In this post, I will be describing the different kinds of items that a support champion (or bot lane support) should consider buying, in order to be fully effective in his/her role.

The items that I will be discussing are :
Mercury's Treads Ionian Boots of Lucidity Boots of Swiftness Mobility Boots

Philosopher's Stone Heart of Gold Kindlegem Shurelya's Battlesong Soul Shroud Aegis of the Legion

Abyssal Mask Will of the Ancients Banshee's Veil Randuin's Omen Rabadon's Deathcap

Sight Ward Vision Ward Oracle's Elixir

There are few of the Boots which are especially great on Support champions, lets take a look at some of them :

Mercury's Treads
Mercury Treads (Boots of Speed + Null-Magic Mantle) is really great on supports for two reason. It provides you with some preliminary Magic Resistance, which would increase your sustain by a lot in the early game phase. Along with that, you will get Tenacity, which further adds to your survivability. Remember that since most Supports are squishy, you will be focused a lot by the enemy Carry. Having Mercury Treads will help you survive the in the lane in order to support your carry.

Ionian Boots of Lucidity
This is another great boots to consider, because of the Cooldown Reduction. As a Support champion, you will be casting a lot of spells (heals or otherwise) while you are in your lane. This boots will let you cast more often, which is always a great thing as you will be able to support much more often.

Boots of Swiftness
Boots of Swiftness is a good boots choice in some special cases. If you have some defensive runes, and are absolutely sure that you can survive the enemy Carry during early game (of if they don't have much CC); getting Boots of Swiftness will help you out a lot. It will give you the highest movement speed in your lane, so you can escape ganks easily, as well as rush to support easily.

Mobility Boots
Boots of Mobility is another nice choice of boots. Though it is kind of risky to go with this, this boots will help you out a lot when your team is very gank heavy or when you need to switch lanes a lot. In most cases, Mercury Treads would be a better/safer option for a Support. Remember that BoM only gives you extra movement speed when out of combat, so it is not so good if you are being focused or trying to escape ganks.

Now let me go into a bit more detail and explain why you, as a support champion, should consider any of these items :

Philosopher's Stone
If you have ever played any support champions, you already know two things : they use mana and they are squishy. In order to balance these two disadvantages, you need two things : mana regen and health regen, and Philosopher’s Stone provides both these stats. As well as that it also gives you an extra 5 Gold every 10 seconds. So why should you consider PS over other mana/health regen items? Well, since you are a support you will be going bot lane with a carry; you should always allow your carry to last hit minions and get kills so that he/she can stay as farmed as possible. So where will you get your gold from? Well, from this items passive gold gain!


Heart of Gold
Almost the same principle from Philosoper’s Stone applies to Heart of Gold. Support champions tend to be very squishy, so having some extra health from HoG helps out a lot. Along with that, HoG also gives you an extra 5 Gold every 10 seconds, which will further increase your gold income.


Kindlegem
Kindlegem is also a flat health giving item and the same principle from Heart of Gold applies, but instead of giving you extra gold per 10 secs, it gives you 10% cooldown reduction; which is also a very useful stat since most support champions need to spam their abilities continuously. Kindlegem and Philosopher’s Stone can together be upgraded to Shurelya’s Reviere later on.


Shurelya's Battlesong
The product of upgrading a Kindlegem and a Philosopher’s Stone together, it gives you health, health regen, mana regen, cooldown reduction: which are all great stats for a support champion! Along with all that it gives you an Active ability, which is basically a great movement speed boost for 3 secs that can be used both in the chasing and escaping situation. You should always upgrade your PS into this at mid game.


Soul Shroud
Soul Shroud (Kindlegem + Mana Manipulator) is an item that gives you health, a mana regen aura, and a cooldown reduction aura. It may seem similar to Shurelya’s Reviere, but you should consider the difference. This item is especially useful when your carry is a mana user, and has spammable spells: this way, both your mana regen and cooldown reduction aura will benefit them. Although in most cases you may want to make Shurelya’s Reviere instead, since its an upgrade to your Philosoper’s Stone. In rare cases you may want to get both SS and SR, but usually just one will suffice.


Aegis of the Legion
Aegis of the Legion (Ruby Crystal + Null-Magic Mantle + Cloth Armor) is a defensive item, that gives you health, magic resist, armor along with an armor+magic resist+attack damage aura. Even though it is a tank item, sometimes the tank may decide to skip this item, in those cases you as a support may want to build this item yourself. Also remember that Bot is the Carry+Support lane, so there will be a lot of physical damage from the enemy carry on both you and your carry. So having the armor and the armor aura early game will definitely increase your bot lane’s sustain.

Once you are though to mid-game and have some of the basic items needed to Support your team; you can consider getting some luxury items in order to support your team further. Lets take a look at some of the luxury items you may consider :

Abyssal Mask
Abyssal Scepter (Blasting Want + Negatron Cloak) is an item you would only make in very rare cases, when you are dealing against a lot of magic damage. Since most supports are both squishy and AP users, this item provides both magic resist and AP; so in those cases you will be benefited.

Will of the Ancients
Will of the Ancients (Hextech Revolver + Codex) is also another great item for supports, namely because it gives a lot of AP, which is the primary stat for Support champions. Along with that, you will get a Spell Vamp aura, which even though may not help you much, the other members of your team may benefit a lot. You should consider this item when your team has a lot of AP-based champions who deal magic damage, that way, your presence in a team fight will ensure their survival.

Banshee's Veil
Banshee's Veil (Catalyst of the Protector + Negatron Cloak) is a great item for pretty much everyone. Most people in your team should be getting one near late game and you are no exception. Along with the lot of Health, Mana and Magic Resistance that it provides (which increases your survival rate) it also gives you a spellshield every few seconds, which completely negates an enemy Ability.

Randuin's Omen
Randuin's Omen (Heart of Gold + Warden's Mail + Cloth Armor) may sound like an item which is more suited for the tank, and thats true; but the Support champion can benefit a lot from having this aswell. Mainly because you would already have a Heart of Gold from early which would be pretty useless near mid/late game. So upgrading to a Randuin's is always a viable option. As well as that, both the Passive and Active will increase the survivability of both you and everyone near you. Try getting this when the enemy team is AD heavy.

Rabadon's Deathcap
Rabaddon's Deathcap (Needlessly Large Rod + Blasting Wand) is the ultimate item for any AP based character. Even though most games end before the support can get his/her hands on one of these, if the game does drag on, be sure get one of these at late game. This will give you a LOT of AP, I repeat a LOT of AP; which will ultimately increase your healing/damage by a lot.

It is an obvious fact that the support champion is responsible for most of the warding. Lets take a look at the different ways to ward and anti-ward.

Sight Ward Vision Ward
Near the bot lane, at least one of the bushes to the side of the lane and the bush on the edge of the river should be warded with Sight Wards. The opening infront of Dragon’s den should also be warded, better if with a Vision Ward. You should also be using Vision Wards every now and then in key places to anti ward the enemy team. Sight Wards should be dropped in every key places as you walk by them.


Oracle's Elixir
Oracle's Elixir can be used to anti ward a bit more effectively. Sometime into mid game you and your team should go an an anti warding stroll, this is when you should have OE; Its really not possible to Vision Ward every point of the map, but you can get this elixir and walk around and kill every enemy ward you see.

I'll try make a different guide on warding and anti-warding alone to make these a lot clearer soon.

I hope this post was useful to any new support player, or anyone thinking of trying support champions. Fell free to comment with feedback and reblog if you wish.

Originally posted here : http://flamedra.tumblr.com/post/12782989241/supportitems

- FlameDra