User blog:YourPrivateNightmare/The Support, an essay

=The Support, an essay=

Hello fellow friends and enemies, once again, I have risen from the depths of human waste to bring my blessing unto thee...erhm...yeah...well I got some more sh@t to bother you with. This time it'S something big. I wanted to this for a long time and now I finally have the time for it. This is supposed to be a collection of all my thought on the topic of Support. Let's get to it.

Definition
First of all, how is the support role currently defined (current Meta): A support is a champion who:

a) is supposed to go to the botlane together with a marksman/ADC.

b) is supposed to aid his marksman in lane and his teammates in fight by utilizing buffs, shields, heals, various forms of cc, or supportive items

c) shines through his utility and does not need a great amount of gold and items to do so (optional)

This is, I think, a good summary of what a support is. Now more about his duties and responsibilities.

How do I support?
Contrary to common depictions, supports are not just fragile warding machines, "guy who dies first"s or the people who go botlane because noone knew who else to put there. A support has many different responsibilities, especially in the early phase of the game, or laning phase, to be exact.

- A good support should always keep an eye on the map. Why? Because the ADC is most of the time busy farming and not getting hit by skillshots Okay, don't get me wrong on this one, EVERYBODY should watch the map, but as an ADC (in my opinion the hardest role to master) you have to look out to get every last hit possible, maintain poking the enemy, while keeping an eye on the second enemy botlaner, also dodgin various skillshots or staying out of range from cc. You can keep track of many things, but certainly not of the whole map all the time This is where the support comes in handy. Since, as a support you don't have to keep last-hitting, you have more time to watch the map on the lookout for: enemies missing in lane, the latest appearance of the enemy jungler, or even observe the playstyle of enemy players and use it against them. Of course you also have to maintain your job as keeping the enemy ADC and support at bay and landing skillshots or cc whenever possible/necessary/useful. But still...due to seemingly "standing in the bush, watching the ADC farm" (which isn't generally the case, but sometimes kinda true) you have a lot of spare time to do other stuff.

- A good support MUST always be prepared to die for his ADC, given that there is the possibility that the ADC will make it (no love suicides please). This is a common thing no to do as a support. Soloqueue is mostly: "every man on his own", save your ass by yourself, because everyone else is busy saving theirs. What you should do is, take the bullet for the ADC if he'S getting focused, literrally flash in fornt of skillshots even if it just makes him win a trad so he can keep farming. Don't hesitate to go ham on the and die if it gives your ADC a doublekill. And my personal favorite thing to do is baiting enemies in teamfights by bringing myself in bad positions so they will waste precious spells opn me first, while I drop all my utility at once, dying with the knowledge that tehy jsut wasted a shitload of their killing potential on me alone, while the rest of my team can now rip them apart.

- A good support has to build accordingly. And this doesn't mean, buying and calling it a day. When I go supporting I'm always aiming to buy items which have useful auras or nice active abilities. EVERY item with an active or an aura can be considered a support item (except for ,s ince that keeps you from getting focused). Yes, even can be considered a support item since it will increase your APCs damage on the target. I'm not saying that it's an item oyu should rush, nor is it a core item, but at the right time, with the right team, a support with this item can have a major impact on the game.

- Also another point is that most people think: "SUPPORTS DON'T DO DAMAGE, SO DON'T BUY IT!" Yes, with this one I'M addressing those people who say is a noob support and if she buys AP she's retarded. This is not the F@#%cking case. Nidalee can be an awesome support in terms of: sustainheal, AS buff, armor & mres debuff, extended bushcontrol and vision, supreme poking damage AND (a thing that is unusual for supports) mobility that can help you escape from sticky situations. YES, going hard AP on botlane Nidalee is difficult if you don't get many assists/kills, BUT if she gets a few items she can be superuseful to oppress enemy lanes and in late game, when she has a decent offensive build she can 1v1 kill people, while still providing the SAME supportive qualities she'd have if she went on a full-support build. Get ? Yes, of course, unless you can make sure to always have at least 3 wards with you. Buying ? Also Yes, since it helps you SPAM your supportive abilities. Finally, a little thing to think about: What's better? Having 4 damaging players and 1 guy who has a shitload of utility and nothing else OR having 4 damaging player and 1 guy who has a shitload of utility AND deals damage? (warning, does not apply to all supports)

This being mentioned, I'd say we move on to the next topic: Unusual, anti meta supports:

You lame Meta sheep!
One thing I really wanna point out here is...EVERYONE can support. Literally! Every goddamn champ in this game CAN be a support, since, looking at the definition give before, a support ONLY has to aid his ADC and team by providing extended vision through wards or take supportive part in teamfights AND buy fitting items.

So at this point, even can support. I agree in most cases this would suck hard, since good ol' Morde needs Spellvamp, damage, farm, all of which he doesn't really get fast enough to scale with the enemy. On the other hand, he is a supreme harassing champ, lacking cc, but making up for it by having a anti poke passive which allows him to harass freely, a defensive buff working on allies also, and an ult which can turn any fight in your favor if executed correctly. Okay, that was an extreme example, but here are some better ones:

The Forgotten


Pre Rework on this one. Heimy is a strong support, he has a supportive passive, 2 free wards, wards whcih kill people, a blind/stun and a weak, but reliable poke. Baiterdinger can get enemies to chase you to your tower, losing half of their hp on the way, realising they can't dive and kill and having to turn back, only to face the fact that they are trapped between a tower and Heimy turrets. Shit happens! He's not your average support, but he IS a support, so if I see anyone calling me a "retard" for going Supporterdinger again, I'm gonna find this guy, drag him out on the yard by his hair and beat him to DEATH while the whole neighbourhood watches...or something like that.



Shen....Shenshenshen...a difficult case. A superior top laner due to his sustained damage, spam shield, free teleport and whatsoever (literally, this guy has like ONE damaging ability, and he can make laning a living hell for oyu, how borken is that?). What many ignore is the fact, that Shenmeistah was actually supposed to be a support. Just look at his abilities: He has a ranged poke, being an energy using champ, meaning that he doesn't really run out of ressources and can keep poking 24/7. This Q spell also marks the enemy, granting his allies HEAL for attacking it. Shen applies frggin LIFESTEAL to an enemy. Shen. can. throw. sustain. at. people. He also has an antipoke shield, a tuant, which is the msot powerful protective cc ability, I believe, and his ult is pretty self explanatory, (he also has HP scaling damage, and HP is nowadays the easiest thing to get as a support). De facto, awesome support, but hey, I can't get kills if I support so I'll enver going to do it...that'S your average bronze player right there.



Generally not a common pick, very mana dependent, but really good atr supporting. Nice cc on Q, defensive buff on W which is also a self heal (hooray, supreme baiting abilities), speed buff on E and the nice ult, taunt has been explained before. Do it people!



Yes I am for real with this one. He even has it as his secondary tag. Get crit runes, build and you can be anything. I mean just form his kit, he's somewhat like, A heal for himself, a spamable slow + poke, a Movement speed and AD steroid (AS in nunu's case) and an AoE slowing ult (and it'S global!). All you have to consider is, that you ahve to build some damage items later on, otherwise you're jsut a slowing machine, sqishy and without damage, so get that and whoop some asses!



Guess what? She's also tagged support! Stun with Q, antiescape with W, spamable AoE slow with Ult. JUst get her some mana regen items, so she can keep spamming. In a kill lane with, she msut be awesome.

Le conclusion
Actually this is far less than waht I intended to write, but it's getting late and i ahve otehr stuff to do, so well I might do an additional part if I get enough material.

To sum up, support are more than just supports, they can do damages too, and also try some new supports. Support are the hidden carries, and next time you paly solo queue, type "SUPP OR AFK!"...so they know you mean buisness and shit's gonna hit the fan botlane.

Accept Draven as your Lord and Saviour, Praise the moustache!

I'm out.