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I was inspired to write this OP from a heated discussion in General Discussion and by the fact that I think Supporting is probably the most underappreciated role while at the same time there is a huge skill and knowledge gap between most of the supporting players I've seen in my games so far. I will only point out and explain some of the basics here and hope this might start a lively discussion about all the aspects that surround this role.
What is Supporting and Why do it?
Supporting is a staple and irreplaceable role in LoL as well as in every DotA-like game so far. The Support Player is generally responsible for most of the map control and for denying his opponents' vision through counterwarding. During combat he/she will help his carries to do their job better, which includes alot of altruistic stuff like buffing, baiting, healing and even dying for the greater good.
If you have good map-awareness and foresight, then this might be a role you could enjoy. If your basis for having fun is a positive k/d score, then you should rather stick to AP/AD carries and leave the supporting for those who actually enjoy it and know what they are doing. Personally I think supporting is challenging and has a huge influence of a match's outcome despite the general opinion on this matter.
As you will not farm minions and even try to let your carries get kills (not recommended for new players!), you will die faster than a regular tank and deal less damage than a regular ranged champion. However your contribution is just as great as every players' and the difference between a bad and a good support is just as high as with every other role. Some have even proven that it is just as viable to win games consistently with mainly support champions, while outplaying the other team's lastpick.
The Aspects of Laneing and Combat as a Support
Supporting is all about synergy. The champion you pick has to fit your team, as you fill their holes and buff their strengths. This is why we start with explaining some of the stuff you do in your lane and engagements.
1. Babysitting
Some champions are stronger in the early laning phase as others. Babysitting means to keep that carry on your lane as healthy as possible during his weak phase. Ranged carries like Vayne and Kog’Maw do not have the ranged and sheer power to hold on against champions like Ezreal or Caitlyn and need you to sustain and protect them until their powercurve goes up.
Some strong babysitters are:
- Soraka - Strong sustain for both mana and health as well as defensive buffs make her
a good pick for babysitting. Her silence serves as an interrupt for spellcombos as well.
- Sona - Again healing and defensive buffs.
- Alistar - Great sustain through his heal and two strong disables to keep away jumpers.
- Janna - She doesn't really sustain but reactionary shields along with her two disables keep
you and your laning mate alive.
Most of the regular support champions are great at babysitting, but if you really have to keep your lane safe against an aggressive combo or an early game ganker, then you most likely want to stick to Sona/Soraka which offer the best sustain and defensive buffs. Other champions like Taric or Nidalee who also have heals are perhaps less suited for this, since they go out of mana very fast and their main strength isn't even healing. When picking a babysitter then also think about what utility you'll need to protect your carry, such as Soraka's silence for example can save you from channeling spells or spellcombos (thinking of Fiddle drain and Ali's stun combo).
2. Aggressive Laneing
Most AP carries and some of the AD carries such as Caitlyn, Ezreal, Tristana have a strong laneing phase and just need someone who keeps their opponent in place so they can kill 'em.
Alistar and Taric are probably the best examples for this because of their strong hard disables. When picking an aggressive Support then always think about your lanepartner as well. If you are paired with Cait, then you might consider Taric for the stun&trap combo but if your carry's name is Vayne then you are probably better served with Alistar for better positional play.
As for aggressive laners your options are the most flexible. There are a bunch of unusual picks such as Lux or Leona who will work just as fine. Not having a healing spell does not cripple your lane if you have the nuking power to get ahead. The only advantage of healing is the ability to do it from a safe position, which comes with the price of costing generally more mana than nukes though.
Aggressive laning as a Support can net your team some kills but comes with a higher risk. There's nothing wrong with babysitting a strong laner, except if your opponents carry has a steeper powercurve. In this case you want to take those risks and build up as much pressure as you can to zone him from some of the farm or kill him if he gets greedy.
3. Poking and Kiting or Initiating?
There are a bunch of carries who excel at poking. Kog, Ezreal, Ashe, Corki to name a few. There are tanks and bruisers, who just have to be (and can be) poked and kited before your team should face them. So if you will face a Nasus/Udyr/similar during the mid-lategame then you should think about picking either Janna, Sona or Soraka. Janna and Sona are very obvious choices. Soraka is picked for her mana sustain which results in infinite pokes and her clutch armor buff on heal is nothing to cough at when the fight starts. Again, there are other champions that poke very well and could be viable Supports as well.
However it is not only the AD Carry and the Support who determine which side the poke-trades win. If you'r able to guess which side will have the stronger pokes then you can choose the right Support to complement your team. If you think your team will get behind with the pokes then you can counter this with either sustain or with hard-disables so your team can force an engagement more
easily.
4. Countering Assassins
Assassins are the bane of Carries but they have a very risky job. Here it is important to consider two things: A) Knockbacks and hard-disables and B) Very potent defensive buffs.
Alistar and Janna offer the first and are both very good carriers for the Oracles to counter stealth assassins such as Eve, Akali or Talon. The strongest defensive buffs come from less usual support picks such as Kayle, Zilean or Shen. Those are much more common on a solo lane. However, if you think such picks offer enough besides their panic buttons then go for it. Consider how the enemy Assassin deals his damage when trying to counter him/her. Soraka's silence might be enough to keep an Akali from jumping your carry if you can maintain an Oracles on her.
5. Roaming
Roaming is the opposite of babysitting and also the same thing but on a larger scale. As a roamer your job is to constantly gank or zone/camp different lanes and possibly the jungle instead of staying on the same one during the laning phase. Your team should have a strong solo laner on every lane while one of them must be able to face 2 opponents without getting severely behind. The other prerequisite is having strong gank assist abilities such as disables or burst, so you can net kills. Roaming is an uncommon early game strategy because it sets the roamer behind in experience most of the time.
Known roamers are Evelynn, Twitch, Taric, Alistar and Maokai. Champions that force pink wards and oracles are obvious picks. Roamers like Alistar and Maokai offer disables and burst. A roamer often buys travel boots to be able to switch from lane to lane very fast. One of the advantages that roaming offers is strong mapcontrol because forces defensive behaviour from your opponents while you can almost freely ward some of the juiciest wardspots.
You don't have to be a dedicated roamer to switch from lane to lane though. When your carry is already ahead enough, or if your lane opponents are dead/missing then you always might consider to roam even if only to place some wards around team objectives, jungle buffs or the river.
Even if your lane is forced to farm under the turret then you might as well leave the lane to do something more useful than leeching experience, as long as your Carry cannot be dived.
If you keep a good eye on both junglers then you might be able to assist during ganks on the midlane or during counterjungling. Especially the latter can snowball very quickly in a huge advantage because if you are able to kill/scare away the other jungler and ward his area then your jungler can steal and counter him repeatedly.
Just don't do such things blindly or even without speaking to your teammates. Roaming requires opportunity and communication.
Awareness and Mapcontrol
1. Clairvoyance (CV)
Using CV has alot of purposes that we want to discuss here. Even with its low cooldown, it is not a summoner you want to waste. It can either piss on somebody's parade or be completely useless.
Catching somebody with it greatly depends on his and your experience with the game and can be tricky sometimes.
1.1 Tracking Opponents
Early in the game you want to use it to track your opponent's jungler. Knowing most of the viable jungle routes come in handy here. If you manage to know where he starts, then you can keep on CVing the camps he should be clearing. A simple example to make: Jungler starts with blue and you CV his wolves or wraiths depending on cooldown and timing. If he didn't show up there or didn't already clear them, then you can warn the lanes near those camps to be cautious.
The better your map awareness is, the greater the usage of this spell. There is a lot of info you have to consider besides the jungling route. Compare the behaviour of the other lanes and their CS. Compare the health and possibilities to gank those lanes.
If you have an experienced jungler in your team, then he often might call for CV assistance to counterjungle. Some solo laners will also ask for CV, especially before their first bluepill, since they often do not start with wards in their inventory. Use your judgment here. If you know that an area is clear, then just tell 'em. If you're not sure, then grant them one of your precious CV cooldowns.
Another important use during the early game and even midgame is tracking the other Support, when he is placing wards or even roaming. Some players will just not do anything if you catch 'em, to deny you intelligence. Use this to gain either an advantage in your lane, or follow him and annoy him with a bit of pokeing. However if you see him warding then just go on and kill that ward, when you have the opportunity.
1.2 Checking Brushes
During the whole game you want to use CV to check brushes and other tricky areas before so your team does not get caught. Everytime you have to do this, then remember this area, the circumstances and roughly the game time so you might be able to ward it the next time before your in that situation. The less CVs you have to use the better, because it can always miss and especially lategame it often does not catch everything you want to see.
You also have to use it aggressively so your team cannot be juked. If you see a gank incomming then be ready to CV nearby brushes. CV should allways come the moment someone enters a brush.
1.3 Timing your CV
A strong usage of CV is to keep track of buffs and dragons that are made by your opponents. Write down the time in the chat. To remember: Blue and redbuff spawn 5min, Dragon spawns 6min and Baron 7min after their respective deaths. Talking about death timers: You can also use CV after an opponents death to see if he is walking towards his lane like you expect him to.
Using CV basically all comes down to experience, foresight and timing. Al ways think about why you use it now and here and if you could have warded that area as well. If someone got ganked/caught then think about the timing and if you could have saved him with a CV etc.
2. Warding and Counterwarding
First of all: Wards cost nothing and you can buy them infinitely. Placing wards at the right locations limits your opponent's options for aggressiveness, map control and buff control for a great amount, while giving you opportunities for such team objectives. The team with the better ward bitch naturally has the better coordination.
The amounts of wards you have to place greatly differs from match to match, depending on both teams and especially supports. Denying enemy wards is called counterwarding, which is done with either pink wards or oracles.
2.1 Basic Ward Placement
2.1.1 Earlygame
SR is designed in such a way that you can completely shut down the enemy area with just 4 wards on the river entrances and possibly 2 additional wards on the sidelane brushes which goes both ways ofc. Those are the wardspots your team has to control the most during the early-midgame.
New players often make the mistake to ward very near to their lane. Don't do this! Alot of strong gankers have the luxury to be seen there and still grab a kill or force you to bluepill. Other gankers have insanely huge jumps that push them over big obstacles (Kassadin/Shaco). Denying every way to be ganked is almost impossible though, but place your early game wards a good chunk away from your lane to give you more vision and reaction time.
If you are able to roam some time, then also think about warding your opponent's buffs near your lane. This might save you a CV and can open opportunities for your mid player and your jungler to be aggressive.
2.1.2 Mid-Lategame Wards
Later in the game you should allways time your wards on Baron and Dragon and some of the crossroads near to them to see opponents approaching the area.
Other important areas include again jungle Buffs, river entrances and generally crossroads. Allways consider to ward brushes near crossroads.
If you have a steady farmer/splitpusher in your team, then grant him some safety. Place wards near the lane he wants to push, including some of the nearby brushes. With only 3 wards you can give him the opportunity to farm hundreds of gold safely.
Warding should be of preventive nature. If you are allways a step ahead of the game, then your wards will be invaluable. Defensive wards in your Jungle are often a good thing when your team is behind. Cover an area surrounding a turret that your team most likely wants to push. If you constantly think about the teamobjectives and flow of the game then you shouldn't have problems to know where to ward. And again, wards don't cost anything. Rather place too many than too few.
2.2 Counterwarding
The art of counterwarding is the thing that seperates the wheat from the chaff. You have two possibilities to deny enemy vision: Pink wards and Oracles.
2.2.1 Using Pinks and Oracles
New players with a minimum of Moba experience often spam Oracles from a certain point of time to destroy your wards. The efficiency of that greatly depends on the champion and the combat role he has. I don't recommend doing this by default. Counterwarding should mainly be done with Pinks.
Always keep track of your opponent's wardcount and where he places them. A well placed pink ward does costs 100 gold maximum or even less since you gain 25 gold by destroying wards. Even if your Jungler doesn't make use of it: The sheer uncertainty you create with denying wards will force defensive behaviour.
A good rule of thumb is to almost constantly place Pinks on the hotspots we discussed earlyer in the warding section. If you feel safe for spamming Oracles or if your team just needs it, then go for it. This safes you a slot and makes counterwarding a breeze. Most of the time however it is more cost-efficient to use your wits.
2.2.2 Mindgames and hiding Wards
Early in the game you can bait out your opponents Pinks by walking to a ward location and back to your lane, doing nothing. This can lead you to have a 150 gold advantage with just a cheesy trick.
Another thing you can do is to bait the other support with green wards if he has oracles. Make sure he sees you warding an area and set up a gank. Alot of less dedicated support players feel so intelligent about themselves clearing wards that they will bite. In the other hand: Don't just clear wards for the sake of it. Just as placing wards, the denyal of em should have a purpose.
Some ward placements might be less efficient for only vision purposes but you can sometimes save gold by placing wards on less common locations. This pattern might force you to place additional wards to gain the same amount of mapcontrol but if your wards are harder to spot, then you'll gain an advantage from this since your vision is not as easily denied.
3. Masteries, Runes and Itembuilds
3.1 Improving CV
Building a Support is basicly the same as building every other champion with one exception: You have to get 21 points in Utility masteries to minimize the CV cooldown and maximize it's length. Also every other point you spend in there, such as ability cooldowns, gold/10, manareg, experience gain are all very welcome. Spend the other points where your champion wants them the most.
3.2 Runes
If you babysit you want to consider gold/10 Quints and mostly /lvl stuff on your other Runes. Aggressive laners like to have stronger early-game stats such as flat armor, MS, health etc. For healers you need ap, cdr and manareg so use runes that complement your possible itembuilds for this.
3.3 Items
Again you build your support champion, just as every other, with the mindset of synergy and costefficiency. The two restricions are A) free slots and spare gold for ward/oracles and B) Almost no farming gold.
3.3.1 CDR, Ability Power, Defensive Stats, Utility, Auras, Mana regeneration
These are the six possible stats you want to build on most of the support Champions to make them stronger. There are Champions that scale very well with just AP such as Soraka or Sona. Just a couple of Doran's Rings are very cheap and costefficient while solving 2 other problems as well. You can up scale your gained AP with items such as Morello's Evil Tome, Abyssmal Scepter and Will of the Ancients, so the general rule is to allways improve your utility.
Staple defensive and utility Items include Aegis of the Legion and Shureilas Reverie. Other Aura items such as Frozen Heart and Stark's Fervor are very usefull for your team as well but less common because they either are expensive or provide almost useless stats for your most of the Support Champions. This doesn't sound very altruistic but don't miss out the fact that a Support is bound to costefficiency just as much as every other one while having a much more limited amount of gold.
When the game drags on and you might be able to buy a top tier item such as Deathcap or Banshees Veil then go for it, but if you plan on such items from the start then you allready have a completely false mindset for playing Support. If you are very AP hungry then you might rather consider getting Soulstealer at some point. This item forces you to farm assists and survive which both are things you want to do anyways. Your opponents however need to consider initiating on you if you gained too many stacks with it, which is again a good thing if you calculate that in.
3.3.2 Gold/10
Gold/10 items are not necessary on Supports than on any other champions and work the same way on them as well: You get free gold in 25min from buying overpriced stats.
If you plan on upgrading them at some time then for god's sake buy gold/10 items. If you plan on playing very passive during the early game then don't hesitate getting a couple of them. But do not dismiss the fact, that they are an investment that make you weaker now but stronger later. Doran's and basic items give you more for your gold at the moment you buy them and can lead to an advantage if you make use of them. Gold/10 items may open the possiblity of spamming oracles or purchasing a strong item later in the game. Either way: Don't be a fool and buy more than two or maybe three of them. The third gold/10 item will most likely not even pay for itself considering the time you get it.
And again, getting an additional pink ward can get your lane ahead by a much greater margin than a couple stats here or a bit of gold there.
4. Streams, VoDs and Replays
under construction
5. To-Do List
- I need some tipps/links for the 4th section "Streams, VoDs and Replays"
- If someone can help me to correct the english?
- Improving the warding section with pics
- Any criticism and improvements are welcome whether it's about the format/info/wording etc.
6. Changelog
25.Oct. 2011 published the first version.
+ Show Spoiler +I'm neither a top player nor is english my native language. This is why I highly appreciate constructive criticism and anything that could make this guide better. If you post usefull content in here then I will gladly add it to the OP as well as any kind of corrections. At the end of the guide is a "To-Do"-List if you'd like to help me/us directly.
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Very good write up, I'll see if I can't find any images on correct ward placement for bot lane and beyond.
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Really nice guide so far. I really think that the evolution of support play will be the main driver of the metagame in the near future. There is so much undiscovered potential with aggressive and unconventional supports.
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Really good guide, your hard work is appreciated.
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I think there are some mistakes in this guide
first of all your g/10 hate. I agree they are overrated, but not on supports I think they suck on most toplaners/junglers. But a support need to ALWAYS be able to afford wards/oracle and thats not possible without g/10 if you have a bad game. And the stats are pretty nice too, health hp regen mana regen. Yeah they are overprized but still nice items.
Then your pink ward > oracle.. thats not really true early game pink wards are good if you want to do an early dragon or sth but if you have some income (g/10 or some towers/assists) you should get an oracle. For stealth champs and general vision cleaning
And you said with sona is a passive laner, I disagree 100% Sona is such an awesome agressive lane, usually you max q and harrass the enemy lane (with your 3 cast passive you do 200+ burst!)
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I dunno where it is, but somewhere on our forum, somebody posted a nice image of SR's minimap with many CV & ward locations indicated. Would be great to have somewhere in here, but I can't find it, even with search.
Xpecial's CV guide is awesome, - after those first two CVs, it really diverges. (Also, in the event your enemy jungler is one who prefers to start small golems, you want your 2nd CV to be between small golems and red, but close enough to golems to check the bush that is between the top/bot lane and golems. Around 1:45 is a good time to do this, and you should be able to see them finish small golems and be forced to make the decision to walk to lane for a level2 gank or not.
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On October 26 2011 01:03 Ente wrote:
I think there are some mistakes in this guide
first of all your g/10 hate. I agree they are overrated, but not on supports I think they suck on most toplaners/junglers. But a support need to ALWAYS be able to afford wards/oracle and thats not possible without g/10 if you have a bad game. And the stats are pretty nice too, health hp regen mana regen. Yeah they are overprized but still nice items.
Then your pink ward > oracle.. thats not really true early game pink wards are good if you want to do an early dragon or sth but if you have some income (g/10 or some towers/assists) you should get an oracle. For stealth champs and general vision cleaning
And you said with sona is a passive laner, I disagree 100% Sona is such an awesome agressive lane, usually you max q and harrass the enemy lane (with your 3 cast passive you do 200+ burst!)
I appreciate your feedback. But I was 100% neutral on the matter of g/10 while showing both sides of the coin. Spamming wards and oracles is not bound to buying them items btw. you can even buy more wards and oracles if you do not buy gp/10 early on.
On the pink wards>oracles matter: I think you are right, this section is too onesided and influenced by preferance. I will rewrite that section to make it neutral, showing both options more equally. However: oracle spam is an outdated thing and not nessecairy everytime, but saying that pinks>oracle is just as silly.
I didnt say you cant lane sona aggresively. I said she is a great babysitter and didnt mention her in the aggressive section. I worded those sections with the mindset of giving examples and not of excluding possibilities. I play sona the most and with the most success and I know of her damage potential. Still, she lacks the initiation before level six and even if she can harass, you rather want harddisables if you plan on getting kills/assisting early ganks.
edit: thx for the ghostwriter who's improving the format 
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I disagree about the sona part.
but another thing I just noticed
Ranged carries like Vayne and Kog’Maw do not have the ranged and sheer power to hold on against champions
while this is true for kogmaw I think its completly false for vayne, ashe would be a way better example (pre lvl 6 like kogmaw who is just broken after lvl 6  )
Jungler starts with blue and you CV his wolves or wraiths depending on cooldown and timing. If he didn't show up there or didn't already clear them, then you can warn the lanes near those camps to be cautious.
You could mention that a "normal" jungler should be at bout ~ 2:10 at the wolves mb a bit later/earlier depending on the pull/ pull reset bug
imho you should list the "conventional" supports mb even in some kind of tier list with janna, sona > in most circumstances. And elaborate more which support you should pick why.
For example a small overview
Sona : very strong lane with harrass, very high dmg even higher then early game ad carry!, strong heal good initiate after lvl 6 for 2v2 fights in lane and later in teamfights
--> can be picked pretty much any game
Janna: weaker in the lane, no sustain, very good counterinitiate with ultimate and 2 very good CC spells to protect your carry
--> weak to poke combos can be counter picked if the enemy goes nida, gragas, mb other pokes
Ali : decent initiate with ultimate strong in lane with W Q combo good sustain, pick best with agressive laner like tristana, ez, vayne who jumps on the enemies because you cant retreat good once you comboed in, good CC in teamfights with knockback and knockup
--> pick with agressive lane!, can be killed really early in teamfights even with the ultimate pre lvl 16
Taric: strong laner decent sustain weaker in teamfights because he has just 1 single target CC and a decent ad/ap buff
--> pick for lane domination with tristana, vayne, caitlyn, urgot
Soraka: ok sustain in lane (with 20s cd its not that good anymore) gives you mana back, so ok with a mana hungry laner, 100 armor buff later, can counter karthus ultimate(main reason to pick her)
--> nearly only pickable for cait/soraka lane vs karthus, weak(er) then other supports most of the time
non conventional supports like: Lux, Leona, Orianna, Gp... are always picked with an agressive lane because you need to kill stuff because you have no sustain some supports mainly leona CANT be picked vs cait, because of the range advantage
I should add in my team we try to play some "weird" stuff and had quite good success with lux, tristana lane ( ;
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Roaming is a strong counter to lanes that can't push hard early.
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quick question: does xspecial have an active account on these boards?
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Pretty good introduction for the most part, but baron respawn is 7 minutes.
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thats what I used to think too, but just to be 100% sure I looked up all the numbers again and wiki said its 8min while I thought "how did I never notice??" and now its 7min again. Iam totally confused -.-
edit: meh I mixed up sth i guess. everything is as it should be again...
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Really great guide, and combined with Xpecial's guide makes a very strong intro to support. I would recommend you mention Shurelya's, and maybe Aegis/Will/Starks. Every single support rushes Phil Stone in competitive games not just for the gp5 (which is great, of course), but also because the sustain is amazing, and it builds into probably the single best support item in the game - Shurelya's. While it is not necessary in every single game, especially solo queue, that item allows your team to have so many more options.
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thx for the feedback. I mentioned those items and the usage of g/10 in the items section.
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To clarify - I meant to link Phil Stone to Shurelya's, in that if you had to pick one gp5 item (and it's hard to argue against getting at least 1 gp5 as a support) to make it Phil Stone because it builds into Shurelya's later on.
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I'm going to give you the knowledge of stealing farm with the support. People frown on supports getting farm but I am convinced that the character gets alot stronger with minimal farm.
Assists-) When there is a fight, be mindfull of how you are standing assist wise in the fight. The idea is you doing your job correctly but getting counted in the kill for each one dying near you.I'm not saying like waste flash to get the assist, but sometimes in the teamfight people mindlessly spamclick a character and miss chance they could have had otherwise. Let's say you are janna, teamfight at baron starts, you are feeling pretty good about yourself, ulted away the nocturne from your carry, shielded, tornado'd 3 ppl and slowed their nasus charge. now all your shit is on cooldown, lots of people spam attack click on someone or just hover around the edges of the fight waiting on cd. You should be aware of opportunitys to auto attack some1 that is about to die, or just try to auto once everyone in the fight just to be sure you're going to get assist gold. ending the fight with 1 more assist in good gold and can speed up your oracle or next item.
CSing-) BUT BUT BUT, SUPPORTS SHOULD NEVER CS WTF IS THIS. well, theres alot of different thoughts about it. I'm pretty sure that some marginal cs, just to hurry up that filostone by a few seconds in the early game, and even getting full waves endgame is the way to go. Now the problem is, you're going to be yelled at if you take creeps or even ask for them. that's why CS for support isn't creep score; it's creep steal.
there are good times to do it, there are also bad times to do it.
first of all, this is assuming your lane is equal or winning, you do not take creeps from the carry if your lane is losing.
First is the obvious one, when your dummy carry (hi kjh) miss cs, you take it instead this goes under tower or just plain missed creeps.
So, you're laning, your jungler comes, kill one of them. Moral is hight, carry just got 1 kill, he is happy. It's the perfect time to steal a few creeps from him. He is still thinking he is awesome for the kill, you can steal like 4-5 creeps without him getting mad in general. Don't push it but i always take creeps after kills.
If the carry leaves lane with the wave not pushed to the tower, you can also take 2-3. Get this: it's a bad idea to stay in lane 1v2 if your carry went back, you're going to get zoned anyways and maybe killed. But since your carry is smart and recalled in the bush, you can sneak 2-3 creeps before they realize you are alone. after that, gtfo.
After that, it's the plain staeling creeps. You d it in two different ways.
Spam pings: Ping an area of the map repeatedly like 5 times in a row. Makes the carry attention to divert from the creeps and let you take them without him even noticing sometimes. 1 creep generally, not more than 2.
Make him write in chat: if he's writing he's not going to cs. Example is for like asking him when he wants to go on them or the weather in his town.
Late game, you should be able to farm something when things are wuiet imo. let you ad farm a lane in peace but take whatever else you can. like when your ap carry has rabadon void zonyas, he can't bitch about you taking a wave or two to give him a shurelia buff or a nice spellvamp aura.
I also want to mention KSing. i'm still not super sure about how i feel about it, but if the support takes a kill or two early in the game, i think it's very good. Basicall with support, you should buy gp/5 before 15 minutes, after that they will not even come close to efficient. And getting 2 instead of only one is a big deal. the carry will miss the gold of course, but he's going to farm anyways, support is one of the biggest aggro threat in the bot lane at the begining of the game. If you manage to pull it off, pretend you didn't mean too so you dont piss the ad too much
After that, try to lead your team the best you can, objectives like dragon and towers are directly related to your income.
I'm oijdiouc HEHENFO, #1 "accidental" kser, people hate me for what i do so take this advice with a grain of salt. I don't regret it tho, not many choices when you have to carry csheep...
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As far as gold/10 goes, I've yet to see one support in a high level tournament NOT buy at least two of them (philo/heart are kind of obligatory). They give you stats you want anyway, stats that make you more useful for your team, and they will give you the income you need to get wards and oracles.
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On October 26 2011 07:22 DanielZKlein wrote:
As far as gold/10 goes, I've yet to see one support in a high level tournament NOT buy at least two of them (philo/heart are kind of obligatory). They give you stats you want anyway, stats that make you more useful for your team, and they will give you the income you need to get wards and oracles.
I've seen a couple but it's not common. I think I've seen puregoldenboy for example stacking dorans on soraka one time. However, I think I explained very well when and why you should get them. At very high level play the games are much more passive for a long time during the early game, this is why gp5 stacking is effective there. As I said in the section: you should get them if you plan on playing passive and safe. But if we look at "stats that make you usefull for your team" then basic items and dorans items give you much more stats at the moment you buy them than gp10 items. As for the right now: would you rather have 3 dorans rings and a couple more wards or philo+hog? I guess the answer is obvious. But if you'll be babysitting your carry for the next 15 mins (roughly when gp10 become costeffective) then you dont need the additional stats and you can profit from the free gold after 25 min (which is around 30-40 min in the game). There was a lively discussion about that and as far as reasoning goes I'am 100% certain that both ways have their ups and downs which I wanted to address in my guide.
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Ok, I have played hundreds of games on support, so I will throw out a few bits of specific timing knowledge.
Wards last for 3 minutes. Timing your own wards AND your enemies wards is important. If you see your opposing support plant a ward river at, say, 4:03, you should tell you team "ward here until 7:03, don't try and river gank until then". There have been so many times where I have done that and had my jungle walk up at 7:05, right after the other team lost vision without instantly re-warding, and gotten a kill or two out of it. The same goes for top lane, or any other important area on the map. Keeping track of when the enemy team loses vision is important! Don't be afraid to communicate in game. Nobody can be mad at your for trying to help them get kills. Another thing is knowing early ward timings based on what side of the map your are defending. If you are defending top, be wary of a 4 minute gank on bottom. Your 5th CV will NOT be up in time to watch the river for the gank, so your ward must go down in river by 3:50. If you wait until 4 minutes, it might be too late against a fast jungler that got a really strong blue pull and/or did wolves before golem. If you are having to play defensive, and can't risk just walking directly into river to ward, walk around early to place it. Leave your tower at 3:35 and go through your own tri-bush. It takes 15 seconds to walk from tower to ward river no later than 3:50. Don't ward the brush, ward the river to just see the enemy tri-bush exit. You want as much mid river vision as possible. Don't worry about lost EXP, it's not that important. It doesn't hurt to give your range AD some extra XP anyways. Use your 5th CV on bottom lane in the tri-bush if you are playing aggressively, or in the lane brush if you are playing defensively. This is a very fragile time, so don't give the enemy a chance to gank! If you are defending the bottom of the map, then you will need to be extra on top of your CV. Notify your top lane hero to fall back to their tower at 3:45 if your 4th CV (this should be near the enemy mid T2 tower with enough vision to spot wraiths) spots the enemy jungler. If you see them here, he is going a normal jungle route. Use your 5th CV at river to check for top gank. If you don't see the jungler with your 4th CV at T2 tower, then alert your jungler that his jungle is in danger of being invaded.
As far as playing the champions themselves, my favorites are Janna/Sona, so I will give some advice with them.
Janna is my #1. When in lane phase with Janna, you really have to just tower hug. You need to have good reflexes with your shield, and your range AD that is with you needs to be running either cloth 5 for fast wriggles or boots 3. Doran's blade will get you pushed out of lane quite fast, so TELL your range AD not to buy one. Talking is important, don't assume! Leveling up shield first is a must, so grab it first. The only time I wouldn't is if you are doing some type of level 1 team fight with your whole team, or doing a crazy roaming janna with W, but almost always shield will be first in a 'standard' game. Get tornado second and W at level 4. Max out your W first, and your tornado last. It's not there for damage, only knockup. Janna is the quickest of the supports, so ward sweeping and placing is fairly easy. Her ulti CAN knock people up and down ledges in river, so remember that! Your ulti can be used in a few ways: Use it to break up AoE team comps (most useful), use it to knock an important champion back into your team (risky move, but there are certain times when you can flash into position and knock 1-2 champs towards your team and 3-4 away from your team), or to help your team flee by using it to knock the enemy team back and start up a tornado to further prevent pursuit. The power of Janna is that it is just about impossible for an enemy team to chase you. For items, start faerie charm/3ward/2pot. Since you are playing defensively, you need the 3rd ward for sustained brush vision. Playing a reactive shield sustain means you need to see what is coming. This is important!
Sona is my #2. I honestly think that Sona is the most versatile of the supports. Her skill set has such a wide variety, that she works in just about every situation. There are a few cases where Janna would be better, like against massive aoe ulti lineups, but sona is usually my fallback support pick. Her auras, ult, and power chord, are all useful throughout the game. When I first played her, I was like "this is so easy, just mash buttons and shit happens", but I soon realized how powerful she was when played properly. I will start with her early game. Starting items for me are almost always faerie/2ward/3hp/1mana. Sona doesn't rely on needing the second brush ward as much as janna. The only time that I go faerie/3ward/2hp is when it is something very aggressive like vayne/alistar and my range AD is weak. Against just about anything else, you can be the one controlling the brush. I always start with the Q spell, because heal is not needed at level 1, and you can make use of Q, so why not get it. Remember to turn your aura on at the start of the game. For skill ordering, I will almost always go q-w-q-w-e-r, unless I have a weak early game range AD like ashe against cait, which I will get my W at 3 instead of Q. Getting the speed before level 5 isn't as helpful, and getting your Q or W level 3 fast doesn't make that much of a difference. Not getting it at all is a mistake, and won't allow you to power cord spam properly in team fights. Early on, you are going to want to use all of your power chords on Q to put damage onto the heroes. Sona has surprisingly good burst at low levels. Later on, when you are in team fights, your W power chord becomes more important. The 20% reduced damage dealt is extremely powerful. Always be wary of your power chord charges. Line your spells up to give you the effect you want, and don't get caught in the wrong aura when your chord comes up. You want to be as helpful as possible! For chasing, try to line up an E for a slow. Yes, sona even has a slow. Remember to leave your speed aura on during the mid and late game to give your team some added mobility, or just to make you move faster out of combat. With your ulti, it is very important that you do everything in your power to use it offensively and not defensively. It is on a long cooldown, so use it sparingly.
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Ironically one of the more involved roles in HoN/DotA/LoL is often left to the beginners. That being said I guess it it relatively less complicated than any other role. (Arguably AP solo mid needs less thinking)
As to your guide communication early on with your lane-mate is probably good to see clarify pinging and levels of aggression.
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I think support is by far the easiest to learn, so you can play a decent support without actually knowing how to play it but really good supports are at least as hard as any other roles (but they are freaking rare ) : )
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Thanks very much for writing this guide, I found it very informative.
Can anyone explain why it's so rare to see Karma picked, either at the pro level or generally?
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because karma isnt as good as other aps like brand, cassio, karthus ... because she doesnt have that much dmg, no CC (besides the slow) and has basically two nukes in the whole fight (the close q and the enhanced e) after those two bursts shes basically useless.
She doesnt work as a support, or just not as well as others. Her heal is on a crazy high cd (due to the Mantra cd. She can heal and put out dmg at the same time (mantra cd again). She has no ultimate. So nothing like tibbers aoe cassio stun which can turn the fight around. She has no gank protection, like taric stun sona ultimate... just the pretty bad slow which you cant skill up too much, because the other two spells are more needed.
So she isnt picked because others are simply better at everything. Even for offensive supports I like leona/lux more because they can hold the enemy in place so your ad carry can jump on them and do sth. In addition she needs items too much to be really played as a support imho (the cdr and ap is needed!)
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On October 26 2011 19:02 Agnosthar wrote:
Thanks very much for writing this guide, I found it very informative.
Can anyone explain why it's so rare to see Karma picked, either at the pro level or generally?
Karma. Oh boy, where to start with karma. She is kinda like a shitty morgana without an ultimate. Her 3 abilities are a bit odd for a 'support' champion. Not only is she limited to 3, She is labled as a support, but the support she offers is weak compared to the others. Her shield just absorbs damage, and that's it. Janna's will add attack damage to the target for the same cost. Her W is like zilian's time lapse, but with a tether on it. I guess you can speed up your whole team with it, but the whole mechanic behind her W is just... bad... As a support, she doesn't offer much to your team. I think the only way to play her is AP solo carry, like you would morgana or zilian. But she is weaker than those two champs due to her lack of an ultimate. Her Q's damage is mediocre, as well as the heal it provides. You basically have to dump every karma charge into Q early game to sustain yourself, which is sorta cool I guess. If you use your Karma charges on your Q, then you are losing a ton of damage from your shield. Not so much of a problem in lane, but it is in team fights. To not die, you have to be shielding yourself in team fights, and to do enough damage to be worth having as your AP carry, you have to be dealing damage with your shield, putting you right up close and personal with the enemy team. She is like a poorly constructed AoE spellcaster. Her W is listed as "her most powerful damaging spell", but to get it to hit the whole team, you have to play ring around the rosey and get everyone to pass through the tether. How exactly are you supposed to accomplish that, just to do like 400 dmg? The whole hero concept is just weird. I would much rather have a Zilian or Morgana running AP carry, if you are looking for some extra support. I played about 20 games on Karma when she came out, and never liked her. With no ultimate, she is not a viable support champion. She doesn't have the aggression of an alistar, who's ulti is purely defensive, nor the proper sustain of a sona or soraka, her shielding/babysitting abilities are poor compared to janna. Without a companion, she cannot speed boost, so she gets stranded on the map quite easily. Other supports with speed buffs are able to use them at will (i.e. janna passive/Wpassive, sona E, zilian E).
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I believe if you want to make karma work as a support then you'd have to try out an aggressive lane with a fast gapclosing bruiser to make use of her mantra shield the most. Her laneing phase is probably the best thing about her (and arguably the only thing that is really good/better on her as well). If you cannot maintain aggressivity though then you'd rather have one of the standard supports.
@gooey
I very appreciate your detailed posts. Will make sure to mention them and any upcomming post like this to the OP if the thread gets bigger. Mb in a section like "In-depth thoughts and strategies" or sth along that line.
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Dunno if someone lse has mentinoed this, but add in that supports should typically hit ranged creeps once when pushed to tower. So that your carry can last hit them after 1 tower shot.
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On October 27 2011 06:36 Dgiese wrote:
Dunno if someone lse has mentinoed this, but add in that supports should typically hit ranged creeps once when pushed to tower. So that your carry can last hit them after 1 tower shot.
Ah, good tip! It took me awhile to put this into my play, but I started doing it only like a month or two ago. Something so simple and easy to do that makes the difference of your carry getting 100 gold or 0 gold.
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This thread needs to be stickied
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You should really mention Synergy with your AD, alot of people play Soraka with any real AD which imo isn't a great Idea.
Soraka should really only be played with hyper carries, people who can deal insane amount of damage extremely quick like Graves and kog'maw and vayne(ish), just because of how strong aggressive supports are right now in soloqueue.
How other supports like Sona really synergize with someone like Ezreal because they both have great pokes and sona is just really versatile. How caitlyn(moreso) and vayne both really excell with utiity heroes like Alistar and Taric for crazy combos like stun trap, knock up trap and stun wallsmash etc. too tired to really make any more coherent thoughts I may come back and edit this in the morning lol.
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Taking a support purely for your lane, is a somewhat bad idea if you're playing arranged. If you and/or your ranged AD has a very good feeling they will be able to farm well against a particular good lane-setup then you shouldn't hesitate to pick whatever support that might fit you better in team fights. Kinda the reason, i don't play taric that much anymore..
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Sadpanda I think I mentioned most of your examples in the OP. And I dont want the guide to be too specific/concrete tbh. I rather say: "think about this aspect and here is an example" than: "in this situation you should do exactly this". That's just how I feel should LoL should be played and looked at.
sponkz I agree 100% with your observation. In arranged teams you look at your comp more than on the lanes in general. This is also somewhat true for soloq though! Especially if your one of the lastpicks you can adapt your support pick very well according to the comps. But I did not mention alot of teamcomp stuff here aside from "counterin assassins" and "pokeing or initiating". If there is more to consider when trying to pick the fitting support for your teamcomp then pls mention it in this thread and we can see if it fits in the OP.
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I usually pick whatever is needed for the carries, let it be peeling (janna and alistar excels at this) sustainability (say soraka), or just generally being an ass to the oppossing carries (taric and alistar, but also janna pops into my head here) because you have vayne/cait and something like akali/irelia/kassa which makes your comp agressive as fuck.
I don't know what could be added, because it comes down to how you manage to play your support. Janna can be played as an agressive CC wrecking machine or a passive gandalf (YOU SHALL NOT PASS!). Sona is like all-round, you can be agressive abit, defensive abit and just run around providing auras and nessecary chords for your team in fights.
On October 26 2011 18:44 Ente wrote:
I think support is by far the easiest to learn, so you can play a decent support without actually knowing how to play it but really good supports are at least as hard as any other roles (but they are freaking rare ) : )
What people have been telling me, is that you need a certain mentality to be able to play support. It's not about whether you excel at last hitting or killing the enemy, but generally how well you know the game as a whole. Support is, along with jungle (in my opinion), the hardest role to understand in this game, because you have to factor for so many things, where as mid or top, you generally need another kind of mentality (how much farm does my opponent have, when should be a good time to gank him etc.). As support the general idea is that you want to play abit more strategic and come up with different solutions (dragon is spawning in 3 minutes, time to ward up needed spots so we can prepare for fights, and be in a better position than them).
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On November 04 2011 21:10 Sponkz wrote:
Taking a support purely for your lane, is a somewhat bad idea if you're playing arranged. If you and/or your ranged AD has a very good feeling they will be able to farm well against a particular good lane-setup then you shouldn't hesitate to pick whatever support that might fit you better in team fights. Kinda the reason, i don't play taric that much anymore..
I wasn't saying "Pick support for this champ and this champ only" but merely saying to explain a few synergies between heroes because they do well with each other. I also put solo queue into my post because most people will generally be playing soloqueue because thats just what the general public is "in" to and hoped people would gather by inference that's what I was talking about.
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On November 05 2011 23:57 Sad[Panda] wrote:Show nested quote +On November 04 2011 21:10 Sponkz wrote:
Taking a support purely for your lane, is a somewhat bad idea if you're playing arranged. If you and/or your ranged AD has a very good feeling they will be able to farm well against a particular good lane-setup then you shouldn't hesitate to pick whatever support that might fit you better in team fights. Kinda the reason, i don't play taric that much anymore.. I wasn't saying "Pick support for this champ and this champ only" but merely saying to explain a few synergies between heroes because they do well with each other. I also put solo queue into my post because most people will generally be playing soloqueue because thats just what the general public is "in" to and hoped people would gather by inference that's what I was talking about.
I didn't say that was what you're saying (getting confusing now), i'm just explaining a solid point about the difference between solo queue and arranged 
Good synergy is something like:
Sona ashe/cait/trist/ez/kog
Soraka graves/ashe
Taric vayne/trist/ez/cait/mf
Alistar ez/ashe/kog
Janna vayne/cait
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Bumpity bump.
This is one of the best guides I read on supporting - it deserves to be on the front page.
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Can the OP or anyone with insight expand on other possible items a support hero should go for perhaps with an advantage in lane or equal lane over getting gp/10 items?
I usually get gp/10 on supports and wonder if they are alternatives I could try. I noticed doran's but I feel that the benefits isn't as good in the long run because if it becomes a passive farming lane or you start losing a lane, you lose out a bit of money to buy wards and other items.
Personally for me I always feel uncomfortable as a support when the lane isn't going too well and I am unable to get a quick gp/10 item. It feels like you will have to make a choice of purchasing wards or getting more gp/10 (I usually get 2) and that you are behind.
On the topic, I know it really hasn't been done in LoL but the more I play, I really feel like getting a quick gp/10 goes a long way for supports and wanna know the viability of giving some farm to the support early game for the gp/10.
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Drings are usually good. Get 1-2 if you're doing good, get gp/10 if it's passive.
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What about Aura items? Useful for supports?
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Thanks! Maybe now I wont be flamed anymore for sucking at support.
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On November 14 2011 04:55 R11 wrote:
Can the OP or anyone with insight expand on other possible items a support hero should go for perhaps with an advantage in lane or equal lane over getting gp/10 items?
I usually get gp/10 on supports and wonder if they are alternatives I could try. I noticed doran's but I feel that the benefits isn't as good in the long run because if it becomes a passive farming lane or you start losing a lane, you lose out a bit of money to buy wards and other items.
Personally for me I always feel uncomfortable as a support when the lane isn't going too well and I am unable to get a quick gp/10 item. It feels like you will have to make a choice of purchasing wards or getting more gp/10 (I usually get 2) and that you are behind.
On the topic, I know it really hasn't been done in LoL but the more I play, I really feel like getting a quick gp/10 goes a long way for supports and wanna know the viability of giving some farm to the support early game for the gp/10.
I've personally never felt the need to grab doran rings on a support over faerie charm, or even boots. The 15 AP doesn't really change much, mana regen isn't necessary if you manage correctly, and the HP - well HoG gives you the 250 HP compared to say 2 Drings at 200 HP. If you're doing well early on, maybe grab some for a Soraka to buff the heal, but again at your discretion.
I think for taking farm it depends on how much you're losing by because your carry is also probably losing lots of farm already. Honestly, if you start faerie charm though and even go run Avarice quints, I don't see how you'd be that behind. Assist gold helps for sure, but you can still manage Philo stone very fast if you die a couple times. I usually just steal a couple CS if I`m about to b soon and want to get an extra ward or two.
One of the things you might choose to do instead is simply hold out on Reverie and buy the rest of your core/aura items before getting converting out Philo Stone.
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On November 14 2011 07:29 Terranasaur wrote:
What about Aura items? Useful for supports?
Aegis is always a good pickup. If it's very lategame and your off-tank needs some help he may ask you to build Starks. Abyssal Scepter is ok if you are playing some odd supports (galio, zilean) or someone with good ap ratio to abuse. Soul shroud is usually not bought since your kindlegem should go towards your Shurelyias (Which offers CDR and an active to use, arguably better).
Also, where is the mention of Alistar with Tristana and Vayne? I have ran so many bottom lanes into the ground with such an aggressive level 2 fight. You've got 3-4 disables/knockbacks to net an easy kill.
As far as gp10 goes, philo stone -> Shurelyias is a must on any support. Heart of gold is ok if you're going to be in the middle of teamfights (e.g. Taric, Alistar) since the Randuin's slow is excellent. Kage's -> deathfire is ok if you're super far ahead and have gold to spare. Avarice blade, lol (trolling at this point).
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Personally support is definitely the hardest role to carry as for obvious reasons. On the issue of taking farm, I lasthit creeps that my carry won't be in range for/will miss for certain. If the carry is good though, that number should only be 1-2. I have no qualms about stealing whatever CS I can from people who aren't my carry though .
Since supports don't carry in the traditional sense, I think the more important thing is to try to babysit the whole team by watching the minimap/warding critical locations. People often throw down wards, but zone out as they focus on CS. Ping spamming is a crude but very effective way of getting people to notice something on the minimap.
I personally do like rushing philo's and depending on how the lane is going, going straight for boots/aegis or else heart of gold if it's a more passive lane.
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The whole point of gold per ten is that it sustains continuous ward (and later, oracle) purchases so you don't have to waste last hits on them. They also sometimes build into good items, particularly Shurelia's. The idea is that as the worst scaling member of the team, the support throws farm out the window, goes pure sustain and tries to save as many lives as possible just by giving vision and using all-purpose abilities throughout the game.
Doing some ward images right now. This guide is very good.
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Opening ward placements
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oadeq.jpg)
A common mistake for new players is to exclaim immediately DAT BRUSH and place all wards in brushes somewhere because its hard to gain vision of brushes. But the point of early game wards is to keep the enemy jungler from coming into your bot lane and killing everyone in it. Top should ward for themselves when they feel threatened (and not push the lane without wards), but as a support, your first goal is that your carry be allowed to freely last hit and pressure without eating a gank. The secondary purpose is to prevent your jungle from getting stolen, which is also very important. This is my opening series of wards, I use this every game that I can get out there to drop them.
The primary ward prevents the jungle path down from blue or across dragon and getting into the triangle brush by your turret, or into the most commonly used brush at the edge of the river. Warding the bush does something similar, but gives less vision, doesn't protect your triangle brush as well, and gives much less warning about ganks. The only advantage it gives is that you can see into the brush, but in almost every situation, that doesn't matter as you'll just be backing up anyways or getting really in there and forcing the person out of the brush. This is the most key ward in the game, and frankly, not placing around level 2-3 or so it will lose you games.
The second ward, near mid, protects jungle and mid from ganks, and should be dropped by the mid-laner as people start to near level 6, or if they burn their flash/escape skill or plan on pushing. Gives additional dragon control by warding the path from mid tower to dragon.
The third ward gives you lane control by giving a huge amount of lane vision and prevents the uncommon possibility of a gank by a jungler simply running through his side's tri-brush, past his own tower, and into the bush when there aren't creeps to give vision. Pretty much never happens in low ELO, but is a common way of getting around ward #1 in high ELO.
Second Ward Set
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/o94EP.jpg)
When junglers are level 6+, you need to keep a ward on dragon pretty much 24/7. If that ward goes out, it might be that they placed a pink ward, killed your ward, and are doing dragon, so keep an eye on your dragon ward!
The dragon ward protects bot lane pretty much as well as the primary ward from above picture, but since you want vision of dragon, you'll lose a bit of coverage. To compensate, placing a ward in your tri-brush guarantees that no roundabout jungle thieves will gank through there, and that bot lane can't effectively dive into your jungle area through that path. A great pair of wards to push bot with.
The ward in the enemy jungle gives vision if their mid tries to come down to blue, possibly to gank, and gives some control (but not very good control) over their blue. The advantage of it is that if the other team tries to rush dragon, you'll be able to see it coming and have vision on a very important brush for a teamfight, and it gives protection to mid in that the jungler cannot take blue or wolves then gank without being seen. Its very greedy - a safer spot is detailed in the picture above.
These wards are the shared responsibility of the jungler and bot lane (wriggles), and the dragon ward should always be up until dragon falls.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Awu3P.jpg)
This is just a lot of great ward spots that I use frequently. Its not uncommon for me to plant 15-20 wards in a single game, but it's not just that I place a lot of wards and spy my enemies shuffling around. I choose my wards for three reasons:
1) To enable my team to farm/push a particular lane.
Whenever I can give my top or mid a free-farm and get them a ton of gold, or allow them to push a tower safely in the midgame, that's a great time to ward certain areas.
2) Steal dat jungle yo
Stealing blue buffs, red buffs, wraiths, or even better, stealing them off the corpse of the undefended enemy jungler is where it's at. Good ward placement allows you to go into the enemy jungle knowing that you'll be rewarded. Also, if you spot the enemy jungler doing blue, his wraiths and golems are free for your jungler or mid to take. All these wards pay for themselves easily in the free stuff your team gets from them.
3) To protect our jungle and major buffs.
"We need to ward baron" 15 minutes in is not an acceptable statement for a support. At higher ELOs enemy junglers will constantly try to find ways to shut down your basic routines by stealing your buffs and ganking your jungler, or taking uncommon routes to get a gank on your lanes. Ward up those important areas BEFORE important buffs spawn and take away their opportunity, or force an oracles.
Warding on the fly
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DVLrY.jpg)
This image shows how a few key late-game wards can enable your team to accomplish various objectives. Key off of existing wards and the flow of the match and try to place these safely. Each set is described by color below.
Dark Blue
By warding their chokepoints, my team gains full access to their jungle and a lot of safety around baron and top lane, as their only access point that I can't see is through their own mid tower, and it doesn't lead to anything that I can't see anyway. This set of wards is easy to get after taking the second middle tower, and allows you to really control the pace of the game by taking their red buff and top lane by storm. You can place the top ward one choke closer to the tower if you're feeling hungry or they're all dead for better effect.
Sky Blue
Fast baron setup. Ward the wraith camp on your way down to baron, then run up and ward the tri-brush. While doing baron, have a teammate zone from the small brush just south of baron and place a ward directly behind baron to block any steal attempts.
Teal
Top lane push setup. Wards baron and the tri-brush, and after that the only way that top can be ganked is through their own tower or through your own tower.
Purple
By warding blue buff and dragon, you can very effectively cut off any gank routes all the way up to the second tower and control blue - but be wary, the dragon ward will not give you enough time to escape a full fledged gank down river.
Red
Pre-dragon setup, similar to the Baron setup above. Warding their blue and on the side of their mid brush covers their approach AND retreat, allowing you to break off dragon, initiate, and chase if you're feeling spicy.
My conclusion
These are just a few examples of how warding can be used strategically, but the most important thing is controlling as many buffs and dragons as you can with wards. Remember guys, good support players are effective in team-fights, effective in lane, and buy a lot of wards and plant them, but they don't shoulder the burden alone - 75 gold is literally nothing compared to the value of shutting down the other team's ability to move freely, so invest in a ward whenever you have spare gold! This support/warding guide is useful for every position in the game and anyone can fill in the role of warder at any given time, and most pro teams run around with 3-6 wards and an oracles in inventory spread between five players, because the value of securing farm, stealing buffs, protecting buffs, and capitalizing on mistakes is WAY ABOVE the value of the ward itself.
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hmm
to chime in on this thread, since i'm basically full time support for SG. This is kinda going to be a stream of consciousness thing, and apologies if i repeat anything discussed, i read the op but i'm not going to read the whole thread.
1) Summoners are a little bit more flexible now. CV still mandatory, but heal and promote are interesting options on supports who don't desperately need flash (sona and janna come to mind)
2) Soraka is kind of a weird char (imo) in that she's a lot stronger as a counterpick against comps compared to synergizing with a team. For example, i wouldn't say that she's strong with sustain comps, but insanely strong against enemy comps that cannot deal with sustain (basically comps that are low in cc for the most part) or enemy comps built around sustain, because of how much she outputs. In laning phase, she's just as strong if not stronger than any support in basically any situation, but has some trouble midgame because she cannot keep ppl away from priority targets, so ends up in this weird position where she's OP as fuck in lane, but it kinda balances out a bit if you have a comp that can deal with her (high burst + cc)
3) i love the +gold at start mastery. lets my openings become a bit more flexible, and the standard opening (faerie charm) gets to add an extra mana pot, which lets me cut on pretty much all of my mana regen runes for other things.
4) in regards to aura items: aegis, starks and wota are pretty standard (starks/wota obviously team dependant and situational, aegis is a more generic item). Soul shroud is good, but often hard to farm up, and takes up too much space imo when it's not completed. Either way tho, everything after reverie. I really like that item (see #7)
5) here's a ward image guide i found via google
+ Show Spoiler +
6) i literally cannot stress how important wards are for a support to have. If there aren't any wards on the map at any given point of the game past MINIMUM 4 minutes, then you're doing it wrong. The a major part of the point of supports is that you can sacrifice gold and farm to spend on wards, so if you're prioritizing finishing your triple gp5 over getting wards, then your priorities are backwards, i dont care how far ahead/behind or whatever circumstance. The only time it's excusable is when it's basically a joke of a game (15 min game over type things)
7) reverie op
8) some supports can take oracles a lot better and safer than others. I always take it on janna, kus u simply dont die that much on janna, and not to mention she can get away with getting into a bit more risky positions to clear wards kus of OP tornadoes and ult. I get it a lot on cow, mostly because his ult gives good durability, and headbutt again provides a bit of leeway when going into risky areas. The rest of the supports its kind of a tossup and depends on how much the enemy is warding, how well you're doing, etc etc.
9) I think there was some discussion about stuff like karma and zil. Tbh i would only ever play them in mid, they are simply too strong there and too weak in comparison to other bot lane supports. They're also incredibly strong there, but also require a team sort-of built around them. They also are probably the highest level-scaling supports, which again reinforces why they should be in a solo.
guess that's it for now. Damn that was a lot more than i expected to write going into this
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On November 23 2011 17:57 barbsq wrote:
hmm
to chime in on this thread, since i'm basically full time support for SG. This is kinda going to be a stream of consciousness thing, and apologies if i repeat anything discussed, i read the op but i'm not going to read the whole thread.
1) Summoners are a little bit more flexible now. CV still mandatory, but heal and promote are interesting options on supports who don't desperately need flash (sona and janna come to mind)
Flash is basically mandatory on both champions for landing perfect ultimate in teamfights and living harder. I'm really confused by this part, because everything else looks really good, but by god, don't ignore the awesome skill-set of your support and just be the ward dude all game.
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On November 23 2011 18:31 Deezl wrote:Show nested quote +On November 23 2011 17:57 barbsq wrote:
hmm
to chime in on this thread, since i'm basically full time support for SG. This is kinda going to be a stream of consciousness thing, and apologies if i repeat anything discussed, i read the op but i'm not going to read the whole thread.
1) Summoners are a little bit more flexible now. CV still mandatory, but heal and promote are interesting options on supports who don't desperately need flash (sona and janna come to mind)
Flash is basically mandatory on both champions for landing perfect ultimate in teamfights and living harder. I'm really confused by this part, because everything else looks really good, but by god, don't ignore the awesome skill-set of your support and just be the ward dude all game.
theres a reason i point out janna and (tho to a bit of a lesser extent) sona. Janna should NOT be using ult to initiate, you shouldn't be in a position where you have to flash to get to whoever you're trying to ult for in the first place. Sona, kinda depends on some things. If they have a very high-mobility blink team, its prob worth getting flash, just because their high movement means it's a bit unlikely for you to just happen upon a good ult situation. A lot of the time tho, sona ult can be very easily set up with just celerity, making flash a bit needless. Also i wouldn't underestimate how much hp heal gives you and your teammates. I def find it noticable. As a lovely bit of anecdotal evidence, myself and treebeard managed to 2v3 as sona and kog vs vayne alistar and rammus gank, and almost solely due to heal, as well as some pretty slick kiting
on cow or soraka or taric tho, I def would want flash. Taric is very melee oriented, and has a tendency to need flash, tho more for escape than anything else. Cow really needs flash for initiations, and again pulverize has a very small practically melee radius, often necessitating flash for perfect positioning. for Soraka, heal is just ultra redundant.
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On November 23 2011 16:04 PartyBiscuit wrote:Show nested quote +On November 14 2011 04:55 R11 wrote:
Can the OP or anyone with insight expand on other possible items a support hero should go for perhaps with an advantage in lane or equal lane over getting gp/10 items?
I usually get gp/10 on supports and wonder if they are alternatives I could try. I noticed doran's but I feel that the benefits isn't as good in the long run because if it becomes a passive farming lane or you start losing a lane, you lose out a bit of money to buy wards and other items.
Personally for me I always feel uncomfortable as a support when the lane isn't going too well and I am unable to get a quick gp/10 item. It feels like you will have to make a choice of purchasing wards or getting more gp/10 (I usually get 2) and that you are behind.
On the topic, I know it really hasn't been done in LoL but the more I play, I really feel like getting a quick gp/10 goes a long way for supports and wanna know the viability of giving some farm to the support early game for the gp/10. I've personally never felt the need to grab doran rings on a support over faerie charm, or even boots. The 15 AP doesn't really change much, mana regen isn't necessary if you manage correctly, and the HP - well HoG gives you the 250 HP compared to say 2 Drings at 200 HP. If you're doing well early on, maybe grab some for a Soraka to buff the heal, but again at your discretion. I think for taking farm it depends on how much you're losing by because your carry is also probably losing lots of farm already. Honestly, if you start faerie charm though and even go run Avarice quints, I don't see how you'd be that behind. Assist gold helps for sure, but you can still manage Philo stone very fast if you die a couple times. I usually just steal a couple CS if I`m about to b soon and want to get an extra ward or two. One of the things you might choose to do instead is simply hold out on Reverie and buy the rest of your core/aura items before getting converting out Philo Stone.
The thing is, you don't open with a doran's ring you buy them because they give you immediate stats which are good on like almost any support (hp, ap, mp5). Your start should ALWAYS be faerie charm+wards+pots (you could account for wards+pots only, but i doubt it to be a useful opening especially if you have a competent jungler on your team). You take drings if you massively stomp your lane and need some stats right now, to make you even more useful. Buying a HoG when you're ahead is kinda silly, because it will take around 8 min to become cost-effective. It gives very poor stats for the gold, so you should only take it, if you feel like that at some point you can turn the game around, or if the game itself is very passive and your role isn't as significiant at that given point of time of the game.
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But arent the stats on Doran's items pretty crap? The only one I would ever take is the shield, because armor scales and is useful forever... But for the same price you can get Oracles, a health crystal or starter item for auras, CD boots...
I don't understand why Doran's would be a priority.
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On November 24 2011 06:11 Deezl wrote:
But arent the stats on Doran's items pretty crap? The only one I would ever take is the shield, because armor scales and is useful forever... But for the same price you can get Oracles, a health crystal or starter item for auras, CD boots...
I don't understand why Doran's would be a priority.
doing the gold per stat calculation on a relevant doran item, the shield and ring are more efficient than other items. But on a support this is not optimal, you lose the ability to go to lane with wards, usually what I do is go into lane with a fairy charm, health pot and 4 wards (requires +40 gold in utility), if they have a level 2 gank jungler I put the ward in lane after small golems spawn.
The ward in the tri-bush at bot should be placed as close to river as possible, with improved sight wards its enough for the vision to extend into the jungle, so you are covering 2 lanes of entry, this is better for blue side that pushes because some jungles and avoid river by going through the tribush.
dragon wards should be done early for fiddlesticks junglers, they can solo it at a much earlier timepoint, the ward is needed to allow top to teleport into dragon fights, simple CVs can let you see, but you might end up with 4v5 and cant fight.
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On November 24 2011 06:11 Deezl wrote:
But arent the stats on Doran's items pretty crap? The only one I would ever take is the shield, because armor scales and is useful forever... But for the same price you can get Oracles, a health crystal or starter item for auras, CD boots...
I don't understand why Doran's would be a priority.
dorans rings are very cost-effective and give hp, mp5, and ap, all of which are useful stats on supports. getting 2-3 can be incredibly effective. As far as what first items should be, i pretty much exclusively go philo first on all champs, but not because i value philo itself, but because of how much i value reverie (which i consider pretty much the best item eva). For ppl who don't value reverie as much as i do, stacking drings and completely ignoring gold items can not only be effective but provides a very fast and strong immediate power level, which can be abused into providing more gold than a philo or hog can (via successfull dragon fights, really strong lane presence etc). Basically, doran's items are about being strong NOW, while other items are about being strong later on, and either strategy can be effective depending on how you take advantage of it.
as far as why you see high level players get gp5, its because they are actively trying to make games last 40+ minutes, at which point gold items become effective.
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On November 24 2011 06:11 Deezl wrote:
But arent the stats on Doran's items pretty crap? The only one I would ever take is the shield, because armor scales and is useful forever... But for the same price you can get Oracles, a health crystal or starter item for auras, CD boots...
I don't understand why Doran's would be a priority.
The shield is really bad. You pay some gold for the hp5 iirc.
I'm not saying doran ring's should be a priority. It's basicly something that can become very useful for you, if you're doing really well. You colud prioritize something like this:
Wards > Early pink ward for drag > First gp10 (usually philo) > More pink wards/oracles -> Dring if doing good and need immediate stats/hog if passive play or you expect a come back. > Aura items/t2 boots.
Don't understand this as "the only way to prio on a support". Sometimes you don't need an early oracles because the enemy support are quite behind.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/l2qch.jpg)
