Greetings Summoners,
Today, I wanted to discuss the oddball role of support (my personal main), and list all of the functions that you may be expected to perform. This is an important discussion since support is by far the most unique role in terms of gameplay. Playing a support like a normal carry champion is often a bad idea, and after reading this, I hope you will understand why.
First, I have to briefly define what "The Meta" is.
The Meta
When you hear summoners discuss "the meta", this is in reference to a top-level strategy for the team. In the broadest terms, the meta is a way to logically divide the gold an experience among your team so that everyone has equal opportunity to advance ahead of the enemies.
Usually, this means that you will have a carry in each lane, a jungler, and a support in the bottom lane. With this meta, each carry has a lane full of minions to themselves (assuming that the support does not interfere too much in their lane), and the jungle can use neutral monsters and ganks to level up. (Keep in mind that many players and Riot alike seem to encourage experimentation with the meta, and that this is only the current most common meta, and may change with time)
With this meta, the support is the odd man out, and must find other ways to obtain the gold and experience necessary to stay relevant later in the game.
Failure to play a support champion as a support means that there are two allied champions in a lane, competing for gold and experience with EACH OTHER on top of against the lane opponents. In a duo-carry lane, the rewards are divided, one or both carries suffer, and simple conservative play by the enemy will ensure that they are the victors in the race for gold and experience.
In short: if you are going to play support, then PLAY SUPPORT. Do not attempt to carry as a support. Your job is to ensure that the carry in your lane gets the most gold and experience possible, and becomes the wrecking ball that your team needs in the later game. If you are concerned about your own ability to accumulate gold and experience, here's how you can stay relevant as a support:
Support Gold
While some of these income streams may seem trivial, as a support who is not farming, they can be essential. Every advantage counts! Don't leave money on the table.
Greater Seal Of Gold - Each one equipped grants +0.25g/10s, maxing out at +2.25g/10s
Greater Quintessence Of Gold - Each one equipped grants +1g/10s, maxing out at 3g/10s
Masteries
Wealth - Grants an additional 40 starting gold. This is essential for my opening build of a gold-item + 2 x Stealth Wards, I could not afford it all otherwise.
Greed - Grants 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 gold per 10 seconds.
Scavenger - You gain 1 gold each time a nearby allied champion kills an enemy minion (1100 unit range).
Bandit - Melee: Champion kills and assists grant 15 bonus gold. Ranged: You gain 3 gold each time you attack an enemy champion. This effect can not trigger on the same champion more than once every 5 seconds.
Items
Relic Shield/Targon's Brace/Face Of The Mountain - Allows a support to consume a stack to execute a minion, giving the gold and experience to both the support, and a nearby ally. This is great for tanky supports, and supports who receive benefits on killing minions. (Such a Nasus, and Gangplank - more on that shortly)
Spellthief's Edge/Frostfang/Frost Queen's Claim - For AP supports, this will grant additional gold for each charge when attacking enemy champions or structures.
Ancient Coin/Nomad's Medallion/Talisman Of Ascension - Grants gold on nearby enemy minion deaths. This pays off quickly for supports with a lot of sustain, who spend a lot of time in lane.
Avarice Blade - The oddball of the gold generation items. This is the only one that you may purchase in addition to one of the above three item sets. This grants extra gold on minion kills, so it can be a great addition to a Relic Shield build, or for one of the minion-killing supports mentioned above.
Ward Sweeping - Destroying enemy wards grants gold to both the champion who lands the last hit on it, and to the champion who discovered the ward. This makes Sweeping Lens a profitable item after the first ward found.
Assists - Contributing to enemy kills without actually taking the kill earns allied champions assists. This can be especially useful for a support earning gold, as there is bonus gold for assists if you have 2 or more assists more than kills.
Hawkshot - While I personally prefer NOT to use Ashe as a support, I have seen it done quite frequently recently. Using her Hawkshot ability earns bonus gold on minion kills This can be especially profitable when combined with an Avarice Blade.
Parrrley - Like Ashe, Gangplank receives bonus gold when killing minions with his Parrrley ability.
Loaded Dice - Twisted Fate has a passive ability called Loaded Dice that works similarly to Ashe's and Gangplank's, but does not require any leveling, and grants a semi-random gold amount.
Pet/Summon Destruction - Many champions summon pets or items that can be destroyed for gold. These include (but are not limited to) Annie's Tibbers, Malzahar's Voidlings, Shaco's Jack In The Box, Teemo's Noxious Traps, and Rek'Sai's Tunnel entrances. These are typically acceptable for a support to destroy, especially the stealthed summons that require Sweeping Lens/Oracle's Lens to reveal.
Support Experience
Runes
Greater Quintessence Of Experience - Each one equipped grants +2% to any experience income, maxing out at +6% bonus over 3 quints.
Masteries
Inspiration - Grants 5 / 10 experience for every 10 seconds while near an allied champion with a higher level.
Zilean - Supporting as Zilean has the benefit of his passive, Heightened Learning which increases experience gain of all allied champions within Heightened Learning's range by 8%.
Finally, the functions you should try perform as support include the following. There is a lot of overlap here, so I will try my best to make a distinction between each function:
Support Functions
Warding - Although Riot has made efforts over the last couple of seasons to enforce the notion that warding is the responsibility of everyone on the team, the bulk of the work still falls to the support. This is especially true in the laning phase, when the carry should be converting as much gold into damage as possible, and vision is a secondary priority. Supports should be picking up the slack, and a Sightstone/Ruby Sightstone are a big priority in my build. This will help keep your carry safe from ganks in lane phase, and give your team better control over their objectives in later game.
Ward Sweeping - A conscientious support can improve their team's game by making efforts to track the placement of enemy wards, and doing whatever possible to destroy them. This makes your team safer, at the expense of the enemies, and can earn you a little extra gold. Personally, I rarely play support without getting Sweeping Lens/Oracle's Lens. My enemies do not get vision unchallenged!
Initiation - Depending on the champion you choose to support with, the bulk of fight initiation may fall to you. This is especially true for a tanky support and/or a support with many crowd control effects. This requires careful coordination with your carry in lane phase, your jungler during ganks, and your team later in the game. Whenever possible, try to make sure that your allies are onboard with fighting before starting the fight, or you may end up putting your neck out for no reason!
Peel/Interruption - A good support does whatever possible to ruin enemy attacks on the allied carry. This can include contributing damage in a fight to tip the scales in your teams favour, using crowd control to buy your carry space and time, and using heals to mitigate the enemy's damage.
Utility - Supports with crowd control effects, and abilities that benefit allies (shields, heals, speed boosts) should take steps to optimize their usefulness. This means making sure that these effects and abilities are available when needed. To improve their availability, a support can work to max out their abilities' level, and cooldown reduction, which means that such a support can cast their abilities just that more often.
Zoning - This is a bit of a psychological game, but when possible, it is a fantastic function for a a support to take steps to control the position of the enemy laners. An easy example is to hide in the enemy's bush and harass when the enemy approaches in order to keep them under their tower, and causing trouble in the rest of the lane. Or, it could mean making some space under your tower for your carry to farm in by harassing and intimidating the enemy laners. The ultimate objective is to allow your carry to farm, and deny the enemies farm.
Harassment - Short of taking kills away from the carry, it is great for a support to deal some damage leading into a fight initiation. The less health the enemy has, the better, right? Helps your carry win the fight, and helps deny the enemy farm.
Auras - Building items with auras is perhaps the easiest to manage support function. Some great aura items include:
Abyssal Sceptre
Aegis Of The Legion
Banner Of Command
Frozen Heart
Locket Of The Iron Solari
Zeke's Herald
All of the above will confer some benefit to nearby teammates or a debuff to nearby enemies. In either case, it should make your team just that much more effective in fights.
Leadership - Arguably, support is in the best position to provide the team with leadership, and rallying calls for the team. Since you are not focusing on farm, and have the time to come up with basic strategies for the team, any efforts to organize the team are fantastic. Pinging targets before/during fights helps the team coordinate. Choosing objectives for the team, and warding to support pushes on it is also an incredible service to provide to the team. Support has a distinct ability to unify the team.
In conclusion, let the words of SivHD inspire you to glory! :D
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