10 Tips To Be A Better Support For Your AD Carry
The small things every ADC wants their Support to do during the Laning Phase.
The League of Legends lane format has always consisted of one person in the Top, Mid and Jungle respectively, and two in the Bot Lane. Those two are the Marksman (ADC) and the Support. While the marksman is the one that needs to carry out the entire laning phase, it is the Supports' job to make their job way easier through some in-game actions. Let's take a look at some of them.
MINIONS
Below are some ways a Support can provide his ADC massive assistance by knowing how to use (or not use) the minion waves.
Wave Manipulating
To begin, we have wave manipulating. Supports should be able to play according to their marksmen, which means they should understand what they have in mind. For example, if your ADC tends not to push the whole wave into the enemy turret, this means he is trying to freeze the wave. Freezing is really important when you want your enemy to overextend and/or want to stay at a safe position because of incoming ganks. So, whenever you see your ally stacking up a big wave and killing it slowly, don't auto-attack the minions.
Do Not Overextend When Your ADC Is Farming
Alright, so your ADC is farming a big wave with a cannon in it. What an ideal way to engage on enemies, die instantly, and blame ADC for the rest of the game for having zero awareness, huh? No! You should know when it's the proper time to engage on enemies and when it is not. It is okay to poke them when they are trying to farm, but don't engage and start a fight when your ADC needs to focus on the minions' health bar.
Relic Shield on Cannon
The Relic Shield is the only viable starting item for most Tank Supports. Knowing how to time it correctly so you don't lose the creep is a true virtue. All ADCs can understand the possibility of a mistake and you missing the CS, but please try not to experiment on the Cannon minion. If you successfully execute it, you both earn like 100 gold in total (which is a lot for just an auto-attack), but you both get nothing if you miss it.
Zoning the Enemy
This is probably the most important point of all, and the most difficult to do. If you play a poking Support like Lulu or Zyra or even a tanky Support like Leona or Blitzcrank, you should almost never sit in a place and cast your spells only in fights. You should make your opponent tilt, as you will constantly be threatening to poke him if he tries to farm. Learn how to play by zoning enemies but avoid overextending and getting caught.
FIGHTS
The following rules apply when you are fighting in lane, two versus two.
Know When You and the Enemy Have Power Spikes
The duos are Caitlyn/Leona and Tristana/Braum and you are Braum. You have just hit level 2, and so did the enemies. Despite knowing that Tristana is weaker than Caitlyn in the early game, you engage on her, get double killed moments later, and then blame your ADC for "having zero damage". To avoid this, you should know when your composition has power spikes, when the enemies have a power spike, and avoid making silly decisions like the one above.
Ping When and Where You Will Engage
You play Leona and you just hit level 6, your ADC is farming peacefully and you decide to go all in on the enemy Ashe. You cast your Ultimate and before your ADC is able to reach her, she is able to escape through the help of her Support. Now, not only have you wasted your most valuable spell, but you made yourself and your ADC tilt off the face of the planet. To avoid such situations, pinging is the easier way to communicate with your allies, so use it to its limits.
Damage taking
Something that tilts AD Carries a lot, is their Support (worse if it is a tank) standing behind them for the duration of the fight, taking zero damage, leading to a lost trade for your team. When you are supporting, it is better for the ADC to have more HP than you as they are able to deal more damage the longer they are alive, while you cannot say the same for Supports. So keep in mind to peel/tank for your ADC at all times.
Sacrificing
When you are getting a lane gank and they are chasing you both, it is a good option to turn around, waste as much time as possible and then try to give the kill to the least important target. This way, you lessen the possibility of the enemies killing you both, and you maybe give the gold to their Support instead of their ADC. Remember that this rule applies only if it is certain that you will both die, otherwise you can both just run and hope for the best.
GENERAL
The following couldn't be placed into a category, but are still some important tips to keep in mind during the Laning Phase.
Roaming
Roaming is a huge tool of the Bot Lane. It opens the whole map by giving an early advantage to the mid laner and the jungler. Roaming is basically the support (mostly) leaving the lane and going into the enemy jungle to ward or gank the Mid Lane. By doing so, you will either provide your team with a ton of information or give an advantage to your Mid Laner. Roaming also requires the perfect timing to do it. Roaming should ONLY be done in situations where you are sure your ADC can survive a 1v2 fight, or when your ADC pushed the lane, backed off, and you have some time to spare before he comes back. Otherwise your ADC will have a hard time trying to farm and in the worst scenario, will eventually die.
Proper Warding
Although this is a cliché, knowing when and where to ward so it does not go to waste is a skill. Try not to place wards when there is a big enemy minion wave, because while your ADC will be farming, the enemies may try to destroy your ward and you will be unable to do anything to prevent it. Also denying your enemies' vision is key in order to win the "Support War". Whenever your Sightstone is completed, change your Trinket to Sweeping Lens as you will no longer need any more wards. Also, keep in mind the deep warding factor, which is warding the enemy jungle/enemy camps. If the enemy Jungler gets spotted, this will not only give a ton of information, but will as well allow your Top Laner to make more aggressive calls. Last but not least, always keep the Dragon warded.
CONCLUSION
So, those are some points that every ADC wants their Support to know. If you main Support, you now know what your Bot Lane premade wants to tell you, but can't due to the fear of jeopardizing your relationship. So always keep these in mind when trying to impress your new Duo partner, or when you are just trying to gain some Elo by playing Support.
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