[2.6a] How to Play Support Role, the Backbone of the Team

Intro

When it comes to League of Legends: Wild Rift, a lot of players LOVE to play DPS Champions since that's the reason they're playing this game; to get kills, to carry, to one shot people. Sure, all of this roles are important but what and who are they without a Support? Support Role is an important piece of puzzle when it comes to winning the game (or ahem, inting, if you don't play your cards right). Use this guide to fuel your knowledge of the High Elo Support on League of Legends: Wild Rift.

Is Support role Important

Not only do Support Champions provide healing and shielding, some of them also offer CC (Crowd Control) and buffs. Support Champions can also buy items that help the entire team during the match and can often be used up to set up multiple plays throughout the game. Though your playstyle will differ on the support you choose, you're guaranteed to make a difference when you step up to the plate.

Types of Support

Support is a role that provides what your teammates need to survive, to kill enemy champions and to follow up your initiation. Hence, we can divide the Support to 4 types of Support:

Enchanter : Enchanters protect their allies from enemy champions and increase your allies efficiency with buffs they can offer. To see them truly shine, group them with others. They usually rotates every time they see a possible fight
Engager/Roamer : Engagers are great at asserting an early dominance in lanes and good to take down enemy champions during battles. They usually roams to give kills for their allies
Poke : Poke Support are known for their ability to harass enemy laners by damaging and weakening enemy champions. Their goal is to win fight befor the fight even begins. They usually stay in lane (not particularly Dragon Lane) but sometime rotate to melt enemies in teamfight
Peel : Peel Support primary job is to disengage or peel off damage and Crowd Control from enemy champions. Someone who can offer A TON of Crowd Control, someone who shield/heal a lot or someone who can tank a lot of damage for the team.

Enchanter

Enchanter Support

Their primary job is to protect their allies from enemy champions and increase your allies efficiency with buffs they can offer. As an enchanter, you don't really have to stick in your lane (Dragon lane) but it is highly recommended for you to rotate and make plays. I know you are an enchanter, you stay behind your teammates, but your teammates NEED YOU so DON'T BE LAZY and go MAKE SOME PLAYS! If you see there's a possible fight, just go there and do your job well. Use your ping to warn your ADC that you are roaming so they know when to back off. It's not gonna be your fault if your ADC doesn't listen to you.

When to Pick?

Ideally, you wanna pick enchanter support when you have decent team comp (Balance AP and AD champions and have some frontlines or engager). You can also play enchanter against poke champions to peel off damage from enemy without risking your HP. Despite all that, you can still play an enchanter support but your playstyle is going to be different.

Enchanter Support Champions

Engager/Roam

Engager/Roam Support

Their primary job is to show dominance by locking down enemy champions and make them use all their spells and their abilities. Roaming is very efficient on this job since it will give your team a good start of the game. Take note that engaging support is pretty much useless during teamfight if there's no follow up so be sure that your ally is healthy and prepared for your engage. Try to see if their Ultimate Ability is up for the engage. It is also highly recommended that you take sweeper before you engage from blind spot to make sure the enemy don't know you're there to engage on them. Killing the ward located is not necessary as they can see who is destroying the vision.

When to Pick?

Ideally, you wanna pick engager/roam support when you don't have enough front lines or someone who can initiate fights. This will allow your teammate to follow up whenever you engage under a certain condition. If your team's ability is still on cooldown, or if they're on low HP and mana, that's when your engage won't be valuable. So be aware of your teammates' abilities and their HP and mana.

Engager/Roam Support Chempions :

Poke

Poke Support

Their primary job is to harass enemy laners by damaging and weakening enemy champions. Their goal is to win fight befor the fight even begins. They usually stay in lane (not particularly Dragon Lane) but sometime rotate to melt enemies in teamfight. Most of Poke Supports has decent damage in their kit such as Senna , Brand and Lux

When to Pick?

Ideally, you wanna pick poke supports when your team has a decent front line but lacks damage. If your team lacks magic damage, go with someone who deals MASSIVE magic damage. This also applies when your team lacks physical damage. You have to go with someone who deals TERMENDOUS amount of physical damage.

Poke Support Champions

Peel

Peel Support

Their primary job is to make sure that a prioritized ally doesn't die especially carries and those who have bounties on their head. You have to have a mindset that your carries are your treasure. You DO NOT let your enemy TOUCH them. Literally, simping for your allied champions under certain condition. There are several times when it's too late for you to peel off damage from your allies. You have to decide either to ditch your carries or save them. It is your obligation to save them but it's not your job to int for no reason unless if you sacrifice yourself so your teammates can still live on.

When to Pick?

Every support has their own ways to peel off damage from their allies. In fact, there's not a single support who can't peel off damage from their team. Peeling can be done by disengaging a fight, shielding/healing allies, taking damage for your team or just kill your enemy.

Peel Support Champions (All Supports)

Before the Game Starts

During the champ select, you to think about how your team comp can win against their team comp. Having a front line is good but if the enemy have assassins that can eliminate the backline by flanking, it's not gonna work. Having an assassin is great but if the enemy group up a lot your assassin will be useless against them. So during this phase, all you need to know Counter Pick and Game Plan.

Counter Pick

Against Assassins (AP or AD): Assassins only weakness is tank-heavy champions since they can't one shot them. BUT your backline, on the other hand, (especially your carry) will be in great danger if you pick a Tank Support. Of course, it's STILL GOOD to pick tank champions if your team doesn't have one but your primary job as a Tank Support won't be engaging anymore. Your primary goal as a Tank Support against Assassins is to PEEL OFF DAMAGE from your carries. As long as your team can initiate fights for you, it's better to pick Tank Support who can peel off damage from your carries. But if you don't, you're gonna need an enchanter with a good initiating abilities and peeling capabilities. Surely, you're gonna die more often in lane since you're squishy but your TRUE POWER lies on your initiation. Yeah, you die, but that's just how Supports do their job. NOT TO LET CARRIES DIE. In addition to that, taking [Exhaust] is also good to reduce the damage dealt by assassins to your carries and yourself.
Against Front Lines (Tank and Fighter): Tanks and Fighters only weakness is that they're melee range. ANY kind of supports is viable against these kinds of enemies. It's not your job to counter these Champions, it's your carries' job. Your only job is to do what you do best, and protect your carries so they don't die before they do what they can which is dealing damage.
Against Pokes (AP or AD): Tank Supports usually have nightmares against these types of champions since they're melees and they can't do much if their HP is low before the fight even begins. With that being said, all you need against these types of champions is a champion who can shield the damage or heal back the damage they've dealt to us, or a champion who outrange the enemy poke champions. If the enemy picks Ziggs , then you have no choice but to play Enchanter Support since he outrange every champion in Wild Rift currently.

Game Plan

Game Plan usually thoght during champ select, after champ select, and during the loading screen. I don't really know how to explain on this section but all I know is you need to think, If they have this, what can they do, what should I do, and how do I make this game EXTREMELY UNFAIR for the enemy team. This is all about Micro and Macro managing:

Micro. A term used to define your knowledge about a certain champion and how efficient are you piloting them to gain and press advantages in a game including:

Your cs (creep score) per minute
Kiting (auto-attack while moving to a good position) and orb walking (cancelling auto-attacks and abilities)
Trading (trading HP, mana, spells, abilities, and survivability with enemy champions)
Hitting your skillshots
KDA (Kills, Deaths, Assists)
Using abilities and spells at the right time
Clearing jungle camps as fast as possible

Macro, on the other hand, defined as the way in which you use micro in conjunction with the information you receive about the game during the game (including Champ Select and Loading Screen) to press win conditions over others by gaining and utilizing your advantages on a map-wide scale. This includes macro-based decisions like:

Invading enemy jungler
Wave management
Resource management (HP, Mana, Honeyfruit)
When, where and how you set and deny vision
Lane swaps
Rotations
Roams
Ending the game instead of going for that Baron that'll just stall the game out and potentially throw it
(Too many for my life. I don't get paid enough for this. Send help)

These two will help you when, where, how and why you wanna start initiating a fight. You can improve your micro by playing a lot of games on a certain champions. Macro, on the other side, can be improved by getting a coach (I don't coach by the way) or learn from high elo players from Youtube, Twitch, Proguides, and any other medium you're comfortable with.

Early Game

At the very start of the game, you should be thinking about invading the enemy's jungle, warding their jungle, gain information of their jungler, and show dominance early on. Well, you might wonder, "How am I going to invade the enemy team? I'll just die if they caught me," With that being said, DO NOT INVADE ALONE!!! That's why it's called invade. You show DOMINANCE towards the enemy team by going all 5 (or just 4 excluding Baron lane) in their jungle, fight level 1, put a ward down, or just kill them. How? Well, obviously by using the assist ping feature, or you can just tell them in chat (before the game start AND during the game). Keywords: Show dominance and Information wise.

SHOWING DOMINANCE

The concept of showing dominance is pretty simple. You have what the enemy don't making the game looks VERY UNFAIR for them. It's either their Wards, Visions, Summoner's Spells, HP, Mana, Map Domination and Items.

Invade (Jungle Dominance): Going 5 man in the enemy Dragon side jungle opens up the chance to outnumber the enemy team, allowing you to either trade lvl1, take their resources (Flash, Heal, Exhaust, Wards), put some deep wards, or just kill them to gain a lead early on. It's a coin flip. You might win and you might lose. Don't rush your invade or you might get into a tight spot. Use brushes. After the invade, be sure to just reset (recall to spend gold, or heal HP or Mana). Don't worry about losing 1 or 2 creeps (minions). Regaining your resources (HP, Mana, Cooldown, Item) is our top priority to stay healthy and show dominance in lane.
DO NOT INVADE if your team refuse to do so. Just put 1 deep ward (not too deep) and call it a day.

Lane Dominance: If you did invade and put some wards down, you're gonna have to reset. Well, obviously the wave (a set of minions) will be pushed towards your turret. So what should you do? Freeze it (will be explained below). BUT if you didn't invade, assert your dominance by taking control over the lane brush. Once again, they're gonna be forced to use their resources, which, in this case, is their wards. Even if they did ward, DO NOT BACK DOWN. Stay in the brush and tell them in their face (do not chat) "If you walk up, I'm going to kill you". Of course, they're gonna poke the heck out of you. But guess what? You can trade back with some Auto Attacks and still have more mana than them. Try to avoid pokes as much as you can and go back and forth inside and outside the brush to poke them and make them feel unsafe so they can't walk up and farm as your wave is slowly building up and slowly being pushed.

HOW DO I WIN LANE?

Basically, you stay healthy in lane, while trying your best to waste enemy's resources (HP, Mana, Cooldowns, Spells)

WARDING

Wards can be divided to two types:

Deep Wards (Aggressive): Wards that gives you INSANE advantage for your teammates. Only do this either when you're invading, after crashing waves, and after winning a teamfight. Alert with the dead timer and the enemy's position before you ward so you don't greed and die.
Regular Wards (Neutral): I would like to call it lazy wards since it's so obvious and the enemy can just sweep it with Sweeping Lens but there are times when you absolutely have to do it. Only do this when the enemy's wave is crashed towards your outer turrets to avoid getting ganked by enemy jungler.

Safe Wards (Passive): This is a very optimal ward only when you're behind in Gold, Farm, Level, Objective and inner turrets. Usually happens during Mid to Late Game

LOSING LANE

Okay, I got it. Assert dominance bla bla bla. Fine. But what if THE ENEMY TEAM did that to us? Obviously we have to play the losing side. It's not as easy as you think since I bet most of you will greed for creeps but here's what you gotta do:

Since you're losing lane, the enemy will push the wave as slow as possible (unless if they're stupid enough to give you free gold and EXP).
Our primary goal is to stay healthy and still get to farm.
First off, we want to be ready to give up control of minion wave at Level 1.
Position yourself to land skill shot harass and try to hit your CC so your carry can follow up your CC for either a trade or an all-in.
If you're melee champions without a ranged abilities unlike Thresh , Blitzcrank or Braum , I suggest you to wait till you get Level 3. Only by then you can harass the enemy team. DO NOT try to mess with the enemy if the enemy has range, level, and vision advantage. This will cause you to feed.
Obviously we don't wanna give the enemy to farm for free. Try making some plays to neutralize the situation by poking them.
Once the 2nd wave arrived, you can freeze it slightly away from your tower's range. This will allow you to farm safely under tower while the enemy is in your territory.

See that yellow line? THAT's a divider to determine which side is your territory. If the enemy passes that line, it opens up the chance needed for your Jungler or your Mid Lane to gank and it's gonna be hard for the enemy laner to react.
DO NOT ping your jungler if he's on the other side of the map. Keep it frozen right there until somehow you can get a lead.
While your wave is frozen there, the 2nd wave will come. If the enemy try to crash it under tower, try to trim it (kill some minions) so the wave stays in that position making the enemy laner to greed even more.
Trimming the wave can deny your enemy laner to try and crash it so they can dive you with their jungler.
DO NOT freeze IF the enemy outranges both you and your carry since you're gonna get punished for freezing it.
Remember, our primary goal is to stay high health and to get farm.
Keep in mind that when you're being pressured under turret (if the wave is crashed), the enemy will harass you if you try to walk up for the range/caster minions since the melees are harder to punish on.
Try to minimize this by killing what you can with range abilities and dodging side to side to make it harder for them to get a good spot to harass you.

Middle Game

How to play support in the mid game

Now’s the time to find opportunities to roam if possible. This should be more than doable if you’re ahead and have, for example, already destroyed the opposing team’s turret in the bot lane. See if you can rotate to other lanes to turn a losing situation around or create more of an uneven match-up.

Also, if you do go for a wander, ensure you’re always heading with or to another player. A solo support is generally a waste unless you desperately need to gather some gold in an abandoned lane. Ensure you’re giving your team vision of key objectives such as Baron and Dragon that your opponents may look to take as the game opens up.

(Will be updated soon, sorry, busy class schedule, homeworks and chores)

Late Game

How to play support in the late game

Stick with the team and continue doing whatever your chosen champion does best. Games can turn in a single moment during this phase, so if you’re playing an aggressive support and see an opening to catch an enemy out of position, then initiate that fight so your team can try to push for core.

Otherwise, stick by your team and keep up with the ward placement so you can avoid being caught off-guard. Protect your carries, use your items when applicable and you’ll have done your part to secure the win.

(Will be updated soon, sorry, busy class schedule, homeworks and chores)

[2.6a] How to Play Support Role, the Backbone of the Team

How to Play Support Role, the Backbone of the Team

Intro

Is Support role Important

Types of Support

Enchanter

Engager/Roam

Poke

Peel

Before the Game Starts

Early Game

Middle Game

How to play support in the mid game

Late Game

How to play support in the late game

References

Guide

Intro

Is Support role Important

Types of Support

Enchanter

Engager/Roam

Poke

Peel

Before the Game Starts

Early Game

Middle Game

Late Game

References