Patch 5.22: Three Support Mastery Pages Used By Pros

With the first preseason patch, one of the changes that came live were the new mastery trees. Each role now has a new set of masteries, with multiple choices to go for. So in this article, I am going to go through the most common Support mastery trees, and say a few words why they are the right choice for Support. 

Mage Supports

First let's go through a standard mastery page for Mage Supports. 

Credits for this mastery page goes to Xpecial

So we have 18 points in Cunning and 12 points in Resolve. Let's go through the Cunning part first. 

In Tier 1 we have to choose between Wanderer and Savagery. The choice is obvious as we take 5 points in Wanderer. Why? As a Support you will definitely need that extra 3% Movespeed when out of combat, because you will need to roam a lot, whether to help another lane, or put some vision down on the map for your team.

Tier 2 choice is between Runic Affinity and Secret Stash. The choice will definitely be Secret Stash because you, as a Support do not need Jungle monster buffs, and more important, you potions and elixirs last 10% longer.

Tier 3: Merciless vs Meditation. Because we are speaking about Mage supports, the better choice should be Merciless, to increase your damage output. However, this comes down to your own playstyle. If you want to have more mana for poke in laning phase, then you can also go with Meditation. But, my choice comes down to Merciless, because as a Support you do not have huge damage output, and this mastery will help you fix that. 

Tier 4: Between Bandit and Dangerous Game, the choice definitely falls to Bandit. The benefits from choosing this mastery are huge, as they increase your gold income in the laning phase a lot. 

Tier 5: As you are a Mage, you will need some extra burst potential. So, between Precision and Intelligence, the choice will come down to Precision. Item build for Mage will often lead you to have huge amount of Cooldown reduction, so the extra armor and magic penetration from this mastery will significantly increase your damage output.

Tier 6: And from the last Tier of the mastery tree, the preferred choice goes to Thunderlord's Decree. This is a great pickup for Mage, as this will increase your Damage output. Additionaly, assuming that you are going to poke a lot as Mage support, this mastery will be a huge part in winning the laning phase. 

Let's go to the Resolve part now. Here we have only 12 points spent, into 4 Tiers. 

Tier 1: As you are going to poke a lot, you may receive damage in those trades, so the Health Regen coming from the Recovery mastery will be much more useful than the bonus Armor and Magic Resist, coming from Unyielding. 

Tier 2 pickup is really interesting, as we pick Damage reduction over Movespeed. Since you have the movespeed from the Wanderer mastery in Tier 1 of the Cunning part, the better choice is to add some more defensive stats to your champion. As a Mage support, trading in laning phase will happen a lot, and this will improve your chances in winning it.

Tier 3: Veteran's Scars vs Runic Armor. The pick up here will be Veteran's Scars, since this is a Mastery page for Mage supports, that extra % of Health you gain will come in handy. 

And for Tier 4, the choice between the Cooldown reduction on your summoner spells you get from the Insight mastery and the Health Regeneration from Perseverance is obvious. Since as a Mage support you will often you Flash + some of your spells as a initiation tool, cooldown reduction on your Summoner Spells will help a lot. 

Supports that have spells which provide Shields/Heals

Next, lets go through the standard mastey page for Support that have spells which can provide Heals/Shields for your allies. 

Credits for this Mastery page to: YellOwStaR

Here, we again have 18 points in Cunning and 12 points in Resolve. 

Lets start from the Cunning part again:

We can notice that as the previous mastery page, for Mage Supports, we have same masteries used in Tier 1,2 and 4. Therefore, we are going to mention why we have made some changes to the other Tiers. 

Tier 3: Merciless vs Meditation. For Mage supports we needed that extra burst coming from the Merciless mastery. Here, as we will use heals/shields on our teammates, we can have big use of the Mana Regeneration coming from the Meditation mastery. Therefore, we pick it over Merciless. 

Tier 5: Precision vs Intelligence. As we needed some extra penetration coming from the Precision mastery for the Mage supports, here, we need the extra Cooldown reduction. As we use more spells (shields/heals), that extra cooldown reduction will be really needed, that is why we pick Intelligence over Precision.

Tier 6: The first line of the Windspeaker's Blessing says it all. Since this is a mastery page for Supports that use Heals/Shields "Your heals and Shields are 10% stronger", is definitely going to be the best choice from this Tier. 

 

Standard Tanky Support mastery page

And finally, let's go through a standard mastery page for the rest of the Supports.

Credits for this mastery page goes to Xpecial again

So here we have 12 points in Cunning and 18 points in Resolve. 

First let's go with the Cunning part. 

In Tier 1 we choose Wanderer over the Savagery, because we need that Movespeed bonus coming out from Wanderer. In fact, Wanderer mastery is a must pick up for every kind of Support.

Tier 2: Same for the previous two mastery pages, as Support you will not need the increased Jungle buff duration, so taking Secret Stash over Runic Affinity is the right pick up. 

Tier 3: As you are a tanky support, you definitely pick up the mastery that you are going to have much more use from. As a Tanky support, you do not need that extra execution damage coming from the Merciless mastery, so Meditation is the right choice here. 

In the last Tier from this part, the choice is obvious. Same as Tier 1, the Bandit mastery is a must for Support, because the gold income it provides in lane is crucial for the game. 

Now lets go through the Resolve part.

In Tier 1 we have to choose between Health Regen and bonus Armor and Magic Resist. For having safer laning phase, we take Recovery over the Unyielding mastery. However, as you play Tanky support, it is most likely to build tanky items, and Unyielding mastery will scale really great. So you can try out both of the masteries on Tier 1.

Tier 2 gives us the choice between Movespeed and Damage reduction. As you are a tank and will always lead the charge in teamfights and be the frontline for your team, the Damage reduction you get from Tough Skin will be much more viable, and that is why we pick it up. 

Tier 3: Runic Armor vs Veteran's Scars. Because this is a Mastery page for tanky supports, Veteran's Scars will outscale the Runic Armor mastery, and that is why we consider it to be the better choice. 

Tier 4: No matter what kind of Support you play, the Cooldown reduction on your Summoner Spells is key part of the game. So that is why we pick the Insight mastery over the Perseverance. However, as you are going to be the frontline of the team, Preseverance can work good as well, so you can try both of them out. 

Tier 5: Swiftness vs Legendary Guardian. As you are often going to be in the middle of the enemy team, Legendary Guardian mastery will surely outscale the Swiftness mastery, so that is why we pick it up from this Tier. 

Tier 6: For the last tier of this mastery tree, we go with the +4% Damage reduction from the Bond of Stone mastery. Because you are going to be the tank and frontline for your team, extra Damage reduction means you will be able to last longer in the teamfights, and give your carries enough time to do their job, deal tons of damage. 

 

Conclusion 

With the first preseason patch one of the changes that have gone live are the new mastery trees. There are unique Mastery trees for each role. I hope that with this article we will help you choose the right mastery page for yourself when playing as Support.