The Importance of the Support in Solo Queue

Hey friends, it's Fox, and I'm going to try to give some tips on supporting and explain why it's such an important role for a team.

The Misconception

Basically I’ve been playing a bunch of ranked recently between 1400 and 1600. Getting someone to willingly play support is like pulling teeth. Everyone wants to play a bruiser, assassin, or carry and pretty much no one is interested in playing a tank or support (neither of which is required, but I think contributes to a well rounded team comp). This stems from what I call the “elo hell mentality”.

A person thinks they belong at a higher elo than they’re at (which 99% of players probably experience at some point or another) so they feel the need to play a champion that they think can carry any time, because somewhere along the lines they picked up the idea that this is the key to winning. I could talk about how these people bother me for the whole rest of the article, but reluctantly we continue on.

The idea behind elo hell is the belief that your rating is so low, you get matched only with very inexperienced people. When trying to plan a team comp I have played with plenty of players who demand a role saying “No I don’t support. I’m in elo hell, just let me play (insert role here) and I’ll carry us”. But I say this mentality is wrong. Now sure no one will be saying “Wow, nice Pentakill Taric!”, but supports are every bit as valuable. And I will tell you why.

It’s all about the Carry

Your lane is pretty much the most important. People call the damage dealing role a "carry" for a reason, it's because late game once he's fed, a carry will literally carry the team to victory. You carry is fairly vulnerable and needs you to protect him like you need him to be hurting things to make up for your lack of damage.  It's your job to see this guy getting gold and getting stronger so he can be dishing out some serious damage once team fights roll around, and he can't become that powerful damage dealer without your help. 

Wards and Oracles

Wards get talked about a lot, and I feel like if you're the average League player today, you probably hear this a lot, so I'm gonna keep it simple. Buy wards. Buy a lot. The most important thing you can do for your team is ward, it's pretty much your number one job. The team doesn't need you to get that Kindlegem, the team needs vision on the map. Always leave one spot in your inventory reserved for wards, always make sure your team has proper vision. The map below also is very useful if you're not sure where you should be warding, and if you'd like a closer look at the map, it can be found here.

And Oracles is absolutely key to pushing an advantage. As soon as you feel comfortable buying one without fear of dying, go right ahead. Communicate with your jungler, if he is getting one it's fine for you to focus on other things, but if he can't fit one into his budget you should take initiative and grab one. Once you have an Oracles you can put tons of pressure on your enemies. If it's laning phase, your opponents will be forced to play passively, because without the sight provided by wards, your jungler could be there at any time.

After laning phase, patrolling to kill enemy wards is key, especially at Baron. Make sure not to get caught though! Having made a gold investment into Oracles, you become a very attractive target, and if they see you out of position they will certainly do their best to ambush you. Try to be alone as little as possible, or be certain you'll be able to escape. There have been too many times I've thought "Wow we have no sight in that half of the jungle, better go walk in and start warding it" as I'm met with a facefull of the enemy team, because I was careless.

"But playing support is boring"

This is what a lot of people tell me when they don't want to support. Honestly, if you think it's boring, you might be doing it wrong. Sure if you play Soraka or Janna, those lanes are more about being defensive and just focusing on farming up for later game, they aren't nessisarily as agressive as some other supports. But if you like action and you want to be the person taking charge of a lane, try support Blitzcrank, Alistar, Leona, or Taric. The carry will be your damage, and you will be his CC heavy, playmaking ally. With these supports you taking control of the lane, and going for kills every time your cooldowns are up. 

Knowing how to team fight

It really feels like it should be simple, but a lot of people manage to screw it up. Sometimes as support, people belittle their own contributions to the team, saying "Oh I'm the support, I don't do much anyway", and they just walk into fights pressing all their buttons as soon as they can. You'll see a Taric just hit W as soon as he gets to an enemy, when the armor buff was more useful, or Janna players just throw a Tornado through whoever they can catch, press W into the crowd, and throw a shield on anybody who is taking damage. But where an assassin's job is to kill the enemy carry, a tank's job is to soak up damage and throw out CC, it's Janna's job to keep people off your team's carries. 

And there will be countless situations depending on allied and enemy team comp. If your team is lacking a hard CC engage, playing Leona as an initiator works can be awesome! But at the same time if there is another tank on the team and you don't need Leona to be running in first, she can wait in the back with the carry and save her stuns for anyone who tries to get too close. And every support has some means to defend the carry. Taric has stuns and auras, Soraka has heals and silences, and Alistar will be knocking everyone around. 

There is no "here is what you do for every situation" so all I can really tell you to do is think about it. Just evaluate what your character is good at, and think about how best you can fit in your team. 

 

Conclusion

So in conclusion, I'd have to say that I think supports are a very important role of the team. You may not be bringing a ton of damage or making your opponents run in fear, but a support is played with more finese, and played properly, has a huge impact to the game.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed! 

-Fox