Top 5 Support Champions to Climb with DIG IgNar
Learn the best champions to climb with this patch with DIG IgNar!
Support is always an ever-changing role of champion viability. Even as of the recent Patch 26.11, we’ve had a fairly large shakeup in runes that lean towards more tanky supports, where the previous metagame had many enchanters dominating the support role. However, power-wise, much of the champion pool remains similar, and we’ve talked with Lee “IgNar” Dong-geun to narrow down picks that you can play to consistently climb the ladder.
Seraphine
IgNar: “In my opinion, Seraphine is the best [of the five support champions IgNar suggested], really strong laning, really strong teamfighting, and is fun. I would be happy, like if you pick Seraphine [as first pick], it can be scary against Nautilus, but if you know a little bit, it's still easy.”
Seraphine is a rather controversial champion for varying reasons, with players ranging from those who love the AP carry playstyle for mid lane and bottom lane, to the enchanter playstyle in the support role, to many comparisons between her kit and Sona. However, undoubtedly due to her strong synergy with champions like Ashe, she’s one of League’s most powerful champions at the moment in the support role.
First, we have to discuss the absolute monstrous power of Ashe/Seraphine. The gist of the synergy is that Ashe constantly keeps up a slow on whoever she hits, while Seraphine will root targets with her E – Beat Drop. Normally, Seraphine needs the target to already be slowed or crowd-controlled to get the root-variant of the effect (usually with either the 2nd hit of her Beat Drop or by building Rylai’s Crystal Scepter). Ashe lets her skip that issue entirely as long as they’re together, making her less dependent on buying Rylais or the multi-cast from her passive.
It also happens that they have a really powerful level 6. Ashe’s ultimate, Enchanted Crystal Arrow, in combination with Seraphine’s Ultimate – Encore, is usually more than enough of a tool for picking off targets, forcing the other bot lane to have Cleanse or be under constant threat of being repeatedly crowd-controlled by the duo. This scales well into teamfights too, where one single Ashe arrow can lead into Seraphine chaining with her ultimate onto key targets.
Alistar/Nautilus/Rell
IgNar: “Reason is just I think Alistar's hard to get punished and he's a melee support. Same with Nautilus. Hard to get punished as a melee, and you can make plays either. For melee ones, Alistar is one of the best.”
Now, admittedly, you may be wondering why three champions are all put into the same slot in a “Top 5” list. But IgNar framed the champions as very interchangeable in their roles for engaging and roaming, and considered them currently similar in power, so we’ve put them together. While their kits do have much different effects, their main function is primarily to engage and soak damage.
Rather than discuss the specific gimmicks that these champions have, we can explain the main advantage of a tanky melee support. For one, you’re providing a front line for your team, and more specifically, a source of engage. Many games are often not taken into players’ hands because people tend to be very reactive to situations rather than creating win conditions on their own. Engage supports like Alistar, Nautilus, and Rell all fall under this, where if you engage, your teammates will likely follow with you and commit to it.
As for why these champions are hard to punish, they individually share a lot of similar aspects in how bulky they are for having only low-cost support items. Seconds matter in fights where you can take more hits, and that can often be the difference in killing a target or the enemy carrying focus firing onto your carries. Compare that to enchanters, who, while they may consider tankier items, often don’t lack the tools to protect themselves, leading them to blow up faster.
While not listed, you can also consider this as general advice for champions that may show up once more, like Leona, Poppy, Maokai, and even Braum can be a powerful engage despite his more peel-focused kit. The fundamentals surrounding tanky engage champions are mostly the same, giving you a pretty wide pool of picks that will never let you be banned out.
Nami
IgNar: “Nami should be pretty good, but you need to, like, have a good ad setup, like a good champion like Lucian, or the enemy doesn't have engage.”
For Nami, she’s at the bottom of this list (although we did cheat with 3 in 1 slot), but without a doubt she’s still a fairly powerful support. Strong laning that does well into bullying other enchanter supports, has good synergy with champions like Lucian, and has potential to pop off with good bubbles from her Q – Aqua Prison.
The most important thing is the champion you’re pairing with. While Nami can work with most champions, including mages, you’ll want someone who can best use her E - Tidecaller’s Blessing. Lucian is one of them, as he can instantly proc all four of the extra damage procs with his double attacks from his passive.
Other champions who similarly work well with Nami include Ezreal, who hits a lot between weaving his autos and spells. Incidentally, it also works with Seraphine because Nami provides the same benefit as Ashe, guaranteeing the root on Beat Drop. Other champions include Jhin and Smolder, who take advantage of Tidecaller easily through their abilities.
Now keep in mind Nami’s weakness to engage supports. She’s really squishy, and her options for self-peel (hitting Aqua Prison on top of yourself for the speed and to CC an engage champion on top of you can only get you so far) are mostly down to how fast she can run away after healing herself and throwing the bubble. It’s a risk if you’re against someone who can consistently punish Nami for being out of position, as Nami is a fairly immobile champion even considering her movement speed increases for hitting abilities on herself.
Conclusion
Pick Seraphine blind, and you’ll probably be fine. After all, she’s even playable as an AP carry if you get filled into bot or mid!
But in all seriousness, these five champions are all good for climbing the ladder, as they all tend to share the same aggressive playstyle that tends to dominate solo queue. Rather than being on autopilot and going through the motions, you can take control of games by being the one who hits the skillshots and starts the fights, and what better champions than ones with the potential to lock down multiple targets?
We thank IgNar for his time. If you would like to keep up with him, check out his socials here!
