The supportive support guide

Introduction: What does a support do anyway?

Introduction: What does a support do anyway?

Even though supporting is the least favorite role in the League, it's by far not the least important role. As a support your goal early game is to get your AD carry either farmed or fed.
This usually gets achieved with tier 1 support champions like Janna, Soraka and Alistar.

Getting your AD fed isn't enough though, you will also need to get enough vision on the map so you can do objectives (like dragon or counter-jungling) more effective. It's also nice to have vision to see ganks coming and eventually save your life. I will be discussing about good warding spots and how to pull some tricks off with them.

And at last, I will be discussing how to win your lane by (for example) zoning your opponents, counter-gank, special notes for certain champions and how to harass effectively.

Runes and masteries

Runes and masteries

Offensive, defensive and combined.

Runes and masteries make your laning phase only easier by giving the advantage you need. you can do whatever you want with your runes and masteries to make it comfortable for you (this worked for me for a long time), but I really recommend taking all the GP10 runes (Quints + Seals) and masteries so you can't drop out of the match if your lane fails.

I have three different types of masteries and runes for support:

Full sustain
(no, this is not overkill)

http://evayr.com/images/Sustain%20Support.jpg

Sustain / tank

http://evayr.com/images/TankSustain%20Support.jpg
(Flat armor Marks, flat mana regen Glyphs)

Full tank

http://evayr.com/images/Tank%20Support.jpg

You can enlarge the image by clicking it. You can always change something here and there to your own preference of gameplay, but this is what I seemed to find working out.

Needlessly to say, sustain is good for passive champions like Soraka and tankiness is really good for agressive supports like Alistar.
I always choose GP10 runes.
You can switch them for some armor, mana regen or cooldown reduction if you feel like it, but GP10 is really important since you can't last hit.

Here's a list I find working out well with every champion:

Full sustain:

Tank / sustain:

Full tank:

Play with what YOU are comfortable with. These are my recommendations based from my personal experience.

Summoner spells

Summoner spells

Summoner spells should never be forgotten. They can win your lane and/or other lanes if you use it correctly. I recommend these summoner spells on supports:

99% of the time you will have to take flash - 100% if you're a melee support champion like Alistar and Leona. It's too risky not to take it.
Not only does it save you for making a mistake, you can escape from towerdives as well by flashing over walls.

Exhaust is currently the most used side-spell for support. It easily locks up the opposing AD's damage, slows them and if you've enabled the mastery it even reduces their armor and magic resist.
Use it when you're:

These spells are very recommended with agressive supports since you can win your lane easier with it.

Pros. of Exhaust:

Clairvoyance (abbreviation C.V.) is very usefull since it can prevent uncertain scenarios. Don't just use it for your lane - think of counter-jungling and top as well. Ex: Your top is pushed but hasn't got a ward. You can check for him if the jungler is coming his way.

Pros. of CV:

Even though CV has more Pros. than Exhaust, Exhaust still is more used than CV because of the securing kills which basically wins your lane. It helps a bit more in teamfights as well.

It doens't matter which you prefer to use, but I recommend exhaust.

I do not recommend taking these all the matches, but it's a very good counter against sustain champions like Soraka.
If Soraka is level 9, she can heal herself somewhat 350 + 500 health in less than one second. With ignite you'll still be able to kill her (or the AD carry) if only you do it before she heals.

I neither recommend this spell, but it's a good backup when you're not a healer and the AD carry took something else than heal (where you are sure you will have a bad time laning because of harass or any other kind of damage).

But wait!
There do is one champion that could take CV and Exhaust the same time: Janna.
Her movement speed is so fast that she barely can get caught. She also has very good abilities to disengage. Besides that, with CV you wont get caught so easily, but you do risk getting towerdived more easily.
You probably could take it on other champions as well, but Janna is the safest champion to do this.

Item builds

The item build which I'm going to recommend is not going to be shocking at all, but I will give some alternatives in case the match doesn't go where Mundo pleases.

To start off, start with:
Sight Ward x4

Or

Sight Ward x2

I would recommend the vision ward if they have any stealth champions and/or you will be playing agressive (removing the second brush ward).

For Leona, I recommend buying:
Sight Ward
Because you will be in combat a LOT and don't have a heal like Alistar.

After you've gone back to base after ~9 minutes have passed you should be able to buy Philisopher's Stone and Boots of Speed. You can go for Heart of Gold first as well if you're getting harassed too much and need more Health in order to stay alive (just don't sell your Faerie Charm).

If that wasn't the case, continue building Heart of Gold.
Always have at least two wards before you leave your spawn!
Wards are so important to have. If the opponent has a vision ward you will always have a backup ward to play even more safe.

Only buy an Oracle's Elixer when you're a survivalist and don't expect dying in fights. They are way too expensive to waste yet very rewarding as well. Only buy it when you have a Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold as well (in other words: a secure income).

Boots

Every support champion buys different boots. I've noticed that agressive supports are in favor of buying Boots of Mobility and passive supports prefer Ionian Boots of Lucidity.
This mainly has to do that agressive supports need to land their stun in order to force a fight. It's also nice to have quick movement speed since you will need to ward the entire map.
Some champions prefer boots of Lucidity though like Soraka mainly because of her cooldowns.

Janna is a bit special in here though; you can buy Lucidity, Mobility and Mercury Threads on her, it just depends on the game.
If you want to ward ASAP, get mobility (even though it might be overkill).
If you want to have a low amount of stun durations, get Merc Threads (especially if they have a Veigar!)
Or if you wish to spam your shield buy Lucidity boots.
*!* I do recommend boots of Mobility though if you're trying out the CV - Exhaust combo.

Core items

Late game you should be heading for some of the following items:

An item worth rushing for. Only buy this when you're winning the fights though. You shouldn't initiate in fights you cannot win.

If you cannot win the team fights, buy this item instead for more protection. Always remember to defend the AD carry like your life is at stake.

Not only a nice shield when activated but a nice health regen aura as well. This is very useful if your team is pushing a lot because you can't really go back. With this extra sustain your team should be just fine - even when the opposing team initiates.

Zeke's Herald
This item works so well when having a Kog'Maw as AD carry. Also recommended to buy if your top or jungler rely on attack speed and cooldown reduction as well.

An alternative for Locket of the Iron Solari, slow targets and reduce their attack speed. Works well passive and agressive supports. Bit expensive though compared to Locket of the Iron Solari.

Oh boy. Your mid lane is fed and the opposing team is stacking Magic Resist. Time to make their purchases useless.
Ability power works fine as well with support champions - just make sure you won't KS'ecure' too much.

True terror for the opposing team if they rely on basic attacks and cooldowns. The armor you get from this item is nice as well to have.

Warding

Seriously, wards are your friends. Even Amumu is willing to buy them if he has the money.

I've made a quick map locating where to ward effectively:

URL: http://evayr.com/images/Ward%20Positions.jpg

The map has 3 overlay colors: Green, Orange and Red. Each of them describes where to ward based on how far you're pushing them.

Warding tricks:

One of the most used ward position when either purple or blue team is this position:

This way it provides extra vision on the river if you ward it on the tip side towards the river. On the minimap you even have further range so you can see them coming via the river and tribrush if they don't hug the wall (which no one actually does).
You do need a lot of map awareness to see the red dot flashing over the map across the river side.

I also found this trick for warding which was quite amusing for when you're pushed at purple side (click where the X is):

If you need more vision than the bottom part of the brush you can also walk around and do this:

Always place your vision ward at this position if you know they warded somewhere at river; the ward might even be in this brush as well. If you see an opponent vision ward the river you can counter it by placing the ward in this brush (or tri-brush).

Finally, another way to ward using the wall:

You can see on the minimap that I'm putting my wards inside the dragon and baron pit.

I mainly do this to counter vision wards. Of course I bring my own vision ward (or oracle) when we want to do Dragon or Baron. It's a temporary counter where you can see the Health of D/B as well. Best of all: They won't have a clue you can see them so steal / engage all the away!

Time their wards!

Timing wards makes it so much easier for you and the jungler when to gank. Just call things like "river 6:03" and "tri 7:15" and the jungler knows either to continue grinding Experience or come via lane/tribush.

You can see without CV where they've warded. Examples:

The support clearly came from Tribrush since it is hugging the wall.

The support came from dragon this time since she's in the middle of the river when walking back (the brush counts as dragon as well).

Go 'Silent Warding'!

'Silent Warding' is another trick I discovered. If you ward the brush you're in and you weren't revealed while doing that, the opponent doesn't see you've placed a ward there. This is such a big advantage when you're playing supports like Leona and Alistar because the element of surprise still is active.

Go Silent Warding when you know the minion flow will force you out the brush (this is usually when their support starts invading your brush). Do it a few seconds before you have to leave or else they can still see the ward when they walk in (the ward is still a few seconds visible before going invisible as you know).

Laning phase

Laning phase

The most important phase when looking at building up. Every mistake can be crucial of losing the lane. There are several things you will need to take care of:

Keeping stustain: If you AD (or you) are low on either health or mana, you just cannot play agressive. You can try to zone the opponents but cannot force a fight.

Having wards up: I think this should be clear why. Do keep in mind that the jungler still can come via the lane, so don't hesitate to often put a ward in the lane brush as well.

Zoning your opponents: This is so important when playing aggressive champions. If you fail to zone them let them push, because when you engage they have a long way to go back to their beloved turret.

If you succeed at zoning make sure they cannot reach any CS, or even better any experience at all. Make sure though you've warded the river/tribrush so you know you can't get backstabbed doing this.

Knowing when to initiate: Keep the silent warding trick in mind, it can help so much with initiating. Skills like condemn and a headbutt against the wall work really well when initiating. Don't forget your summoner spells as well.

Trades/Harassing: If you're Janna or Soraka you're willing to force trades with the opposing team - which is smart as well. Janna has her shield, giving the AD carry extra AD as well and Soraka has her Astral Blessing, proving a lot of armor and restoring a lot of health.
If you can win trades you're most likely to zone them and eventually give them a lack of CS and experience.

If you see their AD going for a CS kill, feel free to harass the AD like Soraka's banana attack.
If you see their minion wave is nearly gone and your wave still has some minions, you can consider engaging. Do keep in mind their jungler could be around as well. Do not engage when you can't win trades or you or your carry's health/mana is low compared to theirs.

Fighting: When a fight starts, make sure your AD carry is OK all the time. This also applies with getting ganked. Because remember: The AD carry will carry you at the end of the match - don't make him/her demotivated because (s)he died three times in a row.

Picking your champion

I've made a list of what I've been thinking what works well with what champion. On the left you see a list of which support champion is good with which AD carry. On the right side you see what's best when counter-picking.

Green: Works really good together.
Orange: Could work out.
Gray: You shouldn't do this.
Red: Don't even think about it.

Some recommendations:

Team fights

Team fights

Time to kick some butts. If everything worked well your AD carry could have a lot of farm (depends if (s)he's a good farmer) and perhaps some kills as well. You items are ready to use and summoners just came from cooldown. It's time to win the fight.

You still have a lot of influence in the teamfight. Here are a few ways to win a fight:

Make sure you've warded the brushes around you where the fight will be held. There is nothing more annoying than not being able to attack your target because you can't see it.
If you have Clairvoyance, make sure to disable as many brushes as you can as soon as the fight starts.

Don't forget to use your summoners (like exhaust). Really, if you do forget them they can still eat you raw, making them fed. :( This also count for items like Locket of the Iron Solari and Randuin's Omen.

ALWAYS PROTECT YOUR AD CARRY. /caps. You're the bodyguard! Are you Janna and three people are trying to get on your AD? Ult and spam CC! Are you Alistar? Headbutt and Pulverize! Make sure you don't die as well - you only need to make sure your carry does not die.

So DO NOT chase enemies who are low HP unless you AD carry does so or (s)he's safe!
If you see your AD carry die, try to get her away safely and help other people in the fight if you're still able to do so. If your carry actually died, try to defend somebody else who does a lot of damage. This usually is the AP carry. Only do this though if you're still ready to fight.

NOTE: It could be that your AD carry doesn't do much damage yet early game. In that case, find someone who does a lot of damage (most likely the AP carry) and protect him as well. Without damage, you can't win fights.

Ping enemies who should be focussed! This mainly is either their AD or AP carry since they do most of the damage. Pinging them make your team realize they shouldn't waste their abilities on a random Nautilus or any other tanky person.
Team fights

Time to kick some butts. If everything worked well your AD carry could have a lot of farm (depends if (s)he's a good farmer) and perhaps some kills as well. You items are ready to use and summoners just came from cooldown. It's time to win the fight.

You still have a lot of influence in the teamfight. Here are a few ways to win a fight:
Make sure you've warded the brushes around you where the fight will be held. There is nothing more annoying than not being able to attack your target because you can't see it.
If you have Clairvoyance, make sure to disable as many brushes as you can as soon as the fight starts.

Don't forget to use your summoners (like exhaust). Really, if you do forget them they can still eat you raw, making them fed. :( This also count for items like Locket of the Iron Solari and Randuin's Omen.

ALWAYS PROTECT YOUR AD CARRY. /caps. You're the bodyguard! Are you Janna and three people are trying to get on your AD? Ult and spam CC! Are you Alistar? Headbutt and Pulverize! Make sure you don't die as well - you only need to make sure your carry does not die. So DO NOT chase enemies who are low HP unless you AD carry does so or (s)he's safe!

If you see your AD carry die, try to get her away safely and help other people in the fight if you're still able to do so. If your carry actually died, try to defend somebody else who does a lot of damage. This usually is the AP carry. Only do this though if you're still ready to fight.

NOTE: It could be that your AD carry doesn't do much damage yet early game. In that case, find someone who does a lot of damage (most likely the AP carry) and protect him as well. Without damage, you can't win fights.

Ping enemies who should be focussed! This mainly is either their AD or AP carry since they do most of the damage. Pinging them make your team realize they shouldn't waste their abilities on a random Nautilus or any other tanky person.

Solo queue

Solo queue
(featuring ELO Hell)

Solo queue is hard because you only have a lot of influence early-mid game. If you can feed your AD carry and you are able protect him, you will have a nice chance to win the match.

Fortunately, we don't have to worry about someone else taking our position. At least, not so quickly. I've played about 90 matches of duo queue and I was the support in about 85 of them. Make sure you say in chat you would like to support.

Duo queuing is reliable if you have a friend who is good at the game; at least you have a feeder less. I really recommend duo queuing if you're under the 1550 ELO. It makes the job easier, but certainly doesn't assure a win for you.

Agressive supports

I really, really recommended playing aggressive support champions if you can and if you have a good feel what you can do with them.

Good examples are Alistar, Leona and Taric. This does depend on your lane partner though. If you have a passive AD champion next to you you can barely go agressive in your lane. Always be aware of counter-picks so often you will be forced to let your carry farm 24/7. This isn't bad though, you can still help your carry to farm and zone the opponents.
Examples of counter-picks are Graves and Janna. They both punish aggressive play because Graves is too tanky and Janna has too much CC.
I'm not saying you will win if you pick aggressive supports but these are my recommendations since they have to most carry potential (carrying as in protecting and getting your AD carry fed).

Passive supports

Secure picks in solo queue are Janna and Soraka; it is rare to fail your lane with them. Soraka do is a very passive champion, so don't expect your carry to be fed at mid-game (it could happen though). Your goal as Soraka and other passive champions is to get your carry as farmed as possible.

In teamfights you still have to be your carry's bodyguard. Just don't forget your summoners and items during the fights.

Communication

Communication is key. If you can communicate well with your team they won't be open for surprises anymore. Ignore the flamers; mute them eventially (and mute all-chat as well if you're under 1600 ELO). You will need to inform your team (mostly your AD carry) at the following events:
You are going to ward. Make sure your carry will be fine when you're going to ward or (s)he could be bursted down.
They have placed a ward (give your jungler the timer like "5:36 river").
When you have to go back. Always go back as well if your AD carry is going back unless you really need experience, this prevents ganks from the opponents making you an easy kill. Make sure that your lane is pushed when you are going back.
You would like to do/force dragon or baron (or they are doing dragon or baron)
When an objective is respawning ("d 30s").
They are invading/stealing. Try to save your CV for when your team wants to engage (to disable the brushes). Often you just found out via CV they are invading though, so then you (or your teammates) will have to either face-check (not recommended) or ward.

There sure are some more things to inform your team about, but these are the main things you want to inform them about.

Time the dragons, barons, their red and blue!

It is so important to have the objectives in the game. You just can't miss the gold and buffs. When (for example) dragon has been done, say something in the chat like "d 21:05".

You can check the history of the chat by holding the 'Z' key for QWERTY users and I think the 'W' key for AZERTY users. If the timer has gone out of your chat history range, just retype it in the chat. Your team doesn't bother the message, they actually appreciate it.

Timers of the objectives:

If don't have the timer of baron, you can watch the opponents. When you see the buff disappearing from them, Baron should be spawning within 3 minutes (depends if they have the mastery point about buff duration). You can time Baron now. I you're still not sure, add a "~" at the start of the timing so your team knows it's somewhere near that time.

When you see dragon or any other objective is re-spawning within one minute, inform your team about it. Say something like "d in 50s" or "d 50s". Tell your team to get ready and make sure you have a pink ward ready (too. important.).
This is optional, but you can tell the second when the objective is respawning as well. If you do so, say something like: "d 40s (:11)" so they know it spawns at the 11th second of the minute. This is optional, but works really smooth since you don't have to calculate when the 40 seconds have passed.

Special notes

Special notes for certain champions

Every champion has a unique style, so I'll be giving some tips here and there so you can play your champion more effectively.

Let's start off with

Soraka, the starchild.

Do not buy Ability Power on her. Soraka can heal 350 Health when she's level 9. Since she doesn't have to do more damage than that, try not to get Ability Power with your runes and masteries. And no, you do not need to damage a lot with Starcall either - it's more for the effect they receive (magic resist reduction, stacks).

Do not level Starcall until level 13. If you level your E (infuse (mana)) instead the AD carry can spam way more skills, making them afraid and you winning the lane. Your silence will last longer as well. Do tell your carry you didn't learn Starcall so (s)he can spam dem skillz. ...this also makes AD Swain viable (seriously, try it. It's so much fun).

Starcall also messes up your lane by pushing it, making it unable to gank for your jungler. You do not need to zone them with Starcall either, you can compete by standing in the brushes with your AD carry as 'bodyguard' (like "Don't get close to my support or I'll shoot you in the face").
And after all, your AD carry cannot do anything with magic resist reduction either.

Your silence lasts 2.5 second when maxed! When trying to towerdive or in a fight, silence the one which could harm your team the most (like Vladimir, Sona with her ulti, Katarina if she ult, Fizz, etc). Two and a half second is really long and might save your team a lot of damage.

Janna, the storm's fury

You can spam your shield Seriously, when you see your AD is having trouble last-hitting because the minions just keep having 1 HP, you can give them more AD so their job is easier. Shielding neither costs a lot of mana and prevents harass. Try to predict though when they want to harass so you can intercept them.

You don't always have to ult every teamfight. Your ult can win but also lose your teamfight. It's a risk you will need to take. The safest way to ult though is to stand behind your teammates and give them that AOE healing without knocking anyone back.

Remember though that you are the bodyguard of the AD carry. If you see a lot of people try to come near your carry you can always knock them away with your ult. It doesn't matter if your top, mid and jungler were fighting with someone. You carry mostly does most of the damage and needs to be safe.

Experiment with CV-Exhaust Janna is really, really fast with level one boots already. Her passive and masteries make her that quick that she usually can just fly away from nearly any situation. Since you have CV you shouldn't have any problems with people waiting for you to ward.
I do recommend the level 5 boots (boots of Mobility) on her so she can really just fly away.

Blitzcrank, the great steam golem

Do not grab just because you can I've seen so many people do this unfortunately. You need to check if your team is ready for a fight and if the one you are going to grab is no problem for your team. Examples of bad grabs:
- Alistar: "Free initiate guys! I'll just activate my ult and pulverize all of you." Seriously, if you grab him you might even lose the match.
- Kennen: You can only grab him if you have enough CC to keep him shut. If you do not, he'll pop his ulti and the enemy team starts initiating.
- Malphite: Same story as Alistar except that his ult knocks everyone up. Besides, he's a tank. Don't pull tanks.
- Galio: Once his ult goes off you're doomed. End of story.
- Amumu: He's a tank and his ult is good for initiating. Don't think about it.

You do can grab Fiddlesticks though, he's rather squishy so should be dead very quick.

Sona, maven of the strings

Try maxing your Q if the lane is in favor Sona always has a good backup heal whenever the lane is not in favor of winning. Be aware as well that she's very mana hungry and hasn't got much armor, so don't spam your skills showing your face all the time.

Flash-ult when the jungler come to gank Sona is incredibly strong with flash when it comes to ultying the enemy. They don't expect a flash at all and with a good AOE stun your carry and jungler should be able to finish them off.
If you don't like wasting your flash you could try to use your E (speed), but then they'll see it coming and might get away with it.

Remember that you have 3 different types of power chords These powerchords include:
Q: More damage
W: Damage reduction on target
E: Slow

If you don't have your ult ready when the jungler comes, make sure your powerchord is ready so you can slow the target. The slow forces the target to flash or try walking away slowly or fight while he still can. The damage reduction do is low though, so don't rely on that powerchord.
If you see that the target is low on health (like 15% or less), do not use your damage powerchord or you WILL 'secure' the kill (except if you don't have a choice of course).

Alistar, the minotaur

Spam the heal You will not get out of mana for spamming the heal, you only get oom by spamming the Q and W. If you max your heal first (which you should) the sustain in the lane will be just fine.

Headbutt enemies against a wall If you do so, they still are stunned and on a right position to take damage. If you see they're out of your stun THEN use your pulverize for maximum stun effect. This mainly secures the kill - don't forget exhaust as well if you're really going for the kill.

Don't be afraid to towerdive You still have your ulti. It reduces at least 50% of the incoming AD and AP damage. Let yourself tank the turret. You can still use your CC and wait for the AD carry when the job is done. Do stand at the border of the turret range when you still have to tank it. You will be able to get out of turret aggro just in time when your health drops low.

Please do keep in mind that the jungler might come because you're towerdiving, so I recommend diving when your jungler or AP carry is on your lane as well.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for reading!

I'm always open for feedback and questions on my guide. I shall try to keep this as updated as possible.

I've mostly written this guide from personal experience from the 800 matches (out of 900) I've played on bot lane as support. You can add me on LoL as well if you want, my name in-game is the same as here: Evayr.

I do can understand you have any questions like who to pick and counter-pick. Try to focus on at least three different champions like Soraka, Janna and Alistar. These champions vary from passive to agressive with their own style to play. It's always good to get a good feel of what you can and can't do with the champions you're maining so you won't take unnecessary risks.

Again, thanks for reading. Feedback, likes and comments are appreciated. Hope to see you in-game :)

- Ivar / Evayr

The supportive support guide

The supportive support guide

Introduction: What does a support do anyway?

Runes and masteries

Summoner spells

Item builds

Warding

Laning phase

Team fights

Solo queue

Special notes

Thanks for reading!

League of Legends Champions: