Tips to Carrying as Support

Many people think that you can't carry your team from the support role, which is simply wrong. Whether you're Sona getting a 5-man stun or Braum soaking up damage, you'll have a big impact on the Rift. The difference between a good and great support can easily be the deciding factor of a game, so I'm here to give you tips on becoming the support everyone hopes for. What exactly separates the good from the great?

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First of all, being a great support doesn't start when you get into the game. Knowing the right summoner spells, runes and masteries to choose can be the difference between winning or losing lane, and ultimately the game. Flash is an obvious must-have on nearly every champion. Exhaust is useful for stopping your carry from being assassinated, but ignite is strong to get an early game lead, so you will have to decide between the two based on the enemy team composition. I won't talk about runes, but Phreak has an in-depth rune page guide here. For masteries, tank supports normally run 0/12/18, with Bond of Stone or Strength of the Ages as their keystone. AP supports usually take 0/18/12, with either Thunderlord's Decree or Windspeaker's Blessing for a keystone.

Example tank support mastery page

Example AP support mastery page

The laning phase will vary a lot depending on your lane matchup, but you always need to focus on these things:

• Harass: Dealing damage to the opponent(s) in your lane when it's safe to do so is important to prepare them for a later fight, make them use summoner spells or use their health potions.
• Vision Control: Knowing the location of the enemy jungler, mid, and support can help avoid you being ganked and punished, and don't forget to limit their vision with Sweeper's Lens and Vision Wards while you're at it.
• Wave Management: Controlling the wave can be hard to master, but knowing when to freeze, push, and recall can lead to large advantages.
• Timing Opponent Spells: Knowing the cooldown on enemy abilities and summoner spells can help you punish them for mistakes and cooldowns.

Roaming the map during the laning phase can not only lead to advantages in your own lane, but your mid laner and jungler too. Be careful when you roam though, leaving at the wrong time can hurt your team. The best times to roam are when you push the enemy out of lane through poke or killing them, after you recall, or after pushing to the enemy tower. This video is old, but still applies completely.

The importance of vision control does NOT stop after the laning phase either! In order to safely take objectives, your team is relying on you to get vision of where the enemies are, and deny the enemies from knowing where you are. While taking baron or dragon, you will want to have all the entrances covered to know if enemy champions start collapasing. If your team is sieging a tower, you need vision of the area behind you to avoid from being flanked. Where you want to ward is very situational, but here is a general map of where good areas to ward are.

Generally good ward placement

Timing opponent spells is even more important later on into the game. Knowing whose ultimates or summoner spells are on cooldown can lead to your team getting an advantage in a teamfight. On the other hand, if you don't know what they have off cooldown, your team could be at a huge disadvantage without knowing it. Not many people really realize the importance or do this, but it can be game-changing.

Once you get to teamfights, you are expected to peel and keep your carries alive. This can be a difficult task depending on how good your ADC's positioning is, but it will really pay off. This is where you can really tell the difference between the good and the great supports the most, and how you carry the game. If you do your job and keep your carries alive, they'll repay you by dishing out tons of damage, and winning you the game.

Thanks for reading! I hope this helps you on your journey up the ranked ladder playing as a support, I know these things helped me improve drastically. Any advice on improving my articles is greatly appreciated, and keep an eye out for future content from me!

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