If you want to climb playing support, you need to pick up these champions.
The support role in League of Legends can often be a thankless job. A good support can go by relatively unnoticed during the game, but playing poorly gets you ruthlessly flamed.
The types of supports in League can be split into three categories: Enchanters, engagers, and poke supports. While there are some champions who crossover into multiple categories, it’s a pretty safe golden triangle to go by.
Enchanter supports, like Soraka or Nami, focus on keeping the bot lane carry alive through the laning phase with heals and shields. Enchanter supports usually go well into poke supports because they can out sustain the poke, but struggle into engagers due to a lack of mobility and relative squishiness.
Engage supports, like Alistar or Leona, look to all-in the enemy bot lane during the laning phase with crowd control and high early game damage. They can capitalize on enchanters during the laning phase because of their lack of poke, but can’t deal with poke supports effectively as they whittle down your health before you can even think about engaging.
Poke supports, like Zyra or Brand, succeed by annoying the enemy laners as much as possible with long-range abilities, forcing them to waste their potions or heals. If an enemy gets greedy, they also have a fair amount of burst in their kits to delete them from Summoner’s Rift. Because of this, they can deal with engage supports, but enchanters can usually out sustain a poke support’s mana pool, rendering their poke ineffective.
With this in mind, let’s break down the top five supports for League’s Patch 10.19
Morgana
Pros
- Ranged
- Black Shield, which denies CC
- Low CD, high duration root
Cons
- High mana costs
- Squishy
Do you like watching your enemies rage over three-second long snares on an insanely short cooldown as they inevitably die of old age? Then Morgana is for you. With a get-out-of-jail-free card in her Black Shield and great zoning ability with her bindings and crowd control, Morgana is infuriating to play against and super rewarding to play. She rose into the meta as a result of Lux becoming more popular. Morgana is a great answer to Lux and, as a result, her pick rate is increasing steadily as days go by.
Item build
The Sorcery primary tree is essential on Morgana. It grants her increased poke potential, the additional mana that she heavily requires, and CDR, which is always welcome for a champion whose job is to spam Q on cooldown. The Inspiration secondary tree will grant you a Stopwatch, which is insanely gold efficient and can be transformed into a Zhonya’s later on. The increased CDR will allow you to spam Q more often, which is your primary job as Morgana.
Ability priority
Morgana’s skill priority is the following: R>Q>E>W. Q is your bread and butter ability. The duration of the root is infuriating and hard for enemies to deal with, unless they have Tenacity from runes or boots. Maxing E second will allow you to shield yourself or your allies from incoming CC. The increased amount of shield will grant you a safety net against champions that have some magic damage in their kit. Max W last since you don’t need the additional damage as a support. You can keep it at rank one early on and use it to poke enemies with Summon Aery or Scorch and get free gold stacks from your support item.
Game plan
Morgana is the perfect counter to engage supports, such as Nautilus, Leona, Thresh, and Pyke, who are all popular right now. Your shield allows you to turn around engages from those champions and slowly chip away at their health or throw a root and let your teammates kill them.
During the laning phase, don’t waste your E to absorb magic damage. Keep it for incoming CC only. Try to use your Q to set up for your ADC to do some free damage on the enemy laners.
In teamfights, your goal is to catch people off guard with a Q and possibly follow up with Zhonya’s>R if more time is needed for your team to kill them off. Try to use Black Shield on carries to protect them from CC and give them enough room to deal damage.
Lux
Pros
- Great supportive kit
- Can win laning phase easily with well timed bindings
- Useful even if behind
Cons
- High mana costs
- No dashes
Lux has risen in the meta as a result of multiple nerfs to other popular supports. One of the deadliest combinations today is a Lux support alongside Sona in the ADC role. These champions combined make even the simplest team composition deadly and hard to deal with.
The amount of shielding and healing granted by these two champions can turn the tides of a lost game into a win in the span of a couple of minutes.
Item build
Lux has plenty of viable rune pages. One popular option focused on poking the enemy down early is Sorcery primary tree with Inspiration as the secondary tree. Sorcery grants you access to Summon Aery for the additional damage during short trade patterns alongside Scorch, Manaflow Band to help you never run out of mana, and Transcendence for the additional CDR.
Inspiration gives you access to biscuits and an additional five-percent CDR to everything in your kit.
Ability priority
Lux’s skill priority is R>E>Q>W. With the above rune page, you want to be poking as often and as much as possible. E is the perfect ability to max in this case since it can damage multiple enemies. You would max Q as well to aid your plan in here.
If you go for a more supportive build, you can max Q or W first and then leave E for last. It all depends on your rune page and what your goal is. If you need damage, max E over Q. If you need utility, max W over Q.
Game plan
Lux is a ranged support who excels at poking down enemies or shielding her allies and rooting them in place to stop them from chasing your allies. Her kit allows you to adapt your playstyle to your team’s needs.
You want to ensure you get a Q-E combo off in lane often to poke down your enemies and slowly build a lead. As you get stronger, your combos will potentially reach a point where you can eliminate squishy carries from the enemy team.
Aim to have good vision for your team to allow them to secure objectives and push safely.
Blitzcrank
Pros
- Fun to play
- Low cooldown hooks
- Ultimate which breaks shields
Cons
- Melee
- High mana-costs
Blitzcrank has always been quite popular in solo queue due to his basic hook ability. Recent resurgence of support champions who rely on shields made Blitzcrank even more popular due to his ability to destroy shields with his ultimate.
He is also a great counter to squishy champions since a well-timed hook can delete them and turn the tides of the fight in your favor.
Item build
The Resolve tree is core on Blitzcrank because it makes him tankier, which is crucial for any melee support. Aftershock gives you additional armor and magic resist when you throw some crowd control on an enemy with your Q or E, and is easy to be enabled.
As with every melee support, you’re going to have issues with taking towers, but Demolish is here to help you. It allows you to get some early tower plates if you get close to the enemy tower. Bone Plating alongside Overgrowth’s goals are to give you additional health as the game goes longer and make you harder to kill by assassins and during the laning phase.
The Inspiration tree gives some additional early sustain via the Biscuit Delivery rune and the additional CDR is always welcome. You’ll be able to land hooks more often and use your summoner spells more often as well, two great things combined in one rune.
Ability priority
Blitzcrank’s skill priority is R>Q>W>E. Q max is core since the lower the cooldown, the more often you can make game-deciding plays with Blitzcrank. Blitzcrank’s Q can win or lose the game on spot. If you hook an ADC, then your team will be happy. But if you hook in a fed Renekton then your team may have difficulties following up on the engage. Be wary of how you use it, since it’s a game-deciding ability.
W is maxed second for mobility and E is maxed last since it doesn’t increase a lot in power with each level, making it less useful compared to Q and W.
Game plan
As a melee support, you want to be careful during the laning phase. Try to land some hooks and punish the enemy bottom lane when they try to get some farm. With Blitzcrank, you are quite weak against ranged champions since you have no sustain, and the small passive shield on a high cooldown—so every small mistake adds up quite fast.
As the game goes by, invest as much as you can into vision and look for hooks over the entire map. If you see an overextending enemy in the mid or top lane, try to go for a roam and snowball that lane. Don’t stay with your ADC for the entire laning phase since you can easily pick up kills in other lanes if you land a hook.
Bard
Pros
- Strong kit
- Game-changing ultimate
- Strong roams
Cons
- No dash
- A poorly timed ultimate can throw the game
- Low range
Bard is one of the most entertaining supports to play in League. He’s a good, all-around support because of the scaling, sustain, roaming potential, and crowd control that he offers to the team. His kit is strong in the form of a stun, a heal, movement speed buff, a portal through walls, and an AoE Zhonya that can both win or lose a teamfight.
He went under the radar and kept receiving buffs up until recently when he received his first nerf in years. Even though the nerf was substantial and reduced his damage, he still has a high win rate.
Item build
While Bard can use multiple rune pages effectively, this is one of the most popular ones that’s easier to gain an advantage from. The Domination primary allows you to have a stronger trade pattern via the additional damage from Cheap Shot and ability power from Zombie Ward. Relentless Hunter will allow you to roam the map faster, collect chimes, and provide better vision coverage for your team. The Sorcery secondary will grant you additional movement speed via Celerity and increase your burst damage via Scorch.
Ability priority
Bard’s skill priority is: R>Q>W>E. The Q max will make your trade pattern much stronger and give you kill pressure if the enemies are at around 50 percent health. W max second will allow you to sustain yourself and your teammates for longer during siege situations or potentially save them from the last tick of ignite.
Game plan
Bard is low ranged support who excels at roaming and bursting people down. You should look for opportunities to hit a Q on the enemy laners and then land two autos if they’re stunned, which will proc Cheap Shot, Scorch, and Electrocute. This is your main trade pattern during the laning phase, which punishes out of position enemies quite hard.
Once you get enough gold for Boots of Mobility, you should back, purchase them, and start roaming the map for chimes and assist your other allies with a gank. Due to Relentless Hunter and Celerity runes, you’ll be extremely fast and your ADC won’t feel your absence.
Once you get to level six, you gain access to one of the most game-changing ultimates. There’s no single right way to use it, though. You need to adapt to the situation and use it depending on the circumstances. Read the game and use it to save your ADC from a Zed if needed, to deny Vladimir’s Hemoplague ultimate on your team, or to stop an immobile and flashless enemy from escaping. The choices are limitless and that’s why it’s one of the best ultimates in the game.
Lulu
Pros
- Lots of CC
- Strong utility for teammates
- Easy to play
Cons
- Squishy
- No dash
Lulu’s rise to the meta is a result of recent nerfs to other supports who were dominating the bottom lane. She has a great kit which elevates the power of your carries and allows them to take on risky plays, knowing that you can protect them from imminent death.
Item build
The Sorcery tree is core on Lulu since it grants her additional healing and damage via the keystone Aery. Manaflow Band allows you to keep your mana topped up and keep on damaging or assisting your allies. Transcendence will give you 10 percent CDR when you reach level 10 and will convert additional CDR which you might get from items to additional AP. Scorch is taken to increase your poke potential during the laning phase, but Gathering Storm can be an option as well.
Inspiration is taken secondary for the additional CDR and biscuits to help you out during the laning phase. If you need additional utility, you could go Domination for the Zombie Wards as well.
Ability priority
Lulu’’s skill priority is the R>E>W>Q. E is maxed first to have the maximum amount of shield potential to ensure the safety of your team members who will carry. W is maxed second due to how strong the targeted polymorph can be on enemies. Every microsecond matters in a team fight so having the additional duration helps you and your team out tremendously. Q is maxed last because you don’t really need the additional damage compared to the utility on E and W.
Game plan
Lulu is one of the best utility supports which amplifies the power of your carries. She excels in composition with hyper carries such as Aphelios, Vayne, Tristana who become monsters with the power of Lulu behind them. While she indeed has a strong utility kit, she is prone to dying often due to how squishy she is. You need to be extra careful especially during the laning phase not to waste your abilities.
Once you get going and finish the laning phase or you get your first core item of Ardent Censer, you should look to roam and help your other lanes as well when you see a possibility. If the bot lane is pushed and going down won’t do much then try to look for an opportunity on another lane for a surprise gank alone or with your jungler.