LoL Bot Lane Matchups Diamond Support Guide

LoL Bot Lane Matchups Diamond Support Guide by Dumcha

I thought I’d make an updated guide due to the end of the season coming soon and people are grinding games to try and hit a specific mark before the season ends. I thought this might help some people out.

So first of all I want to talk about the current power picks in solo queue. These are only my opinion and you are all fully welcome to disagree with this. These are not the only champions you can carry with, but I do believe that they will give you the highest amount of success.

AD Carry/Marksman:

1. Corki – Right now I personally believe Corki is the strongest adc in the game. He’s the strongest adc early and mid game, which I believe are the most important parts of the game in solo queue, because it decides who’s going to win about 9/10 times unless you throw. His split damage between Magic and Attack damage makes him insanely hard to itemize against.

2. Tristana – Probably the best late game AD Carry in the game right now. She used to be #1, but due to the recent nerfs to her Q. Her late game isn’t as strong as it used to be. She’s still a fantastic pick though.

3. Lucian – Extremely strong during early and mid game. Most people are building IE -> Statikk Shiv right now. He’s a strong lane bully, but his late game is pretty poor compared to his counter parts. His recent E nerf hurt him a bit too.

4. Twitch – Botrk -> Ghostblade is the usual build path for Twitch. What makes Twitch such an incredible pick for solo queue is his ability to create plays and create picks. After taking bot tower and Twitch has his blade. He can basically walk into any lane invisible and create a pick. People have a very difficult time warding correctly in solo queue, which you can take advantage of as Twitch.

5. Vayne – Vayne is making a comeback in my opinion. All the other ADC’s are being nerfed and she’s received a buff. Although her early laning phase is poor, once she gets Botrk she can duel pretty much any adc and split push extremely hard. Her late game is also insane due to her self-peel.

6. Kog’Maw – Kog has fallen off pretty hard due to heavy assassins. Although he’s still a strong pick, it takes awhile for him to scale up, and he’s a huge sitting duck when it comes to people diving onto you. Right now Jarvan is a really popular jungler and Jarvan can completely screw over Kog’Maw’s day with a good ultimate.

7. Cait – Probably the strongest laner of any AD carry. Great for turret sieges. Doesn’t offer much late game apart from range.

8. Jinx – Strong laning phase, strong late game. Her lack of escapes and weakness against assassin’s is what deters a lot of people from picking her. She’s pretty strong with certain supports like Janna.

9. Draven – Incredibly strong laning phase and has a crazy chance to snowball due to his passive. He’s unsafe and takes a lot of skill to play. Also if you go behind on him you’ll be pretty useless. He’s high-risk high-reward.

Next I want to talk about the main part of this guide. Where is support currently heading? What is strong right now and why?

Peel supports like Janna are making a huge comeback. This is primarily due to Heal and Exhaust nerfs a few patches ago. This makes people want to play more assassins like Zed. Janna is extremely good at peeling and fending off assassins. Safe laners such as Janna and Nami are some of the best picks right now.

Below, I will be listing the order of what I believe to be the strongest supports. I will also list which AD Carrys work best with them and what support you can play against it in order to survive/win.

Supports

1. Nami:

• Nami is probably the strongest laning support in the game right now. Her sustain and trading potential is unmatched. She works well with almost any ADC in the game, I personally really love Nami and Twitch. You can have twitch go invis and then put your e on Twitch which will give him a movement speed boost, he can then open up and continue slowing the opponent allowing for more poison stacks. Starting W on Nami is the correct way to play her. Throwing an auto attack onto the enemy at level 1, and then W-ing them and letting the heal comeback to you makes it basically impossible for you to lose a trade. Try to always get a bounce-back if you can, and it’s even better if you can get a double-bounce-back.
• To Counter Nami: There isn’t much that can counter Nami at the moment. Picking Morgana is probably your best bet because you can black shield her bubble. But Nami has sustain, and Morgana doesn’t. So chances are you will still probably get pushed out of lane. Thresh has a lot of trouble against Nami if Thresh doesn’t hit level 2 first, you have to try and land a hook and immediately grab a kill with ignite to half the heal. If Nami hits 2 before Thresh or at the same time, you probably won’t get much out of it, because a good Nami will stay behind minions and harass with W and autos. Sona can also work because you both have poke and sustain. This lane is a pretty big skill match-up. Tristana’s E halves the heals that Nami will be throwing out, so sometimes Trist can be an okay pick. Janna can also hold her own in this lane.

2. Janna:

• Janna at the moment is a fantastic support pick. She has one of the highest winrates in solo queue and for a good reason. Although she doesn’t provide massive kill potential, what she does provide is the ability to trade frequently and safely. I like to run AD reds on Janna and start with the blue support item. When I shield myself at level 1 and start harassing the opponent, my autos chunk and it puts a lot of pressure onto the enemy. Late game Janna is basically unmatched in terms of peel. Her ultimate is probably one of the best ultimates in the game if used correctly, as it can completely reset a fight in your teams favor.
• To Counter Janna: Poke/Sustain is going to be your best bet against Janna in lane. Blitzcrank and Thresh are also decent early on because they will outrade if you get a hook. Sona is a great champion to pick against Janna because you can constantly poke Janna down and heal back up. Janna has no direct healing ability other than her ultimate, so in lane you can poke her down she won’t be able to heal back. She has no way to engage onto you, so it’s very safe to just run up and poke her.

3. Thresh:

• Thresh is an insanely strong utility support that takes a lot of practice to master. Thresh works well with basically every ADC listed at the beginning of this post. His trading at level 1 is very strong if you start flay because your autos will do more damage than the enemies. This also helps you rush level 2 faster. Once hitting level 2 before your opponent, try to flay into a hook and ignite for first blood. Thresh has a ton of pressure in lane, because hitting 1 good hook can win the entire lane.
• To Counter Thresh: I believe that the best counter to him in lane is actually Nami. At level 1, Nami will outrade Thresh every single time. Nami’s W and auto outrange both of Thresh’s auto and E. So you can constantly auto him down while staying out of his range, and then using your W you let the bounce come back to you giving you a successful trade. Zyra is also superior to Thresh. Thresh has no sustain and poke is incredibly strong against him and out ranges him. Morgana is great as well, due to her Black Shield stopping his strong CC from hitting. But she offers little in terms of consistantly winning trades. ADCs with dashes are pretty strong against Thresh due to them being able to dodge his hook. So Lucian, Caitlyn, Vayne, and Ezreal work well.

4. Zilean:

• I feel like Zilean is more of a competitive pick at the moment, but in solo queue I still feel like he’s insanely strong. His poke in lane is incredible strong but he is insanely squishy. Zilean is picked pretty much solely for his incredible ultimate. At the moment with assassins being so strong, the ability to give someone a resurrection is amazing.
• To Counter Zilean: Zilean has 0 sustain and is really squishy. There a few things you can play against Zilean to beat him. The biggest thing is probably poke/sustain. The ability to sustain through his bombs can render him pretty useless. I recommend Nami and Sona because they can really sustain and trade with him in the early laning phase. Leona/Thresh/Blitz are all pretty strong against him even after he gets 6. He’s insanely squishy so if you catch him you can kill him instantly and burn his ultimate.

4. Morgana:

• Morgana isn’t AS strong as she was back when kill lanes were a thing. But now that poke/sustain lanes are making a comeback Morgana isn’t as dominant as she once was. She still works great against champions that have an important single target cc: Thresh, Ashe, Varus, Blitz, Nautilus, ect. She’s still a great pick. She’s just not as dominant in lane against poke/sustain.
• To Counter Morgana: My personal favorite champion to play against Morgana is Sona. Sona outsustains Morgana, she outpokes Morgana. When you ult as Sona. Make sure to hit both the ADC and the Support. Morgana can only shield one person. So if you hit both you’re going to get at least one stun. Then just focus the one that gets stunned. Karma is fantastic against Morgana. You can poke her out of lane constantly with Q’s and R+Q. Using your E you can get a movement speed boost making it easier to dodge bindings. Zyra is also great against Morgana. Although she doesn’t have sustain. You can easily poke her with Q+W.

5. Braum:

• Braum has a weak laning phase and has fallen off a lot due to constant nerfs to him. Pairing Braum with Lucian is probably one of the best combos you can pick with Braum because Lucian’s passive is great at proccing Braum’s passive quicker. Pairing Braum with a late game ADC such as Kog/Trist/Jinx is also incredibly strong due to them both scaling extremely well in late game. Caitlyn is also quite good with Braum because she can add pushing power and poke into the lane.
• To Counter Braum: As stated above, Braum has a mediocre laning phase due to him having no pushing power or harass other than his Q. So shoving him to tower is usually the best way to render him useless. Zyra and Karma are fantastic against Braum due to their poke and pushing power. Morgana is also great because she can black shield people who are going to get stunned off of Braum’s passive.

5. Sona:

• Sona is making a comeback. Her poke and sustain is pretty much unmatched at the moment along with her fantastic gamechanging ultimate. She wins lots of lanes through poking but her biggest problem is her squishiness and that fact that if you get ganked she has little-to-no cc unless you want to burn her ult, which lowers your kill pressure significantly. She works great with pokey strong laners. Such as Caitlyn, Lucian, Kog, Jinx. Running Sona/Vayne is extremely hard because you’re both so squishy and Vayne’s lane presence is usually outclassed by the enemy adc. I don’t recommend running this lane unless you’re both well-practiced in it.
• To Counter Sona: Sona is insanely squishy. Any kill lane is fantastic against Sona. Thresh/Blitz/Leona are all great against Sona. Poke usually isn’t too great against Sona because she has the sustain to go through the poke. Just punish her squishiness.

6. Alistar:

• Alistar is personally one of my favorite supports. The buff to his ultimate made him an insanely strong support pick. His early laning phase isn’t that strong as he has almost no trading power. You usually want to just sit back and try to farm level 1-3. Unless you get an early level 2 don’t try to engage unless you know the trade will be in your favor due to creep aggro or something. One of my favorite things to do on Alistar, is allow the enemy to push into your turret. And right as the last creeps are dying, flash Q onto their adc and then W them into the tower. This catches a lot of adc’s off guard and will guarantee you at least both of their summoner spells. Alistar’s strength comes from his teamfighting and skirmishing. When using his ult it’s almost impossible for you to die, and you can just run around and peel or try to land a good knock-up on multiple targets.
• To Counter Alistar: Alistar has an extremely poor laning phase in terms of trading. His only option of trading is to dive onto you. Champs that can disengage easily like Janna and Nami are great against Alistar.

7. Zyra:

• Zyra received some nerfs last split, but overall she’s still an amazing poke/disengage champ. Her disengage is still considered one of the best out of all supports besides maybe Janna and Nami. Her laning phase is ridiculously strong by throwing out Q+Ws, and putting about 2-3 points into your Q. She works really well with most ADCs due to her strong laning phase. She is quite squishy so you have to make sure you don’t play overly aggressive.
• To Counter Zyra: Zyra is insanely squishy and has no sustain. So any poke she takes is going to stick with her. I suggest poke champions like Nami, Sona, and Karma. Make sure not to dive her. Her plants and disengage can make you miscalculate her damage. Sustain is the best way to beat Zyra.

8. Karma:

• Karma is a utility poke champion. She’s very strong in lane but lacks that gamechanging ultimate that you find in Zyra/Sona/Nami. Karma works really well with most ADCs. Corki/Karma is a strong lane. After the BT nerfs, Corki isn’t AS strong as he used to be, but this lanes poke is still quite strong. Karma/Kog and Karma/Cait are also really strong lanes.
• To Counter Karma: She has no reliable sustain. So Nami and Sona are both really strong here, because they can sustain against the poke that Karma is throwing out. As for an ADC, it really doesn’t matter who you pick as long as it’s a top tier ADC. Just make sure you avoid her R+Q’s, and try to pick a sustain support. Karma thrives against people without sustain.

Honorable mentions:

Lulu: I actually think she is really strong against certain champs like Zed, Fiora, Yasuo, and Fizz. But right now she’s better to go top lane.

Soraka: I’m still figuring her out. I think she’s decent but I haven’t played enough of her yet to fully place her on this list anywhere. Probably going to wait for the pro season to start up before I make an assessment of Soraka. But I think in the right hands she might be deadly.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or comments go ahead and leave them below.