Tank Support Itemization: The Situational Start

Support and Jungle are two of the most important roles on a team. They hold the most potential influence of any other position in League. Due to this, a lot of burden falls on to the Support, including recognizing their teams needs and how they can help with that. The following are questions that a Support needs to answer before ever leaving the fountain.

 

How are we going to start a fight?

In Solo Queue, people will generally just pick a champion that they consider themselves good with, giving no thought to team composition. That can be a huge problem if lanes aren’t stomping or worse are falling behind. The remedy to this as the Support player is to find a way to make a pieced together team work. The best way to do that is through itemization. A team with no means of initiation is easy to kite and play around, so it’s up to the Support to change that. Ancient Coin start may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think “Tank”, but its use after its third upgrade (Talisman of Ascension) gives a Sivir-esq speed boost. With one switch of starting items a team with zero engage or gap closers can steamroll a team fight.

 

How are we going to disengage?

This is something that lower elo players wouldn’t normally take into consideration. If a teams carry gets picked whilst grouping for a fight, what’s going to stop the enemy team from pressing this advantage in a 4v5? There are a lot of champions who have strong disengage, so this normally wouldn’t be something to worry about, in which case Relic Shield and its upgrades would be fine. Whereas if a team is based around all-ining, but is behind or is caught in a poor situation, an escape would be required. This is another instance where early itemization could change the game. Talisman of Ascension could give the disengage needed over Face of the Mountain.

 

Who could be the potential worst target if they get fed?

It’s not fun entertaining the idea of an opposing carry getting fed, but a plan should always be in place. At the start of a game, a target should be determined that can nullify the Attack Damage Carry. After a Champion has been decided as the threat, an item should be chosen that will counteract their effectiveness. Should that threat be an Assassin or burst heavy champion, Relic Shield would be selected. If the danger lies in a hard to kite/sticky champion, Ancient Coin would be the proper start

 

Talisman of Ascension’s Many Uses

 

Talisman isn’t just for engage/disengage. It can be used to get multiple team members to an objective faster, or be used in a teamfight to increase mobility. A slight burst of speed at the right time could mean the difference in an ally dying from a skillshot or being hit with crowd control. It also could give an Attack Damage Carry more kite potential and give them the ability to output damage whilst remaining safe.

 

Face of the Mountain’s Utility

 

Face of the Mountain’s main goal is to keep someone alive, but that doesn't mean it should only be used to shield a dying teammate. Shielding a champion who’s already been focused down and dies without using FotM in a productive way is a waste. The same can be said if it’s used on oneself or a teammate running away from the fight. One of the obvious best usages is on a target hit with damage over time or hard crowd control. One of the less obvious ways of using it is to put the shield on a carry so as to absorb cooldowns and allow them to output more damage.

  

The Late Game Switch

If a game is going longer than 35 minutes where you have Face of the Mountain, but you don’t have full build, you should consider switching items. Around this time in the game teams start to group more and fight for objectives. This will make it harder for a support to use their Relic Shield stacks on a wave, meaning less gold income. Switching to Talisman of Ascension would increase the amount of gold you're receiving and completely change the way your team can fight. That can be in both a positive and negative way. Before deciding to make the switch, take everything into consideration. 

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