League of Legends - Carrying As Support And Avoid Dying

Hi lads! Today our LoL elo boost team will talk again about the support role, giving you a few tips to avoid dying as a support. In my experience I know that supports tend to die a lot, since they have low gold income, little defense against the enemy carries and they need to wander around the map in dangerous places to place wards and set up vision control. Getting caught is a big risk, but we don’t want to give free gold to our enemies, don’t we? So take note of our tips and tell us what you think and if they helped you!

Warding

First of all, let’s talk about warding. Wards are needed in every stage of the game, period. They provide vision and safety: they allow you to track the enemy jungler and to see where the opponents are roaming, giving you more map control. However, getting vision control is difficult and pretty dangerous. During our duo queue boost sessions we often see supports leaving the lane to ward the river and the enemy jungle just to die to the enemy jungler or to a roaming mid laner because they facecheck - that’s an easy one to correct.

You probably have a Sightstone or a trinket: use it! Don’t enter blindly in a bush if an enemy is missing on the map, so take care and drop a ward before it’s too late.

If you absolutely need to get in a place without vision in order to place some wards, there are a few tricks to help you. First of all, you should never walk alone: write in chat or spam pings until a friend comes to help you. Usually, many players don’t watch the map unless they need to, and pings force them to watch it, so at the very least they will be able to react and come to support you.

According to our LoL elo boost team, communication is essential when playing as a support, since you can’t split push or just walk alone because of your low gold income. Even if you are playing tanky support like Alistar, Leona or Braum maybe you won’t get bursted down, but eventually, you will need to flash away from your enemy or give away a free kill. LoL is a team game, and when playing as a support you are the weakest unit on the team.

When to engage: reading the situations

Most supports have abilities that allow them to engage or to disengage. Today we won’t focus on disengaging supports like Janna, but we will talk about engaging heroes like Trash, Blitzcrank, Alistar, and Leona. According to our LoL boosting team these are the playmaking champions to play if you want to carry your team even when playing as a support thanks to your engage, punishing your enemies for bad positioning.

These champions allow you to play more aggressively and engage whenever you find a good opportunity. However it’s not straightforward: a bad engage can make the difference between a won and a lost team fight, so before going all-in you should check a few things.

First of all, you want to check the gold differential between the teams: if your ADC is very behind the enemy, you should play more defensively. On the other hand, if your marksman has an item advantage, for example, a B.F. Sword versus the Pickaxe of the enemy, it’s your time to shine.

According to our elo boosting team there are other factors to consider, namely the cooldowns of your enemies and of your ad carry. If the main damage spells of your lane partner are on cd, you should consider delaying your engage, or you will lose the trade, and remember that a Graves with low HP but all the cooldown available can still hurt a lot.

On top of that, remember to keep track and time all the summoner spells. Having your Heal available can decide a trade, since the effective health will be different, and you can easily get baited. Flash is even more important since it acts as a gap closer. According to our LoL boost team, you should always tell your jungler to gank your lane if your lane opponents don’t have Flash, as it will most likely result in a free kill or two.

Where's the jungler?!

You should also try to remember the last whereabouts of the enemy jungler. If you engage on the enemies without knowing where he is, the jungler may come out of a bush, surprising you and burning a summoner spell or even killing you. If you see that the enemy Rek’sai just ganked the top lane, engage recklessly, but if he was seen doing a camp near the bot lane fifteen seconds ago, chances are he is still around.

On the other hand, having your jungler nearby is a great advantage. Our elo boost team always recommends to initiate yourself the trade when your jungler is coming for a gank, since everyone will be on the same page and your enemies may be distracted by your actions. An even trade can easily become a kill or a burnt flash when your jungler suddenly appears.

As a final point, remember that sometimes you don’t need to engage, even if you see a decent opportunity. Playing aggressively has its risks, and many times you should just hold onto your spells and wait to check the previously mentioned factors. Your Lucian just used his full combo? Don’t Headbutt-Pulverize that Leona, even if she is away from her carry. You don’t know where the enemy jungler is? Place a ward, and you may avoid a 2vs3 scenario.

During our duo queue boost sessions, we always tell to our supports that they are “the brain of the bottom lane”: the ad carry is usually focused on last hitting and trading, so the support should think about everything else. This means that it’s your job to check the map, provide vision control, and even set up plays for your lane partner.

Supports are the “unsung heroes” of almost every MOBAs, and LoL isn’t an exception, since they are weaker than the other heroes because of the lack of damage items and the lower gold income. However, it’s important to not feed when playing a support, and we hope that this guide helped you, or at the very least made you more careful. If you like our content, check our site in the next days for more articles and guides.