Support on Solo queue: Hidden Elo Booster?

Support on Solo queue: Hidden Elo Booster?

Support has always been that role that most people don’t want to play, it is perfectly understandable. Most people won’t congratulate you when you feed your ADC, if the ADC is toxic or bad he will most certainly blame it on you or jungle. You won’t get your name followed by the words “Triple kill, quadra kill, penta kill” and in low elo, most people don’t understand that you can only place 3 green wards and 1 pink.

Disregarding all those disadvantages of playing it, support role is one of the most important roles (if not the most) in the game. Support role is incredibly fun if you get a hang of it, and if you do your job correctly, it pays back.

With the season 4 changes, supports actually get gold now. Starting with the new mastery tree, and the new initial “support items”, support champions now have a higher chance of being able to have a solid build.

 

Why play it?

Especially in Bronze and Silver divisions, most people cannot play support very efficiently. Meaning this gives you a bigger chance to be better than your adversary in lane. One can truly be the turning point in lane phase.

 

How to win while playing support?

1) Be nice.

Really, this is the most important aspect of winning in really any role. Most of us know the phrase “Teamwork OP”. Riot wasn’t lying when they made that video.

2) Don’t Give Up.

This and #1 on the list are really for any match. Seriously, if you are losing, late game is your best friend. If you are nice, there is a higher chance that “niceness” will be mimicked by someone else in your team. If you can get 3 or 5 players of your team to cooperate with you and don’t surrender there is a big chance that you can turn things around in late game.

3) Ward.

This sounds pretty obvious. Once you get your Sightstone, do not allow yourself to not have 3 wards in the map. Another good tactic to obtain map control, is to simply remind your teammates to use their Totems or Trinkets. People usually forget to use their totems in mid and late game. This is completely understandable since not everyone is used to having one. Reminding your teammates not only helps to have better map awareness, but to create a friendly environment in the match.

4) Understand the mind of your AD carry.

Having good synergy with your ADC will most likely assure a good lane. You need to be sure that he’ll follow you in your engages before you engage. Analyze his moves in the first levels, let him set the tempo for you or simply ask him, “Hey (insert ADC name here), want me to be aggressive, or passive?”. This will usually be a great way for you to have a general idea of what he wants.

5) Time Baron/ Dragon.

Dragon has a 6 minute respawn timer, and Baron has a 7 minute respawn timer. Every time your team kills dragon, just take a look at the in-game clock and remember that 6 mins from then he’ll be back up. Same applies for Baron.

6) Learn how to properly initiate.

This is a very good mechanic every League player should try to master. You need to be aware of your teammate’s life, map awareness, and tempo. Depending on what champ you are playing, you can get some great teamfight initiations with flash+CC combo.

 

Overall, I truly believe that the support role is the most important role at the moment and I have personally left Bronze hell with Alistar. For those people who say that one cannot carry with support, they are wrong. Support is all about harassing, control, and carrying the carry.