Have you seen Supports in competitive games? They are underlevelled for a reason. Basically, as a Support (“ward guy”) you need to completely forget that farm exists on the map as your sole purpose is to ensure that your team has adequate map control.
Try watching any of Nyph’s games or Xpecial actually has a support tutorial up on Solomid that is very informative.
Kirian
3202
Nyph’s actually higher rated than Candy/BawsPanda on the 5v5 ladder. Amusing, that.
Note that this advice is more for higher ELO super competitive games, and probably won’t help as much at average ELO. It also is exactly the opposite of trying to place wards without crippling yourself and getting underlevelled and underfarmed.
Trying to be a ward guy without being a defenseless support would mean more keeping a ward or two on you so that you can drop them in useful places as you go about your routine.
JoshV
3204
From what I’ve seen, in a nutshell, for supports, they rely on some gold per 5 item like a philo stone, and then just use their support abilities on the carry in their lane. They don’t try to last hit creeps or gank (though they do support the carry in ganks) They buy wards so the carry doesn’t have to. They are sort of like the carry’s bitch.
This works great when the carry is good.
bluemax
3205
I don’t really think tournament tactics are the best tactics at low Elo.
Personally I play a jungler about 98% of the time right now, and I generally buy Wriggles and grab pink wards for Dragon in the early stages of the game. For the first 20 to maybe 30 minutes pink wards at dragon can be a real difference maker. My wriggle’s ward kind of gets placed based on what I’m doing.
I agree with Pogo’s basic assessment though.
To follow up: If you’re a support on bot lane, ward dragon and the gank routes. Carry a couple of wards with you at all times. If you pull to top or mid, drop some wards there. Don’t go out of your way to ward unless you’re warding baron past 30 minutes. This is enough of wardbitching for low/mid elo.
It also pays heavily to ward your own blue and red if they are jungling or stealing yours.
The passive doesn’t stack. Out of curiosity, what else did he have? Rylai, Deathcap, Deathcap is more AP than Rylai, Deathcap, AA. But Rylai, Deathcap, AA, AA is more ap (the 3% of max mana as ap does stack) than whatever Rylai, Deathcap, Deathcap, X is. If it was that late game. I like an AA on him due to how much mana he goes through. I have gotten to build that (+ banshee) once. It was a site to behold.
*AP Carry.
Somebody mided AP Janna in the Go4lol finals, they won :)
That’s because Nyph’s an absolute beast.
Don’t be ridiculous. IE and PDs all the way.
maxle
3212
I think they’re terrible for low/mid elo (noting that, IIRC, 70% of the playerbase is below 1200). At 1200? Garen/Taric will ruin [AD Carry]/[Support]. Or Sion/Xin. Or blitz/whoever. Or anything, really. If the carry/babysitter make one mistake, they die. The other guys have a hell of a lot more margin for error and, hey, it’s 1200 elo: everyone’ll be making plenty of mistakes.
I really should record some of my Wukong games. Had great kill against a Malphite. Teamfight just breaking up, both of us really low on health, I poke him with my dash and drop my clone, he goes for it, monkey laugh, malph is dead and I’m already fading into the jungle.
guppy
3214
When using competitive tactics, it’s important to bear in mind that neither you nor your teammates are competitive players. For example, a jungler is just about mandatory in competitive games, but at low Elo if you can’t trust someone to hold down a solo lane or assist in your ganks, jungling might not help or might even be a net negative. Roaming Alistar might be a great thing, but if the person playing him sucks at it, they might be better off in a lane.
But when you play that meta, and the other team goes random-crazy comp (caitlyn/maokai for example), you win @20 minutes. As ashe today, I had one game where I had IE, zerkers, zeal, dorans’s, vamp scepter, and ~ 1500 gold @ 20 minutes when we won. 5/0/8 lane - my support got a few of the kills, but we could basically say “now kill cait”. Taric stun/shatter/volley/ashe arrow/frost shot or 2 to finish.
Heals, stuns, and burst damage. Kinda nice.
maxle
3216
When you play that meta and can play it competently and the other team goes crazy comp, sure. For a counterpoint, see the pic on the previous page; everyone in that game except Taric (unrated, not level thirty) and myself (1500) was mid 1350. We ate Cait/soraka alive.
Or the other day when I herped the derp and fourth picked kennen instead of a support and we won the lane.
Pogo
3217
Yeah I’d say it’s just as important that the lane be able to leverage their CC into a kill. I’ve seen some odd bot lane combos win against support+AD. It’s not always a surefire lane win to have it, and at low ELO I’d rather see a Xin+Garen or something stupid like that get completely fed than a Soraka or Janna who keep dying.
Changes to Soraka, Sona, Nidalee, and Taric concerning sustain and heals are coming. Details here.
Removing the cdr exemption from Nidalee’s pounce will make her even more impossible to catch. I remember they put that on there because everyone hated her ability to pounce for unslowable movement every second.
maxle
3220
As per usual, whatever the meta is, riot doesn’t like it.
