The Power of Support - An Introduction to Support Roles
Learn about the three different support roles that makes up the best role in League of Legends; Support.
With the role of a support in League of Legends being versatile, you may wonder what support champions to play. While I may not have the perfect answer to that, many support champions excel in their own way. The beauty of support champions is that they have the power to change the outcome of the game with their unique abilities. This article will give you a summary of each support type and a champion that you can easily learn to improve your skills as a player. Each support has its unique job, I will categorize these jobs into three different categories; Sustain, Poke, and Engage.
Sustain - To Heal or Not to Heal
Soraka is a heavy sustain champion that can provide one of the biggest impacts in a match if played correctly. Her healing is one of the strongest in the game, providing single-target healing and a global ultimate heal. Soraka provides early damage and pressure, instant AoE silence/damage, and can prevent ganks.
Sustain supports are champions that are the healers of the game. While they provide damage, their primary objective is to keep their team alive through healing and shields. Aside from occasionally poking, sustain champions are strongest when they stay in the backline, keeping themselves and others alive. Their weakness is them being squishy and cannot deal against high burst champions, so typically engage supports have an advantage against sustain champions. To excel as a sustain support champion look for items that have an increase in heal and shield power, like Ardent Censer and Redemption. Because your role is to make sure your team stays alive, especially your carry, you shouldn’t focus on items that will increase damage, focus on items that give additional healing and defense.
Other sustain champions are Lulu who provides powerful shields and an ultimate that grants bonus health with an aura that slow enemies. Taric is a tank sustain champion that has the power to stun, engage, heal, and an ultimate ability that can make your entire team immune to damage. Janna is another sustain champion that excels in shielding and disengaging and an ultimate that knocks back enemies and heals allies.
Nami is by far one of my favorite Sustain champions because she excels in healing and the power to disengage. Her kit is fairly simple to use and is an excellent choice for those who want to learn support.
Nami support that brings a plethora of abilities, her ability to disengage fights through her Aqua Prison (Q), and her Tidal Wave (R) makes her a champion to look out for. One of her unique features is Ebb and Flow (W) which bounces off healing allies and damaging enemies, making her a strong sustain support champion. Tidecaller’s Blessing (E) buffs herself or an ally champion to slow down enemy champions, to top it off her passive Surging Tides gives anyone touched by her ability’s movement speed, a stat hard to come by. If played correctly Nami can change the tide of the game with her unique set of abilities.
She can provide a good poke while healing at the same time through her Ebb and Flow (W), while she doesn’t provide shields, is her ability to punish those who engage with her strong disengage. I am quite surprised she hasn’t been nerfed (knock on wood). Her ease makes her consistent support since she has never once been out of the meta and is rarely banned.
Poke – Me, I Must Be Dreaming
Did you know that during the early League of Legend, Morgana’s Black Shield (E) would absorb up 500 damage before being nerfed? Even with the nerf, Morgana is an exceptional poke damage support. Morgana’s Dark Binding (Q) is one of the longest snares in the game, and when combined with Tormented Soil (W) it deals a lot of damage to squishy champions.
A poke support champion excels at poking. Poking is harassing your lane through damage or debuffs this can come in forms of burst damage, snares, damage over time, slows, etc. Your major role is to lower their health before a team fight breakouts, putting them at a disadvantage. The perfect opportunity to go into this role is when the enemy team is mostly squishy champions, this makes it easier to set up kills for your team through poking. Poke support champions are very compatible with most ADC’S but keep in mind that while poking has its advantages it comes with its disadvantages, like having no defense or the ability to disengage.
Poke supports are typically good throughout the entire game as they gradually get stronger through early and midgame and can become powerful in the late game. They excel at constantly dishing out damage without having to commit. The drawback is that most poke support champions are mages, making them fragile. Poke support champions usually have a hard time against sustain support champions because of their kit being able to negate or heal back any damage. Because poke supports are damage oriented, this doesn’t mean you should focus on full AP items, your role is to still support; items like Twin Shadows or Morellonomicon are always good items in providing good AP while also supporting your team. Bard, Yuumi, Karma, Lux are good examples of poke damage.
Sona is one of my favorite Poke/Damager-Healer support champions. Her kit of AoE spells makes her a powerful support. Sona is fairly an easy champion to play but has mechanics to master unlocking strong potential for this vibrant champion.
Sona’s kit comprises AoE spells, the beauty of her spells is that none of them require any skillshots other than her ultimate. The beauty of Sona is that each of her abilities provides a source of support depending on which Power Chord (Passive) she has active. Power Chord (Passive) activates when Sona casts 3 abilities, dealing bonus damage and applying an additional effect depending on the last ability cast. Hymn of Valor (Q) is Sona’s major source of damage, this spell is the definition of poke because it will always prioritize champions within a 700-range, it also gives Sona and allied champions bonus magic damage on their next basic attack. With Power Chord (Passive), Hymn of Valor (Q) will deal bonus damage. Aria of Perseverance (W) is Sona’s heal, while weak in healing, this spell also shields Sona and her allies within the aura. With Power Chord (Passive), Aria of Perseverance (W) will reduce the target’s damage, this is a good spell when the enemy support initiates, preventing the enemy ADC from doing heavy damage. Song of Celerity (E) grants her and allies within her aura movement speed, when used with Power Chord (Passive), Song of Celerity (E) will slow the target for 2 seconds, this is a good spell when securing a kill preventing the enemy champion from escaping. Sona’s ultimate is my favorite, Crescendo (R) because it stuns and how fast it’s cast, catching the enemy champion by surprise.
Sona in general is an amazing poke support. With very little tools to escape, they made her kit to support her team, especially during teamfights. A good tactic is to use Crescendo (R) as a follow up engage and only prioritizing Hymn of Valor (Q) and Aria of Perseverance (W). To master Sona, you want to know when to use her Power Chord (Passive) and decide which one will benefit the team during a teamfight.
Engage - Leeroy Jenkins!
Blitzcrank is one of the most annoying engage supports because of his grab. Rocket Grab (Q) is one of the longest grabs in the game, sometimes you are so shocked at how that his Q could grab you. For those wanting to learn engage supports, Blitzcrank is a safe champion able to set up kills with his Rocket Grab (Q). Even though his Rocket Grab (Q) is annoying Blitzcrank packs a punch with his Power Fist (E) a knock-up and Static Field (R) and AoE silence.
We have learned the power of sustain and poke, but engage supports are different they are the ones who decided when a fight should happen and provide powerful tools to do so. Most engage supports have CC whether it is a knock-up, stun, or a hook and punishes those who get caught by any of these types of CC. Engage supports are scary and very annoying to deal with, they are harder to kill because of their tanky playstyle and their ability to catch and punish those who overextend.
CC is never a bad idea in a team comp, but most champions that have strong CC are tanky champions, so make sure the team is not composed pure tanks when playing an engage support because you will lack damage.
Engage supports are best at early game dominance with their intimidation factor of easily starting skirmishes and setting up kills for jungle ganks or securing the kill for your ADC. Your goal is to have the enemy champion afraid to farm or even harass, sometimes it is an excellent strategy to be behind enemy minions ready to capitalize on an engage, this gives your ADC the opportunity in having the minions to themselves. The disadvantage for an engage support is when they are constantly being harassed with significant damage or are met with an enemy that can disengage, this can get the support killed if they are not careful and go in without a plan.
Leona is an Engage Tank who shines bright as a support role with her heavy engage and powerful stuns.
Leona’s unique mechanic Sunlight (Passive) allows her spells to inflict sunlight on enemy champions. When allied champions deal damage to those targets, they consume sunlight dealing additional damage. Her strong engage makes her powerful support to learn with her Eclipse (W) a shield that increases both armor and magic resist. Because of her slow movement and melee heavy abilities, Leona’s Zenith Blade (E) allows her to dash to the last enemy she hits, making it an opportunity to engage. The drawback to her E is that if she dashes to the enemy champion, be careful that you don’t do it under enemy tower or when the enemy team is grouped up. Therefore, her ultimate is amazing Solar Flare (R) because it stuns those in the center and slowing those outside the center. If you love being in the heat of battle and engaging fights Leona is a superb champion to learn.
Where is your preference?
Even in the role of support, it is always a good idea to have versatility in support types because you never know who you will go up against. Mastering a sustain, poke, and engage support isn’t a bad idea I encourage you to find a champion you like in each of those types. While I have mentioned some supports amazing at their role, don’t disregard the fact that you still need to learn how to play them. Support is a role that is versatile and unpredictable, trust me when I say unpredictable because there have been weird support champions that work. So, make your mark in the support role.
