2013-08-30, 08:06 AM
I played almost exclusively support all the way up to gold 2. Here's some tips I can give you. You're new, so you won't be seeing the other team's picks for a while, but when choosing a support, this is usually my thought process.
-If they have at least 2 hard engage champs (J4 + malphite) or they have evelynn, I pick Janna. She is the hardest support in the game to gank by far. She also has the highest win rate of any champ at the moment.
-If they manage to pick up vayne, or sona, I will almost always play leona. Leona craps all over vayne and sona
-If there is not a sona support on their team, I will pick Zyra. She does the most damage of any support by far. I've won more than just a few games where I had the highest damage dealt as support zyra. This is the support you want to get good at if you feel you need to carry your team
-If they get zyra or Janna, I will pick sona. Sona hard counters shield supports and poke supports, but sona is hard countered by hard CC or all-ins (thresh, blitz, leona)
-When in doubt (ex - you're first pick) pick sona. Thresh and blitz are almost always banned, and they're the ones who counter her the hardest.
Other tips
-Double gold per 10 on AP supports (janna, sona, zyra) or just philosopher's stone on tanky supports (thresh, leona, or alistar). You also need to buy a ruby sightstone as early as possible. At least 1 gold per 10 item + ruby sightstone is a must have for any support. Hold on to your gold per 10 as long as possible without upgrading it. Most items they build into, will stop giving you the gold per 10.
-Try to come back to lane with 1 pink ward every time you back. You should not use it unless you know the enemy has placed a ward somewhere. Do your best not to pink without a guaranteed ward kill.
-A pink ward trick you can do is to use your free ruby sight stone wards to "bait" them into using a pink ward. Then you place your own pink ward to kill their pink.
-Vision wins games. Vision is the difference between a bronze support and a diamond support. Doing nothing but playing Janna, buying double gold per 10, and spamming the map with pink wards will get you easily into gold or at least silver 1.
-Since you are not focusing on last hitting, try to draw your attention to the minimap. Ping to your team when the enemy is missing or you see them moving towards an objective. Map awareness is key to winning games
-Pay very close attention to your positioning. You can stand near the bushes bottom lane, peak your head out to auto attack, then go right back in the bush to prevent them from returning damage.
-A neat little trick you will learn soon is that you can check to see if the enemy support has warded a bush by standing in the bush when a creep wave walks by. If it's warded, the creep wave will see you and start to attack you. If it's not warded, they will walk past you.
-If they have at least 2 hard engage champs (J4 + malphite) or they have evelynn, I pick Janna. She is the hardest support in the game to gank by far. She also has the highest win rate of any champ at the moment.
-If they manage to pick up vayne, or sona, I will almost always play leona. Leona craps all over vayne and sona
-If there is not a sona support on their team, I will pick Zyra. She does the most damage of any support by far. I've won more than just a few games where I had the highest damage dealt as support zyra. This is the support you want to get good at if you feel you need to carry your team
-If they get zyra or Janna, I will pick sona. Sona hard counters shield supports and poke supports, but sona is hard countered by hard CC or all-ins (thresh, blitz, leona)
-When in doubt (ex - you're first pick) pick sona. Thresh and blitz are almost always banned, and they're the ones who counter her the hardest.
Other tips
-Double gold per 10 on AP supports (janna, sona, zyra) or just philosopher's stone on tanky supports (thresh, leona, or alistar). You also need to buy a ruby sightstone as early as possible. At least 1 gold per 10 item + ruby sightstone is a must have for any support. Hold on to your gold per 10 as long as possible without upgrading it. Most items they build into, will stop giving you the gold per 10.
-Try to come back to lane with 1 pink ward every time you back. You should not use it unless you know the enemy has placed a ward somewhere. Do your best not to pink without a guaranteed ward kill.
-A pink ward trick you can do is to use your free ruby sight stone wards to "bait" them into using a pink ward. Then you place your own pink ward to kill their pink.
-Vision wins games. Vision is the difference between a bronze support and a diamond support. Doing nothing but playing Janna, buying double gold per 10, and spamming the map with pink wards will get you easily into gold or at least silver 1.
-Since you are not focusing on last hitting, try to draw your attention to the minimap. Ping to your team when the enemy is missing or you see them moving towards an objective. Map awareness is key to winning games
-Pay very close attention to your positioning. You can stand near the bushes bottom lane, peak your head out to auto attack, then go right back in the bush to prevent them from returning damage.
-A neat little trick you will learn soon is that you can check to see if the enemy support has warded a bush by standing in the bush when a creep wave walks by. If it's warded, the creep wave will see you and start to attack you. If it's not warded, they will walk past you.