INTRODUCTION

Often times, whether in SoloQ or a Competitive formats, there are situations when a lane can, through CS, Ganks, and Individual Playmaking generate either a gold or pressure advantage on their lane opponent. In the botlane, when the Support has been able to generate such an advantage, it is important that the Support can then know how to translate that advantage in their lane into an advantage for their entire team.

UNDERSTANDING THE EARLYGAME

In botlane, the Support carries a vital job in managing pressure in the earlygame. With a responsibility to both maintain lane and river vision to avoid ganks while still looking for opportunities to snowball a lead on the enemy botlane, it is important that the Support knows what to do when they are ahead.

USING YOUR GOLD ADVANTAGE

In a situation, where you as a Support player can generate a gold advantage over the enemy support, it is important to assess a few key points to understand how to most effectively use your gold.

Here, I present a situation where you and your marksman have just early doublekilled the enemy botlane, and you have now recalled with 1000 gold. Here is an example of a thoughtprocess you can follow to make the correct decision on what to buy.

1. How vulnerable am I to losing my advantage in either 2v2 or to Ganks?

This is something that any player should be looking out for straight from Champion Select - How high is the enemy lane's kill pressure, and how strong is the enemy jungler in the earlygame. In a situation where, even though you have generated a large gold advantage over the enemy botlane, you may still feel unsafe in the lane. Here, you should itemize in a way which allows you to retain your advantage, and instead allow your jungler to make plays in other areas of the map.

ie. You are playing Sona vs Leona support, and the enemy has a Jungle Lee Sin.

During the Sona vs Leona matchup, it may be overtly risky to itemize offensively (such as an early Tier 2 Support Item like Frostfang), where the enemy botlane has the possibility of regaining the advantage on you due to your naturally low base armor and health, along with the enemies strong all-in pressure, espsecially with a jungler. In this kind of situation, it is often most reccomended to build an early Sighstone, and instead use this extra health and vision to ensure safety in the botlane.

By buying an early Sighstone in botlane, you can minimise enemy kill pressure and dragon pressure with a larger pool of wards and health in comparison to the enemy botlane due to your gold advantage. This in turn gives your own jungler more opportunity to make plays with this extra information (as he no longer has to play around botlane counterganks) and gives your team a better chance of winning the rest of the map. You can then use your remaining 200 gold on potions and pink wards, to ensure that your lane remains ahead and does not forfeit the advantage you have.

Note, this notion of play creates the least immediate advantage for your team, as defensive vision will not directly allow your team to make more plays. However if you have a team comp aiming to scale up, this may be the correct line of play to choose. It is countered by greedy itemization by an enemy support, such as rushing a completed Face of the Mountain before finishing sighstone, giving the enemy botlane a 2v2 all in advantage. Punish this by getting your jungler/mid to gank botlane and abuse the enemy botlanes lack of wards.

2. What opportunities do I have to make plays with my jungler around the enemy jungle/mid?

This is often a situation that arises when your team has a stronger early game jungler, and you are playing a support with strong CC. Here, if you are in the situation where you have gone through step 1 and feel you are safe, you should then look to use your gold advantage to instead help snowball your Jungler and Midlane, which in turn helps two players, which they can then use to help snowball the Toplaner aswell as botlane and have a 100% winning map.

ie. You are playing Thresh, your team has Jungle Rek'sai and your midlaner is Twisted Fate.

Here in this composition, it is important to identify and communicate with your Jungler and Midlane that you are looking for opportunities to make plays with them. You have the opportunity to buy an early Boots of Mobility and use your remaining gold on Green/Pink wards, and move around with Rek'Sai to gain vision deep in the enemy jungle and look for kill opportunities on the enemy mid and jungler. If champions like Twisted Fate can generate a pressure advantage due to your ganks on the mid in this situation, he will then be able to comfortably use his Midlane Priority to translate his advantage into an advantage in other areas of the map more easily then you as a support, due to his central location.

By building an earlier Boots of Mobility, you give yourself simply the opportunity to be more places on the map in the same amount of time - allowing you to ward, gank, and be less punished for your time moving around outside of the botlane. This allows you to more easily translate your advantage in the botlane into other areas of the map. Although it is possible do the same aggressive plays with a Sighstone, you will be more punsihed for the time you spending walking around missing EXP in botlane, which means if you return often times you may have missed multiple waves, meaning that your advantage has rescinded. This is a riskier line of play then Step 1.

Note, in a situation where you are playing a composition looking to scale rather than one looking for early individual plays, it may be recomended to either take Step 1 and play safe, or follow on to Step 3.

3. How can I spend my gold to further my advantage in the 2v2 matchup botlane?

This situation arises when you already had a stronger 2v2 then the enemy botlane but you do not have the opportunity to make plays on the map. Here, it is reccomended you spend your gold in a way that allows you to move on further ahead in the lane by itemizing aggressively, allowing you to snowball your advantage on the enemy botlane.

ie. You are playing Janna/Graves vs Alistar/Vayne, the enemy has Shyvana Jungle.

Here, the enemy botlane has quite a low kill pressure on your lane in the 2v2, and the enemy jungler is not a strong ganking jungler. By itemizing an item such as an early Nomad's Medallion/Frostfang, you can snowball your gold and power lead even larger on the enemy botlane due to the increased stats on your Janna shield and Gold/10 stats on the items. This is best for as you do not require the immediate need for a large amount of wards (often times a single ward is enough to stop ganks from champions such as Shyvana and Master Yi).

The line of play of upgrading your support item to Nomad's Medallion/Frostfang/Targon's Brace is often times one of the simplest methods of snowballing an advantage - you simply continue your laning and aim to trade with your stronger stats to force the enemy out of lane to miss CS and EXP. However, it takes away the opportunity for you to immediately translate your advantage into an advantage in the map unless you can get a Tower or Dragon by shoving the enemy botlane out of lane, which is more difficult in certain lane matchups then Step 2 (such as trying to force a Caitlyn out from under her own tower). This means, if your other lanes are losing, this line of play least directly impacts your opportunity to help the map.

SUMMARY

These are just common examples of ways that you as a Support player can make the correct decisions to help your team win the game. There are infinitely more ways at infinitely different times where you will be making decisions, and this guide is simply a way of making some of those decisions easier.

Hope this has helped some of you and best of luck on the Rift!

Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!