Written and Media by Miguel Fabela.
Welcome to Summoner’s Rift and another episode of League of Learning! In the previous article, you learned about one of the most notorious and praised roles in the game—the ADC. If you did not get a chance to read that article, you can do so by clicking here. Today we are going to talk about the offensive lineman of League of Legends, the support role. Why is this role considered an offensive line role, you ask? Well, it is simple, you protect your teammates and keep them from dying. Some may think that you can not make flashy plays as support, but here is a video that shows otherwise.
Sounds simple? Well, it is actually one of the hardest roles to learn when it comes to macro-gameplay. It also takes a lot of knowledge in the little things as well, as timing enemies abilities and summoner spells. Summoner spells are a special set of abilities you can choose from before the game starts and have a certain time frame of when they can be used. This is essential for the support to know so that he/she can inform their team on the lack of advantage in the next fight.
To begin, the support is in a duo lane with the ADC. Meaning the support makes sure that the ADC does not die during the laning phase, and that they can farm safely in order to develop strength toward mid or late game. The support is responsible for these things: warding, roaming, destroying wards, and saving teammates. There are three types of supports you can choose to fit your play style: tank, utility, and mage supports.
https://engineering.riotgames.com/news/story-fog-and-war
The tank supports are big and beefy front line players who soak up all the damage from the enemy team for your carry roles. The utility supports are those that bring many different types of healing or shielding abilities to the team. They are known for staying back line and protecting/healing the carries while giving shields to the front line tanks. Lastly, the mage supports are supports that desire a bit more of a carry role and deal damage so that the ADC can snowball easier. The mage supports are positioned so that they add more damage to a team that is lacking some.
Snowballing is just like it sounds. It is getting your carry role ahead by giving them early kills to take over the game. If you envision a snowball rolling down a hill, it just gets bigger and bigger as the ball progresses. In the same way, the carry will gain strength as the game continues.
Warding is the act of someone placing a vision trinket/ward into the “fog of war”. The fog of war is an area that cannot be seen by either team unless there is a teammate in that area or an allied trinket/ward. Trinkets/wards are small totems placed in an area, giving vision to that area for a certain amount of time. The video below explains how to play support at a high level and the myths that come as a result of playing the role. This is more of an in-depth guide on how to carry as a support player.
Stay tuned for the next session of League of Learning where we talk about the next role on the Rift!
