How To Solo Carry Games Even As A Melee Support Player ft. IG Baolan

There is a unanimous preconception amongst most players that supports are often the least impactful role in the game: You can't 1v5 teamfights like a fed Kai'Sa sitting on a completed Guinsoo's Rageblade, Infinity Edge and Manamune, you can't land that gamebreaking 5-man Orianna ultimate that blows up the entire enemy team, and you certainly can't pull off that sick xPeke backdoor as a support. As such, the role is shunned by the majority of the player base and being auto-filled into the role of support almost feels like an undying curse to drain LP away from you. 

So what exactly is a support's role in the game, and why is it even there in the first place? Why not place two carries in the bot lane instead of an AD Carry + Support combo (or recently more popular, the Mage + Support combo?). Well, that is because a support is not supposed to do all of those! Supports actually have the most underrated job in the game, and that is to enable the team: To put the team in a favorable position to carry, to provide vision around objectives for the team to create picks, and to secure a victory for your team.

So how do you go around doing that, and what do professionals do to make that job so much more valuable and integral for the team? Let's observe what IG Baolan, the professional support player from the world champions in Season 8, does to carry his team to a swift victory. 

Before we dive right in, here is some background context behind the anaylsis: IG Baolan and his ADC are playing Thresh and Draven respectively into Kai'Sa and Janna. There are three types of bot lane dynamics, being the engage type, sustain type and the poke type. IG Baolan and Draven's type of bot lane is an engage bot lane and they opted into a sustain bot lane with Kai'Sa and Janna, which is the correct choice.

Engage botlanes are bot lanes such as Thresh and Draven or Xayah and Rakan that look to catch you off-guard while you are mispositioning and win lane from there. They are strong into sustain bot lanes, as engage bot lanes mostly deal burst damage with their early game power, and sustain bot lanes are normally unable to heal up or shield this much damage early in the game. Engage bot lanes, on the contrary, are weak into poke lanes, as poke lanes look to wither and chip your HP down which denies the ability to engage most of the time. 

The enemy, which is playing a sustain botlane, relies on shields and heals to get through the laning phase, with the support (Janna in this scenario) looking to keep her AD carry alive for as long as possible during battles (aka trades). They are weak into Draven and Thresh as if they get caught, the amount of shield or protection Janna can give to Kai'Sa would not be sufficient compared to the burst from Draven and Thresh, but are strong into poke bot lanes like Ezreal and Vel'Koz because they are able to heal/shield most of their poke. (For example, if Ezreal throws a Q at Kai'Sa, Janna is able to shield Kai'Sa to soak the damage, which is favorable for Kai'Sa and Janna).

Now that we've got different bot lane dynamics out of the way, let us dive into the game and dissect how IG Baolan plays a melee support like Thresh and what we can learn from him to carry games:

As you can see, Taliyah paths to bot lane for a cheesy level 2 gank, knowing the capabilities of Thresh and Draven. Observe what Thresh does: He intentionally walks up aggressively to flay Kai'Sa backwards, continuously auto attacks Kai'Sa during the trade and expends both his Flash and Ignite to secure the kill. There are two learning points we can take out of this: 

 1) Do not be afraid to take damage in exchange of setting up for ganks or engages

 2) Auto attack between trades to maximise damage output

Despite Thresh having a chunk of his health gone due to the gank, he is able to burn one of Kai'Sa's important summoner spells, her Flash, and even secure the first blood on top of it. This leaves Kai'Sa vulnerable to future ganks and allows Thresh and Draven to take control of the lane and play aggressively, gaining lane priority. Together with Draven, Thresh also continuously auto attacks Kai'Sa to take her down. This might not seem like a lot, but when it comes to early game trades, squeezing in auto attacks as a support can mean the difference between winning the lane and falling behind. 

Moving on, Taliyah becomes greedy after securing first blood and decides to invade the enemy blue buff without vision, which causes Kai'Sa to get the return kill after collapsing onto her. Kai'Sa now has double buffs and the lane looks as if it is over. However, IG Baolan lands a crucial hook onto Janna and causes Kai'Sa to heal and Janna to flash. Again, although Thresh takes lethal damage, getting a pick off Janna causes Thresh and Draven to regain control of their lanes. In essence, trading your own health and resources for the enemy AD carry's is always worth the trade. 

This is exemplified in this exact moment when Kai'Sa mispositions trying to land her Q and Baolan goes for the clutch hook. Without Heal or Flash, IG Baolan is able to secure the kill onto the helpless ADC.

Here is when things get interesting: IG Baolan opts to rush for the mobility boots and instead of going directly bot lane, Baolan chooses to make a detour to the mid lane instead. Why is that so? More often than not, you would always want to rush for the mobility boots and skip the support item upgrade for your first back, as it allows you to roam from base to mid lane back to bot lane much quicker. Roaming allows you to not only set up your bot lane for success but impact the success of mid lane as well. Remember, a support is an enabler and we want to enable as many teammates on our team to be as successful as possible.

Thresh places a vision ward in the bot lane before roaming to mid to look for a pick but is seen on a ward and the enemy mid laner, Swain, backs off. Why does Thresh choose to roam to mid lane? 

If you notice the minimap, the lane is pushed into the enemy's turret, and Draven just recalled. This gives Thresh ample time to roam and this time comes from the time-lapse between Draven going to lane and catching the wave. Instead of wasting time following Draven, rotating to mid lane as Thresh is more worthwhile. 

Although Swain spots Thresh and backs off, not burning any spells or being killed, this is still beneficial to their own mid laner, Orianna, as it gives a small gap of opportunity to play less precariously. Swain would have to respectfully back away for those few seconds, allowing Orianna to gain a small creep score advantage over her opponent. If there was no vision on the Thresh, it could potentially be a gank burning Swain's summoner's spells or even securing the kill. 

In summary, this is ideally how you want to be playing bot lane as a melee support:

1) Look to trade aggressively early. Push the first wave that comes in and look to get level 2 first so that, once you turn level 2, you are able to engage and catch the enemy off-guard. Good supports would often look to position themselves aggressively once they know they are turning level 2 soon, rather than waiting for level 2 and then positioning aggressively. You can identify this by looking at your experience bar. If it looks like this, you know you are turning 2 the moment one creep dies, and as such you should position aggressively to take advantage of your level 2 power spike.

2) Auto attack between trades to secure early wins. Your auto attack damage as a support player in the laning phase counts.

3) Do not be afraid to blow your own summoner spells and health in exchange for the enemy AD carry's. It is always worth.

4) Look to buy Mobility Boots and roam after your first back so that you can carry your advantage to other lanes or simply help other lanes who might be bullied or taken advantage of. 

I hope this short guide has helped you understand the support role better, and I sincerely wish you the best of luck in future games!

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