Support – in Powerpoint Form

By

Spellsy

Introduction

• Support is a simple role, but it has many nuances and is the foundation for the team.
• Since the support does not farm in lane, it gives them more freedom to position in lane to harass, ward, and etc. because they are not locked into staying near the creeps.
• Supports are somewhat less traditionally impactful on the game, meaning that support players have to be very disciplined and consistent to not make mistakes, because its hard to “come back” from those mistakes.
• Supports are often blamed, but keep your head up, and look at it as constructive! ☺

Different Support Playstyles

• Direct impact supports – Better for lower level play
• Win lanes by making kills and CS gaps
• Win teamfights with Skills/Items
• Indirect impact supports – Better for higher level play
• Impact game through more vision control
• Rather saves teammates than makes kills
• These playstyles are character independent. Some characters suit certain playstyles better (ex: Leona – Direct, Soraka – Indirect); however, they are definitely both viable on each support.

Warding

The “Spellsy” Ward

Good for when you are purple and you pushed the first tower.

The Ninja Baron Ward

Nice counterplay vs Oracles, you can see them baron but they will not see the ward

Laning!

• General Laning:
• Since you are not farming, make sure your positioning is meaningful
• When you go warding make sure that not only you’re safe, but your carry is too! Also, try to leave when its least impactful.
• How do I choose to be assertive?
• Time your harass with creeps dying, forcing their AD to choose from retaliating your harass and missing a creep or getting the creep and giving you free harass.
• When do I kill towers in lane?
• Pushing the tower in a winning lane can be bad, because it gives them the chance to recover. So, if you can, kill the tower when you are either neutral (even) or losing!

Builds

• The one core build: From there it branches:
• Aegis Rush
• Aegis → Shurelya's Reverie
• When to get?:
• Doing ok, can get aegis before 22 min. (Normal lane duration)
• Shurelya's Rush
• Kage’s Lucky Pick → Shurelya's Reverie → Locket of the Iron Solari
• When to get?:
• Doing poorly (just getting your HoG at 15 min), doing really good (3 gold per 10 in 12 min), or if the lane phase is going to be long.
• Starting Builds: VS
• I tend to support the 4 green almost always, but the pink opening can help for aggressive bush (or gank) control early.

Support: When to pick?

• Alistar – Versatile laner, good if lacking CC and tankyness
• Blitz – Can work bot with kills, reliant on hooks + AD
• Janna – Aggressive and Defensive, good kite and best protect
• Leona – Highest dmg support, High kill potential at 6
• Lux – Fun burst support, can win lanes then game!
• Nunu – Great early with anti- AS, great late with BB
• Sona – Good poke, but moreso ran with W max and ult focus
• Soraka – Great sustain, punishes low dmg comps
• Taric – Reliable stun, burst, and survivability. All around laner

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Lane Combinations

• Ashe : Has weak dmg in lane, but great range and kite.
• Janna – The kiting duo makes for a counter-aggressive lane
• Counter: Vanye Soraka – Hard to stop farming with ashe.
• Caitlynn : Has strong lane, with high range and
• Sona – Super harass lane with Cait pressure and Sona Q
• Soraka – Push/Pressure lane with Cait Q spam and safeness
• Counter: Taric - High armor makes Cait’s low dmg irrelevant
• Corki : Has a bit of everything, poke, escape, trade.
• Leona – With her burst and his burst/poke, strong kill lane
• Sona – Strong harass, and kill potential at 6
• Counter: MF lanes – Can force trades and abuse Corki’s range

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Lane Combos - Continued

• Ezreal : Is similar to corki, with more burst and less sustained
• Janna – The shield with aggressiveness of Ez owns.
• Lux – Range on Ez’s Q synergizes with lux Q range! (and burst)
• Counter: Taric or Alistar, high CC beats his slipperiness/poke
• Graves : Has high armor, High burst, low range
• Sona – The level 6 combo is scary, and high burst 1-3
• Soraka – Armor on Armor makes high pressure unkillable lane
• Counter: Janna or Soraka, Graves punishes aggressive supports
• Kog’Maw : Has great late game, and safe early game
• Nunu – Kog can abuse BB not only late, but also early
• Janna – Can protect Kog’s range gap late game with ult
• Counter: Cait can punish his short natural range

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Lane Combos – Continued

• MF : Does a TON of dmg in lane, master of “trading”
• Janna – Janna best trading support, MF best trading AD, simple.
• Taric/Leona/Alistar – High damage AD + High CC lane = KILLS
• Counters : People who can disrupt trades, Janna/Nunu/Taric
• Tristana : High burst early, Great late, SHIT mid
• Leona/Alistar – Play up her biggest advantage, early burst
• Counters: Anti-Kill lanes, Cait soraka, Janna Ashe
• Urgot : Great laning, Serious poke and Great trading
• Janna – Shielding with E-Q too good to pass up
• Counters: Farm, but not too weak, lanes such as Kog Nunu/Soraka
• Vayne : Weak laning, Great mid-late, lots of early dmg in ganks
• Soraka – Needs that babysit early game
• Alistar – Can babysit with e and w/q if frisky, or can be offensive
• Counters: Offensive lanes: MF, Cait + Aggressive supports.

Masteries

• There are 3-4 generalized sets of masteries I run:
1. Heavy utility (21 or more in utility)
• I use on passive ranged supports: Janna, Soraka, Sona W max
2. Medium utility Medium defense (14 in utility, most rest in def.)
• I use on passive melee supports: Nunu, Taric (sometimes), Ali E max
3. Heavy defense (21 or more in defense)
• I use on aggressive melee supports: Leona, Taric, Ali
4. 9/7/14
• I use this if I want to run bursty support: Sona Q, Lux
• Make sure to adapt the masteries to YOUR playstyle. For example, if you like being aggressive with autos, get speed mastery instead of mana regen mastery – etc.

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Runes

• When Runing for support there’s 1 main thing you MUST have: ARMOR, whether it be in reds or yellows, you need it!
• Two Standard page I would prepare would be:
• Armor Marks; Gold Seals; Mana Reg/Level Glyphs; Gold Quints
• MR Marks; Armor Seals; Mana Reg/Level Glyphs; Gold Quints

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• The first one is a more greedy page, you should run this if you can get away with it.
• The second page is a more defensive heavy page, you should run this if you are going to be really aggressive in lane, or if they have a significantly scary team (Lee jungle, Cass mid, Leona MF bot – you know)