League of Legends Being a Better Support Player

by Thresho_Ni

Many people who are playing high ELO ranked games probably didn’t even think about most of the aspects on this list so here I am. I will make a list of things you probably didn’t know or never did before and what it will do is improve your self-consciousness about LoL and your overall performance.

Don’t expect this post to be “5 quick tips on how to rank up fast” because I want to focus on how to be a better player, and hitting a rank is an only transitional process.

Those are things that most of challenger players and pro’s focus on.

SUPPORT ROLE:

• INFO ABOUT STACKED WAVE

Whenever there are several waves on your line, you need to inform the team about it, because it can be used in several ways:

1. You can go down to the objective as you will have prio
2. You can dive/tire the opponent under the tower
3. You can save the opponent’s dive or let go of the rook if you know that it is impossible to defend the dive
4. You can call your jungler if you expect the opponent to gank you before the wave crashes

In all situations, you should ping the wave that comes out of your base if something is going on. The key is to inform in advance

• PRIO = DEEP WARD

YOU HAVE A PRIO AND YOU BLADE THE LINES?

Go down to the river and then to the enemy’s Gromp / Krugs (depending on which side you are on) and place a ward there to increase the detectability of the enemy jungler

Also, remember to use vision plants that are in your opponent’s jungle to prevent them from being used

• DEEP WARD ON LANE (FOR TP)

WARD ON THE BACK (BOT)

After filling the wave against the enemy tower, leave the YT in the deepest bush on the line or at the wall (beyond the tower’s reach).

1. If you push the wave, it will bounce at you
2. There may be a slow push that you want to contest (and the opposing jungler may try to e.g. secure)

a) Yellow trinket gives you information and junglers coming from lane

b) Yellow Trinket in such a prepared situation is a very good opportunity to flank TP

• AVOIDING DIVES

WHEN I’M BEING DIVED

Sometimes it is impossible to defend my line (I am weak side) and then the opponent tries to dive or deny us (we have to run away from the tower)

Often in such a situation, if the opponents are still standing on the bot (they do not allow us to return to the tower), it is better to run to MID through your jungle than to stand AFK on the bot

Thus, we can either give prio to mid and then cross the map to another line or immediately inform our MID and he can do the cross-map himself

• ROAM AFTER FIRST RESET

At each reset, I should consider whether I have to go BOT right away or I can roam

Quick roam is practically going to the lower mid, pinning there / clearing the vision and returning the bot

A medium roam can also be the execution of porch pressure in the middle

A long roam is, for example, for a herald / TOP when I know that my ADC can stand alone for a while and whether I will gain something on the map

It also depends on my character – for range support that likes to trade on the bot, it’s better to do short roams

• WHERE DO WE NEED VISION CONTROL

WHERE WE NEED A VISION BEFORE AN OBJECTIVE

When the objective under which we play is determined, I have to remind in which quarter of the map / which side of the center we want to have visions

It’s best to ping and order specific players where to put the vision

• WARD ON MID LANE

TO PLACE WARDS BEHIND OPPONENT’s BACK ON MID

When in the midgame, I’m in the mid, I try to put the ward straight on the line behind the place where the waves “crash”

This gives me information in advance when the opponent wants to gather for mid prio, shows where the enemy duo is and allows playing TP on the back “

• SWAP FOR HERALD

AT THE FIRST RESETS, THINK ABOUT THE POSSIBLE HERALD SWAP For your part or your opponent, the first resets can lead to a swap to the top to play a herald or simply to change matchups. Try to swap only if you manage to set your lane well (push it through before the reset) and try to learn when your opponent can look for a swap and inform your team BEFORE they get on the TOP

• MAXIMIZE SWEEPERS

DON’T ATTACK THE WARDS YOU EXPOSED WITH SWEEPER

In the midgame, when you go with several people, the person who used the sweeper should not attack the wards, but the teammates next to them because then you can continue reaching with the sweeper fired and not stand and waste it during auto attacks

• DETERMINE IF I GAME WEAK OR STRONG SIDE

I HAVE TO KNOW IF I AM STRONG SIDE OR WEAK SIDE

I need to know if the jungler and my team will be playing the next few minutes under my part of the map or the other one and make decisions depending on it

• LVL 1 WARD

WARD LVL1 BEFORE WAVE APPEARS Sometimes, depending on the matchup, when I know that I will need a ward earlier, it is worth placing it while still in the bush at lvl1 Thanks to this, the opponent does not know that I put the ward (as opposed to when I approach the ward after the laning phase has already started)

• WEAK SIDE – DOING CAMPS

IF YOU’RE AFRAID OF CROSS MAP, I SHOULD DO JUNGLE CAMPS

Sometimes when I know that my team is playing around the second part of the map and therefore I cannot come to my tower, it is worth at least to clean the jungle camps in this quarter of the jungle at that time

Not only that, at least we farm something, we also leave nothing in the jungle that the opponent could farm

• REACTION TO THE FIGHT IN THE MID (Not for soloq)

REACTION TO MID SKIRMISH

“PukiStyle I’m running to the MID, Kaštelan I’ll be here in 15 seconds”

When there is any mid-action in early, it’s worth it if I have the opportunity to run there right away

In the worst case, I will move back to the bot in a few seconds, but even this can make the opponents stop chasing our teammate and it will be, for example, 1 for 0, not 1 for 1

At best, I reverse skirmish in the mid and we can come very forward

INDEPENDENT OF ROLE:

• TIMING SUMMONERS
• WAVE MANAGEMENT
• PING OPPONENT’S WARDS
• TIME OPPONENT’S WARDS IN EARLY GAME
• FAKE WARDING (entering fog of war to make enemies think you warded somewhere)
• FAKE ROAM (same as in fake warding)
• CONTROLLING ENEMY CONTROL WARDS (checking if the enemy has bought a control ward and then think where he could put it if he comes back without it)
• MATCHUP LIST (make yourself a list of matchups you have played, how did you do, prons and cons, tips, then it will be easier for you to play those matchups)
• INFO ABOUT MATCHUP AFTER DRAFT (in the loading screen and every free time between games, think what’s your game plan, when the enemy has power spike when you have power spike, what is our win condition, etc)
• CONTROL WARDS > POTS IN MID-GAME (self-explanatory)
• BUY CONTROL WARDS (every recall you should leave the base with at least one control ward unless you don’t have any space in your backpack)
• TRINKET CHANGE (dependent on role change your wards to Oracle or Farsight)
• USING YOUR PRIO (Think if you can step off the line and put pressure on other lines or go gank/dive)
• CONSCIOUS VISION DEPENDING ON THE MAP
• MAKE YOURSELF A TIER LIST (simply make a tier list of your champion pool, your favorite champs, what are their good and bad matchups, etc)
• INFO ABOUT POWER SPIKES (when my champ is significantly stronger than other, which item or level gives is an advantage above others)
• TIMING RESET BEFORE OBJECTIVE (you should avoid situations where your team couldn’t set up an objective because you didn’t time your reset right and couldn’t compete for 4v5 fight)
• MAKE PRIO BEFORE OBJECTIVE (if you want to take baron/drake/herald make sure you have prio on your lane so if enemies decide to compete, no matter if they win or lose the fight, they gonna lose some gold and exp that’s in creeps or jungle camps)
• PLANNING YOUR FIRST WARD (You have to predict the route of the opposite jungler – if you know there may be a level 2 gank then place a trinket but if there is no such basis then put up later. If you are sure about LVL 2 to gank, you can even put a trinket before the ones appear so that it will renew faster then or change it to Oracle)
• VISION PLANT (Learn how to use vision plant to show important places but not to see on the lines that I used it)
• ANALYSE IDOL’S GAME (Humanoid in conversation with Veggie – “I did the biggest improvement on the line as I started watching Faker stream and giving a pause every 5 seconds and I was wondering what he was doing and why. It is worth choosing 2-3 players at a world level who play in the style we would like to play and model on them. My development as a player is 80% playing soloq / scrims and 20% watching others and analyzing outside the game”)
• DON’T BE SCARED OF USING YOUR ULTIMATE (my ult cooldown is a useable resource. I’m throwing Varus ult to burn him a flash. We shouldn’t keep our Ulti, especially if it gives CC)