Relics are basic items that you have at your disposal when you start a match and can provide huge bonuses and special abilities to aid you and your teammates to win every game. When you start a game, you have the option to get one, and when you reach level 12, you can purchase the other, but be careful, because when you buy one and leave the base, you won’t be able to change it.

You have a choice of 15 different relics, and each one of them has an upgraded version:

They can be very useful depending on the situation you are in, the enemy team, and the time of the game, because they can create a great impact on a fight depending on what you have, and this can lead to you winning an encounter.

First of all, let’s get to the basics. You are the support (DUH), so you should have the relics that can and will help your teammates win fights or at least avoid losing them. This can be by giving them extra damage, movement speed, or protections, healing them, slowing the enemy down, mitigating the enemy's healing abilities, or allowing your team to escape from obstacles.

Think that whichever relic you pick, it’s going to have a great impact in an engagement against the other team and always buy with this in mind. Picking something useful for a specific situation won’t mean that it will be useful for the entire game, so it could be a waste in certain moments. You only have room for two relics, so use that room wisely.

Due to the great amount of possibilities that you have, we’ll start with what not to get:

1. Sundering Spear: In his basic form, you will deal 15% of the health of an enemy god and with the upgraded version they will take 20% more damage for 20 seconds. The idea is that you provide something tangible to the fight (such as buffs or debuffs), and only getting a small percentage of an enemy’s health is not something you should prioritize, and even with the upgraded version, this is not worth it.
   
   
2. Teleport Glyph: This is a very useful relic for fast rotations, because it lets you teleport to an allied tower or to a ward (with the upgraded version). The problem with this is that, while it’s important your you to rotate around the map, it won’t give you a specific advantage in a fight, and you can basically use this space in something much more relevant.
   
   
3. Bracer of Undoing: You’re a support. It doesn’t matter if you die, as long as the other members of your team live and win the fight. You don’t need to save yourself, but rather try and save someone else. This is a relic that’s specifically used to regain health and mana, and maybe survive a fight by restoring what you lost, so it won’t have a great use when you are the support.
   
   
4. Shield of Thorns: I know, I know, you will think that I’m crazy. Shield of Thorns is basically the relic to use and go all-in against the entire enemy team and try to get all the damage on you and not on the other members of your team. While this sounds nice, it’s not the item for a support. In reality, it’s more for a Solo laner. You want to save your allies by peeling for them, but you don't want to receive all the damage possible, only the damage that is directed towards your carries, so this means that you can trade it for something that’s more useful to your specific role.
   
   
5. Hand of The Gods: This was an amazing item for supports some seasons ago, when you could deal a great amount of damage to the Fire Giant or the Gold Fury and if you went close enough and timed it alright you could steal it. Hi-Rez saw this and nerfed the relic, making it only a small part of what it used to be, and its use has gone down incredibly. Nowadays, it’s mainly used by players as a stun (because you can stun someone for 1 second), but it’s not that useful for a support, mainly because in their kit there is usually already some sort of Crowd Control.
   
   
6. Purification Beads: This is a must-pick item for a carry, because it can give you the opportunity to escape CC. But you are a tank, you want to bait the hard or soft CC from the enemy team, so you can be the target of all the attacks and let your teammates deal as much damage as they can.
   
   
7. Aegis Amulet: As Purification beads. It’s something that you should buy as a squishy character, but not as a tank.
   
   

Now that we talked about which relics shouldn’t you get, we will go to the situational ones. The relics that you will only get if certain criteria is met, and that can help you deal with specific gods and their abilities.

Phantom Veil: Are you against a team that has a lot of player-made obstacles? (Such as the Odin ult, Ymir wall, Thor wall, etc) Then you can use this relic. We know that there are many mid laners, ADCs, and junglers that don’t have an escape against certain abilities (specially the Odin ring), so this can help your teammates escape and survive to fight another time or turn around and kill the other team. At a high level, you will only see this relic being picked when there is an Odin cage to lock up people and kill them inside, but this is not necessarily something that is used by the support. It’s more an item for a jungler or a mid laner. Either way, you can still hold it if it’s completely necessary.

Cursed Ankh: Reducing the healing can be very important in a teamfight, especially if you're dealing with a Terra, a Chang’e, or a Hel that can heal the team quickly. If you consider that a group healing like this can be extremely detrimental for your team, counter it with many different anti-healing mechanisms, such as items and abilities, and an additional relic (this one) to shut it down completely.

Blink: Are you an aggressive god that can benefit from this? Are you in a position where you can engage and create a massive impact with a sudden Blink? Then go for it! The characters that can best benefit from this are the ones that have a great CC or ability that is instant cast and that can apply heavy CC on the enemy team. A Geb ult, Khumba yawn, Athena taunt, or Ymir freeze. These are the gods that can greatly benefit from this relic and give a huge advantage entering a fight.

Now, we will get in the most important ones, the ones that usually your ADC is going to want and the ones he/she will ask you to buy. Please take in mind that whatever you decide to buy here has to be aligned with your playstyle. This means that you shouldn’t rush into something you don’t feel comfortable using. This is why communication with your lane partner is super important, because the first relic will have a direct impact on the laning phase.

Heavenly Wings: You saw this one coming from a mile away. This is one of the most requested relics by an ADC. Why? Easy. In the normal state they provide a 20% increase in movement speed and makes all of you immune to slows, but the upgraded version also provides Haste. This means that you and your ADC will be immune to Basic Attack Movement Penalty. This is huge for an ADC, because they can move without any problems while firing basic attacks, which are their main damage output source. Usually, this relic is used against a team that has slows, but this is just an extra bonus. Your carries will like Heavenly Wings because it gives them a small window to go all-in and shred through the enemy lines with basic attacks, but this is not only limited to your ADC. All the basic attack gods have a great time with this, such as Mercury, Thanatos, Amaterasu, Chronos, etc.

Meditation Cloak: This is also one of the most requested relics for a support. This is mainly used as a heal (you get healed 75+12 per level) and to restore mana (30%), so it’s great to have when your team is in a sudden need of health, maybe to re-engage or to last longer in a fight. It can also be useful in case there is an enemy with an execute ability, such as Ao Kuang, Thanatos or Achilles, because your Meditation can put them above the threshold, saving them from the direct execute. In an upgraded version, it also gives your allies a 1 second CDR on their abilities, with a reduced mana cost, making it a very important teamfight relic.

Magic Shell: The shield item for all your allies. When you use Shell you give them a shield for 100+12 per level, making it slightly better than Meditation, but only by 25 health, which is not really that much and only last 3 seconds. People use Shell for the ability of the upgraded version, which absorbs 2 basic attacks. This means that a Hunter engagement can be won directly by the ADC that absorbs these two basic attacks and lands his own. It used to have a different effect, but it was changed due to the heavy usage it received.

As a side note, the main difference between the Meditation Cloak and Magic Shell is the second benefit that you will get. The healing is forever, while the shield only lasts 3 seconds, the thing is that you can get an anti-healing counter and heal less than usual.

Horrific Emblem: Personally, I love this relic. Even though it doesn’t receive as much use as the ones before, I think that it’s the best crippling relic of them all, because it gives you 5 seconds where it slows your enemies by 40%, while also receiving an attack speed reduction for 25% and the upgraded version provides an additional reduction of 20% in their damage output. This is crazy in a teamfight. If you are able to apply this to their carries and they don’t have something to counter it (such as Heavenly, Beads or Frenzy), they will have a very bad time. It just brings too much to the table, and it can be very beneficial by helping you lock down targets, force Relics, or simply wipe them out. It also has some great defensive capabilities, because if you are being chased, you can pop it and slow them completely so your team can escape, or at least make them deal less damage so you can hope to escape at some point.

Belt of Frenzy: The final relic we are going to talk about. It can be a very offensive relic, because it gives you an increased damage and attack speed. There is nothing much to say about it, other than it’s very good for bringing down objectives, towers, and phoenixes, and also if you engage directly you have a great advantage when the levels and items are even, because you will deal much more damage and do it faster.

Before we finish this guide, I want you to always think what can bring a better advantage to your team. Look at what are you going to face and see what could be better for your ADC and then for your team. Examine if they have a lot of slows, they can burst your carries down, or deal AoE damage. Ask about all of these and think from the start what can you use better in the teamfight phase, while also thinking about the laning phase.

As an additional recommendation, I love the Horrific Emblem and Meditation combo, buying first Meditation and at higher levels Horrific. Why? Basically because it’s a great combo to slow them down and give you extra protection and sustain for your team (the reduced damage plus the heal will most likely make you win the direct engagement), and also because if you want to counter Horrific you need to do it with 3 relics, which will require a higher commitment by the other team if they don’t want to lose that fight. Take in mind that this is something that can be better if there is not a healer on your team, because if you don’t have one the other team won’t build anti-healing.

I hope you find this small guide informative and you can use it in your casual or ranked games!

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