How to play proper bot-lane support: A complete guide with all tips and tricks

Hi everybody! :-)

My name is Jakob "mibinoob" Frederiksen, and I am a support main. I have been playing support for quite some time now, and I believe I have figured out how to easily climb with support (currently sitting in plat 4/3). I will try to cover most of the game, but will mainly cover the laning phrase, as this is the one which may decide the game, and it is by far the most easiest to cover. I will later show my take on rune/masteries, and give my reason to why I run them.

Remember when reading my guide you should only try to focus on one or two things at a time, because you may not be able to apply all of the things at once. The proces is fairly slow, and you will need to adapt for the new thought processes. Make sure to read my notes of the different supports, and when you load, you can read your, and your opponents support again so you know how you should / should not play.

 

What is a support's goal for a game?

Since preseason 4, where a lot of support changes happened, support champs have been able to accumulate a ton of gold through new gold items. The fact that players also have been limited to only place 3 wards, and 1 pink ward each, means supports have been able to get more items, and thus been able to carry easier. When playing support I like to have the mindset that supports only role is like the police, "To serve and protect".

They serve by warding, and making good calls/engages, and protects their carry. Carry is not necessarily your ADC, but the one who has the best carry potential. This means if you have 0-2 ADC and midlane, with very little farm and 10-0 toplane with good farm, you should probably help your toplane kill their carries, just make sure your team knows so your carries do not rely on you protecting them. This is though a very unlikely scenario to happen, both because your ADC and midlane will in most scenarios still be able to still make some really good damage, but also because through my steps your ADC should not fall way too much behind, if you just make sure to communicate with him, like tell him to play passively in pre-game lobby. Else you just want to help your team as much as you can, this means if you play an aggressive support as Leona, Blitzcrank or Alistar and go for a dragon ward, you could use 15-20 seconds to give a little roam to gank middle lane if it is being pushed.

Firstly, the enemy midlaner does not expect this roam, and secondly, you have a lot of CC, which means your midlaner only has to land his abilities to get the kill. There is of course a little risk behind it, but the reward is much bigger. Else you just want to ward the key objectives in the game and make sure to both save your teammates and shutting down their backline.

 

How do I reach these goals?

Early game.

Firstly you have to consider whether you can win a potential 2v2 fight against your lane. Further down I will explain which support is stronger than another, explain what their weaknesses is etc. Make sure to communicate this with your ADC pregame, and adapt to your situation.

Secondly, you want to bully your lane opponent (unless you are hard-countered), because if you do not create any pressure, you do not force your lane opponents to make any mistakes. This is a general rule to play by. Make sure not to hard-engage without making sure your ADC is in position to do so, and NEVER engage if the enemy has a big wave. First the enemy jungler can sit in a bush, second, minions hurt at any time of the game, especially early, and last your ADC might lose a lot of CS. If your jungler comes to gank you can consider it, but again, make sure everyone is in position and that their jungler cannot counter-gank. Also make sure not to poke with basic attacks through minions as you have to run a long way, and the damage from the minions alone might equalize your poke damage.

 

This is a bad time to engage. The minions will easily deal more damage than you do, just themselves, + the enemies could use the minions as shield, to cover off your skillshots, while hitting their own.

Thirdly, you need to ward your lane (usually between 2:30 and 3:00, since this is the time the enemy jungler might finish their buff camps). You also want to either ask your ADC to ward side bushes or do it yourself, as your enemy support either want to poke from the bush, or poke and walk into the bush, to both lose minion aggro, and too secure that you will not be able to poke them back. This is also why you want to stay in your bush when the lane is frozen in the middle of the lane.

If your ADC wards one of your places you just ward one of his spots. You should ward depending on how the lane is going / who is pushing, etc., so ward the bushes closest to your towers if you are being pushed, and the bushes closest to your enemies tower if you are pushing. Remember to put you 3 minute ward (if you have one) in your spot, because you will not be able to check these bushes as often as your side bushes.

Fourthly you want to warn your ADC if either your or the enemy jungler approaches your lane. Remember just because you have seen it does not mean your ADC has. Here the smart pings come in very handy. Use them as much as possible. If you see the enemy at midlane / toplane waiting for a gank, try to ping anyways, it does not cost anything and might help their lane too.

Last you want to set up kills for your ADC. This is the hardest thing to explain, as it is situational whether you can go in and kill them or not, and it also relies you on landing your CC which is usually a kind of skill shot. If you are countered by the enemy lane you should probably play it passively and wait for the jungler to gank. Try to coordinate this with your jungler and ADC so the enemies can push your lane and your jungler can lane gank (most junglers has the mobility to do so). It is important though to keep your side bushes warded, since this is probably the place the enemy jungler will sit. Learing lane matchups, ward control, winning trades and communication makes this a lot easier. 

Mid game.

Mid game is usually where the first dragons and towers are being taken, and sometimes also where the first team fights happens (either 4v4 or 5v5). Using timestamps from the options menu in game gives you a much easier to time dragons and barons since the chat will time it, if you have vision over it. Make sure to ward a little deeper than just your lane (ward dragon, tribush and when you have taken their tower/they have taken your tower, go ward the jungle and buff camps). I usually do this when I get sightstone (around 8-10.th minute). You also want to start bringing pink wards with you.

In the midgame, vision is mainly the thing deciding whether you win or lose the fight, it decides whether the enemy baits you or you catches the enemy out of position. Therefore it is very important to choose places to fight where you have the vision control. Fighting in an unwarded enemy jungle will most of the time turn out bad for you since the enemy will be able to either escape through fog of war, or stand in it and harass you from range. Fighting in the enemy jungle while you have control may give you a nice experience of fight since you can see most of the enemy team, which way they escape and if they set up any nasty trap to try and turn around the fight.

 

This is guiding, if you find yourself having trouble something, like enemy mid coming bot from behind, or top teleporting to the bottom bushes either ward it, or rotate to see if you can grab another tower on midlane, remember to communicate with midlane first to ensure he knows you are coming. The deep wards (pink tri  and the little bush closest to mid lane can be hard to ward if you play the opposite side, be cautious to ward these, as there can be a jungler nearby to kill you)

This is also where you want to protect your carries from the enemy bruisers and assassins (sometimes it is limited what you can do). Use your CC on the most dangerous (always know who is high priority both your carries, and their carries + know which bruiser is the most dangerous), but make sure to split it so that the enemy touches your precious as little as possible.
If you ace the enemies make sure not to back, since they will have around 30 second death timers and you can grab an objective. This also applies if you are 3 or 4 survivors OR if you are near an objective.

If you take dragon or baron because you are ahead make sure to ward the surrounding area, and if the enemies comes disengage, and kill them instead. This might not work out every time, if you are low just make sure to go back, and let them have the objective, or wait for the objective to poke them down before reengaging (make sure you reengage while it is still up, so you can have both you and objective hitting on the enemies).

Late game.

For late game we pretend to have equal gold/power and skill, so the only thing which can decide fights is who has good engage/vision and has a good choice of fighting place. In general you have to use the differences of the team to your advantage. This means if you have more towers than they have, go ward their jungle, take space and use this to either get objectives or pick them out. If you have fewer towers, ward your jungle, wait for them to come. If they do not come (e.g. they are scared of your fighting potential), take outer turrets, or dragon to claim some gold back, and try to take some space.

If you have a fed midlane assassin, but both bot and top lost try to let the strong midlaner splitpush while you keep the enemies away from your base. In most scenarios the enemies send two guys to kill the midlaner, your team gets a nice 4v3 fight and your midlaner trades 1 for 1. Else you need to make sure that you fight in warded places, and remember picking one or two enemies out can be worth an ultimate, since they will have over 40 seconds death timers.

This practically means you can kill them, back and heal (if you are low), group with team and still have like 15 seconds before they respawn. Just make sure to keep considering what you have that the opponents do not. If you cannot find anything, try to coordinate with your team to try and make one, and use this to your advantage.

If you have troubles killing towers try to slowly work your way through midlane (ward paths from jungle to your midlane, to make sure the enemies will not collapse on you), killing one tower, if the enemies show up, rotate through jungle to either top or bot (preferably bot, since inhibitor is worth more than top or middle), ward on your way and keep rotating. You will either grab a tower, or find a pick and then grab a tower.

The last problem you can face late game is backdoor. You have to ward defensively (river is a nice way to ward in this scenario) if you have an inhibitor / nexus open, to make sure  the opponents does not send someone to take your inhibitor down while they defend their.

Which champion should I pick in which scenario?
I will write some guides later, to go more deep in a specific champion, so if you'd like to know more about a certain champion, make sure to watch the specific guide. Take note that I only briefly name some champs who are good / bad, which means that if it says that e.g. Annie is good with Lucian, Miss Fortune, and Draven. She can also be very good with other ADC’s if they meet her requirements.

(I might be lacking some supports, and have some who have not been used for a long time, but I have just taken the most played support champions through time).

Alistar

Good with (ADC + team comp.):

Alistar is a fine utility support; there are not many he is bad with. He has just fallen out of meta, and is rarely picked. Often used with Orianna or Yasuo and ADC’s who need a little defense like Jinx and Vanye.

Good against:

Someone who wants to stay away from your team like Jinx or Syndra (Flash + Pulverize + Headbutt into team is evil pickout).
Also counters engage champs like Leona, BC and Thresh (you can’t milk those!)

Countered by:
Alistar needs to get close, and once he gets close he wants to remain so, so anyone with kite/escape (like Corki, Ezreal etc.) counters him.

Pros and cons of champion:
He has nice heal early, and good knockup on short cooldown.
He tends to be outbullied a lot early.

Annie

Good with (ADC + team comp.): 
Annie is a very aggressive support champ, so someone who has great early like Lucian, Miss Fortune, or Draven. Also great at wombo-comboes.

Good against: 
Someone who has no escape / squishy supports like Janna, Sona, or Zyra. Also teams who lacks engage or has a lack of Crowd-Control.

Countered by: 
 Annie hates supports that can take her damage and force her stun like Blitzcrank, Thresh, and Alistar.

Pros and cons of champion:
Has nice burst, and flash + Tibbers stun is good engage, but has weak defense of her ADC against assassins.

Blitzcrank

Good with (ADC + team comp):
Blitzcrank is a support who excels at picking out champions, and an ADC who can chain CC like Draven, Vayne and Jinx is nice with him. In general pick comps.

Good against:
Squishy targets like Annie, Janna, Zyra, Sona and Nami. Generally anyone squishy, I prefer to pick Blitzcrank if they have a squishy ADC + Support + Midlane at least (or 3 different roles squishy targets, so if it is Twitch jungle or Yasuo top I tend to pull it too (no pun intended)).

Countered by:
Tanks. Hooking those tanks is the worst thing. In general it is hard to play Blitzcrank against high mobility.

Pros and cons of champion:
He is very good pick-out support, but his hook is hard to land + tanks are a pain in the ass and he has bad defense to his ADC.

 

Braum

Good with (ADC + team comp):
Braum is a tanky, high CC support, who excells at protecting his team, while offering great engage with his ulti. His passive puts the petal to the metal, and makes him an overall strong support. Works well with Yasuo, and AD Carries who uses a lot of basic attacks like Lucian, Tristana and Vayne. 
 
Good against:
Braum works well against squishy supports, and supports with weak lane phase. His high aggressive playstyle makes him hard to play against, and just one misstep can cost you a flash or even your life. Also a lot of melee supports have troubles due to his passive. 

Countered by:
 Braum does bad against poke, or Morgana which can negate his CC. Also high mobility is hard, because his shield can only face one way meaning your opponents can run around it and thus get your squishy carry

Pros and cons of champion:
He has great CC and good protection for his ADC, but high mobility and poke can bring his shield to the ground. 

Janna

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Janna is a great utility Support, who excels at defending her ADC, with shields and knocking enemies back. Any ADC who has high scalings and who needs defense like Vayne, Draven or Jinx.

Good against:
Champions who has a hard engage like Fiddlesticks, Alistar and Leona, especially if you can tornado them midair and interrupt their engage. The only problem is she does not directly counter anyone, she really relies on the disengage.

Countered by:
Poke, CC-skill shots, and pulls. Even though she has high mobility you cannot rely on jukes due to the fact that if it lands you are dead.

Pros and cons of champion:
 Very nice at disengaging and kiting, has decent defense towards her ADC but lacks tankyness and engage.

Karma

Good with (ADC + team comp):
Karma is a nice poke-utility support who gives great mobility to her team, together with nice protection to her carry. Any ADC who has poke, or likes mobility is likely to be played with karma (like Vayne or Ezreal).

Good against:
Champions who rely on hitting skillshot stuns like Elise, Blitzcrank and Leona. Again though just like Janna you cannot fully rely on juking them, due to the fact that you are squishy.
If you at least can poke them low before engage, you can win the fights easily.

Countered by:
Someone who can outsustain her / who can outpoke her like Sona. Hard engages like Leona is a pain in the ass too if you do not land the poke. Assassins can be a problem later in the game too.

Pros and cons of champion:
 Good utility with lots of mobility to her team, but lack protection to her ADC.

Leona

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Leona is a tank engage support, with a lot of crowd control. She excels at locking down single targets, while offering huge damage to her ADC through her passive. Good with early power champs like Draven.

Good against:
As said earlier Leona is good at locking down single targets making immobile champs like Jinx and MF. Squishy supports like Sona and Zyra is also getting a tough time against Leona (just watch out for poke and kite, try to Solar Flare + Zenith Blade engage for 100 % success).

Countered by:
Anyone who can interrupt her engages, or ignores her CC like QSS, Cleanse or Morgana. Knockbacks are also a pain in the ass. (High skillcap Janna's are unbeatable).

Pros and cons of champion:
Provides good CC and engage, but has to go in on backline to be affective, causing low defense to her ADC.

Lulu

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Lulu is a good utility-poke champion, who early provides high damage long range poke, and late good utility and defense.

Good against:
Late game champs or pokes comp., like Vayne, Jinx or Ezreal. Her ultimate provides great late game combined with her 2.5 sec polymorph, no assassin is going to pop your ADC today!

Countered by:
Lulu tends to get snowballed early; due to the late game carries she is good with later, when she falls behind she tends to be very squishy, and cannot defend her carry.

Pros and cons of champion:
Good utility and work in many compositions but lack a lot of defense if she falls behind. Also if focused she has to defend herself rather than ADC.

Morgana

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Morgana is a great CC-poke champ. Her Q combined with her ult can lock a single target down for 4.5 seconds. She is good with many carries, especially poke heavy like Ezreal and Jinx.

Good against:
Morgana is great counter to most botlane supports, because her black shield can negate any CC, and her snare is great CC to save your ADC from a gank (all played supports have high CC).

Countered by:
Morgana is bad against any poke champ, that has a directly stun (like flash + Sona ult), which is hard to see, or just poke damage, because her shield blocks magic damage. This means if it breaks, and your enemy has not used CC it was a waste.

Pros and cons of champion:
Morgana is a great lane counter to all botlane supports, and has a good potential with many team comps, but lacks defense to her support.

Nami

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Nami is a utility support who provides good mobility and defense for her ADC, mixed with her CC, she tends to work well with ADC’s like Draven and Lucian.

Good against:
Nami works well against poke champs because she when they go for poke she can CC -> heal so her ADC can beat the enemy down while she provides extra damage for her ADC through Tidecaller’s Blessing.

Countered by:
Nami is bad against hard engage or tanks who can withstand her poke (she has fairly high manacost), or survive her engages.

Pros and cons of champion:
Nami provides great utility and CC + good long range engage through ultimate, but has a hard time surviving in general.

Nunu

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Nunu is a support who provides a massive attack speed steroid for his ADC, as well as slows making him work well with high mobile ADC’s like Vayne and Draven.

Good against:
Nunu is good against champions who relies on poke, because he can nom minions for extra HP, and has insane poke through Ice Blast. Mixed with Spellthief’s Edge Nunu should be able to outpoke almost any lane.

Countered by:
Nunu tends to fall off late, only providing his carry a buff, and that is it. This is also the main reason he has fallen off, due to the fact that assassins are very popular and he has weak defense. Also weak against tanks who can withstand his poke.

Pros and cons of champion:
Nunu provides a great buff for his ADC + nice poke through lane and a nice ultimate early game, but has weak defense and his ult is near no impact late.

Sona

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Sona who recently got remade has turned out to be a somehow other champion who rather excells at trading, than the old Sona who had insane poke. In my opinion she is now better with champions who are basic attack reliant, making the old Sona + Ezreal lane weak, while Jinx, Vayne or Draven are seemingly stronger due to her new Q, applying bonus magic damage to nearby champions.

Good against:
Sona is great against champions that has poke and bad engage. Low range ADC's will also struggle against Sona, because they want to keep their distance. Champions like Zyra, Karma, Lucian, and Miss Fortune could have big problems against Sona.

Countered by:
Sona is very squishy, and the only protection she provides is her heal/shield, and a small move speed boost. Champions who has strong engage and pickout like Leona, Morgana, Thresh and Blitzcrank.

Pros and cons of champion:
Provides great poke in lane as well as a good ultimate engage, but lacks defense and she is squishy. Keep her in the back or your teamfight might crack! Remember to stay close to your allies to provide your auras for as many as possible.
 

Soraka

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Soraka is a champion who excels at keeping one target alive. With the 4.5 patch summoner Heal + her heals can take almost any carry from 0 to 100 + grievous wounds are no problem.
Her magic resist shred makes her good with AP comps and carries with AP damage like Corki.

Good against:
Her insane heal spam makes her excel against champions who relies on poke, because she can sustain their damage, this combined with her own ADC’s poke and her Starcall should be able to out trade almost any poke comp. Her silence is great to counter any jungler who has a gap- closer (Like Vi, Amumu and Kha’zix) IF she can get the silence, before the gap-closer.

Countered by:
Soraka’s heal can only affect one target, meaning if the enemies have hard engage, which they can swap (e.g. Thresh or Leona), she tends to lose the fight. In general any short fight is Soraka’s weakness.

Pros and cons of champion:
 Provides good heals, and nice silence against assassins, but she is very squishy, and against high burst she is almost a non-factor. Has no real playmaking potential. 

Taric

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Taric is a champion who has a decent sustain, high burst and provides good auras for his team. He has a good lane phase, which makes him good with burst champs like Graves, Lucian and Draven.

Good against:
Taric’s stun combined with his armor shred from his Shatter makes a great early pressure, and a Imbue after makes sure almost no fight goes in the enemies favor. His Shatter Aura also provides high armor which means you have the possibility to tower-dive at level 7 or 9 already.

Countered by:
Taric’s mana cost is high, so if he cannot finish off the fight early and makes bad engages early he tends to get bullied a lot. Also ADC’s with long escape like Ezreal and Corki makes his stun almost non-existing. Also has low defense to his ADC.

Pros and cons of champion:
 Has good auras and a strong lane but tends to get almost useless late if the fight is split up just a bit.

Thresh

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Thresh is a good utility / pick-out champion, who works well at engaging teamfights and saving teammates, as well as providing good protection for his ADC. He works well with probably all ADC’s.

Good against:
Zyra can be played in poke or wombo-combo compositions, because she can either catch someone so her team can poke the target or provide great AoE knockup.

Countered by:
Zyra likes to fight without getting in contact with enemies which means she is very squishy so hard engage or pickout like Leona, Thresh or Blitzcrank. She cannot do anything against assasins either.

Pros and cons of champion:
 Zyra is a great zone support who can provide good lockdown and early power for her team, but lacks tankyness and has low defense to her ADC.

Zyra

Good with (ADC + team comp.):
Zyra is a great zone support who has great early power, and a nice knockup from her ultimate. Her Grasping Roots + Stranglethorn give a good lockup for any nuke champ like Ezreal or Draven.

Good against:
Zyra can be played in poke or wombo-combo compositions, because she can either catch someone so her team can poke the target or provide great AoE knockup.

Countered by:
Zyra likes to fight without getting in contact with enemies which means she is very squishy so hard engage or pickout like Leona, Thresh or Blitzcrank. She cannot do anything against assasins either.

Pros and cons of champion:
Zyra is a great zone support who can provide good lockdown and early power for her team, but lacks tankyness and has low defense to her ADC.

NOTE: All supports that has weak defense should never be picked against assassins, because you cannot defend your carry with those champions. There are some of these champions I have not tried very much yet, so if you try a champion with my tactics and it fails completely to something which should counter it, comment it and we can discuss why it failed so others will not make the same mistake. The tactics are only observations and thoughts I have had while watching the pro scene/my own experience.

Squishy = Low Armor and Magic Resist / low HP.
Low defense = provides low to no protection for ADC.

Supports who are not said to counter/be countered by, are supposed to go somewhat equal. Remember the weaknesses of their champ and the strengh of yours and use the knowledge to your advantage.

 

What runes/masteries do I run, and why?

When playing melee support
When playing a melee support I like to have 0-13-17 with as much gold income, as well as HP and armor as possible. This gives you a lot of gold and still makes you fairly tanky, so you can survive the poke you will receive from ranged champions.

When playing ranged support.
When playing ranged support I like to run 0-9-21 getting as much gold income as possible, as well as XP gain and still some defensive. This is because you are most likely to stay back and throw your abilities. If you are going to play a ranged support that is weak against poke like Thresh or Morgana, you can go 0-13-17 or even 0-21-9 without losing too much power, as you only need to survive the poke.

These are my runes as a support (you can have more than one page if you would like, I will explain what you can swap etc.), with physical damage reds, armor yellow, MR/level blue and GP/10 quint. If you want a page to make you tankier with a squishy support like Sona or Zyra you can swap quints with HP. The AD marks is for early poke, if you have the belief that it is useless try swapping them with something you find relevant.

Lastly I want to say:
Wards is the key for plays and safety, wards win games. Mana is for protection, no mana means no protection, communicate with your ADC and go back when you are low on mana!

Thanks for reading my guide, make sure to comment if you have any questions whatsoever, else just make sure to check out my other guides (when I release them). I have a bunch of them coming soon, explaining mid-late game, runes, masteries and also champion guides :-)

Have a good day, and hopefully I will see you on The Rift.