League of Legends (Old)

[xRECKONERx]

yep, that sucked, we DOMINATED botlane but our Garen fed six kills to the enemy Vlad and then started

jungling

[Knight of Cydonia]

#1 Cait NA
Never leaving the ADC role again

[dramonic]

Why are people playing ranked in preseason? Is there something I'm missing here?

[JDodge]

I've seen a large pattern of posts in this thread as of late which seem to follow the general line of:

"Everyone in solo queue sucks but me and last game I had an X that did Y and a Z that raged at B and I lost Elo because of it"

So I'm laying down the gauntlet. Can you handle...

JD's Self-Flagellation Challenge!

It's time we look inward for the month of December at who really sucks: us!

Let's face it. We kind of do. So let's try to improve that instead of bitching about how everyone else at the rating we deserve sucks (hint: they all suck because you suck).

I challenge all of you to, every time you make any major mistake (don't want a bunch of missed CSes, want a bunch of "I chased into their jungle after a Soraka that was at 100 health and her entire team killed me"), log it. Write it down somewhere. Jot it down on a pad of paper, write it up in notepad, attach sticky notes to your monitor, write on yourself with a Sharpie, anything to get it written down. Post-game, analyze that mistake in-depth - figure out exactly what went wrong, how to avoid that situation in the future, and what consequences long-term that had on that particular game.

Each week, I want to see these logs. I want them, more importantly, posted in this thread. This means that any time you make a mistake, assuming you're honest in taking this challenge, you have to answer for it not only to yourself and to your team but to your peers as well. This way, we can brainstorm over things, help each other out, give criticism, etc.

Stop the bitching, start the fixing.

[Knight of Cydonia]

No.

[bv310]

Fuck it, this will coincide with my December goal of playing at least one real game every day. /in

[Glork]

I think I can do that, except I still make a metric fuckton of mistakes in most of the games I play. My logs might get kinda huge.

[Grimmjow]

And another 36 elo. This time with a 2/11/3 Jax and a 4/8/5 Kat. FML

[xRECKONERx]

JD how would you classify a moment where you engage on an enemy out if position but your carry doesn't? Is that a mistake? Because if they had played it properly it would've been a kill, but they didn't, do it ends up looking like you screwed the pooch.

[JDodge]

JD how would you classify a moment where you engage on an enemy out if position but your carry doesn't? Is that a mistake? Because if they had played it properly it would've been a kill, but they didn't, do it ends up looking like you screwed the pooch.

"looks like a mistake" =/= mistake

plenty of completely accidental things look intentional and vice-versa

[Nikanor]

JD how would you classify a moment where you engage on an enemy out if position but your carry doesn't? Is that a mistake? Because if they had played it properly it would've been a kill, but they didn't, do it ends up looking like you screwed the pooch.

Your mistake was supporting a random in solo queue.

[kdowns]

Time to Fill my Monitor with a lot of Sticky Notes

[DeathRowKitty]

And another 36 elo. This time with a 2/11/3 Jax and a 4/8/5 Kat. FML

Damn. At this rate, you'll reach the elo you deserve in no time!

pls no get mad, is joke

---

I'll do the JD flagellum challenge if I'm unlazy enough to do so...but I legitimately think I would have at least 1-2 really stupid things to write about after the average game and that could get tedious to do in-between playing.

[Brandi]

imma try this challenge. I might end up crying tho

[Phillammon]

I did something similar to that for a little while. It's become a tad ingrained in my play, and now I basically play nothing but support and apologize profusely whenever my carry dies over chat. These may be related, unfortunately.

[Kise]

Why are people playing ranked in preseason? Is there something I'm missing here?

Elo will carry over once patch 1.72/1.73 hits (one of these include the new items & masteries). I'd rather wait for the new stuff myself with the hope there is less GoT dependence. I had three of my teammates go for philo/HoG/Shurelya's in my last ranked game; only the mid and me built damage... And only the support and I warded.

[esuriospiritus]

less Game of Thrones dependence...?

[Bub Bidderskins]

So, after a horrible day of LoL, I hop in queue again to be greeted by this:

Bub Bidderskins: adc
summoner 1: mid
summoner 2: top
summoner 3: jungle
Summoner 3: bub
Summoner 3: dodge
Summoner 3: fag
Summoner 3: fuck you


Welp.

[Kise]

Gold over time.

[Bub Bidderskins]

LEVEL 30 AT LAST!

[dramonic]

chasing a ghosting jax from outer mid to bot inhib is a GREAT idea

[lil g]

http://www.leaguereplays.com/replays/match/2554568/

There seems to be some debate in here on the "proper" way to support. This replay is a game that went on way too long while one team had a pretty big lead. It highlights a fairly strange botlane matchup of Sona Sivir v Leona Ashe. On paper it is fairly straightforward because the burst potential is so much higher for Sona Sivir, but as you will see that's not really how it turned out with Leona's disruption and this particular Ashe's very un-ashelike aggression. This is a normal 5 draft with all 5 people on skype so you won't see much in way of chat or pings.

Playing as Sona with an adc I was unfamiliar with, you can see the early misunderstandings as I lose half my health to avoidable harass a couple times. I tend to play a very aggressive Sona because her strengths are early burst and zoning, especially against a team that can't hit back. The lane is quickly sorted out after an early enemy gank and we spend the rest of the lane mostly in control. After laning, I felt that this game was a very good example of how to support well in all phases of the game, so I decided to write a guide to accompany it.
-----

SUPPORT 101

Ward the river at all times.

If you are ahead of the river, it needs to be warded. There are really no exceptions to this. I prefer a dragon corner ward alone until their jungler proves that he's willing to come a different route, this one never does. After an early pink before the first dragon, I keep an oracles. When oracles are no longer cost efficient, switch back to pinks. Why are your oracles not cost efficient? (Why are you dying so much?)

Lane control.

Don't push the lane! Don't cs! Do you know what "freezing" the lane means? It means purposefully locking the lane in an advantageous position for your team, on your side of the river. You do this by tanking the minions out of tower range. Yes it sucks, yes it hurts, yes it is important, yes it is worth it. This is super important for every lane. Know when to push the lane up! A lot of ADCs will get very mad at you and say "Why are you pushing the lane omg terrible support!", explain to them that you can't be frozen next to the enemy turret. You can't stay overextended. "Resetting" the lane means pushing it into the tower and controlling the creep wave to bring it back to at least a neutral (starting) position. Explain to your adc when it is time to do these things so they don't think you are mindlessly pushing. Push the lane up before you leave the lane for any reason.

Constant ward sweeping

of gank lanes and objectives. Without pink coverage you need to actively be moving around the map.

Moving with and without the team.

You have a lot you need to be doing all over the map. Without ward coverage, you have no way to safely sweep/ward and you will be killed. Keep those wards coming. Without vision, you need your team with you to sweep safely. When your team is moving together, you need to be with them. Vocalize when you are low/out of wards, coordinate going back to get more, don't just step into a bush and b while your team is doing something together, make sure it's a good time to go back.

Timing Objectives

This is something I never used to do, always assuming someone else would do it. Wards are 3 min, Buff camps are 5, Dragon is 6, and Baron is 7. Do the quick math and type it in chat. It's so incredibly helpful to everyone. Keep mental note of what is happening soon and reference the chat if you need it. Remind your team when objectives are coming up, "Dragon in 90 seconds", and get yourself over there to ward/sweep. Don't just send the team in to fight a contested objective that you haven't swept. That's your job.

Team itemization.

I generally favor only 1 gp5 (philo stone) into a Zeke's, but in this teamcomp (dual AP) that wouldn't make sense, so I go the old double gps, finish them both off, and add a final tank item because of how much money I had. It's very difficult to finish items as a support because you have to keep the map lit up. I couldn't even add a ruby crystal after finishing my 3rd item, there just wasn't the money for it, and I made a lot of money this game. You absolutely have to sacrifice "your items" for the map coverage. I don't put a lot of stock into an Aegis because by the time you finish it, the benefit is usually negligible, and our team was naturally tankier than theirs. If you have 2 auto-attackers on your team (including your ADC), a Zeke's will always outweigh the value of an Aegis because the aura remains as strong all game, as opposed to the small benefit of an Aegis which drops off as the game progresses. I like to go only a philo stone straight into the Zeke's, because while the other support is building their second gp5, you will be more than halfway to your Zeke's, giving you a huge advantage assuming equal footing. If the other support goes 2 gp5 into an Aegis, you really have to question the effectiveness of a 30 min Aegis. Worth it? I don't think so!

Smart ulting.

Sona's ult, like Janna's or Leona's, can be used offensively or defensively, to initiate or counter-initiate. The big support ults are absolute game-changers, make sure you are using them to the greatest effect. In this game, we had a strong initiate AE (Curse of the Sad Mummy) so I was able to follow that up with Crescendo without "stacking" our CC. Stacking CC refers to overlapping stuns, which is bad. You want the full duration of one, then the full duration of the other. Late game, Sona is only relevant when her ult is up. If you waste yours (this includes having to blow it to escape if you are caught out) you are almost worthless in teamfights.

Positioning.

Unless you are the tank, you need to be in the back. Even Tank Sona is a soft target (although not that soft, as Tank Nocturne finds out). Positioning yourself is the single most important thing in this game. Be aware of how the enemy is set up and what their initiation options are. You have to block them! You want to be behind the frontline but close enough to help your teammates with your abilities, and be ready to complete your role, which in Sona's case is landing the stun as soon as they bunch up.

Know your limits

. You can take some hits, especially because standard support items all build out of hp or armor. Don't be afraid to stand in the pocket a little bit. Good knowledge of each champion's burst potential will help you know when to stand and when to run. You never want to be giving away kills, but at the end of the day, if you've delivered your ult payload, it's better for them to be focusing you than your adc. Keep in mind laying down your life for someone else is going to cost you 400g for another oracles.

Every little bit helps.

Ok so you're a wimpy support. You still have autoattacks, you still have abilities. Fight with the team! Hit the dragon, hit the baron. Hit everything! Even blasting away at everyone, I only managed to pick up one kill this game. Even a power chord from Sona, the most burst a support can hope for, isn't going to steal kills in lategame. Don't worry about it, especially when the fight is close. Get in there and hit. This is especially important during lategame, there are several times when I am the only one or one of two alive after a big fight. I don't go back and buy or heal, I go to the closest tower and start hitting it. Even if you don't get the tower, you have to pick up the slack and do your part to help win. The caveat to this is that in the very early game, support burst can sometimes eclipse adc burst in certain situations, and unless it is a desperate attempt to finish off a runner, you really shouldn't be picking up the kills in lane.
---

In closing, a lot of people say support is too easy or too boring. The value of a good support absolutely can not be overstated, it is so vitally important to a good team. If you think support is too easy or too boring, are you thinking about and doing all of these things during each phase of the game? How many other roles have this level of responsibility? Saying it's too easy and too boring are both major cop-outs, support is a tough role to master and doing it well is not easy. A good support makes a decent adc good and a good adc almost unstoppable. It's actually very fun and satisfying for me as a support player to help a strong adc like Nikanor get on a hotstreak and then watch him demolish the game. A very simple rule of thumb is that you always want to be helping not hindering your team. Support is an unselfish role where you don't get cs or kills or items, your items are called wards and guess what, THEY WIN THE GAME FOR YOUR TEAM.

Obviously there are some games that are more serious than others and some adc players I have better synergy with or will play harder for. I clearly don't always tryhard it up with Sona and Janna, I play a ton of stuff botlane and some of it is objectively less helpful. In a serious situation I will always play to win and that means playing by the book. This guide will serve you well for everything from solo queue to ranked 5s. Always be communicating with your team, especially if things are going bad. You don't have to be a cheerleader but try to discourage people from doom and glooming it up if they get 2 kills behind, that shit is really counterproductive. I hate to keep beating a dead horse but the best way to turn around a bad game is with more wards.

I am not a support main but I do have a lot of experience doing it in ranked and 5s and this is what is expected of you in an organized team. When we ask the same players to play ADC game in and game out, it can be very boring/stressful for them. Your job is to make theirs easier. This is not by any means the definitive guide on "how to support" and I am very far from a professional player but a lot of what I see in games from the "support" is just plain unacceptable for organized play, meaning you are not actually helping your team the way you are doing it. Without being rude or making callouts, take the advice of the more experienced players you play with, they are trying to help you improve so that all 5 people have a better chance at winning. The absolute best thing you can do to improve as a support is to ask the adc what you can be doing to help them better. Believe me, they will tell you. ADCs are a fickle bunch, and each one has different priorities and pet peeves. If you're at a point where neither you or the adc are sure how to improve your situation, it is probably a zoning issue or bad synergy/communication on skirmishes, which is a bit of a more complex issue that can't really be addressed without seeing it: post replays! I am always more than willing to help people improve their game, it's when people just put blinders on and insist on doing it their way that I can get really dismissive. I can't put more thought into helping you than you are!

tl;dr: Don't push the lane and put a ward in the goddamned river. Good luck!

[dramonic]

People get to see my supreme positionning skills!

[Hinduragi]

JD how would you classify a moment where you engage on an enemy out if position but your carry doesn't? Is that a mistake? Because if they had played it properly it would've been a kill, but they didn't, do it ends up looking like you screwed the pooch.

Mistake. Unintentional on your part, but still a mistake. When I play AD, Im usually going to be in a premade unless I'm in solo queue, so I often can tell my support over a voip what I want to do.

Spoiler: Situations

Sometimes I'll be a little ways away from him and I'll be cs'ing and I'll make the decision to go in or tell him I don't want to because we may screw something up and then I'll be a level behind as well as 10-15 cs. Sometimes I'm baiting with that distance because I have Ezreal, etc. and I want to e, q, ignite them as soon as my support goes in on them. Sometimes I'm paying attention to the mini map at the time and don't know what my support is doing aside from zoning them away from harassing me while I cs.

Basically, if you're in solo queue with a carry and they're far away from you, unless they are communicating well and chatting with you and tell you "hey, I'll follow up to anything you do. I like to play really aggressive", just chill out and let it go. It's frustrating but it's better than going 2v1 by accident.

[xRECKONERx]

I was more talking about me being a jungler. For example, I was Amumu the other day, Grimm was Sona bot-lane, and we had an Ezreal. I pinged for dragon and all three of us caved in on it. Mid was a little bit late, but when we got to dragon, it was just the enemy Olaf (who was about about 15% health), and the enemy AD carry (I think Caitlyn), and that's it. I bandaged tossed in and ulted, smite stealing dragon and rooting both of them. Grimm followed up with a Sona ult, which Olaf then ulted to break from and dove on Sona. Our Ezreal stood there, then turn and ran the other direction, and when he bolted, our midlane did as well. It was a 4v2 wherein Olaf was already low on health and Caitlyn was cc'd for days but it ended up being Grimm dying and me giving doublebuff to Caitlyn simply because it ended up not being a 4v2 because our damage dealers didn't follow up.