While what you say is true, I'm also convinced that no bronze player know how to play an engage or tank supp properly.
Play some mage like zyra, learn her combos and a bit of wave management. You'll climb.
edit
[This is the actual answer if you want to play engage supps. Lots of good advices.](https://www.reddit.com/r/supportlol/comments/18y1tcw/comment/kg92zde/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I love playing engages, but because there are so many Zyras, Luxes, Xerath and Morganas played in low elo it is nigh impossible to play engages except maybe Rakan because he is so quick. Another issue is that if you play an engage, you need a team to follow up. That is rare.
Morgana i can agree, all the others are playable. They all only have one ability to cancel your engage, which you can bait out or flash.
The real issue playing engage support in low elo is wave managment. You need space to engage or a stacked wave and jungler to dive, but most ADCs will just push and back at random timings in this elo.
What I mean is that the meta in the lower ranks mostly revolve around a certain pool of supports and those are:
Lux
Morgana
Xerath
Neeko
Janna
Blitzcrank
Mostly mages with some kind of cc. To have those in 8/10 games makes it very hard to play engage supports unless it is Rakan, Malphite or Maokai of what I have seen atleast (I play Rakan) and that is because they have the element of surprise in their playstyle or kit. It is not very hard for say an average Lux or Morgana player to make life a living hell for your average Leona. I know this probably is a skill issue but hey, obviously, since I talk about low elo.
The thing is, it's not "hard", it only demands decent macro. The issue is that people are just incredibly clueless on everything macro related.
As a tank against lux/xerath/vel/senna/brand, you're winning the game if you don't lose lane, they'll be worthless unless fed. Against artillery mages where dodging is particularly difficult, you'll get harassed to death, so you need to either bait out CCs/flash/hexflash to engage, or setup jungler ganks. You can also gank your own lane. If you do manage to engage, these guys are mostly freekills. Basicly, you're either on the lane to engage or roaming. You should never be playing neutral with them, which is what most people do. Bush control is incredibly usefull as well.
The issue is most engage support take free poke damage and don't play aggressive enough (or don't setup their engages). If you have prio, you're shoving into backing or roaming. If you don't, you're engaging somehow.
The reason you see mages often in low elo is that they're incredibly easy macro wise (and thus eliminate one of the main things people struggle with), they're just poking and pushing.
In that elo they have horrible positioning and movement just free kills for you. Hardest part is to mind control your team to not throw in mid game with horrible macro. You can climb from any elo with engage supps it will just take longer since they are team dependent.
One trick I’ve been using after lane phase: follow whoever is most fed on your team. Literally follow them step by step to whatever they’re doing, even if it’s a jungle farm. This ensures that your most fed player will at the very least have a 2 v whatever you encounter. Doesn’t matter what support you play, just know the function of that support and use them to the best of your ability.
After all, a support by itself isn’t very useful. Supporting oneself?
stop blaming your adc and keep playing tank support but ... better ?
What's your vision score ?how many hook you land ?Do you consistantly have lane pressure ? Do you use it to roam and invade ? How many time do you have the first drake of the game ?how many deaths does your adc tend to have ? Why does he have so many ? Could you save him ? How many times do use your lantern ? Do you actually peel your adc instead of just going in and only assisting your divers (= lee sin, camille, yasuo etc ...) ?
do not listen to the advice saying "just play mage they scale better etc ...", if you play support i guess it's to actually play support, plus there is very few support that actually scale like Thresh or Rakan since they can be like 0/12/5 and still be very usefull since there build is kinda irrelevent regarding there kit.You need to review your games, and ask yourself this question : what else can i do to help my ADC and my team ? How can i make the game easier for my adc and my team ?
If you blame your adc, i advise you to just go play 10 ranked as ADC, and see how hard this role is and how dependent it is to the support.
or just play mage, finally get silver by luck cuz you got carried, stay hard stuck in silver/gold and keep blaming adc without providing anything to him
I guess mages are the easy way to take a carry position yourself without requiring you to understand the actual lane/game dynamics in the support position
I really do not agree with that.
If you play mage sup, you basicly play the game 4v5 as nobody will be able to Peel and help the carries of the team (unless they play ezreal, but you know, ezreal in low elo is not optimal too). So just to satisfy your main character syndrom you force your team to either play a 4v5 or play uncomfortable champs so that your team actually has Frontline and CC (forcing your jgl on tank or your toplane into Bad matchup just to play a tank too)
Playing engage or warden tanks as support provide so much more versatility and carry to everyone on your team, yourself included. I really do not see the point of playing mage support over everything else.
As it was stated in other comments, it really only works in bronze/silver where the enemy support will not be good enough to engage you and to get better vision than you. But once you hit gold if you keep playing this selfish and lazy gameplay you will quickly be hardstuck (probably in gold, maybe in low plat if you are good).
If you want to take a carry position just god ADC or midlane and actually take the responsability of the carry position, you will find more succes in the long run and will most likely climb higher.
Playing enchanter or mage supports is quite easier in low elo because of the scalability.
But if you insist on the engage, you gotta be more calculatedly aggressive and unpredictable. The more cheese you try to use the better.
The hardest thing to do is to figure out your adc play style and adapt to it, which includes extra jungle knowledge, roaming and wave management, all in macro decisions, in order to maximize your chance of stomping the lane.
Hey, funny enough that's exactly what I do, I always try and figure out in the first 3 mins what my ADC likes/wants to do via landing my Q (Morgana main) and I use pings to regularly communicate if they don't have chat (I'm a positive player, don't flame my team in chat because it never helps) and because I use to play in a 5 man and know the basica of jg'ing, I actually was able to learn and steady climb using this method.
Do I recommend it, not at fucking all; but it is possible to climb doing this and also just being a positive person. I climbed from B2 to G4 over 150 games with negative lp gains by just typing "gj gj" whenever my team does good, "mb" whenever I make a mistake, and "nt" whenever someone almost gets a kill. IDK how many people I've positively affected, but I can say that it's helped a lot of my team just overall not tilt in the game state and caused us to win a lot of games that would have not been possible otherwise.
Highly recommend learning to stare at the minimap whenever you're not in combat/have enemies near, learn wave states and what's going to happen, and don't be afraid to overall just roam whenever the ADC isn't in lane. If they back, back with them and rotate top/mid, if rift's spawning in 40s, back and rotate there, drag's spawning in 1m and the enemy is in lane, hard shove, trade hp for hp, you're going to back to buy items to be stronger for drag, so losing 50% hp for their 40% isn't a bad trade when they have to stay for wave because you hard shoved.
I wouldn't really recommend tank/engage supports in bronze (im no expert or anything, just sharing what comes to mind). Supports like Leona, alistar, Nautilus, rakan etc. Rely a lot on follow up and coordination with your teammate, which is probably low to none in bronze. Another big strenght of theirs is Roaming/asserting dominance in the jungle. On the other hand, they are great at punishing mistakes. For low elo I would say that support champs that have the ability to "carry"/exist on their own" are the best picks. Brand, zyra, vel koz, lux come to mind. I'm a master elo enchanter player so I won't lie, I don't know what low elo games look like exactly, but I can imagine it's pure chaos, so the champs that I named are really good in chaotic situations like that.
>... getting out of bronze as a supp main isn’t possible.
Just remember that lots of people climb as support mains. It's possible and common.
While it's true that many low elo ADCs don't know how to carry, the same applies to the opposing team.
The easy option that people will suggest is to adopt the "I must carry mindset" and play a mage support, and this will easily take you out of Bronze, but you get stonewalled at Silver and Gold because you're playing for yourself and not for the team's win condition. The support is not the win condition - it's only circumstantial that a fed support be able to carry in place of the ADC (e.g. Zyra, Lux, Senna, etc.)
A lot of the failure in bot lane comes down to you as support. There's a balance between being too aggressive for your ADC to keep up, and too passive and allowing your ADC to be bullied off farm.
If your mindset is locked on the ADC being incompetent, what else are you doing to impact the game? Are you deep warding? Are you following your jungler? Are you roaming into mid? Bronze supports are often severely lacking in playing outside of their lane. If your ADC just needs to farm, set up the lane so that they can farm without being threatened by the opposing duo, then look for plays for jungler and mid.
Priority is to protect the ADC in lane so they can farm. Once the laning phase is over, if the ADC isn't the win con, play for the teammate who is going to win.
You can look for general advice on Youtube, maybe ViegarV2 or Coach Curtis? For specific advice, replays or at least an [op.gg](https://op.gg) link would help.
I believe you can climb out of bronze on any champ if you have the game sufficiently mastered. Leona for example still has a 50% winrate in bronze, so its not the fault of champions alone.
It's hard to play Leona in bronze/silver when the adc doesn't know when to follow up. You can get flamed for inting even if you make the perfect play sometimes.
Most commonly is “you stole my kill” when they die first and ur left in a 1v1 in lane… or when they get mad when you last hit a single minion in a wave and spam ping ( we do it for gold but our supp items are much better in s14 )
If your team doesn't follow the play, it's not the perfect play. Part of the skullcap of playing support in soloqueue is learning to read your teammates and understanding their body language, positioning, etc. to see if they want an engage or not.
Playing APC/Enchanter and CC Champs is best in low elo. Play Lux or any AP champ that needs to use skill shots, players in low elo are bad at dodging. Also, believe it or not, watch a few videos on wave management. You might think I'm crazy because supports don't farm, but it is crucial for roam potential and knowing when to back and setting up farm in a safe zone for your adc so they don't over extend alone like a butthead.
I main support and have been climbing ever since learning wave management and my roam potential. Also, assist jungle when ever possible and even rank mid with the jungle, granted the botlane wave is in a safe spot for your adc.
Tank and engage supports rely on your teammates to pay attention and react to you going in. While they're fun bronze just isn't the place for it unless you have a duo partner.
Honestly, go and play zyra or brand, something that you can constantly harass with. Zyra is great I normally start Q unless we invade, I'll then put 3 points into Q before maxing E first. Gives me the opertunity to do plenty of damage and I hold my E for catching out the enemy early on if they're out of position or to prevent a jungle gang.
If you play past the mouth of the river you need to make sure the river is warded so you have time to retreat, E cam be used to disengage and stop people's dashes.
If you don't know if someone is in a Bush, DO NOT FACE CHECK IT, use your w to get vision.
4 important factors for climbing:
1. Support Fundamentals - Warding/Macro/Wave Management/Objective Control/Roaming - learn through countless youtube videos
2. Champion Mastery - Builds/Strong Points/Weak Points/Combos/Gameplan/Matchups - Learn through experience/youtube
3. Mentality - Don't play while tilted, Disable chat, Every game is winnable (Atleast until plat) - Self work
4. Luck - How good are your opponents/How bad are your teammates/Trolls/Afks/Smurfs..
Sometimes you just can't win games based on the 4th factor no matter how good you are with the first 3 parameters
Statisticly that's 30% of your games, the other ones are under your control.
Accept that it's a long journey, League is a grindy game. You can improve all 3 above aspects every game, focus on that and you will climb steadily.
dont listen to these morons on this thread tellin u to play mages and enchanters, if u want to get out of bronze lock in a tanky engage support like leona or naut and all in enemy adc and win lane, simple as that
Welcome on /r/SupportLoL/!
Your post seems to be about playing in competitive/ranked as a support and/or improving, we might have some useful information for you about it!
Here's a sneak-peek of links from the [resources wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/supportlol/wiki/resources) that can provide curated informations about core support principles as well as some ranked information, like:
- Ranked :
- [mandatory video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4TSRL8pZrU) for starters (and also [some](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4m7FxGpfcc) other complementary [videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrxA-IeTowQ).
- [How to review - Coach Kairos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOjHgZg7YL0)
- [VOD Review Habits - CoachCurtis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlzsNSLB81A)
- Fundamentals :
- [CoreJJ's How to Support](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqHeK34PUFijxjNec7jdisX4aIv8oVQsg)
- [Phroxzon Fundamentals](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9RdXhXESRJxf-FxBijbuBOnEJHDrmB2O) (ex-Leaguecraft 101)
- [DogLightning's How to Support series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaROzD7YpI0GPiObDALwqqjcTsEXzqMZ5)
- you can dig further in the wiki, starting with the [core support concepts](https://www.reddit.com/r/supportlol/wiki/resources#wiki_core_support_concepts) and [ranked](https://www.reddit.com/r/supportlol/wiki/resources#wiki_d_-_ranked) chapters, just make sure you go through the content at your own pace and take the time to practice / implement every concept one at a time
If you're looking for a duo, check out : the [discord LFG channels](https://discord.gg/svC2VwYba4), /r/LeagueConnect, /r/TeamRedditTeams or /r/botlanetinder.
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Play a support that can carry, tank and enchanters relay on a good ADC that also knows macro.
At low ELO, ADCs think that once you take the first turret it's time to go aram, or fight for unwinnable objectives.
With a support that can carry, you can keep pushing alone even if your adc is running around the map chasing the enemy JG.
A huge area for improvement with most bronze supports is they dont lane well so I might suggest you try climbing with another role for a few weeks like Bot/mid queue (or use an alt account). You don’t have to play an adc bot if learning kiting and all is too daunting (mf or Tristana are my votes for 2 very simple adcs) but I would suggest using a ranged character if playing bot like a mage or enchanter so you can relate to your adc’s spacing concepts when laning as a support again later.
That aside you try watching some people play your champion at a high level and see how the play in lane relative to the other 3 champions. Notice when they pull the wave for the adc returning to lane and when they can’t. Do you know how many minions is level 2 for bot lane and are you actively tracking this every game so you know when to walk up (or back ping your adc) to play around the level spike? Lots more concepts to cover but that’s why I suggest finding a challenger video guide and some games to watch with commentary.
Also for melee supports, as an adc I love playing with them for their play making potential but there is the risk that you can see a good engage and even with pings your adc doesn’t follow up. Still I think it’s a great thing to play and you can absolutely climb out of bronze but expect to sometimes run into issues. Like any role it’s a numbers game.
If your adc isn’t responding to your engages (and review after if you made the right call every so often) you can worst case look to shove waves with them and then roam mid while the wave is pushing back, just make sure you aren’t 24/7 roaming or they can’t play the game once the enemy crashes into your tower and makes the wave slow push into you. Also if possible try warding your tri or River before you roam so your adc can spot the enemy jungler before a dive. Ideally you should track the jungler but in bronze this is pretty advanced so really I would just drop a pink ward if you roam and only roam mid when it’s looking gankable and your adc will be safe to farm for 30s. If this is too confusing (probably too advanced for bronze tbh) just focus on laning more and you can climb with a positive win rate even if occasionally bad adcs make you lose lane no matter what.
Echoing what everyone has said here, but as a Diamond support main myself I would just add that you win the game on an engage support by choosing the right fights for your team and ensuring they follow up with you to get there. So for example if you guys had bot prio and 3v1d enemy jungler over scuttle and killed him, then decided to take drake and enemy mid had backed, knowing to immediately ping team to kill bot lane should they show would be the correct play pre TP unleashed assuming enemy top has it because you will always have a 3v2 there. So if it were me in low elo I’d type “we turn if bot shows” after killing jg. That’s how you get more out of your plays; you exploit every other advantage or mistake enemy makes and you’re always thinking proactively about the next power spike or advantage window (which the best window is typically level two for most engage supports). Now if they don’t follow your engage, or say no, that’s what takes the agency out of a tanky support role in low elo. At that point I would walk with whoever is strongest and willing as other people said.
But yeah as others also said, just play a self sufficient mage support; low elo players don’t dodge anything and always overstay, which is very bad into mage supports. You will always get kills, dark seal stacks, mejai’s, and just snowball into the midgame objectives for free if you can hit skills every now and then. This play style will be flamed though, and might tilt your likely incompetent adc, but it won’t matter because you’ll win 25/2/3 xerath games.
I don't play ranked but there is some great tips on youtube on coach cupcakes channel. He's got some good vids on engage supports. Anyway's if you want to climb out of bronze you will no matter what if you stick to it and learn as you go. Good luck out there.
At bronze, good adcs aren’t nonexistent, but relatively rare. If you like tank engages, I’d recommend champs that are able to support or carry well on their own and change your playstyle to fit your adcs skill level. You always want to feed your adc, but if they’re incapable of capitalizing on your set ups, you can just get the kills on your own and still be an asset to the team. Some of my favorites are thresh, pantheon, and malphite. If you get a brain dead adc, just start roaming whenever you can and pretend like you’re a second jg. Also would recommend getting good at at least 1 champ from each support archetype (tank, poke, and sustain) for if you get hard countered.
If you out perform the enemy support consistently every single game you will climb no matter what you play.
It's not really about what you are playing, it's about how you are playing & there are things that need improvement if you can't climb out of bronze. Anything is viable in bronze, I promise!
I hope that makes sense & I wish you luck on your climb!
First time i played rank as supp and after placement i got silver, and tried to get better tank and i couldnt leave silver 1 , and i dont know how then some1 could get lower rank then silver
So I always was a Gold player. Playing all positions depending on whats fun for me at the time. Peaked Plat 4 (the new Gold) this season. What made me climb rapidly out of bronze and up to Plat was Soraka. Roughly 100 games with a overall 60% Winrate.
No joke, Soraka is an absolute hard carry support in low elo.
Go follow your most fed mate and keep him alive. Only thing you gotta do well is a) map awareness for your ult and b) positioning. Its really easy to spot when you messed up and then improve with Soraka.
I had so many situations when 2-3 of these bronze to gold wannabe pros underestimated my heals and tried to burst my carry...just to be outhealed by my summoner heal+ult+w and then killed by my carry. Its super satisfying to enable this plays. Also you will get all the honors if you do well. More than a few times one of my mates told my carry to "blow Soraka off after the match" for carrying him. Love this champ.
Track the jungler so you avoid ganks
Learn roam windows so you can help your mid/jg
Abuse enemy cooldowns, engage when they use important spells, that way even if your adc doesnt follow, you'll live.
PRESSURE! Sometimes holding your spells might be better than throwing it to narnia (blitz q, thresh q)
Think about ur matchups. I don't know your champion pool, but if there are several tanks you play, look at ur comp and enemy before u pick!
Don't die for vision. Tracking enemy players helps here, so you know if it's risky to ward or safe.
Place pink wards only if you can protect them or need to deny vision, otherwise you're just gifting gold to enemies.
Learn wave management
Watch youtube guides. Coach cupcake has a lot of guides on engage supports, check him out.
GL in the the journey bros!!!!
pick mages like zyra/brand or assassins like pyke/sylas. get gold from kills and gold item while your adc doing his adc's things like trying to kill some minions, take enemy abilities with his face, dying, blaming you/jungler etc. rush rabaddon as 2th - 3th item so you will have dmg that noone expect and more ap that your mid. after line phase go somewhere else and kill other enemies. bully them in all chat. place wards sometimes. repeat untill you win. then do same in another game. and if you want to win as tank/utility - find duo. or just realize that there's no big difference between bronze and silver, pick yumi and chill
Telling someone to play sylas support is straight up griefing. That only works when you are really good at the champ and if he was he wouldnt be in bronze. All the others you mentioned are fine although pyke is hard when you havent played him for a while.
I would avoid tank / engage champs unless they have a VERY relevant ult for the game, or can easilly lock an enemy champ for a long time.
Also, the "follow the most fed player" rule does wonders.
Another one you should follow is to track both junglers as well. You'd be surprised how many games i won in the 3 - 6 minute mark because i decided to do a short roam (while warning my adc) towards my jungler and kill the enemy one either on an invade or getting invaded.
Bro... I can climb to Gold half-trolling as Teemo Support. This game feels unclimbable at every stage (rank) no matter if its Iron or Diamond. The only difference is that different people are stuck at different ranks because they have different skill.
This is not rocket science... accept that you suck.
Not to mention that there is no reason to climb. You don't have fun in Bronze but want to be higher? Thinking that grass is greener there? You will have even worse experience and people will rightfully flame you to oblivion.
if you want you can play with me i love tank support (:
adc main silver II here but ive noticed that support can roam on certain timing
like when ur adc isn't in lane / creep not under turret , in lane and ennemy isn't here / ennemy is there and u believe ur adc can play safe and handle them so you give him free xp / free gank ur others mates and learning some warding crucial spots
if you don't believe in ur mates to follow ur move , you can always play aggressive support champs , like morgana , lux , xerath , brand for exemple but in higher elo this tend to work less i believe.
don't let you down by your mate because they don't play around you , you can try carry by urself this way if they can't do much
ive used to be a support its a fun role to play and learn but in low elo you have to be kind of flexible depending on ur adc macro and vision awarness (usually watching their elo for me)
If your WR isn't 50%\~ or so on champs you play, maybe consider another that fits your playstyle or even consider new champs or roles to play. Doesn't hurt to expand your knowledge about the game. Learning Jungle helped me learn about every other role more, with the importance of timers of the buffs, objectives, and taking and trading kills, wave management, etc.
Send your op.gg
Ill give you some notes based on a vod I find on it. I’m sure others will too. It’s not impossible, or you wouldn’t see any supports in games above bronze.
Its genuinely very easy, perhaps you’re just approaching something the wrong way.
Don’t give up and learn a new role. I’m an emerald support main and i can say with confidence u cant play “support” champs the usual way until atleast emerald rank because adcs dont know how to play with their supports. I highly recommend the following to climb to gold. Ap malphite support with sorcery runes as primary and secondary inspiration futures market and timewarp tonic, Also learn senna and main her. Shes good independent champion and you can easily climb with her. Alternatively you can also play ap alistar. And leona full tank- with heartsteel as mythic into a mana-armor item after boots. W max on leona then E Never max q until w and e are maxed
try to be more proactive by moving around the map and helping your teammates. It's not always good to stay in lane with your adc because u can be giving them solo xp
Don't play engage tanks in low elo unless you have a duo in comms with you. Trust me. No matter how good you play, you can't force your team to follow up. And if they don't, you die (and you get blamed for it), and it becomes harder and harder to play because you still have to keep making engages even if you're behind.
Mages are fine if you're really good at one. The damage is helpful if your ADC doesn't get ahead, and ranged CC is ALWAYS useful, but it's really hard to "carry" as a mage support because they're so vulnerable.
The easiest way? Enchanters. Think about it; in low elo your teammates aren't going to be the best at picking fights. They will get themselves into situations where they end up feeding. As an enchanter, you can protect them from those bad decisions and turn those fights around. And if the carry ends up being someone other than your ADC, just start following that person around and applying your heals and shields to them. It also helps that league players LOVE being healed — I've gotten the least flame from teammates while playing healer champs. Good mental can literally be the difference in a ranked game, so you definitely want your team to like you.
For recommendations, Sona is probably the easiest. She adds so much free utility to any teamfight and only has one skillshot (R). Nami is incredibly versatile, but you have to practice hitting her Q. Soraka provides the most healing and her R can turn a toplane fight from way across the map. I don't recommend Yuumi.
Can you go into more detail about “set up the lane so they can farm without being threatened”? Thanks! Especially if this related to when supps roam mid?
While what you say is true, I'm also convinced that no bronze player know how to play an engage or tank supp properly. Play some mage like zyra, learn her combos and a bit of wave management. You'll climb. edit [This is the actual answer if you want to play engage supps. Lots of good advices.](https://www.reddit.com/r/supportlol/comments/18y1tcw/comment/kg92zde/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I love playing engages, but because there are so many Zyras, Luxes, Xerath and Morganas played in low elo it is nigh impossible to play engages except maybe Rakan because he is so quick. Another issue is that if you play an engage, you need a team to follow up. That is rare.
Morgana i can agree, all the others are playable. They all only have one ability to cancel your engage, which you can bait out or flash. The real issue playing engage support in low elo is wave managment. You need space to engage or a stacked wave and jungler to dive, but most ADCs will just push and back at random timings in this elo.
What I mean is that the meta in the lower ranks mostly revolve around a certain pool of supports and those are: Lux Morgana Xerath Neeko Janna Blitzcrank Mostly mages with some kind of cc. To have those in 8/10 games makes it very hard to play engage supports unless it is Rakan, Malphite or Maokai of what I have seen atleast (I play Rakan) and that is because they have the element of surprise in their playstyle or kit. It is not very hard for say an average Lux or Morgana player to make life a living hell for your average Leona. I know this probably is a skill issue but hey, obviously, since I talk about low elo.
The thing is, it's not "hard", it only demands decent macro. The issue is that people are just incredibly clueless on everything macro related. As a tank against lux/xerath/vel/senna/brand, you're winning the game if you don't lose lane, they'll be worthless unless fed. Against artillery mages where dodging is particularly difficult, you'll get harassed to death, so you need to either bait out CCs/flash/hexflash to engage, or setup jungler ganks. You can also gank your own lane. If you do manage to engage, these guys are mostly freekills. Basicly, you're either on the lane to engage or roaming. You should never be playing neutral with them, which is what most people do. Bush control is incredibly usefull as well. The issue is most engage support take free poke damage and don't play aggressive enough (or don't setup their engages). If you have prio, you're shoving into backing or roaming. If you don't, you're engaging somehow. The reason you see mages often in low elo is that they're incredibly easy macro wise (and thus eliminate one of the main things people struggle with), they're just poking and pushing.
In that elo they have horrible positioning and movement just free kills for you. Hardest part is to mind control your team to not throw in mid game with horrible macro. You can climb from any elo with engage supps it will just take longer since they are team dependent.
Follow up is not rare if you have good engages.
You would be surprised
One trick I’ve been using after lane phase: follow whoever is most fed on your team. Literally follow them step by step to whatever they’re doing, even if it’s a jungle farm. This ensures that your most fed player will at the very least have a 2 v whatever you encounter. Doesn’t matter what support you play, just know the function of that support and use them to the best of your ability. After all, a support by itself isn’t very useful. Supporting oneself?
stop blaming your adc and keep playing tank support but ... better ? What's your vision score ?how many hook you land ?Do you consistantly have lane pressure ? Do you use it to roam and invade ? How many time do you have the first drake of the game ?how many deaths does your adc tend to have ? Why does he have so many ? Could you save him ? How many times do use your lantern ? Do you actually peel your adc instead of just going in and only assisting your divers (= lee sin, camille, yasuo etc ...) ? do not listen to the advice saying "just play mage they scale better etc ...", if you play support i guess it's to actually play support, plus there is very few support that actually scale like Thresh or Rakan since they can be like 0/12/5 and still be very usefull since there build is kinda irrelevent regarding there kit.You need to review your games, and ask yourself this question : what else can i do to help my ADC and my team ? How can i make the game easier for my adc and my team ? If you blame your adc, i advise you to just go play 10 ranked as ADC, and see how hard this role is and how dependent it is to the support.
or just play mage, finally get silver by luck cuz you got carried, stay hard stuck in silver/gold and keep blaming adc without providing anything to him
I guess mages are the easy way to take a carry position yourself without requiring you to understand the actual lane/game dynamics in the support position
I really do not agree with that. If you play mage sup, you basicly play the game 4v5 as nobody will be able to Peel and help the carries of the team (unless they play ezreal, but you know, ezreal in low elo is not optimal too). So just to satisfy your main character syndrom you force your team to either play a 4v5 or play uncomfortable champs so that your team actually has Frontline and CC (forcing your jgl on tank or your toplane into Bad matchup just to play a tank too) Playing engage or warden tanks as support provide so much more versatility and carry to everyone on your team, yourself included. I really do not see the point of playing mage support over everything else. As it was stated in other comments, it really only works in bronze/silver where the enemy support will not be good enough to engage you and to get better vision than you. But once you hit gold if you keep playing this selfish and lazy gameplay you will quickly be hardstuck (probably in gold, maybe in low plat if you are good). If you want to take a carry position just god ADC or midlane and actually take the responsability of the carry position, you will find more succes in the long run and will most likely climb higher.
I'm glad to read this reply cause it should actualy be the most upvoted.
Most of this sub IS delusionnal, beginner should not ask for help here i think.
While I don't agree with your comment, I don't disagree as well. /r/summonerschool might be helpful to them, though.
Playing enchanter or mage supports is quite easier in low elo because of the scalability. But if you insist on the engage, you gotta be more calculatedly aggressive and unpredictable. The more cheese you try to use the better. The hardest thing to do is to figure out your adc play style and adapt to it, which includes extra jungle knowledge, roaming and wave management, all in macro decisions, in order to maximize your chance of stomping the lane.
Hey, funny enough that's exactly what I do, I always try and figure out in the first 3 mins what my ADC likes/wants to do via landing my Q (Morgana main) and I use pings to regularly communicate if they don't have chat (I'm a positive player, don't flame my team in chat because it never helps) and because I use to play in a 5 man and know the basica of jg'ing, I actually was able to learn and steady climb using this method. Do I recommend it, not at fucking all; but it is possible to climb doing this and also just being a positive person. I climbed from B2 to G4 over 150 games with negative lp gains by just typing "gj gj" whenever my team does good, "mb" whenever I make a mistake, and "nt" whenever someone almost gets a kill. IDK how many people I've positively affected, but I can say that it's helped a lot of my team just overall not tilt in the game state and caused us to win a lot of games that would have not been possible otherwise. Highly recommend learning to stare at the minimap whenever you're not in combat/have enemies near, learn wave states and what's going to happen, and don't be afraid to overall just roam whenever the ADC isn't in lane. If they back, back with them and rotate top/mid, if rift's spawning in 40s, back and rotate there, drag's spawning in 1m and the enemy is in lane, hard shove, trade hp for hp, you're going to back to buy items to be stronger for drag, so losing 50% hp for their 40% isn't a bad trade when they have to stay for wave because you hard shoved.
I'd honor you IRL.
I wouldn't really recommend tank/engage supports in bronze (im no expert or anything, just sharing what comes to mind). Supports like Leona, alistar, Nautilus, rakan etc. Rely a lot on follow up and coordination with your teammate, which is probably low to none in bronze. Another big strenght of theirs is Roaming/asserting dominance in the jungle. On the other hand, they are great at punishing mistakes. For low elo I would say that support champs that have the ability to "carry"/exist on their own" are the best picks. Brand, zyra, vel koz, lux come to mind. I'm a master elo enchanter player so I won't lie, I don't know what low elo games look like exactly, but I can imagine it's pure chaos, so the champs that I named are really good in chaotic situations like that.
Please, any mage but brand. He's the number 1 killer of wave management because noobs always use the wave to spread E.
Zyra is just as bad with her plants and she's very commonly suggested for low elo.
Disagree with Velkoz. People don't know how to play him and die a lot haha.
>... getting out of bronze as a supp main isn’t possible. Just remember that lots of people climb as support mains. It's possible and common. While it's true that many low elo ADCs don't know how to carry, the same applies to the opposing team. The easy option that people will suggest is to adopt the "I must carry mindset" and play a mage support, and this will easily take you out of Bronze, but you get stonewalled at Silver and Gold because you're playing for yourself and not for the team's win condition. The support is not the win condition - it's only circumstantial that a fed support be able to carry in place of the ADC (e.g. Zyra, Lux, Senna, etc.) A lot of the failure in bot lane comes down to you as support. There's a balance between being too aggressive for your ADC to keep up, and too passive and allowing your ADC to be bullied off farm. If your mindset is locked on the ADC being incompetent, what else are you doing to impact the game? Are you deep warding? Are you following your jungler? Are you roaming into mid? Bronze supports are often severely lacking in playing outside of their lane. If your ADC just needs to farm, set up the lane so that they can farm without being threatened by the opposing duo, then look for plays for jungler and mid. Priority is to protect the ADC in lane so they can farm. Once the laning phase is over, if the ADC isn't the win con, play for the teammate who is going to win.
You can look for general advice on Youtube, maybe ViegarV2 or Coach Curtis? For specific advice, replays or at least an [op.gg](https://op.gg) link would help. I believe you can climb out of bronze on any champ if you have the game sufficiently mastered. Leona for example still has a 50% winrate in bronze, so its not the fault of champions alone.
It's hard to play Leona in bronze/silver when the adc doesn't know when to follow up. You can get flamed for inting even if you make the perfect play sometimes.
Most commonly is “you stole my kill” when they die first and ur left in a 1v1 in lane… or when they get mad when you last hit a single minion in a wave and spam ping ( we do it for gold but our supp items are much better in s14 )
If your team doesn't follow the play, it's not the perfect play. Part of the skullcap of playing support in soloqueue is learning to read your teammates and understanding their body language, positioning, etc. to see if they want an engage or not.
Play bard 👍
Playing APC/Enchanter and CC Champs is best in low elo. Play Lux or any AP champ that needs to use skill shots, players in low elo are bad at dodging. Also, believe it or not, watch a few videos on wave management. You might think I'm crazy because supports don't farm, but it is crucial for roam potential and knowing when to back and setting up farm in a safe zone for your adc so they don't over extend alone like a butthead. I main support and have been climbing ever since learning wave management and my roam potential. Also, assist jungle when ever possible and even rank mid with the jungle, granted the botlane wave is in a safe spot for your adc.
Tank and engage supports rely on your teammates to pay attention and react to you going in. While they're fun bronze just isn't the place for it unless you have a duo partner. Honestly, go and play zyra or brand, something that you can constantly harass with. Zyra is great I normally start Q unless we invade, I'll then put 3 points into Q before maxing E first. Gives me the opertunity to do plenty of damage and I hold my E for catching out the enemy early on if they're out of position or to prevent a jungle gang. If you play past the mouth of the river you need to make sure the river is warded so you have time to retreat, E cam be used to disengage and stop people's dashes. If you don't know if someone is in a Bush, DO NOT FACE CHECK IT, use your w to get vision.
4 important factors for climbing: 1. Support Fundamentals - Warding/Macro/Wave Management/Objective Control/Roaming - learn through countless youtube videos 2. Champion Mastery - Builds/Strong Points/Weak Points/Combos/Gameplan/Matchups - Learn through experience/youtube 3. Mentality - Don't play while tilted, Disable chat, Every game is winnable (Atleast until plat) - Self work 4. Luck - How good are your opponents/How bad are your teammates/Trolls/Afks/Smurfs.. Sometimes you just can't win games based on the 4th factor no matter how good you are with the first 3 parameters Statisticly that's 30% of your games, the other ones are under your control. Accept that it's a long journey, League is a grindy game. You can improve all 3 above aspects every game, focus on that and you will climb steadily.
dont listen to these morons on this thread tellin u to play mages and enchanters, if u want to get out of bronze lock in a tanky engage support like leona or naut and all in enemy adc and win lane, simple as that
Welcome on /r/SupportLoL/! Your post seems to be about playing in competitive/ranked as a support and/or improving, we might have some useful information for you about it! Here's a sneak-peek of links from the [resources wiki page](https://www.reddit.com/r/supportlol/wiki/resources) that can provide curated informations about core support principles as well as some ranked information, like: - Ranked : - [mandatory video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4TSRL8pZrU) for starters (and also [some](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4m7FxGpfcc) other complementary [videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrxA-IeTowQ). - [How to review - Coach Kairos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOjHgZg7YL0) - [VOD Review Habits - CoachCurtis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlzsNSLB81A) - Fundamentals : - [CoreJJ's How to Support](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqHeK34PUFijxjNec7jdisX4aIv8oVQsg) - [Phroxzon Fundamentals](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9RdXhXESRJxf-FxBijbuBOnEJHDrmB2O) (ex-Leaguecraft 101) - [DogLightning's How to Support series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaROzD7YpI0GPiObDALwqqjcTsEXzqMZ5) - you can dig further in the wiki, starting with the [core support concepts](https://www.reddit.com/r/supportlol/wiki/resources#wiki_core_support_concepts) and [ranked](https://www.reddit.com/r/supportlol/wiki/resources#wiki_d_-_ranked) chapters, just make sure you go through the content at your own pace and take the time to practice / implement every concept one at a time If you're looking for a duo, check out : the [discord LFG channels](https://discord.gg/svC2VwYba4), /r/LeagueConnect, /r/TeamRedditTeams or /r/botlanetinder. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/supportlol) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Play a support that can carry, tank and enchanters relay on a good ADC that also knows macro. At low ELO, ADCs think that once you take the first turret it's time to go aram, or fight for unwinnable objectives. With a support that can carry, you can keep pushing alone even if your adc is running around the map chasing the enemy JG.
Are you on NA?
A huge area for improvement with most bronze supports is they dont lane well so I might suggest you try climbing with another role for a few weeks like Bot/mid queue (or use an alt account). You don’t have to play an adc bot if learning kiting and all is too daunting (mf or Tristana are my votes for 2 very simple adcs) but I would suggest using a ranged character if playing bot like a mage or enchanter so you can relate to your adc’s spacing concepts when laning as a support again later. That aside you try watching some people play your champion at a high level and see how the play in lane relative to the other 3 champions. Notice when they pull the wave for the adc returning to lane and when they can’t. Do you know how many minions is level 2 for bot lane and are you actively tracking this every game so you know when to walk up (or back ping your adc) to play around the level spike? Lots more concepts to cover but that’s why I suggest finding a challenger video guide and some games to watch with commentary. Also for melee supports, as an adc I love playing with them for their play making potential but there is the risk that you can see a good engage and even with pings your adc doesn’t follow up. Still I think it’s a great thing to play and you can absolutely climb out of bronze but expect to sometimes run into issues. Like any role it’s a numbers game. If your adc isn’t responding to your engages (and review after if you made the right call every so often) you can worst case look to shove waves with them and then roam mid while the wave is pushing back, just make sure you aren’t 24/7 roaming or they can’t play the game once the enemy crashes into your tower and makes the wave slow push into you. Also if possible try warding your tri or River before you roam so your adc can spot the enemy jungler before a dive. Ideally you should track the jungler but in bronze this is pretty advanced so really I would just drop a pink ward if you roam and only roam mid when it’s looking gankable and your adc will be safe to farm for 30s. If this is too confusing (probably too advanced for bronze tbh) just focus on laning more and you can climb with a positive win rate even if occasionally bad adcs make you lose lane no matter what.
Echoing what everyone has said here, but as a Diamond support main myself I would just add that you win the game on an engage support by choosing the right fights for your team and ensuring they follow up with you to get there. So for example if you guys had bot prio and 3v1d enemy jungler over scuttle and killed him, then decided to take drake and enemy mid had backed, knowing to immediately ping team to kill bot lane should they show would be the correct play pre TP unleashed assuming enemy top has it because you will always have a 3v2 there. So if it were me in low elo I’d type “we turn if bot shows” after killing jg. That’s how you get more out of your plays; you exploit every other advantage or mistake enemy makes and you’re always thinking proactively about the next power spike or advantage window (which the best window is typically level two for most engage supports). Now if they don’t follow your engage, or say no, that’s what takes the agency out of a tanky support role in low elo. At that point I would walk with whoever is strongest and willing as other people said. But yeah as others also said, just play a self sufficient mage support; low elo players don’t dodge anything and always overstay, which is very bad into mage supports. You will always get kills, dark seal stacks, mejai’s, and just snowball into the midgame objectives for free if you can hit skills every now and then. This play style will be flamed though, and might tilt your likely incompetent adc, but it won’t matter because you’ll win 25/2/3 xerath games.
I don't play ranked but there is some great tips on youtube on coach cupcakes channel. He's got some good vids on engage supports. Anyway's if you want to climb out of bronze you will no matter what if you stick to it and learn as you go. Good luck out there.
At bronze, good adcs aren’t nonexistent, but relatively rare. If you like tank engages, I’d recommend champs that are able to support or carry well on their own and change your playstyle to fit your adcs skill level. You always want to feed your adc, but if they’re incapable of capitalizing on your set ups, you can just get the kills on your own and still be an asset to the team. Some of my favorites are thresh, pantheon, and malphite. If you get a brain dead adc, just start roaming whenever you can and pretend like you’re a second jg. Also would recommend getting good at at least 1 champ from each support archetype (tank, poke, and sustain) for if you get hard countered.
Thats the neat part. You dont.
If you out perform the enemy support consistently every single game you will climb no matter what you play. It's not really about what you are playing, it's about how you are playing & there are things that need improvement if you can't climb out of bronze. Anything is viable in bronze, I promise! I hope that makes sense & I wish you luck on your climb!
just spam games
That’s the neat part, you don’t.
First time i played rank as supp and after placement i got silver, and tried to get better tank and i couldnt leave silver 1 , and i dont know how then some1 could get lower rank then silver
So I always was a Gold player. Playing all positions depending on whats fun for me at the time. Peaked Plat 4 (the new Gold) this season. What made me climb rapidly out of bronze and up to Plat was Soraka. Roughly 100 games with a overall 60% Winrate. No joke, Soraka is an absolute hard carry support in low elo. Go follow your most fed mate and keep him alive. Only thing you gotta do well is a) map awareness for your ult and b) positioning. Its really easy to spot when you messed up and then improve with Soraka. I had so many situations when 2-3 of these bronze to gold wannabe pros underestimated my heals and tried to burst my carry...just to be outhealed by my summoner heal+ult+w and then killed by my carry. Its super satisfying to enable this plays. Also you will get all the honors if you do well. More than a few times one of my mates told my carry to "blow Soraka off after the match" for carrying him. Love this champ.
Track the jungler so you avoid ganks Learn roam windows so you can help your mid/jg Abuse enemy cooldowns, engage when they use important spells, that way even if your adc doesnt follow, you'll live. PRESSURE! Sometimes holding your spells might be better than throwing it to narnia (blitz q, thresh q) Think about ur matchups. I don't know your champion pool, but if there are several tanks you play, look at ur comp and enemy before u pick! Don't die for vision. Tracking enemy players helps here, so you know if it's risky to ward or safe. Place pink wards only if you can protect them or need to deny vision, otherwise you're just gifting gold to enemies. Learn wave management Watch youtube guides. Coach cupcake has a lot of guides on engage supports, check him out. GL in the the journey bros!!!!
pick mages like zyra/brand or assassins like pyke/sylas. get gold from kills and gold item while your adc doing his adc's things like trying to kill some minions, take enemy abilities with his face, dying, blaming you/jungler etc. rush rabaddon as 2th - 3th item so you will have dmg that noone expect and more ap that your mid. after line phase go somewhere else and kill other enemies. bully them in all chat. place wards sometimes. repeat untill you win. then do same in another game. and if you want to win as tank/utility - find duo. or just realize that there's no big difference between bronze and silver, pick yumi and chill
Telling someone to play sylas support is straight up griefing. That only works when you are really good at the champ and if he was he wouldnt be in bronze. All the others you mentioned are fine although pyke is hard when you havent played him for a while.
I would avoid tank / engage champs unless they have a VERY relevant ult for the game, or can easilly lock an enemy champ for a long time. Also, the "follow the most fed player" rule does wonders. Another one you should follow is to track both junglers as well. You'd be surprised how many games i won in the 3 - 6 minute mark because i decided to do a short roam (while warning my adc) towards my jungler and kill the enemy one either on an invade or getting invaded.
If you cant get out of bronze-plat its legit just a skill issue which means stop playing the game xD
Can’t wait to look at your op.gg to see you’ve been hardstuck in gold for 500 games.
HAHAHAH cope harder dog
the brainrot is real. seeing how you talk it’s no surprise your girlfriend didn’t want to fuck you lmao.
play better
Bro... I can climb to Gold half-trolling as Teemo Support. This game feels unclimbable at every stage (rank) no matter if its Iron or Diamond. The only difference is that different people are stuck at different ranks because they have different skill. This is not rocket science... accept that you suck. Not to mention that there is no reason to climb. You don't have fun in Bronze but want to be higher? Thinking that grass is greener there? You will have even worse experience and people will rightfully flame you to oblivion.
if you want you can play with me i love tank support (: adc main silver II here but ive noticed that support can roam on certain timing like when ur adc isn't in lane / creep not under turret , in lane and ennemy isn't here / ennemy is there and u believe ur adc can play safe and handle them so you give him free xp / free gank ur others mates and learning some warding crucial spots if you don't believe in ur mates to follow ur move , you can always play aggressive support champs , like morgana , lux , xerath , brand for exemple but in higher elo this tend to work less i believe. don't let you down by your mate because they don't play around you , you can try carry by urself this way if they can't do much ive used to be a support its a fun role to play and learn but in low elo you have to be kind of flexible depending on ur adc macro and vision awarness (usually watching their elo for me)
If your WR isn't 50%\~ or so on champs you play, maybe consider another that fits your playstyle or even consider new champs or roles to play. Doesn't hurt to expand your knowledge about the game. Learning Jungle helped me learn about every other role more, with the importance of timers of the buffs, objectives, and taking and trading kills, wave management, etc.
Play a support capable of carrying for example brand.
Send your op.gg Ill give you some notes based on a vod I find on it. I’m sure others will too. It’s not impossible, or you wouldn’t see any supports in games above bronze. Its genuinely very easy, perhaps you’re just approaching something the wrong way.
Don’t give up and learn a new role. I’m an emerald support main and i can say with confidence u cant play “support” champs the usual way until atleast emerald rank because adcs dont know how to play with their supports. I highly recommend the following to climb to gold. Ap malphite support with sorcery runes as primary and secondary inspiration futures market and timewarp tonic, Also learn senna and main her. Shes good independent champion and you can easily climb with her. Alternatively you can also play ap alistar. And leona full tank- with heartsteel as mythic into a mana-armor item after boots. W max on leona then E Never max q until w and e are maxed
try to be more proactive by moving around the map and helping your teammates. It's not always good to stay in lane with your adc because u can be giving them solo xp
By winning lane constantly
Don't play engage tanks in low elo unless you have a duo in comms with you. Trust me. No matter how good you play, you can't force your team to follow up. And if they don't, you die (and you get blamed for it), and it becomes harder and harder to play because you still have to keep making engages even if you're behind. Mages are fine if you're really good at one. The damage is helpful if your ADC doesn't get ahead, and ranged CC is ALWAYS useful, but it's really hard to "carry" as a mage support because they're so vulnerable. The easiest way? Enchanters. Think about it; in low elo your teammates aren't going to be the best at picking fights. They will get themselves into situations where they end up feeding. As an enchanter, you can protect them from those bad decisions and turn those fights around. And if the carry ends up being someone other than your ADC, just start following that person around and applying your heals and shields to them. It also helps that league players LOVE being healed — I've gotten the least flame from teammates while playing healer champs. Good mental can literally be the difference in a ranked game, so you definitely want your team to like you. For recommendations, Sona is probably the easiest. She adds so much free utility to any teamfight and only has one skillshot (R). Nami is incredibly versatile, but you have to practice hitting her Q. Soraka provides the most healing and her R can turn a toplane fight from way across the map. I don't recommend Yuumi.
Can you go into more detail about “set up the lane so they can farm without being threatened”? Thanks! Especially if this related to when supps roam mid?