 PM2 votes

I do almost always play support. My wins are quite consistent, I had 55% win rate with Taric last season.

If your ADC leaves then it depends who you are...plenty of times if I'm Taric I just get a tonne of armour and I can pull through the 1v2 bot. If you're sona, soraka, janna, nami it's a lot harder and you're better off discussing with your teammates, if your jungle can come bot or you can join top or mid. That's happened a few times, if it does you can join mid and rush the tower, rush drags etc.

Some supports I would recommend if you are worried about an afk/feeder are

Morgana - really strong late game and essentially becomes a carry. Taric - Super tanky, nice stun and gives an armour aura for your team, best vs heavy AD teams. Annie - Stuns and same as morgana. Janna - more difficult, but has great escapes and really good shield to get even the heaviest of ADC's out of tricky situations.

Some people are playing Sion support but I haven't tried it yet. I wouldn't recommend playing Sona/Soraka in lower elos as they are squishy and if you end up with 1v2 bot lane you won't win.

Another tip is to make sure to do is learn all the main jungler and adc abilities. This will help you a lot to gauge whether or not to go in, how far and where to ward (example J4 has gap closers and he's pretty popular recently) , do you need pinks early etc.

I hope this helps!

TurtleHumper1/27/2015, 2:43:35 PM2 votes

Last season I used Taric and Janna to go from b2 to s2. What I found helped was that in lower elos people don't know how or when to use their items (like randuins, mikaels, locket etc). By learning to use them correctly and also when figuring out when to use them I found I had an edge over the other low elo supports.

That being said, it's a lot easier to learn AP supports in low elo that can poke down the enemy and essentially become a carry late game (morg, zil, lulu, lux etc) , but I think it's important to get to grips with more 'traditional' supports for when you get to higher elos because champs like example janna have an amazing kit, however Janna can't really do much if the ADC constantly walks into hooks, gets caught etc so lower elo she's more risky as other people's mechanics will be worse.

Chardor421/27/2015, 2:38:08 PM1 votes

I do extremely well in laning phase, its just i cant string together consistent wins, i never ever play any role so carrying myself out of bronze in any other lan or position wont happen with me, i only have fun helping my team and warding. But its like clockwork every 3rd or 4th game afk, or terrible team comp, Obviously i have made mistakes that are costly and im very aware of my problems, i watch ever game i play to see where i messed up....but i just cant seem to get anwyhere

Butterwood1/27/2015, 2:31:45 PM1 votes

This season I have about a 75% win rate as jungle and 70% win rate as support, then 50% or below as everyone else. In sub-gold ELOs there are a decent amount of games where nobody wants to support, so having a supp on your team that actually knows what they're doing can be a HUGE advantage. If I'm worried about "carrying" (like in solo-queue, where I have no guarantee of who I'm getting on my team), then I just make sure I stay glued to my adc / lategame carry and take heavy support items (FACE...of the Mountain!). It's probably the simplest role you can draw in Summoners Rift, but don't underestimate the difference you can make supping.

Tsunday1/27/2015, 6:43:03 PM1 votes

warding is on point

Let's talk about on point really quick. The second you take an outer turret you should be warding their jungle on the side with no turret. On blue side you should also be putting a pink in your tri but it should be on the very bottom left corner where the enemy botlane puts themself in a choke point to try and take it down, if you're warding dragon you want to try to never ward inside from the back of the pit and always ward in the middle of river where you can spot ganks and see drag if possible. You should pretty much be begging everyone to dragon and spamming drag pings whenever you believe it's a good call, you'll know best because you're the one placing vision by dragon and you're the one in botlane who knows how healthy the enemy laners are.

mechanics need work

Support is 100% about juggling and positioning. If your mechanics need work then you're not going to get out of Bronze as support. You need to play at a Silver level mechanically to get out of Bronze as a support. The problem with supporting at a low elo is that you have a low elo ADC to follow up on your plays. If you set up a good play you still have to have an ADC who will follow up on that play correctly. Since decision making and mechanics are really lacking in low elo follow up isn't always done properly. When you put 2 bronze level botlaners together it kind of makes your lane luck of the draw.

support mains who typically only play support

I was asking my friend for support advice the other day. He made it to D5 by the end of preseason only playing support. He said the key is to duo queue. Support and ADC need a certain synergy, every one of them has a different playstyle. For example my D5 supp friend sometimes plays normals with me (he goes ADC and I go support). He always plays really aggressive and keeps them pushed up to tower. He never dives but they are always under tower. My best friend plays a lot of Quinn and he doesn't push until level 6 when he will dive if he has to for a kill. I play very aggressive supports like Leona with my D5 friends and heal oriented supports like Soraka or Sona with my Quinn friend who wants the heals for his dives. Not only that but I would play Leona or Thresh or Sona differently with my D5 friend than I would with my Quinn main friend because they will follow up differently and they want different things from their lanes. If you find an ADC you can synergize with and you duo with them it will give you more chances of winning your lane.

The first 3 games in my provisional had an afk in each

You are playing the Queens and Kings of 4 v 5s. Essentially the support role is about making your allies go god mode. In a 4v5 (or any game you're behind in) peel the shit out of whoever on your team is capable of doing damage. if your Jax is 2/0 then buff him up, CC people who jump on him, and focus your attention on him instead of you're 0/5 ADC/APC. I know you might believe your job is to protect your carry but at the end of the day what matters most is that you're keeping the right people on your team safe and if the right person on your team happens to be the toplaner or the jungler, don't be afraid to give them a little extra love. It's possible to win a 4v5 when nobody can kill your main source of damage.

fdissht1/27/2015, 2:41:13 PM1 votes

Or play champs like leona/thresh/blitz, feed your adc kills and roam to mid to get them fed Karma/annie/vel koz supports are good for getting kills Try not to play passive supports like taric/soraka (unless you trust your adc)

KDA Michael1/27/2015, 2:33:42 PM1 votes

Play carry style supports like Lulu or Annie, or Morgana and try to be as aggresive as you can. If you can keep the enemy adc from farming as much as possible you make it so your adc, even when he is not very mechanically talented, will be strong enough to fight, but the enemy adc will be gold starved and not very impactful. This can make a very big difference in closing out games, or turning a losing game into a winning one.