Hey there. I tend to play a lot of support. Not necessarily because I'm really slow at calling roles, but because I generally try to fulfill whatever role needs to be filled. More often than not, this means support. I've been playing this role since early Season 2 and I've had my fair share of good ADCs, bad ADCs, and mediocre ones. So - how should an ADC support their support?

Know when to clear the lane

There is a very simple understanding between supports and their ADCs: the ADC is supposed to get last hits. This is especially true in the early game where a measly 100 gold from last hits can make a huge difference. Supports also frequently purchase Watcher’s Gift which grants them health and mana regen for every minion kill that they don’t get the last hit on.

Simple, right?

You may think “of course”, but I have seen many rookie mistakes even among generally good ADCs and supports.

Let the support hit the wave first.

Whether the ADC starts with Devourer’s Gauntlet, Golden Bow, Transcendence, or whatever they decided to build, their ability damage or basics will do a lot of damage to the minions. The support, however, will be able to deal 1/4 to 1/2 of the wave’s health depending on which support they have picked.

If the ADC uses their clear first, the support may end up getting the last hits. Why would the support continue with their clear if the minion wave is already low? The answer is simple. They don’t want the wave to get pushed under tower.

Buy some wards

There is this myth that seems to flitter through the Smite community every so often that supports should be the only ones warding.

That is simply not true. Supports can only (really) ward in two places and, as I have found, usually someone will lag behind in their warding game, prompting the support to help out.

Supports will usually ward on 1 and 2, and if mid lags behind, they may consider a ward on 3.

Most supports will ward in two places, the Gold Fury pit and near the enemy boars, but if they are busy in other portions of the map through rotations, the boars ward may suffer. ADCs may want to carry around a ward in their pocket to place at the enemy boars (1) if they're pushed up to the enemy tower. If they are pushed under their tower and suffering from ganks, they should try warding at their boars.

Supports are not the ADC’s personal bodyguard

I see this mistake constantly where ADCs will think that the title of support means “support the hunter.” They are there to support the team. When they rotate over towards midlane, that isn’t a free pass to suddenly dive into the enemy support and ADC in the hopes that the support will return to will save their ADC. Sometimes their attention needs to shift to the other parts of the map.

Follow up on initiation - Most of the time

Supports have a lot of roles - initiate, peel, CC, bodyblock, ward, and so, so much more.

One of the worst feelings in the world is when the support initiates and there is no follow-up. This isn’t to say that supports are flawless. Sometimes their initiation is poor and ill-timed. However, it’s important to note that, even if an initiation is bad, it is often better to make a bad decision together as a team as it can frequently turn into a good decision. Having a support go in and then die leaves a team vulnerable and may result in a negative turnaround anyway.

Of course, learning when to go in and when not to takes time and practice and sometimes the support will initiate without communicating with the team. I cannot possibly explain every situation and give an outline of what to do, so players should try to use their best judgement.

Don’t starve the support of EXP and gold

Supports generally end up having the lowest amounts of gold and experience in the game by virtue of not having a dedicated farming center. ADCs can help this by holding camps and waves until the support is within assist range. This includes back camps. Map awareness is extremely important and keeping track of the support attempting to rotate to share camps is an excellent way to help develop this.

Kill-secures happen

Kills happen a lot in games and it is inevitable that the ADC and support will be embroiled in battle only for the support to end up with the last hit. This is not a stolen kill. It is a secured kill. Supports generally want to feed their ADCs. They want them to get a thousand kills and end up ahead, but they might pick up a few kills on the way.

It happens. A kill is a kill.

Communicate your actives

Supports will often ask their ADC if they want any particular active at level 1. An ADC may pick up Purification while a support may consider Sprint. This isn’t an indication that they have no idea what they should pick up, but a way to synergize with them. If an ADC wants something, they should say so, but they get the final say on what the pick for an active.

A word on Geb and Khepri specifically

I’ve personally said this a thousand times to my ADCs and teammates in general - Geb’s shield has a cooldown. Khepri’s revive has a cooldown. If an ally dies while a Geb or a Khepri is racing towards them, I promise that they didn’t fail to shield them out of maliciousness. They did it because they were not in range or their skill was on cooldown.

If someone is calling for a shield or a revive, hopefully they will have the map awareness to run towards the support instead of away from them.

On that note, in the chaos of a teamfight, it is possible that Geb or Khepri will “miss” their shield/revive and accidentally use it on someone who may or may not need it. The shield/revive jumps from model to model and two allies pressed up close to one another can easily make the shield/revive miss. It's awful when it happens and supports tend to be as equally upset as the ally that they missed is.

Even with that, it is important to remember that Khepri might not throw a revive on someone because, if they die, they will move to his location and he may be in a poor position where they will just die again. It is frequently better to not waste the cooldown on the revive if both parties are going to die.

This is generally common knowledge, but I will point it out just to be safe. Geb’s shield and Khepri’s ult do not protect from executes. So Ao Kuang and Thanatos will both kill despite having the shield and/or revive.

Overall

Everyone has a job to do in a game of Conquest and the relationship between an ADC and the support can make or break a game. In order to get ahead, it is important to try to help your support as they are trying to help you.

Good luck, and happy hunting!

Look at that cute bug face. How can anyone not help that?

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