This is an article of a generic mindset which I will explain through the use of a specific champion - Janna. I am explaining, not teaching. The learning is up to you.
I do not believe this article is beginner friendly, if you are looking for a guide on how to play the support role or Janna specifically then there are ones more suitable for that.
This is for people who feel like they know how to play but want to go to the next level.

Hello everybody, I'm WeAlreadyWon from Europe West and am currently in Platinum division 1 and aspiring towards Diamond. I have been playing LoL for over three and a half years now. Over this timespan I have learned every role but have always preferred to be a piece of the team rather than the star of the team. So, what better role to master than support?!

As you can see, my top champions in ranked are masters in moving themselves and the enemy around the battlefield - a subject which is the main focus of this article.

This is an article about using positioning/dispositioning to your full advantage.
This article is not here for you to just lean things from and possibly improve slightly on your Janna gameplay. It is here to give you an opportunity to understand a key element of LoL. Learning thus knowing a concept, and understanding a concept are completely different things. Understanding is the ability to apply knowledge to specific situations and the best way to understand an element of LoL is to use one champion. In this case it's Janna.


Janna is constantly a champion with a top win rate but she is in no way broken or overpowered. This is because her kit (passive and abilities) is straightforward and good, even when not used to it's maximum efficiency, and because she is a safe laner who is able to protect her AD well.

Before we really get cracking on to the positioning/dispositioning strategy, let's examine how it relates to the current meta. You may be thinking 'what's so current about the meta?'. The setup of bruiser top laner, CC/damage jungler, caster midlaner and AP/CC support + ranged auto attacker at bottom lane has been here since the end of season one. So, there's nothing new about it and this affects the meta. Due to the consistency of this setup, many champions and play styles have been abandoned while others were put in the spotlight. This made the game more predictable, easier to understand and, overall, easier to learn. The presence of guides, streams and awareness of competitive play contributed to this aswell.
This means that the vast majority of players across all leagues and divisions generally have decent game knowledge and will usually, if given enough time, know what the best move in each situation is.
The issue is that people have learned their knowledge rather than earned it through experience. This means that people might know that something works but they don't understand why it works. In this guide I will explain how to exploit this gap, which brings us to the strategy itself.

The room for exploitation when it comes to somebody having knowledge without understanding is in specific application.

We exploit this by making battles more specific, less generic, ( ADC + support at backline, midlaner and toplaner going for enemy ADC and jungler trying to help either party) and we do this with positioning/dispositioning. This gives you the advantage of the element of surprise which a specific situation brings.
In this article I will explain how to employ disposition through the use of Janna and you will figure out for yourself how this is relevant to any other champion. I chose Janna because she is a champion who has influence on positioning/dispositioning with every bit of her kit.

This strategy is about speeding up your team while slowing down the enemy. It's about holding back the enemy from where they want to be while helping your team get there faster. The way most people think in LoL is that they plan on preforming a series of events from a certain location. For example (Katarina useing Shunpo on enemy Ashe, then quickly bashing Q and W and R). Think what happens when suddenly something goes wrong. The Katarina player has been thrown off their tracks and needs to think quickly. Thinking quickly is not something that comes naturally to the inexperienced, often resulting in a wrong decision. Changing the scenario, if done correctly, will sharpen up your teammates while dulling your enemies. This will cause respective happiness and frustration which will lead to the desired outcome.

Warning: This is all very subtle stuff and while you are very likely to win due to it, you are unlikely to get any sort of acknowledgement or gratitude for it. You will need to learn to either be satisfied with the league points you earn or learn how to pat yourself on the back.

Tail wind - Passive
Ability Detail:

Grants 3% movement speed to all allies.

Positioning:

Anything from getting a kill to escaping death will all be done with 3% increased movement speed. This passive will get your team where they want to be 3% faster.

How to use:

Don't get tier 2 boots until last item.

Howling Gale - Q
Ability Detail:

Charge then send a slow skillshot which knocks airborne enemies while dealing a small amount of damage. The longer the charge the longer the range and stun time aswell as higher damage.

Positioning:

Will stop enemies in their tracks. Knocked airborne is a short, uncleanseable stun.

How to use:

When trading in lane it's good to let it charge for a second or two before releasing if you think it will still hit.

Charge out of enemy view (bush in lane).

Aim behind enemies when chasing and infront of enemies when fleeing.

If enemy is chasing and will run over it, wait until last moment as this will allow charge to increase. Don't do this if the extra wait will allow them to place CC on you or team or if it gives them an opportunity to hop over it.

In teamfights release immediately if aiming at multiple targets.

In lane, start walking towards tornado direction just after release inorder to get one or two auto attacks on stunned target (depending on stun length).

Howling Gale is loud and well visible so make sure not to lead too far and if you are leading with it then make sure to goad enemy towards it.

Use immediately inorder to interrupt channels or inorder to stop a dash. The easiest dashes to stop are Tristana's and Corki's jumps. If tornado hits them just as they leave, or at any point midair then it will stop their jumps and move them backwards a bit.

Zephyr - W
Ability Detail:

Grants movement speed when not on cooldown, allows Janna to pass through units. Active is a single target slow.

Positioning:

Speeds you up allowing you to get other abilities off from a suitable location. Slows enemies up to 48% (rank 5).

How to use:

Use on target when chasing, when fleeing only use if one target is chasing and then only if that target won't apply CC to you while channeling animation.

Don't get tier 2 boots until last item.

Use on the moving target (no point in using it on Amumu after he Bandage Tossed and used ultimate, a better use would be on the target your team will try to catch.

Use on target while Howling Gale is charging for a more secure hit.

Use immediately after auto attack for minimal animation waste (less important out of lane)

Use before channeling ultimate.

Eye of the Storm - E
Ability Detail:

Single target shield with bonus AD for shield duration (canceled when shield breaks).

Positioning:

As this will give shielded ally more health, enemies will have to spend more time than they might have expected attacking target. Serves as slowing down the actions of enemies.

How to use:

In lane, use whenever any significant (30 less than shield absorption or more) harass is tossed at your AD. Get use to casting shield on AD while missiles travel.

Use when AD goes in for attacks on opponents.

Use on initiator when teamfighting if you believe your AD will live for long enough for your shield to come back from cooldown. If not then just shield AD.

Use on towers which you are defending.

Use inorder to get assists (if your friendly Karthus is channeling his ultimate and you are nearby you can shield him during channel and although you haven't helped him get the kill, you will receive assist gold).

Can be used after abilities are fired or after auto attacks are sent out as long as shield is activated before attacks land (auto attack and then shield will give your auto attack the extra AD).

Monsoon - Ultimate - R
Ability Detail:

Knocks away all enemies in range towards perimeter of range (you are always centre) and then channels an AoE heal per second for allies within range.

Positioning:

Enemies disabled only for duration of movement when ult is activated (0.1-0.3 seconds depends on how close to you, closer means longer stun).

Longer stun if enemies are thrown against a thick wall. Enemies will pass through a thin wall.

One of the most radically dispositioning abilities in game.

How to use:

Use for full channel of heal for a strong AoE heal.

Use and immediately cancel if fleeing.

Flash behind enemy key target so that they are directly between you and your team and activate ultimate to knock them away.

Move into centre of teamfight and split enemies in all directions (highly situational, don't preform this if team is reliant on AoE, or if the resulting knock away will save enemy key targets while bringing enemy mele and assassins towards friendly key targets).

In teamfights, when enemy champions initiate onto your AD use it to knock them in either direction (ideally) or just create distance between them and your AD and leave ultimate heal channel on for as long as your AD and/or other teammates are in heal range.

If planning on using ultimate for full channel, throw out all abilities first inorder to maximise cooldown usage.

If team suffered AoE poke or are low and want to continue pushing make sure to say in chat that you will ult, ping while ulting.

In lane, use ultimate inorder to separate enemy AD and support and depending on situation leave channel on for heal.

Use as emergency heal against Ignite, Karthus ultimate, Caitlyn ultimate etc...

I suggest you set this sort of thing up, atleast the starting item build, as it will allow you to leave fountain earlier when game starts. (Note that I use utility extra starting gold masteries for first buy).

Philosopher stone gives you the most GP5 and the regeneration will help you in lane. Then you should get sightstone as it will save you a lot of money on wards and is a mandatory item on supports for that reason. Kage's lucky pick is another cheap GP5 and the ability power affects all your abilities. You will typically get all this within 17 minutes. This gives you time to build Locket of Solari unless your jungler or someone else on your team is getting it (one per team). I will typically buy boots 1 before starting the Locket, or just after getting one element of it.

Just before you upgrade your GP5 items you should upgrade your Sightstone into a Ruby one as this will allow you to place one extra ward.

Now you will get Shurelya's Reverie as it is an AoE speed buff which helps your team get wherever they need to be faster.

Your final item is Twin Shadows. The movement speed buff together with your own movement speed buffs ensure that you do not need tier 2 boots. The active slow helps stall enemies and it is also a great scouting tool. Just shoot it out there if you feel unsafe approaching a bush inorder to ward it.

Apart from these items helping with dispositioning, the presence of 3 active items will give an element of surprise and confusion which complements the dispositioning strategy.

All these actives are additions to your current abilities.

Shurelya's Reverie is complemented by your passive. Use when engaging or disengaging as a team (make sure you are close to allies).

Locket of Solari gives long range AoE defensive stats to allies which increases the effectiveness of your shield and heal. The active AoE shield is an addition to your single target shield and it helps keep your team alive for longer while channeling ultimate.

Twin Shadows' passive % movement speed works well with your own movement speed buffs. The ability power empowers all of your abilities. The active slow is good for engaging/disengaging and can be used at the same time and in the same context as Shurelya's Reverie.

You are in charge of warding. Plenty of how to ward guides out there if you aren't sure how.

Make sure you keep all active items, wards and pots on same keys. (For example I have health pots on 2, wards on 3 and the 3 active items on 4,5,6 always in same order and same position).

If you find it difficult to remember to use active items then think about what context you will use them in (chasing, fleeing, after which ability?).

Always try and absorb some damage, whether in lane or in teamfights. If that damage is thrown on you it isn't thrown on others.

Try and bait enemy pink ward by placing your 1 minute ward in a key location.

Be careful not to spend too many resources on killing a ward. Ask your jungler to come and help you get an enemy ward which you have vision on if you don't think it's safe to do alone.

Ensure baron is warded from 20 minutes onwards.

Keep track of the minimap and make predictions of where the enemy jungler is located.

Often your jungler can gank your lane by simply walking in from lane if you can hit a Q and a W on the targeted enemy. Flashing into an ultimate can also setup a good gank for your jungler.

Make sure to ask your AD to attack back after taking an enemy ability/auto attack which you will shield. if the shield doesn't brake they will enjoy the extra AD aswell as the damage absorption, ensuring you win the trade.

Make sure you know, during loading screen, whether your team prefers to go all in and force an engage or do they prefer to sit back and poke. Make sure you do a separate pre-game examination to your lane, consider what the enemy team would want.

Flash has a flat cooldown of 5 minutes, 4:45 with 1 utility mastery and can be reduced down to 4:15 if atleast 7 points are invested into the utility tree. Typically expect the AD to have 5 minutes cooldown on flash and support to have 4:15. Write the ingame time that flash was used + estimated cooldown + champion when a flash is used by enemy.

When your AD is bad, try giving helpful advice. Say 'badluck' or 'nearly got away' or 'it's k' when your AD dies, even if it happened because they did something dumb. Morale is important and if you bully and harass your AD they won't trust you and they will play worse.

Try and prevent and mitigate any sort verbal harassment or flaming done by other team members.

Say something along the lines of 'GJ' when you force feed your AD a kill, even if you are the one who put all the effort into it.

Don't bother wasting your ingame time attempting to improve a teammate beyond the current game.

Only use chat for the reasons listed above and for ingame strategical communication ('let's get dragon').

Allow timestamps in option menu and write down in chat the respawn timers of Baron and dragon or an estimate if enemy got kill without your vision. Make sure to remind team by writing in chat one minute or so before objective respawns.

Share some of the damage from Baron and Dragon if necessary, don't just stand back blindly.

It is usually a bad idea to ignore a player as it can cut off communication for rest of game. Do ignore if absolutely necessary.

If your toplane is losing badly and will keep dying, offer that yourself and your AD will go top while your top laner will go bot. You will lose dragon control but this switch will allow your toplaner an opportunity to comeback into the game and it will increase your chances of winning.

If your AD is out of lane and you have MP and HP, roam mid and see if you can land any abilities. Try returning to lane by the time your AD is there.

Pay attention when your AD is farming under turret. Your auto attacks can help him get more farm.

Sometimes your AD will be a bad player or will be very far behind, it is then better to attempt to be the support of a teammate in a better position (a fed midlaner for example).

Make sure you and your team know who to focus.

When lanes brakeup make sure your AD is safely warded if they are interested in continuing to farm solo.

If your AD is farming solo, roam with the strongest player on your team.

If you are extremely far behind and can't win when your jungler comes to gank (3v2), ask your midlaner to come instead, or as an addition.

If enemy jungler is ganking from lane a lot, try to ward inside the lane, but behind the vision range of the first turret.

When you and your AD are fighting against an enemy who is trying to focus your AD and ignore you, try standing very close to your AD and the enemy may click you instead.

Only activate Oracle's Elixir if you can get 3+ team members to roam with you/near you.

Thank you very much and congratulations for getting this far. I hope you've enjoyed the read and I hope I helped you find more depth to LoL.

Any comments or queries are welcome and I will respond to anything which needs responding to.