Hi!

I'm a low elo support main who only started playing this year. I move around the ranks between bronze-gold. I made this guide because there are not many out there and since release I've been spamming Hwei games. I hope this will help some people out there or encourage others to also try to experiment with this support build. Since the champion is new I only played around 40 games with him, and only about 15 games with this support build, I sit around 52% wr, do with that as you will. If you are really interested in reading all what's below, first read the notes next to the runes and items etc.

Starting items

It really needs no further explanation, just take Spellthief's Edge and 2x Health Potion

First back

As I already mentioned, take either Kindlegem or Bandleglass Mirror or any combination of their components (and Boots if you have excess 300). Try to get Faerie Charm for 250, it comes really handy to sustain your mana, it will give you freedom to "waste" more mana to poke and ideally you should be near completing Manaflow Band to have even more mana regen by the time you first back

Mythic and boots

Again, what we are going for is Shurelya's Battlesong and Ionian Boots of Lucidity to be the true support your team needs (but not necesarrily deserves). Not much to say about that, Shurelya's Battlesong is just a good support item that will be utilized by your WQ and WW and by other synergies. Ionian Boots of Lucidity for ability haste, obviously to get those long cooldowns down a little

2nd and 3rd items

I usually build Imperial Mandate 2nd and either Ardent Censer or Staff of Flowing Water 3rd. But this hugely depends on the game state. If I have a fed adc who heavily relies on auto attacks (like Ashe or Jinx) then I always go Ardent Censer 2nd. If they have a lot of heal I go Chemtech Putrifier 2nd. It's all dependent on the situation but as a general rule of thumb just go either Imperial Mandate 1st and Ardent Censer/ Staff of Flowing Water 2nd OR Ardent Censer/ Staff of Flowing Water 1st and Imperial Mandate 2nd

Optional items

Mikael's Blessing - good to peel for your fed carry
Zeke's Convergence - amazing if you have a fed carry who uses auto attacks often
Abyssal Mask - optional, good when your team is heavy on AP
Redemption - can be good if your team needs healing, it will also proc your items, but I haven't built Redemption yet
Horizon Focus - only when ahead! Good for vision, many abilities can easily proc it, also great damage
Rylai's Crystal Scepter - only when ahead! Great utility and good stats, will help a lot with chase downs, will also proc some runes and items
Zhonya's Hourglass - optional if they have scary bursts and you need safety

As I already mentioned in the rune notes, the only important runes here are Summon Aery, Manaflow Band and Transcendence. The Resolve tree is my go-to because it's just good since Font of Life can proc some items and Revitalize can save lives. Scorch is better for laning and Gathering Storm is better for scaling, it's your choice honestly. Feel free to experiment with different secondary keystones and, if you don't feel too confident just use the rune preset above.

Passive - Signature of the visionary Pretty straight forward, hit enemies twice with 2 abilities in 4 seconds to create a smaller AOE blast under them shortly after. One interaction that is not 100% straight forward is that your WE counts as a damaging ability

Q - Subject: Disaster

QQ - Devastating Fire Your go-to poking ability

QW - Severing Bolt Perfect to finish enemies on range. Has a very huge range, you can catch enemies trying to recall where they might feel safe. It's important to know it deals good damage if you're only hitting a single target or immobilized target and scales with missing HP. Also very good to help your team chase down enemies thanks to the range

QE - Molten Fissure The important CC option on the Q tree. This will proc Font of Life and Imperial Mandate which will proc other items/runes. This is very important since this is supposed to be a support build. In teamfights you will be able to spam this and you will have near 100% uptime once your CD reaches 3-4 seconds which will help your team greatly. This ability will help you zone very well, but during laning it can be underwhelming, I find it optional

W - Subject: Serenity

WQ - Fleeting Current One of the two main supporting abilites you'll use. It will proc all your support items that buff allies and some runes. Movement speed is great for engages/disengages and rotations and also chasedowns

WW - Pool of Reflection The other main supporting abilites. This will also proc all your support items and some runes. Instead of movement speed it gives shield, obviously to defend allies. Prefer this over WQ in teamfights

WE - Stirring Lights This is your mana generating ability (and some damage too). Comes really handy during laning, but later on you will wanna use WQ and WW to utilize your build. The damage it provides will also make your trades better, but in general it's more important for the mana than the damage

E - Subject: Torment

EQ - Grim Visage Great CC ability that will make the enemy flee, it can cancel a ton of very dangerous ults like Naafiri's or Miss Fortune's and a lot more that I will not list one by one. Use this to peel for your ADC and they will love you. During laning this can bully the enemy ADC very well, if their engage support engages just hit the ADC with this and their engage becomes a very bad trade for them. Hitting an enemy with this ability will let you combo with any other damaging ability to proc your passive

EW - Gaze of the Abyss The single worst ability on Hwei in my opinion. It's very optional and just way too risky to waste your CC over EQ or EE. Honestly I can count on my hands how many times I used it. Use it when you need vision on a brush or if the enemy is in a tight space and you need the root more than the fleeing or drag effect (but generally that's rare)

EE - Crusing Maw The other great CC ability, but instead it draws enemies towards the center like a jaw. This can also cancel several dangerous ults. Being an AOE that pulls targets together it can be a great setup for your team to hit them with their devastating AOE abilites. Hitting enemies with this ability will also let you combo with any other damaging ability to proc your passive

R - Spiraling Despair An okay ult. Has great potential but can be lackluster. Generally good in teamfights because it's just a great slowing ability with some damage. But make sure you hit with this ability, generally don't start with this, CC them first so you can guarantee you will hit. It has a very short windup before it launches the ult, it can be tricky to get used to.

I'm not going to go into details on each champ synergy and matchup, I lack the experience and the knowledge to do so, however in general I made some observations.

Hwei works amazingly well with auto attack based champs like Ashe or Jinx. You can build around them with items like Ardent Censer, Zeke's Convergence but also items like Mikael's Blessing. And most importantly you can peel for them really well and help them kite with all that movement speed you provide, it's a great partnership. If your team also has champs like Master Yi or Jax it's even better and very optimal. That's where Hwei shines best, but it's not necessary to build around auto attacking champs obviously, Staff of Flowing Water is also a very nice pickup, not to mention the build involves a lot of team-wide movement speed.

Mobile ADCs like Tristana or Kai'Sa are not the best optimal, it's hard to keep up with their dash and you might find yourself isolated from your ADC and it takes precious time to catch up to them despite your movement speed buffs.

In my experience of spamming Hwei exclusively, it's important to have a tank and/or a tanky bruiser, but I believe that's generally true. Prepare yourself to struggle if your entire team or 4 of you are squishy, consider picking a tank support instead if you have no tank

Preface

As a low elo player it's not my place to go into details about macro and what a support should do during different phases of the game. I simply don't know this stuff yet, if you're interested go check out guides on youtube, in this part I will only go over my findings, experiences and tips.

Pre-laning phase

Get ready to run to bot-side jungle and look for pokes. Not only you will get 20 gold for each hit, you also proc your Manaflow Band which can be a huge help considering that it's "free" gold and procs. Best case scenario you can proc your Manaflow Band twice, start recalling just before 1:00, your mana restores and you get to blue/red just in time to leash for your jg. QW is perfect to blindly look for hits in hotspots if you don't see anyone and thanks to its range you don't have to risk getting caught.

Laning phase

Without going into details like macro, generally try to poke, move in and out of brushes to land auto attacks with Summon Aery and proc your Manaflow Band to sustain mana better after your first recall. You can try being aggressive lvl1 based on your matchup, if you get to lvl2 first you can upgrade E and go for an all-in. Every other time I advise you to upgrade W for mana sustain and better trades, also shield and movement speed can be good on lvl2.

Honestly lvl6 is not really a power spike, its damage is okay at best, but it's good to shut down ganks since it does good AOE slow and its damage becomes good on 3 targets trying to chase you and/or your ADC.

WQ helps you and your ADC rotate faster in case of drake/river fights or roaming mid, it also makes warding in enemy jungle a bit less risky since you can be quick about it.

Compared to other champs I noticed you have to be more careful about auto attacking minions. Those 3 autos with extra damage from WE can be a lot, if your ADC wants to freeze it's really not optional, try timing your WE in a way that you hit turrets or you don't mess with your ADCs way of playing. But you also have to make sure you're safe and you don't put yourself and your adc at risk by not having your WQ or WW to help you escape/survive

Mid-game & late-game

This is the part where I don't have much saying, it's mostly macro. If you have a fed carry (preferably your ADC) play around them, ward as much as you can safely. Mana should become much less of an issue at this point and you should also start using WQ and WW a lot more to proc your items you have by now

In teamfights try to position yourself in a safer way, you're squishy and you should use your CC abilites to peel for your allies, not to defend yourself from threats you shouldn't have in the first place. Spamming your QE is a great way to proc almost your entire build and help your allies and you can do that from distance. Despite positioning yourself behind your bruisers and tanks, they might still try to focus you, but that's ideal, your allies will punish them for that, even if you die that's fine.

Thanks if you read this far, I hope you found it helpful. Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes or formatting inconsistencies. I'm not sure if I will update this guide for future patches. It is my first guide, formatting alone was a bit of a headache, despite that I hope it's acceptable at the very least.