League of Legends: Official Thread

[Mike_Cathcart]

After three hits he knocked your mom up, too.

[idrisz]

Sad but true.

blue, unless you come on mumble, I don’t play with people who isn’t on mumble…

[rossm]

If you suck at last hitting, you can always be a full-time jungler or a support.

So if I’m playing as a support, should I not try to last-hit minions when laning with a partner? I tried leaving all the last hits up to my partner one game, but I was useless by mid-game with so little gold earned (karma).

[MrCoffee]

At your level of play i would say you should try to get the minion kills aswell since your partner probably isnt a good laster hitter either.

Otherwise you build gold/5 items like philo stone or kage lucky pick

[Mike_Cathcart]

Otherwise you build gold/5 items like philo stone or kage lucky pick

Or both. When I play Sona I go for Philo or Kage pretty early and just take last hits if it looks like my lane partner just isn’t going to get to it, which happens pretty often. Use that phat minion money to buy some wards and keep your lane safe.

[Sir_Digby]

So if I’m playing as a support, should I not try to last-hit minions when laning with a partner? I tried leaving all the last hits up to my partner one game, but I was useless by mid-game with so little gold earned (karma).

Generally speaking yes; as a support your role is to, well, support your lane mate as he farms and later on support your team in team fights; get gold-per-5 items to offset the lack of last hitting but don’t expect to finish the game with full slots unless you are getting fed by some silly enemies.
Also, as support, remember to buy wards and an oracle if the enemy is warding too.
And have fun, if the game isn’t fun as a support just try something else, don’t ever get yourself in a position where you constantly have to play X champion because everyone else was faster on the role call, try them all out and see what fits you.

[bluemax]

blue, unless you come on mumble, I don’t play with people who isn’t on mumble…

I’ll have to check and see if I have it installed on the computer I’m using. My motherboard bit the big one and I’ve been using my old work computer while I wait for it to get replaced.

[Horrible_Oscar]

Speaking as somebody who loves to play support roles in multiplayer games and did so for my first 20 levels in LoL, I still can’t really recommend it to any new player. Lower level players are not good at taking advantage of what you can do and it tends to feel like you have no influence over the game, especially since warding is less important (though still a valuable habit to acquire).

If you want to try it anyway, go for an AP-ish caster support like Lux or Morgana rather than a pure support like Taric or Sona. That way you can still stack AP items (after gold/5) and get stuff done by shooting dudes instead of just standing there and exuding auras while your team dies around you.

I guess it’s pretty weird to recommend selfish and glory-hogging play in a team-based game, but if you have half a brain then you’re better than the average LoL player and then you’re likely more useful to the team when picking something more carryish.

[Hanacker]

Karma can play more like an AP-ish caster support too, but yeah, at low to mid levels unless your lane-mate is obviously a genius you should be taking some of the farm.

[Lazy_Shiftless_Basta]

So if I’m playing as a support, should I not try to last-hit minions when laning with a partner? I tried leaving all the last hits up to my partner one game, but I was useless by mid-game with so little gold earned (karma).

While everyone has given good support advice, I would add the caveat that if you’re still below level 20 or maybe even below 30 your teammate probably isn’t worth a full-on no-farm support. Unlike DotA and HoN, “support” characters in LoL can actually do some good damage and scale decently with items.

So go ahead and start with a Philosopher’s Stone, Kage’s Lucky Pick and maybe Heart of Gold to get used to gold/10 stacking and warding everything. But for now you might as well practice last hitting as much as you can and treat yourself to a Deathcap and then maybe an Abyssal Scepter or something.

[Hanacker]

While everyone has given good support advice, I would add the caveat that if you’re still below level 20 or maybe even below 30 your teammate probably isn’t worth a full-on no-farm support. Unlike DotA and HoN, “support” characters in LoL can actually do some good damage and scale decently with items.

In solo queue public games, I would probably go as far as below 1400 or so Elo, unless you’re laning with a guy who is obviously going to be able to carry on his own. If you are laning with someone you know, you can go into low-farm mode.

[LockerK]

Throwing in a recommendation for Soraka as a viable low level AP caster support since her recent changes. Starcall ends up being downright vicious if you get a few hits off, and she builds tanky well so you’re more likely to survive. I started out with Soraka and didn’t have much fun, but I’ve come back to her recently and been doing well, throwing around plenty of buffs/debuffs and catching enemies off-guard who don’t realize how much Starcall can hurt, or healing minions to disrupt their last hitting.

[Westy]

The Soraka changes were brilliant… she went from being mindnumbing but OP to really dynamic and interesting and still OP. Simply perfect. Also, rossm, save yourself some heartache and don’t play support. I spent my 1-10 playing support because i thought “well, I don’t know how the game works but I can still help my team out” but that’s really not how support works in this game. At best you’ve changed a 5v5 to a 4v5 in the other team’s favour. At worst you’re feeding and eating your lanemates farm and it’s more like 4v6.

[Pogo]

Looks like LoL is now about 4/18 compared to HoN, up from 3/18, in the number of customization choices you have in playing the game:

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/normal-draft-mode-here-stay

[Harkonis]

too many modes and you dilute the pool of players too much

[Horrible_Oscar]

Sweet, now I can always choose between queue dodge mode and extra super plus queue dodge mode!

As an addendum to the whole support thing, I actually do recommend playing support if you can find another reliable player to queue with. It always makes me a little sad when there’s a duo on my team who both pick carries and insist on laning together. A little coordination is enough to make a support worth it!

[MrCoffee]

I don’t think that’s much of a problem for them.

[Pogo]

Carries laning together is fine for like… 80% of games played. It has to be a decent combination though that can kill the support/AD and also deal with ganks.

[AaronSofaer]

too many modes and you dilute the pool of players too much

Instant ranked queues, instant normal blind queues, instant normal draft queues, I don’t think it’s a problem.

Also, I finally won my first game as Xin. I went something like 2-5-22. I’m really, really not feeling him… he’s got so little mobility! Maybe I just need to play with him more, or build a Zeal earlier, but …

Then again, I went for a very survival-heavy build (Atmogs, Banshees Veil, Phage, Merc Treads) because they were focusing me, and the other team’s Singed was sort of raging after the game. “Do you know how many fing times I told them to stop hitting Xin?”

So maybe it was all good; I’d soak my 3k+ damage, knock up Ashe or Kennen after snaring them, aaaaaand… that’s about it. But I do feel that if I were Jarvan, I’d have been far more useful.

[Hugin]

Tried out Oriana tonight in an easy botmatch. She’s a lot of fun! I imagine in a tougher game I’d get slaughtered while I fiddled around with the ball, it’s kind of easy to get distracted by it and forget your actual character is in danger.