League of Legends is a 5v5 team game in which the roles consist of a toplaner (usually a tank), a midlaner (usually an assassin), a jungler, an ADC (damage outputter) and support whose aim is to help the ADC.
Although the support is commonly seen as the role that has the least impact, the opposite is quite true. Supports aim to help everyone in their team and often roam to other lanes to assist with this.
So, without further ado, let us jump into the world of supports and see how brilliant they are.
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Support Champion Types
Type of Support | How they are played | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Tank | Tanks are the frontline for the team and primarily focus on engaging or disengaging. | Braum, Alistar, Leona, Tahm Kench |
Enchanter | These supports give buffs to their teammates and cast spells. They are easily damaged so are usually ranged. | Sona, Yuumi, Nami, Lulu |
Poke | These supports are useful during the laning phase as they whittle down enemies health with long range damaging abilities. | Karma, Seraphine, Zyra, Xerath |
Damage | These supports provide huge amounts of burst damage and can help the ADC finish off kills. | Lux, Brand, Swain, Vex |
Utility | These supports aid teams by prividing unique abilities that many supports don't possess such as Bard's portals. | Bard, Ornn, Zilean |
Pick | These champions have an ability which helps to shut the distance between enemies and lets the ADC put out damage whilst the enemies are stunned. | Nautilus, Morgana, Pyke, Thresh |
This table provides brief descriptions of the types of support available and some examples in League of Legends.
Some examples of good bot-lane duos include:
- An early game ADC with an Engager Support (Xayah and Rakan of course) - an early lead allows this lane to snowball and become stronger.
- Hypercarry ADCs and a Safety Support (Kai'Sa and Yuumi) - Hypercarries take time to become stronger but can carry the end game with strong safety supports.
- Poke ADC and Mage Support (Varus and Vel'Koz) - an incessant poke in the laning phase is enough to tilt the enemies into an early submission
Popular supports to learn the support role with include enchanted supports such as Yuumi and Nami, or utility supports such as Bard who can offer a faster escape when in an unwanted position.
When advancing in the support role, high-risk supports such as Lux or Brand become fun to play with. However, these champions are only really effective if you have trust in your ADC by playing in a regular duo.
The Laning Phase
The laning phase is the earliest stage of the game. Many professional players use this time to farm, gain an insight into their enemies' mindset and build up that synergy with their support as they try out ability combos.
For a support, the farming element of this stage is eliminated as their support item keeps them up to date on gold. So a support's function is to provide helpful information to their ADC via Warding, trading and wave manipulation.
Wave Manipulation
Wave manipulation is the process of killing minions in a way which benefits your position in the lane. For example, you wouldn't want to be trying to do dragon whilst pushed under your tower. It provides the enemy with an easy pathing to steal it and put the enemy team ahead.
ADC's will automatically begin to apply this knowledge to their farming but support can also help with the lane if the ADC is overwhelmed. Whittling minion's health down means the ADC can use one auto attack which speeds the process of farming up for those times when you need the lane to be pushed.
Pushing the wave too hard could also result in a gank from the enemy jungler which can lead to 2 deaths. Not so optimal. This is when freezing lane is brilliant and something in which the support can help with.
Warding
Warding in LoL is one of the most important acts that a support can keep on top of. During the laning phase, there should be a ward in the river bush just up from bot lane and one in the tri bush behind bot lane. They are placed here as these are prime ganking locations for the enemy jungler.
Warding further up the river may also help the lane as the bot duo can keep an eye on the midlaner to make sure they aren't attempting to gank. This is particularly useful if the midlaner is scared to ping.
Warding is also extremely useful around the time that an objective is coming up. Around a minute before the dragon spawns, a good support will place deep wards in the bot side river and around the dragon in order to be aware of what is happening at a crucial time.
Trading
Trading is mostly useful for the poke support types. Their goal is to hit the enemy champions with abilities to whittle them down, either forcing them from the fights or from the lane. This means they miss farm or potential kills as well.
As a support, the thing to assess before going in for a trade is the damage output that you are putting out, compared to the enemy champions. You do not want to step forward just to be brutally pushed back with only half of your health. This is why early poking is optimal as it puts pressure on the enemies by showing your aggression.
Helping in a team fight
Helping in a team fight can confuse some support mains. Whilst everyone is dying and in need of assistance, it can become hard to know who to heal, shield or ult. This is why assessing your abilities and other teammates is key to knowing who to help out in a fight.
The support role is a highly underappreciated but crucial role in the game and without this foundational champion type, LoL games would surely be more boring.