This is your snackalicious support main speaking
, any pro seeming info is from other sources and also I will specify what makes a good nontraditional support.
Article 1: Wards, Masteries, and Trinkets
Disclaimer: A support is not a ward dispenser, we can only buy so many wards and cover so much of the jungle even with our cash runes and gp2 items; we need money for items too. I now make more money and the utterly stupid ward changes make it so I can only drop three stealth wards maximum at any given time as of the end of S3:drunk:Therefore now, even more than before it is the entire team's responsibility to ward at all phases all day every day
:that:If they try to say otherwise, then they're fucking stupid and selfish because a 75 to 100 gold investment saves lives and wins teamfights and games because vision is op. Also, the ADC is the support's bitch :ebil:until they get a BF Sword, but at the same time you can also consider yourself an extension of the ADC :bahaha:Also be aware that wards only last three minutes and always maintain tabs on the ward's timer and/or keep an eye on them in the map
Da Image
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The ideal places to ward (slightly outdated)
One additional thing you can do for the team is help the jungle keep the timers for Dragon and Baron or if you happen to come across it buff timers. This alone is immensely helpful to your jungler and the rest of the team. Enable time stamps in your chat and you'll go far in keeping timers.
Buffs are five minutes upon death
Dragon is six minutes upon death
Baron is seven minutes upon death
Article 2: Choice of Champs
At this point someone may want to ask "Prinny, what makes a good support champion?"
This is how to determine whether the considered champ is capable of supporting the adc effectively or it should be taken to another lane. Despite the categories that the info page for each champion like to display, there are quite a bit of deviations. Even certain champs like Kayle can deviate from the role they were originally designed to perform.
First and foremost, you must look the at the champ's kit including it's passive and ask yourself the following questions.
1) Does this champion have any heals or buffs
2) Does this champ have any form of CC (Crowd Control)
3) How close to the target does this champ have to be in order to be effective and how much damage is it likely to take in order to get into that ideal range
4) How likely is it that this champ will KS
5) How capable is this champ at pushing the lane and harassing at the appropriate times
6) How will this champ do with a support build
7) In what other ways can this champion support an ADC
If the support is capable of tanking, what are the skills this champion will have in order to fulfill that role and survive
9) If the champ is a tank how well can it peel
A bad choice for support would be Volibear :no1:for the following reasons:
40% of his kit counting his passive is CC due to his toss and slow but that is the only thing going for him. Especially since Voli needs to get fed to be of any real threat. His entire kit requires him to be at melee range and the only thing that will keep him alive is his passive and the adc he's going to tank for. In the time that it takes Voli to land his Q, he will lose at least 25% of his health chasing the ADC. In all honesty Leona would be a better choice if you wanted that sort of support since a staggering portion of her kit is good for support
Another bad choice would be Rammus for the very case that even though 50% of his kit is CC, he still has to get into melee range in order to taunt and while his Q is active he must navigate the entire lane taking care not to hit any minions but that is equivalent to trying to speed in a highly congested street in Downtown NYC and on top of that the enemy ADC can just autoattack Rammus for free. Not to mention his ult is useless while supporting. If you want a support that has a taunt, you're better off with Galio or better yet, Shen.
For my first example (of a good support) I will use a champion that I recently bought: Zyra
She has no heals or buffs, but counting her passive 40% of her kit is CC due to her E (a snare) and her ult (an AoE knockup). Her seeds act as 30 second wards and grant vision of the enemy who happens to step on said seeds, and the plants that she spawns are exceptional at pushing a lane and forcing the enemy duo to divert their attention away from you and the wave. She does very well with a support build, Her autoattack is ranged keeping her at a safe distance, and even though she was originally meant to be a carry she is still good for securing kills for the carry
Speaking of Leona, here are the reasons why she happens to be an amazing support (and my favorite tank
)
Her passive makes for good additional damage since her teammates can proc it, 75% of her active kit is CC (3 stuns and a potential slow
), and the last 25% is a defensive buff that also deals aoe damage that applies her passive on anything that it hits. It is very possible to make a support build that makes her tanky as hell. She's very aggressive for a tank but she IS CC.
LeBlanc is a fairly popular pick these days due to her mobility due her teleports, her capability to perform a double snare, her range, and the amount of silences she can pull of over the course of a minute but she happens to be squishy as hell so the player would have to be careful about the engages. But her damage is retarded early game so she can easily kill or send them out of lane
Karma is a very recent favorite of mine since I saw Xspecials tier list. Her Mantra is accessible from the start of the game Which when used acts as a steroid to the other 75 percent of your kit. She works well with Sivir and other mobile poke based champs. She has a a skillshot that leaves an aoe mantra'd, A shield which grants an MS buff which can become an aoe with mantra, and DOT skill that snares (will also heal you when mantra is used)
Now I'll give you couple unorthodox examples of who can support:
First and Foremost, my favorite tree: Chairman Maokai
His passive allows him to stay in lane longer due to it being a heal, he is a ward factory, His W is a homing root that makes people think twice about rushing the lane which can be comboed with his Q which grants a knockback in melee range and also grants a slow, his shitty ult still has a damage reduction effect behind it and like Leona, he can still build tanky while supporting.
On the mention of Shen, he is at least 1000% better than Rammus due to having a kit that is actually useful for supporting. His Q triggers a heal proc for all teammates when the marked target is attacked, he has a shield with a decent cd, his taunt is in the form of a dash which allows him to escape, his ult is global which means as long it's ready to be used; nobody ever dies and the best part is he can still run a tank build complete with support items
Nautilus (much like Blitz and Thresh) begin and end with their pull. If it lands, he can help utterly wreck the victim's health and slow them with his E. His shield keeps him alive and his ult has the potential to disrupt many targets in a teamfight. Though do keep in mind he cannot stick to his targets as well as the the other two
Another one would be Orianna due to her 50% of kit being CC and her having a shield and an MS buff. Her ball gives you extra vision and is the centerpiece of her ult which happens to be a nasty AoE pull, she can pass the ball to other allies in order to give them a shield (which means she is already a better team player than Kobe
)
Syndra is a solid pick since she has a potential aoe stun, an aoe slow, plenty of harass and she doesn't have to sacrifice much for a support build
Lissandra can work but it would have to be a poke based duo lane since she can't take too much damage and an E-W combo wouldn't be wise ( remember dat damage) until she hits 6 but the risk of you stealing your adc's CS is really high due to the nature of her Q
Usually, you want that champ to have some amount of CC (at least 50% of their active kit
) especially since it's usually your job to try and lock down the enemy carry so your lane partner can murder the aforementioned carry or to peel away anyone who may try to kill your carries
Article 3 Wards, Items, and Runes
There isn't much Variety in a Support's runes but I'll go through it anyway
Blues/Glyphs: Scaling MR for that late game but you can throw some flat MR if you feel the need
Reds/Marks: Flat Armor since you'll be trying to set up a kill in the adc's lane and you'll definitely be taking harass at some point during laning phase
Quints: You will want to take the free cash quints for that extra gold income (+1 gold ever 10 seconds), you could take AP Quints, but the thing is you will always be strapped for cash due to wards, oracle's and the constant purchase of small items. This is no longer true, AP is a lot more viable on the quint front because of the new changes and masteries to wards and support items. Health is also good for tanking and general survivability
Seals/Yellows: You have an actual freedom of choice here. You can go for scaling health, scaling mana, flat armor, or for the sake of trolling; cash runes
First you will want to spec 21 into the jewish masteries (utiility) :creep:making sure to get the Culinary Master mastery since it gives you tasty biscuits that make your pots more effective, 2 into inspiration, a point into phasewalker to help you die less, . Greed and Scavenger to be even more jewish along with wealth and bandit. If you want more AP spec 7 into anger (offense) mainly just for the AP it would grant you and 2 into defense to give you a little more survivability in lane. But if you were to run someone like Thresh or Leona (a tank support), then it would be preferable to invest more into the defense tree but leaving enough in utility to have the extra gold at the start of the game.
Items are highly dependent on the situation and champion, so I'll run through them
Sweeper Trinket should be fully upgraded since it basically becomes a ghetto oracles. I agree. The sweeper trinket is easily the best when it comes to mid and late game. However, you may decide to start with the vision totem to help in lane, both are viable. But always end up with a sweeper.
Blue and Red elixir are always good for the endgame skirmishes. These are luxury items, you should purchase these when you're already at or close to full build. But agree, if you have that much gold, always buy them.
Ruby Sightstone: Always buy this if you actually want to support or I'll smoke you like a joint. Basically you get 5 five free wards that happen to be regular stealth wards and it happens to refill every time you back. I find myself building a sightstone most of the time as it essentially means you never have to buy wards again (other than a pink every now and then). Since you'll primarily be warding anyway, you should buy this as early as possible to save a ton of gold the longer the game goes on.
Randuin's Omen - Awesome tank item, should be built against any team comp reliant on auto attacks. Build on Leona or Thresh or anyone who is a tank. Randuin's is an amazing item for tank supports.
Banshee's Veil - Not as good as spirit visage but it's passive can still do you a lot of good if you're dealing with with some rather unsavory skills I wouldn't suggest buying a Veil unless there is a specific champion on the enemy team you need to counter, such as LeBlanc.
Sunfire Cape - Really good item all around, if you're tanking in some capacity build this item. Though as Unk said, it's really selfish
Frost Queen's Claim - Give you a slow and free money every time you hit someone with a single target spell or an autoattack. i.e. the most restictive of the three gold income items and probably the weakest since if you're not risking taking harass from the enemy duo you're not gaining anything. That and it's properties pretty much become useless after early game except for the slow. Don't build this, too weak to compare to
Cooldown boots get them in every game with the distortion enchantment. Yes, I am serious about the distortion enchantment, you can't support if you're dead and you don't have the damage or urgency to justify Homeguard, Furor, or Alacrity. A shorter CD on flash will serve you better in the long run (I will debate on this shit all day every day with anyone; Homeguard is not the end all be all boot enchantment
) While on the subject of boot enchants, the four I mentioned are the only good ones. Notable alternatives are Ninja Tabi and Merc Treads Boots of Lucidity are going to be your best bet in most cases. Although, I'm fond of Mobility on certain champions, like Blitzcrank and Thresh. Sorc shoes are good on more "carry" supports like Annie. Merc Treads are good for tanks if you don't want Mobility. Ninja Tabi is really situational.
Mikael's Crucible: An underrated item IMO, high amounts of mana regen, a free cleanse bundled with a heal, and it builds off Philo stone (rip Philo Stone). I would generally build it on Orianna and Nami. I build it on Sona but that's because I'm quite liberal in my mana usage with her. Simply put, build this item on mana whores and/or if you really need that mid game MR This item is really under-rated, it's a top tier support item. Rush it in cases where they have cc you need to get off your team.
Locket of The Iron Solari: A good item but usually set aside because of the Bulwark (rip Bulwark, you were too broken for TV). It grants a shield, additional hp, and 10% cdr. Usable on everyone. build this if someone else is building aegis. EDIT: Aegis now builds into locket
Twin Shadows: A solid pick if you're looking for more slows and another way to seek out hidden enemies; plus it gives some AP, MS, and MR. A situational pick with anyone Twin Shadows is good on carry supports, like Annie.
Vision Wards: 70% shittier but still necessary, they can only be placed in a limited amount of spots due them now being visible (Fuck you, Riot. This is why)
Will of the Ancients: Only build this if you have a fuckton of AP based champs on your team. ( Don't build this, this item is shit now
Zeke's Herald: It became a really shitty item in season 3 due to it no longer granting attack speed and life steal. Never build this. S4 Update: Still a shit item, do not build this. (I miss S2 Herald
)
Zhonya's hourglass: Build only when fed/trolling/or running a more aggressive support in terms of AP.
Guardian Angel: Conventional, no. Silly, yes. Buy it as a last item only if you are really really ahead and if you think your kit's useful enough for this choice. Buy this if the game goes on for a really long time and every life counts a lot more.
Never build Eleisia's Miracle, NEVER. :that:This piece of shit item no longer exists, praise riot
Iceborn Gauntlet is a good item to build on Leona since it gives her armor, another aoe slow, and a boost in AP Iceborn is good on certain champions like Thresh and Leona. I've also seen it work with great success on Sona and Lulu. Expensive though, and also pretty selfish (peel is good though).
Scrying Orb really really sucks, don't buy it. It's Clairvoyance but a really shit version of it and much as it pains me to say this nobody uses CV. That should give you an idea There is no point in buying this (the blue trinket) at any stage of the game. Don't bother with it.
As for wards...................ALWAYS BUY THEM. Also buy Sweeper to clear out those pesky enemy wards.
EDIT3: It has now somewhat reached GOTY status, I should probably add videos for the lulz
EDIT4: Anything in red happens to be Unk's words and along with some of the non colored alterations
SNKedit: I'll edit the colors later
Subject: (S4) How to be a baller status support. 420kHD Super Yoloswag GOTY Edition 
Sat Jul 27, 2013 6:25 am
Gotta make sure 
