5 Tips to be a Better Support In League of Legends
A brief look into some tips to help you grow into a desirable, for all AD Carries, Support in the Bottom Lane.
The Support role in League of Legends is pretty often misjudged. Everybody keeps complaining about being autofilled into the Support Role (especially now that autofill is permanently enabled), and how much they hate supporting and stuff like that. In comparison, Support mains are constantly emerging victorious out of the Bot Lane because they usually get matched with enemy autofilled Support players that have no clue what a good Support can and should do. Whether you are tired of losing the 2v2's in Bot Lane and want to level up your Supporting skills or are a Support main who just wants to deepen your knowledge about the role, here are 5 tips that every Support player ought to know.
1) Vision
Starting off with the easy ones, Supporting means you support the team. In other words, you mostly provide the team with a ton of information, and protect them. Providing the team with information means that you should go and ward the objectives whenever possible, or just scope enemies into their territory (don't do that, most of the Supports are way too squishy to move around the map all by themselves). When talking about Wards, remember the following image.
The X spots on the Bot Side of the map are, in general, the spots you should keep your wards for, whichever side you are. Objective (Dragon) and tribush control are some key terms in order to win the "Vision Battle" against the enemy Support. The lane bushes should mostly be warded if you are afraid of a lane gank (for example, when enemies have high mobility Junglers like Olaf or Hecarim). The X spot between the tribush and the Dragon is a good spot when you want to save your Wards (for example when you want to keep them for an incoming teamfight in the Dragon area), or you only have one remaining Ward, yet you still want to stay in the lane.
The aforementioned spot is a really smart choice for those that play semi-aggressively in the lane, where instead of warding both of the bushes (which you should if you are playing really aggressive), you just ward there and save a ward. In general, you can work on many strategies on Warding based on this map, so study it, find out the perfect choices to Ward depending on your Bottom Lane playstyle, and always keep a ward on Dragon.
2) Vision Denying
When talking Vision Denial, keep in mind one thing, which is:If you were the enemy Support, where would you ward? This rule applies to every aspect of the game, from Warding to trading in lane. If, for example, you have pushed the enemy Bot Lane under their turret and want to set up your Jungler for a gank, there is a high possibility that the enemies might have warded the bush in fear of that, so first you need to clear up the enemy vision.
In order to do that, you should use your Sweeping Lens in the position you think the enemy Support has warded. Also, clearing vision may also make your opponents think your Jungler might be approaching, forcing them to play a lot more safely and lose a number of CS, thus making your AD Carry farm without having to worry about trading.
Last but not least, to clear wards faster and easier (without having to use your Control Ward), rush Sightstone on your first recall and once you have bought it, change your trinket from Warding Totem (which will be useless since you already have 3 Wards through the Sightstone) into a Sweeping Lens.
3) Understanding your Support's Strengths and Weaknesses
This rule applies even from the Champion Select. Say you picked Top/Mid, got autofilled, and now you are forced to play Support. If you are used to playing Tank champions like Poppy or Maokai in the Top Lane, then you should have no problem playing a Nautilus or a Leona in the Bot Lane. The problem is when you have to transition from a Tank role you are used to playing, into a highly poke-y Bot compositions like Caitlyn-Karma, or vice versa!
All in all, if your main role is Mid Lane, then I would recommend running a mage Support in the Bot Lane, like Lulu or Nami, or even a damage Support like Brand, Vel'Koz or Zyra, and poke enemies as much as possible (generally, most of Mid Laners can transition well into the Support Role, because they know how to properly poke and trade as a mage).
But, if you are a Top Lane/Jungle main and in general used to playing Tanks, then let your AD Carry know that you are not a Support main, pick the most efficient tank Support you can have at the time (for example pick Taric versus a mainly AD enemy composition), play the lane as safely as you can or zone the enemy away (depending on the situation), create opportunities, and protect your AD Carry.
4) Watch the map
This tip doesn't have to do with Supporting in general, but it has to do a lot with providing information. As the Support, you should be the one that frequently observes the entire minimap (along with the Jungler), and not the Laners. The Laners are most of the time busy trying to hit every CS possible, and if they don't they will probably be repositioning themselves or trading. But as the Support, and while in lane, you have much less to do than your ADC, so here is what you should do in your "free time".
Watch the minimap, check which enemies are pushing and inform your Jungler to gank them, ping missing on every enemy that's out of the radar (and you are sure he did not recall), watch where the enemies' wards are, and if you can go clear them, ping the timers on important objectives, and so on. These are things that a laner might not be able to do during his laning phase, yet are important for the whole team to know.
And last but not least...
5) Do NOT drag your AD Carry down
This is the 50% of the work you have to do. The laning phase (and maybe not only then) of a Support is about protecting the AD Carry (and sometimes roaming). Protecting your AD Carry means you should observe his moves, his tendencies, and play accordingly. It also means you should get him out of tough situations, and help him get fed off from the early game.
Try not to make your ADC's job harder, by making decisions that might end up giving enemies even a small advantage. For example, if he plays aggressively, try to stay on the same "line" as he is in the Bot Lane. In case you stay far behind him, there is a big chance he will end up getting caught, and you will have a lot of running to do in order to be able to assist him. This also applies to the exact opposite, try not to play aggressively if the enemies have a better 2v2 and can easily punish your overextending.
In case you want more advice on how to help your ADC during the laning phase, we have another article based on that, which you can find here.
Conclusion
To sum it up, these are some key points you should understand first in order to be able to play as a Support. Playing Support is probably one of the most (if not the most) fun roles to play. You get to assist others, play mind games on enemies, scare the pants off of them, provide information, and protect your ADC. Some would say that Supporting is sort of easy, but it kind of depends on how fast you can adapt and learn the basics of it. Hope you enjoyed and learned something out of it!
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