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  • posted a message on Maining Support

    Quote from A2ZOMG »

    Run health quints, and against kill lanes, max W (you'll win lane 9 out of 10 times simply because the strongest kill lane supports are melee).  Sona is actually one of the tankier supports in this game if you choose so (and is basically by far the tankiest support lategame after Alistar), and that is why Riot specifically nerfed her base health. Also Sona is a  much stronger teamfighter than Zyra factoring a gold starved build and can carry games with basically a Philo and Chalice. Sure Lulu is slightly more useful than Sona lategame, but Sona simply dominates the laning phase if you know what you're doing, and also shines in teamfights pretty well.


    hmm I cannot disagree more here. There are tons of support that are way more tankier than sona. Taric, Nunu, Alistair, and yes even lulu.

    All stat here are at 18:
    Sona: 1600 hp  65.4 armour 30 mr    w aura is 15 armour mr  or 35 armour mr for 3 sec after skill use
    Lulu: 1891 hp   75.6 armour 30 mr    shield and ult obv but since the skill is usualy not used on herself it dun count
    Taric: 2088hp   74.1 armour 52.5mr   w gives 60 armour while off cd and 30 while on cd
    Nunu: 2381hp  79.5 armour  52.5mr
    Leona: 1996hp 73.8armour   52.5 mr  her w gives her 70 armour and mr for duration of the buff
    Janna: 1760 hp 77.4 armour  30 mr

    In conclusion sona is tankier than janna, and sorka (if soraka does not heal herself and sona has the w buff on), but that is about it, and this is only contingent on sona having the w up instead of other buffs. If she does not have w up Sona is the least tanky support there is. If your argument brings items then most support build simmilar items, except like zyra going ap support.   If your argument counts in how many heal she can use in team fight, then this is true since sona can pull off at least 2 + in most teamfight giving her effectively at least 240 hp or more, but that still makes her way less tanky that most beefy support that I mentioned top.

    In terms of lanening she really is not that dominant lol and like i mentioned in my post supports like lulu and zyra just flat out outrange her in harass. She does have sustain going for her, but remember that is mana that you could have spent damaging enemy going into heal, and sona's heal is not that mana efficient. (80 mana / 120 heal at max   while lulu does 260 dmg for the cost of 80 mana for example)
    She is still great in lane, but support like Lulu and Zyra can easily stand in par with her in lane.

    Posted in: Champions and Gameplay
  • posted a message on Maining Support

    adc is supposed to kill what is closest to them lol. There are exceptions, but it is a general rule of thumb to let the other roles dive while adc kill whoever is closest to them lol.

     

    Posted in: Champions and Gameplay
  • posted a message on Maining Support

    currently 1800+ maining support (mainly because I say I fill except for jungle which usualy lands me on support :)  ), and here is my two cents on the topic

     

    support does make a difference, but you are obviously more dependent on your teammates, mainly your adc. Mid will have a easier time "carrying" the team to win, but the difference is not as big as some people percieve it to be. Besides when I say "carry" you have to be better than most players in the game for this to work in the first place, which many people think they are but are not in reality, unless they are smurfing. On that note I can completely understand some people's frustration at their lanemate as I go through those emotional swings too.

    So, what do you do?

    you pick less lanemate dependent support. I will list few here and give the reason for my reasoning.

    Important side note: Lanemate dependent supports are not bad supports, but they are more dependent on your lanemate's skill and the teamwork between you two. Thus you can role them in duo que, but I would advise against them in solo que, unless the known lane is particularly strong combo (caitlyn nunu, draven janna etc). Also I will focus on early game aspect, because you can usualy snowball off the early game. This is true in high level games, and even more true in solo que, because players in solo que are more prone to self destructing on themselves turning the game into a simple blame war. 

    SUMMARY Because it is a ramble from now here is summary for people who dun wanna read bottom: lanemate dependent champs are champs that have their ability primarily focused on buffing fellow lanemate like nunu, soraka, janna. None lanemate dependent champs are the ones that can poke by themselves safely to control the pace of the lane by themselves like Lulu, Sona, Zyra. Then there are kill lanes such as leona, blitzcrank and taric. They are hybrid in dependency since your lanemates do have to follow up on you correctly, but if you are good at them I say go for it. Especially taric because of how easy he is to learn and use at basic level (hard to use him right at higher level though).

    Lanemate dependent supports (aka do not pick these if you have no confidence in your adc):

    Nunu: So much of his strength is based on his bloodboil that he is the most lanemate dependent support there is. Most of his poke comes from your adc using the bloodboil buff to trade effectively. He can snowball, but it has really high mana cost (110 at lvl 5) and low range (550 which his auto attack range for most adc). He does have his passive, but along with his low base mana he still cannot harass as heavy as other supports.

    Soraka: heal and mana regen for your adc so your adc can spam his stuff, but if your adc does not do those effectively (miss skill shot or do not trade/harass at all) then Soraka is weak in lane, Soraka can play aggressive and poke semi effectively with her 725 range infuse, but soraka still needs his adc to cover for her because her harassing is extremely risky, mainly due to how easily she can get bursted out. Remember she has no peel or mobility move.

    Janna: The current standard janna play is maxing shield. Basically  you shield your adc so your adc does more damage while taking little to no damage during trade, but this does not amount to anything if your adc backs away when the enemy harass and let the shield die out. It requires lots of teamwork, and it is not something I can recommend. Oh yeah it is also not easy to get the shield timing right for most people. some good jannas do harass on their own shielding themselves, but  this is not that effective mainly because janna has pitiful 425 range.

    None lanemate dependent supports (supports I recommend for soloque):

    Lulu: long long long long long long range on her glitterlance (925, which is even longer if you use the shield to extend the range) so she can free poke most champion without getting hit back. she also has host of cc (polymorph, 80% short duration slow on glitterlance) along with shield and mobility move to help her if she ever gets caught in bad position. She also has way more health than typical range support (415 +82, while champions like sona is 340+70). All in all she can control the bot lane on her own and she can do it with lot less risk than other support thanks to her kit. Oh ya you do have to hit your glitterlance though lol :P
    (btw cannot recommend her enough, because you can use Lulu as support for any adc and I mean ANY adc from kill lane to poke lane etc, and you can pick Lulu supports into Any enemy matchup. There are not that many supports that can say the same. However, she does have little bit of learning curve, which is why Lulu does have lower winrate overall than other supports, but she is great once you learn her as you can see from her popularity in tournaments)

    Zyra: similar to Lulu, but without escape ability, but she has long range poke with disable that is safe and can be very easy to followed up for kill. She also transition very well into mid to late game because she is great in team fight.

    Sona: her range is not as long (700 range for closest target and 500 range for champion prioritizing q poke), but her q is very easy to hit accurately with once you learn her and the damage is great when you combo it with her passive. Warning though she has no cc before 6 and after the hp nerf she melts like butter against kill lane, so be careful when choosing her (great against supports like nunu and janna who you can pretty much free poke). She also has heal unlike zyra and lulu, which lets your lanemate take more skillshots to the face instead of dodging than if you were other support.

    Kill lane supports are still lanemate dependent because your lanemate do have to followup, but if you are great at kill lane supports I say go for it since they are not that hard to follow up. Especially Taric, because of how easy it is to set up kills with him and how easy it is to learn Taric at basic level.

    So from the champions I listed above the main focus is how well you can poke the enemy lane without getting retaliated back. These champions have long range skills that lets them poke from long range safely without much retaliation to hinder/prevent enemy from csing comfortably by forcing them to base or stay away from last hitting range, and once you get good at them you can really see the difference. However, because they have long range their skills are also skillshots to compensate, which means you do have to actually learn the champion to make good use of them. Since this is post about maining support I assume the time to learn the champion is given :p.

    I am just going to restate before ending that all the supports are viable, but some are just more dependent on your lanemate and they are balanced with the assumption that your lanemate is competant, which is why I would recommend against using them in soloque setting.   

    btw for people wondering I do actually soloque assuming my lanemates are competant and I support even when I am higher pick priority if no one wants support. :)

    Posted in: Champions and Gameplay
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