Skip to Content

How to Play Support in League of Legends (March 2024)

How to Play Support in League of Legends

How to play Support in League of Legends

Learn how to play Support in League of Legends! Support is definitely one of the roles that provide strength and core to the structure of the game. It’s a role that is very utilized in every aspect of the game, and as one it should be learned how to be played properly.

Most of the support players don’t realize the kind of importance they have in a game’s outcome, which is why we decided to write this guide for you. After reading it, hopefully, you’ll be able not to just perform better as support, but you’ll also understand the role and know what it brings to the game. So, let’s start!

Vision. Vision. Vision.

We cannot stress this enough! No matter what you do, no matter which lane you’re about to visit, and no matter what kind of play is prepared by your team, vision is the most important part of your role. If you know how to properly place wards and learn about the location of your enemies, your role will be very much accomplished. In the early stages of the game, you need to worry about your ADC not being killed multiple times due to ambushes and ganks from enemy mid laner or jungle.

As of the mid and late game, your vision will be yet again very important to prevent counter-plays or situations in which the enemy can take important objectives, such as Dragon and Baron without a fight.

Also, you will be important for inhibiting the vision of your enemy. Apart from equipping yourself with the sweeper, you should always have Vision Ward in your inventory. That way, you’ll be able to clean wards and make sure that the enemy has as less information about your whereabouts as possible. 

The Frontline is your job most of the time

Of course that if you play Soraka or Janna, the frontline will be nothing that you’d have to worry about. But if you play Nautilus, Braum, Leona, and other tanky champions, then you’d have to be the “buffer” between your team and the enemy. However, just standing there and taking most of the damage isn’t your only job, as this will be a very ineffective method the more the game passes by. You need to make a play, lockdown a CC, or protect your ADC if it gets caught in the team fight. 

That way, you won’t just be an obstacle for the enemy to deal damage to your assassins, bruisers, or ADC, but you’ll be a vital part of the team fight thanks to your CC package and your tenacity build.

Aggressiveness is an important part of your laning phase

Not every support champion is the same, as you already know, but some of them have abilities and skillsets that can provide kills easily in the early stages of the game. Yes, the farm is very important and most of the time the ADC needs to focus on farming rather than killing.

But what’s an even better outcome for the ADC is if the enemy bot lane will be dead while he/she farms, with an extra +600 gold to his inventory. Of course, for this to be completed, the support needs to know when to “pull the trigger” on the play.

If the support is Leona/Braum/Nautilus, then pulling the trigger on Level 3 is usually the right thing to do if you want to secure both of the kills. It would help a lot if your ADC is Caitlyn/Ezreal/Ashe, as all of them have high poke potential and they would ease up the engagement with their build-up poke damage.

Non-traditional support players are a good thing…sometimes

Most of the time, support players are “limited” to a certain poll of champions, and it makes them look bad when their favorite/preferred pick is banned or picked. This is why you need to learn how to play champions that are not conservatively picked for this role, such as Brand, Xerath, or even Lux. We know that Lux is mostly picked as support, but still, people don’t like to play her due to her squishiness and her vulnerability after she misses a skill shot.

The combo that Brand can provide with his stun and his passive is very good for the laning phase. If he can successfully land the E+Q+W combo at Level 3, then the engagement should happen right afterward and it will most likely take the enemy bot lane all summoner spells to survive this siege. However, they won’t have them forever, and even in the next skirmish on bot lane, things could turn in your favor if you can hit the combo of Brand or even Xerath, as he can poke like a madman apart from his slow and stun.

Have you heard of roaming? If not, you’re missing out a lot

Roaming is a very integral part of the support role for two major things. The first one is that you can leave the ADC alone to farm, and enable him to gather more EXP than the enemy ADC. The second one is that you will help your mid laner to gain an advantage by paying him an “unexpected” visit to his/her lane. While doing so, you may miss a lot of experience if the roam fails, especially if you get counter-ganked by the enemy support or jungler. This is why roaming isn’t just a random thing that you should do when it pops into your head.

Quite the contrary, roaming needs to be planned with a vision from you and your jungler, as you need to have an exact knowledge of the enemy jungler and support location. If you see that enemy support is going for a roam, then push for the kill of the enemy ADC. 

Conclusion

Support is a very integral role in the game, and if you know how to utilize it properly, your impact on the game will be very much amplified. Therefore, we hope that our guide has helped you in learning how to be a better player in this role. More importantly, we hope that you’ll apply our tips and advice and climb the ladder further while playing as support! 

Looking for more LoL content? Check out these guides:

League of Legends can be played on PC for free.