How to Play Support in League of Legends

My main role within League of Legends is Support, and I’ve been told I do an incredibly good job at it – saving team members with twitch responses that nullify any sort of lethal damage; if I had $5 for every time my friends told me they loved me for saving them, I’d be able to perhaps buy a full-price triple-A release. From one Support to another, or someone who fancies trying the role out, let me pass on what I’ve learned to you, as it may save you a lot of grief when playing League of Legends outside the comfortable circle of friends – we all know that League of Legends is dark and full of terrors on good days – and may improve your standing with the role.

There are a few things to consider when playing or preparing to play as a Support, two of them being your Runes and Masteries. Runes and Masteries, for those who don’t know, add additional values, bonuses or buffs to your champion’s statistics, such as their Attack Damage, Ability Power, or whether or not they start with extra gold at the beginning of a match. Finding the right combination of both can really give that early-game advantage if you know what you’re doing, and can potentially make you a formidable force during the mid- and late-game. Personally speaking, as a Support, you should be concerning yourself with three things when building your Runes and Masteries: mana regeneration, Ability Power for your Runes and Utility for your Masteries. Other things you have to think of are Ability cooldown reductions and Summoner Spells, both of which I’ll get into later.

Mana regeneration speaks for itself; the more mana regeneration you have, the faster your mana can restore itself. You need mana when you’re playing as Support, as your supportive Abilities can consume a lot of mana. Having a high mana regeneration rate means you can sustain yourself and your ADC / teammates with your supportive Abilities for much longer before you have to wait for it to fully restore. As it’s your prime concern during the early-game to keep your ADC alive, a high mana regeneration rate means you can cast your supportive Abilities unto them more frequently before running out of juice, and hopefully keeping them alive in the process.

A lot of your supportive Abilities will benefit from additional Ability Power on top of your base AP stat, meaning that a healing Ability that heals for 100 health can heal for 100 health plus an additional bonus relative to how much AP you have. Coupling this with a high mana regeneration rate means that you will be able to cast supportive abilities with a higher output relative to its mana cost, which can result in a very efficient system: you will be outputting more potential for the same amount of cost.

The last thing to think for this part for your preparation is Utility, which will give you a good kickstart into the beginning of the match as a Support. With the majority of your Mastery points in Utility, you will receive additional bonuses such as reduced Summoner Spell cooldown, additional gold every so seconds, plus one gold for every minion killed within your proximity, plus experience when near a higher level teammate, and additional starting gold among other things. All these things can really help when starting a match in League of Legends, and the majority of your Mastery points should go here. The the final four Mastery points should go into Ability cooldown reduction, which is another thing that’s essential to you as a Support.

Cooldown reduction reduces the time it takes for you to use an Ability again once you’ve spent it. The highest amount of reduction is 40 percent. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but every percent counts when playing as Support. The higher cooldown reduction you have, the quicker you can use your abilities again, and the more times you can cast supportive abilities to your teammates in times of need.

You’ll notice that I’m not going into any specific means on how to build your Runes or Masteries. This is because I’m only giving an overview of what you should focus on when playing Support, giving you the freedom to build Runes and Masteries based on your own playstyle, or however you see fit, with my advice in mind should you decide to take it.

When you’ve finished building your Runes and Masteries, you should consider building an Item Set to compliment them and your playstyle. When building your Item Set, you need to focus on a few things, mainly Ability Power, cooldown reduction and mana. Building items that give your Ability Power, like my explanation for choosing AP for your Runes, will significantly boost your output when you cast supportive Abilities; building cooldown reduction items will get you that 40 percent cooldown reduction quicker, thus allowing you to use your Abilities much sooner after they’ve been cast; and building mana items will give you a lot of ammunition to use your Abilities with. Coincidentally, there are certain item within League of Legends that bounce off each other, meaning one item can benefit or increase in output from another. For example, there are a few items that grant more Ability Power per X percentage of mana. This means that the more mana you have, the more relative AP the item will give you.

Another item you should put into your Item Set – an item that’s essential in your role – is an item that gives you gold, or increases your gold income. This is exceptionally beneficial, as it’ll allow you to buy your items faster and be a more powerful Support as you enter the mid-game. There are three gold income items of which I think best fit the Support role in League of Legends: Relic Shield, Spellthief’s Edge and Ancient Coin. Either one of these items help you earn in gold in some way; you should look these items up in the game’s Item Sets feature in your Summoner Profile and choose whichever one you think will best fit your play style. However, be wary of how other players may interpret your intentions when you choose a certain item. For example, the Relic Shield allows  health to be transferred to a nearby teammate upon killing a minion, along with said minion’s worth in gold. As Supports aren’t meant to farm minions if they can help it, your ADC may take offense to you “stealing their farm”. A simple explanation of the item’s purpose could possible resolve the matter, but I personally would recommend the hassle. Your decision may differ however.

Another essential item the Sightstone. Buy this, as it’ll help lift the fog of war on the map and alert your teammates to incoming opponents. What’s more, it refills whenever you return to your Nexus.

Lastly, you’ll need to choose whichever Summoner Spells you think are best for your role as Support. Personally, I choose Teleport and Clairvoyance. These spells allow me to get back into the fray with my ADC or my teammates whenever I have to recall, and to expose an area anywhere on the map should I suspect any incoming opponents to either myself or my team.

Now that you’re done with building your Runes, Masteries and your Item Set, it’s time to practice with champions that have Support as their role, be it primary or secondary. A few matches against bots will help you learn your chosen champion, and it will also allow you to get to grips with the Item Set you have built and to possibly find amendments or improvements to said Set along the way. You will have to call your roll immediately once you enter the lobby, like you would normally for any other role. Hopefully things will go smoothly, and you’ll have your chosen Support champion without any qualms.

Once your game starts, buy your starting items and follow your ADC to the Bottom Lane (Bot-Lane). Whilst in Bot-Lane, it is your job to ensure your ADC stays alive and that they farm the incoming minions for gold. If you have your gold income item, which you should, you’ll be able to feed off of your ADC’s farm in some way. As far as the early-game is concerned, you should worry about three things: keeping your ADC alive, getting assists and not dying. Keeping your ADC alive will allow you to get assists, and not dying will let you keep your ADC alive to get kills. There is a co-dependence between the ADC and Support, whether players admit it or not (or even see it).

Once you enter the mid-game, you should ideally have at least a couple of your items from your Item Set already; by then you should have a fair amount of AP, mana and cooldown reduction when. From the mid- and late-game, you may decide to shift your focus slightly from your ADC to the rest of the team at large – especially when team fights start occurring.

As a Support, you should be vigilant, aware, and conscious of where everyone else is on the map and whether or not they need support. Place wards in strategic choke points where you think your opponents are likely to sneak up on you; invest in items that give your Ability Power, Ability cooldown reduction and mana; cast supportive Abilities on who you think needs it most; use your spells tactically; and do your best to keep your ADC alive in the early-game and the rest of your team alive in the mid- and late-game.

I hope my advice will do you well should you choose to try out the Support role, or if you are already a Support and are looking for guidance. If you do take my advice on board and it works out for you, please come back and leave a comment below on how your experience fared. From one Support to another: good luck out there, and have fun in League of Legends as Support!

This article is based solely on the experiences, opinions and thoughts of its author. Your experiences, opinions and thoughts may differ, and that’s okay; just don’t be rude about it.