League of Legends

[hi19hi19]

the biggest threat is from your midlaner when the 6 true damage defensive mastery lasthits blue buff

[hi19hi19]

or just xj9 every blue for yourself i see how it is

[L.B.D.D]

usually i invade enemy blue with my midlaner @ 8 or 9 depending on enemy jungle timing

then i grab our blue for myself

[Litodude]

@colt: playing a support is the least-most effective player in the game in most traditional games. Regardless of how much vision you have, your team might just lack the competency to know what to actually do, whom to zone, whom to burn, whom to attack first, etc., come team fights, or even in minor skirmishes. They also might not know when to group to take tower/objectives. They also might not be able to know when to farm (all the time) and/or group to push. There's very little you can do as a support in order to counter-act these inherent problems that you might face with your team.

But here's a question for you: How soon do you leave your adc to help out the other lanes? The traditional answer would be never - babysit him until end game, right? Well, maybe. There's not much you can do in terms of assisting your other lanes, since I know you almost exclusively play Sona, but it's those situations that you have to ask yourself: Are we winning the lane? If so, is my ADC competent enough to know how to play 1v1(2) safely while I roam to ward objectives and help out another lane? Should I do this right now? What can I -actually- do to help out the other lanes? Will I be forced to use my ulti, flash ulti, exh? What summoner do I have up, that a particular lane does not have up, where we can take that advatange? If their jungler comes to the lane I gank, will we be fucked, or if he goes to gank my ADC, will s/he be fucked? What are the items of the other support - do I need to keep playing this pink ward game for vision, or can I rush oracle's, do I need health or mobility first, or are we ahead enough so I can invest in gp5? How receptive is the other team when a support ganks? Do they collapse entirely or do they stay in their lanes and assume the other team is good enough?

Once I appear in lane to show that I'm helping out my other lane, will the reaction of the opposing (say mid laner) be scared enough for him/her to recall and give the mid lane the opportunity to free farm; was my simple presence enough to persuade the enemy into leaving the lane, or was is detrimental in that once I showed myself and my position nowhere near my ADC, he gets dove on and dies and blames me for it. Was I wrong? Was he wrong? Could I have warded to prevent a 3 man dive from occuring onto the ADC, or did I ward our tri or their tri or the river to ensure the jungler wouldn't be there to gank him - or at least he would be noticed if the jungler to traditional paths; or did the jungler just immediately respond and try to help/cover mid?

^Good question to ask yourself. Editted


I guess what I'm trying to get you to understand is that until you develop the ability to understand the movements of your other 9 players, and why they do things, only then can you -really- act to carry your game. Vision is one thing but if you can accurately hypothesize where the enemy team is without any sight, depending on the game time, buff timers, how pushed waves are, which towers are up/low, which objectives are up, who on your team is visible in lane and looks easy to pick off, what the other team has to compromise if they want to gank a top lane and/or lose a mid lane; or are they competent enough to push and clear their lane before ganking (<-this is what separates plat from bronze), then you can climb the ranks easily (given your mmr is high enough ugh). AND, if you can or have developed the skills partially there's also very little you can do except hope that you have supported your team well enough to carry for you, because you're putting your eggs into their basket as a passive support, and hoping what you give them results in positive fruition.



And that's why I play annie support.

[hi19hi19]

holy shit and you said my posts were condescending god damn

[Litodude]

i actually know how to differentiate between being caustic and being blatantly truthful get off my nuts u trashbag

[L.B.D.D]

chill the fuck out guys

all of us are equally bad

[colt.45]

Originally Posted by Litodude

@colt: playing a support is the least-most effective player in the game in most traditional games. Regardless of how much vision you have, your team might just lack the competency to know what to actually do, whom to zone, whom to burn, whom to attack first, etc., come team fights, or even in minor skirmishes. They also might not know when to group to take tower/objectives. They also might not be able to know when to farm (all the time) and/or group to push. There's very little you can do as a support in order to counter-act these inherent problems that you might face with your team.

Omg this is perfect. Thank you.

Originally Posted by Litodude

But here's a question for you: How soon do you leave your adc to help out the other lanes? The traditional answer would be never - babysit him until end game, right? Well, maybe. There's not much you can do in terms of assisting your other lanes, since I know you almost exclusively play Sona, but it's those situations that you have to ask yourself: Are we winning the lane? If so, is my ADC competent enough to know how to play 1v1(2) safely while I roam to ward objectives and help out another lane? Should I do this right now? What can I -actually- do to help out the other lanes? Will I be forced to use my ulti, flash ulti, exh? What summoner do I have up, that a particular lane does not have up, where we can take that advatange? If their jungler comes to the lane I gank, will we be fucked, or if he goes to gank my ADC, will s/he be fucked? What are the items of the other support - do I need to keep playing this pink ward game for vision, or can I rush oracle's, do I need health or mobility first, or are we ahead enough so I can invest in gp5? How receptive is the other team when a support ganks? Do they collapse entirely or do they stay in their lanes and assume the other team is good enough

I guess what I'm trying to get you to understand is that until you develop the ability to understand the movements of your other 9 players, and why they do things, only then can you -really- act to carry your game. Vision is one thing but if you can accurately hypothesize where the enemy team is without any sight, depending on the game time, buff timers, how pushed waves are, which towers are up/low, which objectives are up, who on your team is visible in lane and looks easy to pick off, what the other team has to compromise if they want to gank a top lane and/or lose a mid lane; or are they competent enough to push and clear their lane before ganking (<-this is what separates plat from bronze), then you can climb the ranks easily (given your mmr is high enough ugh). AND, if you can or have developed the skills partially there's also very little you can do except hope that you have supported your team well enough to carry for you, because you're putting your eggs into their basket as a passive support, and hoping what you give them results in positive fruition.

Very well put, I learned a lot from that so thanks. I def. Need to be thinking about that when I play.
I honestly do not leave bot until we get first tower, and from there I go where my adc goes or i go to a lane that needs sustain and poke (from there I start warding around the map). I'm not that support that just wards and sits in a bush. I like to be aggressive if I can in lane to make them fear, but if I am poked too much I have to play passive and be more defensive until my health is back up. The only support that really scares me is Zyra and Leona and those are the times i'm not as aggressive as I want to be. I try to always auto or Q when adc is going for a last hit since sona's power chord is amazing .

I'm thinking about investing some time into Thresh too. Is he a good choice? The only problem is he's banned like 80% of the time :/. I'm also saving up for another champion since im nearing 6300 ip... Not sure if to get Nami, Lulu or Zyra.

[hi19hi19]

Originally Posted by L.B.D.D

chill the fuck out guys

all of us are equally bad

Some of us don't treat it like it's our goddamn job to remind others of that fact though >_>

[L.B.D.D]

invest in jarvan 4 and watch your elo go up

hi19 dont mind lito he does that to ppl sometimes

[L.B.D.D]

Originally Posted by colt.45

Very well put, I learned a lot from that so thanks. I def. Need to be thinking about that when I play.
I honestly do not leave bot until we get first tower, and from there I go where my adc goes or i go to a lane that needs sustain and poke (from there I start warding around the map). I'm not that support that just wards and sits in a bush. I like to be aggressive if I can in lane to make them fear, but if I am poked too much I have to play passive and be more defensive until my health is back up. The only support that really scares me is Zyra and Leona and those are the times i'm not as aggressive as I want to be. I try to always auto or Q when adc is going for a last hit since sona's power chord is amazing .

I'm thinking about investing some time into Thresh too. Is he a good choice? The only problem is he's banned like 80% of the time :/. I'm also saving up for another champion since im nearing 6300 ip... Not sure if to get Nami, Lulu or Zyra.

ps) boiling down your support role to simple minded decisions like: "do i sustain and poke while playing passive or do i try to make plays" is detrimental and instead you should strive to keep all of that in mind as fundamentals that you don't even have to think about, and start making decisions that are not always cut out black/white

not to mention, your decisions will constantly be changing as battles go on, depending on every changing variable and factor

if you've been given a tip to play aggressive so you can snowball botlane don't just do it because your carry seems to be competent and aggressive at the same time - think about all the other confounding factors like - by the 3rd wave the enemy jungler should have double buffs, and he might come through lane or wait for a countergank, is their mid pushing mid out? do we have vision of where the enemy jungler might be? is my carry punishing the enemy carry when he tries to CS? how much HP do i have and can i get out safely even after i engage? does the enemy have flash, and how much mana do they have?

all of these things are split second decisions that naturally occur to players, and better players make better decisions based on ALL of these

so while simple tips like "do X when Y" work, what you really need to keep EVERY factor in mind while playing - instead of focusing on one single aspect

kind of like how beginning AD carries are told CSing is important, but aren't told stuff like "punish ezreal's auto with an AA+phosphorus bomb+AA if you're corki" because that stuff comes after fundamentals

so basically what i'm saying is keep tips that people give you in mind but don't tunnel on those tips 1 at a time, you have to improve the whole package and its contents, not just the packaging

[L.B.D.D]

that being said my tips are

1) don't worry too much about counterpicks, they are pretty irrelevant at lower MMR
2) get comfortable with select champions, don't be pressured by your team to play zyra just because you have an ashe if you're never played zyra before
3) know the cooldowns of every single support spell (zyra snare, blitz hook, leona E, thresh hook, flay, janna tornado, etc)
4) read enemy movements - were they playing passive with 400hp but suddenly their graves is more confident and walks up to cs now? something could be up. is your enemy pushing out in a hurry near the 1500 gold mark and he's low hp? don't let him back for free

[hi19hi19]

Originally Posted by colt.45

I'm thinking about investing some time into Thresh too. Is he a good choice? The only problem is he's banned like 80% of the time :/. I'm also saving up for another champion since im nearing 6300 ip... Not sure if to get Nami, Lulu or Zyra.

Thresh is really strong still, but more importantly the main thing about Thresh is just that he's really versatile and as a result he's really fun because you have different ways to approach most situations. Like, you can make a simple play on Thresh and feel awesome, but it's also that kind of champ where you can frequently see in hindsight something you could have done differently for a better outcome, and I like that depth in a champion.
Lulu is similar since her skills can do different things depending on who you use them on. Very verstatile, but a bit mana hungry in lane if you're not careful.
Zyra is pretty fun just because she does obscene damage for a support while still having great utility, but her skills are pretty one-dimensional. The typical tryhard Zyra game where I take non-offensive masteries and only have boots and sightstone and maybe an Aegis or Shurelya's (i.e. no damage items at all), I still frequently will do more damage than the jungler and maybe even a solo laner. Her damage is just incredible without really having to think about it that much.
Nami is a weird one for me, since so much of her power is tied up in the Q. Getting good W bounces when playing aggressively is really gratifying, as is intelliegently using her passive (which is something a lot of people don't even realize she has)
I'm not a huge fan but I have a friend who loves Nami... wait for a free week and give her a try I guess.

If you're used to the sustain a Sona brings, consider Thresh, Lulu or Zyra. Playing a non-sustain support is an interesting change, maybe you like it, maybe you don't. The difference between being able to passively sustain vs having to predicatively/reactively shield or just not having any mitigation tools at all is pretty important.

Don't be too worried about how viable a champ in this meta because season 4 is just around the corner, and the inevitable buff/nerf cycle changes things all the time. Find ones that are fun for you to play.

[L.B.D.D]

try jarvan + nami botlane

jarvan 95% winrate over 130 games
http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/1...9#ranked-stats

nami 92% winrate over 130 games with ^ jarvan
http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/2...1#ranked-stats

if you practice that botlane enough you're guaranteed to take big, nice warm dumps on every single matchup and enemy below plat 5

[Pseudo Enigma]

Originally Posted by L.B.D.D

try jarvan + nami botlane

jarvan 95% winrate over 130 games
http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/1...9#ranked-stats

nami 92% winrate over 130 games with ^ jarvan
http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/2...1#ranked-stats

if you practice that botlane enough you're guaranteed to take big, nice warm dumps on every single matchup and enemy below plat 5

have I ever told you that you're a giant cunt?

Why the hell can't I get a bot lane partner like you man...
edit: o wait I'm still stuck below lv30 LOL

[Litodude]

Tresh got nerfed too hard to be able to easily carry in games. Although it's like blitz: land a hook and you should win it - high risk high reward, because then you don't have that cc for the next 10-ish seconds. Play Nami/Janna. Nami is my #1 favorite support due to her amazing kit. I play extremely aggressive, so I've been leaning toward Annie support (and loving it), but Annie support requires you to be really really aggressive (I take ignite and build dfg), have a bit of cs, and still balance between being a ward bitch/initiator/ganker. Nami is easier to transition to, and the practice you get for the bubble q skillshot will help you learn to predict player movement easily; her w bouncing heal shows you how to adequately position yourself in and out of the danger zone of most champs (save like trist/cait), and the e skill is great practice for mikael's/initiation potential awareness.

Everything that Ji said above is accurate and honestly it boils down not only playing more, but understanding why and how you're playing. Watch replays of yourself without fog, and ask yourself "wtf was i doing/thinking then? why?"

[Samwais]

And of course Annie is the ultimate zoning power. It's amazing what just the threat of a stun does to players.

[L.B.D.D]

Bring Back Taric

[colt.45]

Originally Posted by L.B.D.D

try jarvan + nami botlane

jarvan 95% winrate over 130 games
http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/1...9#ranked-stats

nami 92% winrate over 130 games with ^ jarvan
http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/2...1#ranked-stats

if you practice that botlane enough you're guaranteed to take big, nice warm dumps on every single matchup and enemy below plat 5

That is godlike.
Are you Diamond? Plat?

I'll invest in Nami then. I tried her when she was free and found her fun. As far as Jarvan I am not good at jungling so that's out of my comfort zone. :/ unless I had someone teach me in a custom what I need to be doing. When I try to jungle ganks fail :'[. But then again I use a jungler that's not popular or that good (Sejuani).


I really want to stray away from support if I can and learn to adc well.

[Razor]

u want to learn adc

i give free lessons

jk $5 an hour