League of Legends is a team-based game, and there is only so much an individual can do to influence the outcome of the game. A winning team requires effort from all players, and some games will be out of your control. What you can control, at least, is how well you perform in your lane. If you come out of the laning phase ahead in every game, your odds of winning each game will drastically increase. A simple but effective way to ensure you have the winning edge as a support player is to pick lane synergies that pair well together. Instead of drafting to make the best five-man team composition or drafting simply to counter the enemy support, it is important to consider who you’ll be laning with. This guide will explain how you should draft as a support, drafting for your bot lane partner instead of just trying to counter the enemy.

Instead of looking at the bot lane as two separate matchups, the reality of the bottom lane laning phase is that it is a single matchup consisting of two champions versus two champions. A basic strategy is usually to look at the enemy support and pick a champion that counters them. While this can be an effective way to ensure easy trading patterns with the enemy support, it doesn’t necessarily mean your pick is optimal for the team, or your lane as a whole. Additionally, it is generally a good idea to pick a support mage that uses Ability Power if the rest of your team does only physical damage. However, there is not point in doing this if the pick puts your lane so far behind it won’t matter that your team has a more even mix of damage types. Similarly, if your team has no tank, it is usually a good idea to pick a tank support, since at least these will fit with a larger variety of bot laners.

Although you can try to build an optimal bot lane in every game, it won’t always be clear what you should pick depending on pick order and what champions have been drafted. Some supports pair very well with only a small handful of champions, while other supports are much more flexible in who they synergize well with. For example, Rakan is far and away the best support for Xayah, and vice-versa. Although other lanes can work, you are hindering your win rate significantly if you choose anything other than Rakan once Xayah has been picked on your team. This is because the champions are designed to synergize together, so this lane pairing will always be the strongest combination if one of them is picked.

Another similar champion is Lulu. Lulu can work well with many bot laners but she is a fantastic partner for AD hypercarries like Twitch and Kog’Maw. She’s a go-to pick if you see a hypercarry locked in on your team as she can help them survive their weak laning phase and power them up immensely once they reach their late game power spike. No matter what the two team compositions look like, having Lulu and a Kog'Maw or Twitch will give your team a late game win condition, which is something that can be good to rely on regardless of how the game is going in the early and mid game.

Some other great lane combinations to try are Ashe and Zyra, who use their slows, crowd control, and massive damage to win lanes. Ashe and Zyra can both poke enemy laners out of lane, but their ultimates also make for a great burst damage combo. Caitlyn and Morgana is another great duo, as Morgana excels at keeping enemies in place with her Q, allowing Caitlyn to freely use her W to maximize her damage output.

Other Supports are much more versatile, and don’t demand a certain type of bot laner to work well with. Champions like Thresh, Nautilus, and Karma can work with any AD carry to make a strong lane combination. These champions provide a lot to the lane on their own and have enough different tools that most bot laners can take advantage of their strengths in some way. Because of this, they are generally good picks when you are picking early and don’t know who you’ll be laning with or against. Thresh especially is an excellent blind pick because he has no strong counters and goes well with any laner depending on what you choose as your playstyle. If no good picks jump out at you immediately, you generally want to pick between a poke or an engage lane. If your bot laner is strong early game and wants to fight a lot such as Lucian, Miss Fortune, or Draven, engage supports like Leona, Nautilus, and Thresh tend to work well. If your bot laner is more of a poke damage dealer like Ezreal, Ashe, or Varus, supports that have poke damage will usually be a safe pick. This includes champions such as Karma, Zyra, and Lux.

What if you don’t know how to play every champion that makes the optimal bot lane or team comp? Playing multiple champions is much more difficult than one tricking, but learning a handful (not too many) of the top supports will force you to improve your fundamental gameplay instead of relying on specific champion mastery. One-tricking a champion is a great way to learn the game or a new role, but once you become more comfortable it can be beneficial for your play to expand your champion pool, not to mention it can make the game a lot more fun. Having experience playing multiple supports will also allow you to gain insight into what each champion wants to do in the game, which can help you counter enemy tactics and gameplay patterns. You’ll notice that it is much easier to play against champions when you have a deeper understanding of their kits and what makes them good.

Being proficient in one tank support, one enchanter, and one poke support would be my recommendation to start. This way, it allows you to comfortably draft a winning lane combination without having to play a champion you have no idea how to use. Again, you don’t need to master each of these champions, but being comfortable with them will help you draft more confidently. The draft won’t make or break most solo queue games, but putting some thought into what champion you pick and when you pick them can help you get that extra advantage.