Advice for a new player... support role

[Deleted]

So im very new to this game and have 2 friends who have also started playing. Ive decided to play a support role and was looking for any new tips or advice to help me. Currently using the flying paladin support girl champion (at work so cant specify)

[Aydinx2]

Nevermind my entire post.
I thought you were talking about Sona, since I don't see Kayle alot as support anymore :P

[Deleted]

A common misconception is that supports do nothing but ward and stand in the bush through laning phase, this is something you'll see all the way to Platinum and I still see it sometimes by unexperienced supports forced into the role.

Supports WIN bot lane! Be aggressive (at the right times) and carry your ADC through his early game. This can obviously be tricky but thats why you should start working on it even now, so that you can abuse the more unexperienced supports when the time comes.

[Deleted]

Do you mean Kayle? The angel? She is actually a less common support but still fine. (Her ultimate is awesome if used at the right moment.)

One important factor of a support is, that you build no damage but aura items. Aegis of the Legion (also it's upgrade Bulwark) is a good support item that you don't have to activate, so you can conentrate on other things. But if another player is already building an aura item the importance of you building it is lower. It's not necessarily bad to have two times Aegis on your team but there are better options.
Other support items would be Locket of the Iron Solari, Mikael's Crucible or Shurelya's Reverie.

In the beginning you want to buy wards.
Your first item besides wards and pots (if you need them) should be a Philosopher's Stone. It gives you gold over time, so buy it as fast as possible.
Then, while still buying enough wards to keep your lane safe, you will want to build a Sightstone. That is an item that gives you free wards. Two at a time can be placed on the map. Once you have that, wards will be less important to buy for you and you can upgrade it to a Ruby Sightstone, which allows you to place up to three wards on the map. Those Sightstones don't have unlimited charges, you have to "refill" them. For that, simply port back, as soon as you stand on the starting point they will refill.

While you level up you will realize where to ward by yourself and also in low level games supports and wards are rare, so I won't write anything to that.

But as others already said: don't just stand there and ward. Show lane presence. You have to help your lane partner in getting kills and surviving. That means using CC abilites like stuns or slows so the enemy can't escape while your lane partner attacks them or defensive, like when you get chased and have to get away. Heals and Shields should be self explanatory.
What exactly you will do depends a lot on your champion but you should always try to harass the enemy with auto attacks or damaging abilities.

Now for champions, just try the free supports each week and see what you like. This week it would be Taric and Lulu.
Cheap supports would for example be Soraka or Alistar (you get him for free if you subscribe to Riot's Youtube channel).

[Sj]

A common misconception is that supports do nothing but ward and stand in the bush through laning phase, this is something you'll see all the way to Platinum and I still see it sometimes by unexperienced supports forced into the role.

Supports WIN bot lane! Be aggressive (at the right times) and carry your ADC through his early game. This can obviously be tricky but thats why you should start working on it even now, so that you can abuse the more unexperienced supports when the time comes.

This is something I've been learning over the past couple of months. Harassing and poking enemy champs in bot lane keeps the pressure off your ADC and strengthens their lane phase. By slowing down the enemy's laning and helping your carry snowball earlier, you're really setting your team up well later for team-fighting where your carry really (should, at least) shines.

[Deleted]

This is something I've been learning over the past couple of months. Harassing and poking enemy champs in bot lane keeps the pressure off your ADC and strengthens their lane phase. By slowing down the enemy's laning and helping your carry snowball earlier, you're really setting your team up well later for team-fighting where your carry really (should, at least) shines.

So much technical stuff in there I don't understand aha... reminds me of when I was 1st asked if I was a tank or healer in WoW... confused.com

[Deleted]

So much technical stuff in there I don't understand aha... reminds me of when I was 1st asked if I was a tank or healer in WoW... confused.com

I guess as a new player you can propably ignore most of it and just focus on the core things.

In case you don't know what wards are, those are items that you can place on the ground and then they will stay there for three minutes giving vision. That visision is core in high level games but gets ignored on low levels all the time.


What is really important is that you don't confuse support with a healer in WoW.
A support helps but that help has many different forms.
As many are pointing out, one of these forms is auto attacking the enemy (and using abilities to do the same). Many supports forget that.

Supports are not heal/aura bots. Sure some can heal but that's not the main focus (despite maybe when playing Soraka and even she should auto attack).

Now in case you don't understand some phrases in the post you are quoting, I'll try to explain. If you understand everything, just stop reading here.
Harass: putting pressure on the enemy by attacking him.
Poke: spikes of incoming ranged damage.
bot lane: bottom lane, this is one of the three lanes (top, mid and bot)
ADC: AD carry. A champion that focuses on getting AD (attack damage) items and deals much damage with his auto attacks. Commonly lanes with a support in the bottom lane
lane phase: At the start players are in different lanes. At your level propably 2 in the top lane, one in the middle lane, and you and on other in the bottom lane. There you try to bring the enemy towers down. At some point in the game you will group with your team and go for game objectives in a group. Then the laning phase is over.
snow balling: if a player gets "fed" (many kills), he gets stronger than his opponent and therefore gets more kills. Kinda like a snowball becomes bigger when you roll it through more snow.
carry: as in AD carry, explained above

I really hope I didn't make any grave mistakes with that or made it more complicated.

Edit: I'll link two guides I found. No guarantee that they are good but they might help.
general support guide
guide about warding I wouldn't read this one until you are comfortable with everything else, but that's obviously up to you.

[Deleted]

I guess as a new player you can propably ignore most of it and just focus on the core things.

In case you don't know what wards are, those are items that you can place on the ground and then they will stay there for three minutes giving vision. That visision is core in high level games but gets ignored on low levels all the time.


What is really important is that you don't confuse support with a healer in WoW.
A support helps but that help has many different forms.
As many are pointing out, one of these forms is auto attacking the enemy (and using abilities to do the same). Many supports forget that.

Supports are not heal/aura bots. Sure some can heal but that's not the main focus (despite maybe when playing Soraka and even she should auto attack).

Now in case you don't understand some phrases in the post you are quoting, I'll try to explain. If you understand everything, just stop reading here.
Harass: putting pressure on the enemy by attacking him.
Poke: spikes of incoming ranged damage.
bot lane: bottom lane, this is one of the three lanes (top, mid and bot)
ADC: AD carry. A champion that focuses on getting AD (attack damage) items and deals much damage with his auto attacks. Commonly lanes with a support in the bottom lane
lane phase: At the start players are in different lanes. At your level propably 2 in the top lane, one in the middle lane, and you and on other in the bottom lane. There you try to bring the enemy towers down. At some point in the game you will group with your team and go for game objectives in a group. Then the laning phase is over.
snow balling: if a player gets "fed" (many kills), he gets stronger than his opponent and therefore gets more kills. Kinda like a snowball becomes bigger when you roll it through more snow.
carry: as in AD carry, explained above

I really hope I didn't make any grave mistakes with that or made it more complicated.

Dude... thanks so much... that explained alot!

Should I prioritise runes etc for ability cooldown reduction or mp5 or both?

[Delijica]

If you are not at least level 20, then save your IP for tier 3 runes. Usually, you want to go with gold/5 Quintessences, magic penetration or armor Marks, armor Seals and magic resist Glyphs. You can also switchout armor Seals for gold/5 Seals, if you feel comfortable with your armor.

[Deleted]

Nevermind my entire post.
I thought you were talking about Sona, since I don't see Kayle alot as support anymore :P

No prob... she sounded cool ability wise and as im a noob and kayle is cheap I bought her aha. Can you recommend any good support champs I might want to save for?

[Deleted]

Sona, Janna, Leona, Taric, Lulu, Nunu, Nami spring to mind.

[Deleted]

This is something I've been learning over the past couple of months. Harassing and poking enemy champs in bot lane keeps the pressure off your ADC and strengthens their lane phase. By slowing down the enemy's laning and helping your carry snowball earlier, you're really setting your team up well later for team-fighting where your carry really (should, at least) shines.

Yeah... but if your ADC is retarded and keep farming behind minions all the time while you harass... it's just a waste of mana. And when you tell him to come closer and attack while they're low on health after recall... he agrees and then do exactly the same... farm.

Yeah - solo queue.

[Deleted]

Yeah... but if your ADC is retarded and keep farming behind minions all the time while you harass... it's just a waste of mana. And when you tell him to come closer and attack while they're low on health after recall... he agrees and then do exactly the same... farm.

Yeah - solo queue.

Sometimes you really just have to do all the work yourself. If you've got a weak early game ADC who really wants to just farm it up for mid-late game, it's your job to harass and zone the enemies so they can farm in peace. Champions like Sona, Nunu and Lulu are great for this.

[Marn]

Sona, Janna, Leona, Taric, Lulu, Nunu, Nami spring to mind.

Don't forget Alistar, Soraka, Karma, Zilean, Lux, Nidalee.

Thresh and Blitzcrank can be great supports but the two of them are banned quite often (significantly more often than Taric/Leona/Alistar/Nidalee for example).

As a support you need to make sure to remind your ADC to recall and buy after winning a trade; otherwise the enemy ADC comes back with an item advantage while the two of you are likely low on mana, low on pots, wards expiring, and not at full health. Getting killed at this point is a choice and you need to remember that a kill is worth roughly 15-20 CS, so just back, buy, and since you'll return with probably better items than the opponent you can make back the CS difference if any, and possibly get another kill or at least shove them out of lane. Plus this affords you the support a chance to get more Gp10 items, more wards, maybe even build Sightstone, etc.

Seriously, build a Sightstone, and upgrade it to Ruby Sightstone as soon as you can.
Get a Philosopher's Stone and don't upgrade it immediately, let it tick for as long as you can. If you need CDR buy a Kindlegem and leave the two items unmerged, at least until you have Tier 2 Boots and either a Kage's Lucky Pick or an Aegis of the Legion.

Always have one Vision Ward in your inventory if possible. (The pink one.) Before doing Dragon or Baron Nashor, throw it in the craggy doorway of their lair to clear any wards they may have placed beforehand, or even while you're killing the monster because they think they can steal it with a well timed Flash/Smite or a Miss Fortune/Lux/Ezreal ultimate.

[Duilliath]

Alistar can be obtained for free, so I suggest you go get him at least. Requires you following Riot on Youtube.

[Deleted]

Was playing taric last night... im still only level 5 or so but followed a guide from mobafire and like the tank/damage buff and life steal aura root. what game mode is best played to get decent?

[Farolok]

No prob... she sounded cool ability wise and as im a noob and kayle is cheap I bought her aha. Can you recommend any good support champs I might want to save for?

As a new player, Soraka and Sona. Both simple as shit to play, both offering great sustain in lane.

[Boomcats]

Yeah don't start with a melee (Taric is alright since its pretty easy to E-R-W) try Sona or soraka first. Probs Sona because she is so good.

[Deleted]

Was playing taric last night... im still only level 5 or so but followed a guide from mobafire and like the tank/damage buff and life steal aura root. what game mode is best played to get decent?

The only game mode where you really play support is Summoner's Rift and the only way to become a good player is to play against humans (so no Coop vs AI games).
Mobafire might not be the best site. I never used a guide from there so I con't vouch for it but I hear quite frequently that the guide quality is not so high.
Try http://www.lolpro.com/ or some of the better rated guides on http://www.solomid.net/.

As a new player, Soraka and Sona. Both simple as shit to play, both offering great sustain in lane.

Sona is a good idea if you (Sparkeeee) are willing to pay 3150 IP. Her spells aren't targeted or aimed, they just apply to close allies/enemies. Except her ultimate (the spell on R). She also offers passive auras with her spells like armor, damage or speed buffs. Just read her abilities and think about whether you might like a champion like that.
Harrassing with her is also fun because of her passive. Every three spells she gains a buff that her next auto attack will have a special effect depending on the last spell used. That might be a slow or extra damage or enemy damage reduce.
You don't have to try and match those in the beginning, but it can be quite nice to know that it did at least something more than just base damage.

Soraka is the most healer-like champion. She can also give mana to an ally, so depending on your lane partner's champion and whether or not you like heals, you could try her.

[Deleted]

What support role is better to take? tanking/aura or healing/aura? any good LoL players out there I could youtube to see kinda how they play?