By Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis
After the success of my last article I had a lot of feedback and I’ve decided to do a small update while I work on the next part of the series. So, many people were asking me about different champions that I had failed to mention and what I thought of their support ability. I’m going to cover what a lot of people would consider “pocket picks” or more “unorthodox” supports. That’s not to say that these aren’t viable, but more that they aren’t usually seen and I hadn’t originally planned on covering them. You guys wanted to see them though and get my opinion.
I’ve also changed the rating material a little bit here. I should have included poke as a rating in my original article. I’ve put it in here after a lot of you mentioned that without it, a lot of supports seemed to have lackluster ratings. I also pulled sustain out of this batch of supports, because most if not all of these guys have zero ways of helping their carry sustain. So basically imagine a crap rating for that if you really miss it.
Keep in mind that a lot of these are supports I don’t play as much or haven’t even tried, so a decent amount of this is theoretical and I could be far off. I’ll look forward to seeing what some people think of each of these as I think there’s people out there that have a lot more experience with these than I do.
Vel'Koz: Engage/Poke; Mage; Spikes: Level 2, 6
Poke potential: 9/10 Pick potential 6/10; Peel potential 3/10; Utility; 2/10;
Vel'Koz is another intended mage who since release has been basically relegated to bottom lane. He’s got really great range and a passive that makes him hurt without item dependency, so it’s not all too surprising to see him as an aggressive/harass support. His weaknesses are the same that plague him in mid lane though. No mobility and little CC to add to kill potential. His only hard CC is a small AoE that’s hard to hit. Granted if you can hit it it’s an awesome CC and adds a large amount to his damage, but it’s a bit slow. If you’ve got tanks elsewhere on the team Vel'Koz isn’t a bad pickup, but you might wanna reconsider if everyone else is squishy too.
Synergies
Miss Fortune: Once you hit level 6, this lane can be scary as all hell. Even before that, you can take a lot of harass. Miss Fortune already has above average range even before you take Double Up into account, and with good poke from Vel'Koz zone control can happen from level 1. If you both hit your ults dead on in team fights, it’s an easy win
Caitlyn: Poke, poke, poke. You should be able to zone very effectively in this kind of lane. Vel'Koz alone has great damage and if Caitlyn follows up there’s no way anyone should get near farm. You need to play smart and not get caught, but playing this lane passively is a mistake.
Counters
Blitzcrank: Vel'Koz is probably the definition of a squishy support. No mobility, no defensive abilities and barely any hard CC. This lane will go south fast is Blitz gets his hands on you. Especially after 6 when he can silence you on top of all the damage he can output.
Braum: He can’t block all of your poke and you’ll be able to harass him early, but since his passive can be triggered by him or his carry if they can stay far enough apart to force you to only be able to stop one of them from chasing you down. Plus he can negate a lot of damage from your ult with one of his basic abilities. You might be able to stop him in the first few wave, but he’s going to have a lot more teamfight impact than you will in most cases.
Maokai: Engage/Poke;Tank; Spikes: Level 2, 6, 11
Poke potential : 4/10 Pick potential 5/10; Peel potential 7/10; Utility; 7/10;
Let’s be honest right now, Maokai is a pretty broken champion. He’s so innately tanky that he’s incredibly hard to tank down and his base damage is very high. He’s got a built in sustain on himself, targeted root that puts him right next to someone, a slow/knockup, and to top it all off he can lower damage done to his entire team given the right circumstances. If you pair a Relic Shield on him he will heal insane amounts when using it and his gank set up potential is great because if he walks up you don’t know if he’s gonna try and poke you out with saplings or go all in on you. He is the anti-wombo, and while he causes a lot more problems with a better gold income, he certainly can do his job.
Synergies
Tristana: OK, OK, I GET IT GUYS. YOU WANTED TO SEE TRISTANA. I heard so many times about how I hadn’t mentioned Trist in any of the synergies sections. This one actually gives me a chance to explain why. Bear with me here as this one gets a little in depth
Tristana has a really weird power curve, not as severe as it used to be, but it’s still different than most champs in the game. Her real early game is pretty powerful due to her magic damage output being so high, but that falls off mid game since as an ADC she isn’t building any AP. Her passive and Rapid Fire however make her late game (what most people consider to be) the best in the game. She excels in long team fights because her damage output is so incredibly high and safe that trying to reach her is stupid hard, and she can pound you harder than most other ADCs at that point.
Enter Maokai! Maokai’s passive makes him heal on his next auto attack after 5 spells are used by anyone. So if he’s in a long fight, he’s auto attacking a lot and in the vicinity of a lot of spells. Maokai is also a very defensive champion as a whole, if he focuses on rooting people that are aiming for Tristana, which isn’t hard to do since his root is targeted, he can make an already hard to reach ADC impossible. Oh yeah, his ult will make her harder to kill too even if you do reach her.
Kog'Maw: Maokai works here well also for similar reasons to Tristana, it’s a protect the puppy strategy. Maokai isn’t exactly weak in lane, but you don’t pick him in order to dominate, you pick him in order to be a nuisance to the enemy divers later. Your role is peel, and Kog'Maw appreciates it and makes good use of it, shredding the enemy with his W. Once Kog hits 6 you can poke pretty well too with your saplings and siege towers in addition to your great teamfight potential
Counters
Leona: She has the ability to make fights pretty short with her burst, completely counter to what you want. Avoid fights early because you’re not tanky yet and you can’t use your passive too well. If she hits 6 before you you’re going to want to back off as well since her ranged engage will take you down fast and keep you from scaling. If she goes in on your carry try and target the enemy carry so they can’t proc her passive. If it’s a straight damage fight between you and Leona, your carry should hurt her just as much if not more and you can focus on auto attacking to heal back up while she’s stuck reeling from her lost health.
Nami: This one takes a bit more skill on the Nami’s part. But the components of a counter are here. Heals to counter your sapling poke. Disengage/kite for her ADC. An ult that is also really effective at negating an engage and helping her team. If you’re Nami in this situation you can almost gurantee a bubble hit anytime Maokai goes in by aiming right behind your ADC since that’s where Maokai will end up going, if the ADC has a dash to peel off Maokai and kite him with Nami’s slow on their auto attacks they’ll get away from you pretty well.
Gragas: Engage/React/Poke;Tank; Spikes: Level 1, 2, 6
Poke potential : 6/10 Pick potential 7/10; Peel potential 6/10; Utility; 4/10;
I’m seeing a pattern in top laners that were strong with Rod of Ages here. Gragas is kind of a more aggressive Maokai in the fact that he can poke a bit better and engage from a range to pick people off. They both have similar passive in that they heal a portion of their HP and it revolves around spells. Maokai has to go in and brings a bit more tankiness to his team as a whole, but Gragas has a lot more displacement and disrupt potential than Maokai.
Synergies
Kog'Maw: another brawler that can help Kog be aggressive if he wants or keep him alive if need be, not as crazy with survival, but he can help single someone out pretty nicely.
Ashe: The pick composition is real. You can poke pretty well and disengage early, and once you both have access to ults you can stun into Gragas barrel and split up the other duo. Usually a pretty good shot at a kill if you play it right.
Counters
Janna: Janna can bring even more disruption than Gragas, and in a worst case scenario where Gragas catches out only the carry, Janna can flash ult and provide a safe way out. She’ll shield your poke and counter any play you try and make.
Zilean: He has all the tools to get himself or his carry out of any danger they get put in from the displacement. He can either ult as either of them fly around and speed their way out of danger.
Twisted Fate: Engage/Poke/; Mage; Spikes: Level 1, 2, 6, 9
Poke potential : 8/10 Pick potential 8/10; Peel potential 3/10; Utility; 4/10;
Twisted Fate is a champion I’ve been screwing around a bit with as a kill/roaming support. TF has never been too known as a damage dealer, he does solid damage on his own, but I don’t think anyone would classify him as a burst mage to the same level as Syndra or Fizz. His best part of his kit though is his ultimate. Putting him bottom lane definitely limits him a lot since from there the only real place he could roam is middle, but he can still be surprising. If you really want to take a risk you can gank top lane after heading back, but you’re leaving your ADC very open at that point. Plus, you’re getting next to nothing from his passive. TF support works best with self reliant carries who will be ok with him not being in lane sometimes after level 6
Synergies
Caitlyn: Caitlyn is almost exactly what I’m talking about by self reliant carry. She has the range to farm safely even if she’s shoved into tower. She also has a dash in her E to get herself out of a sticky situation. The reason I listed Caitlyn over Ezreal here is purely for wave control. A smart team will see TF leave bottom and shove hard into tower. Caitlyn can Q through minion waves and at least keep some control.
Jinx: Rather than list Ezreal as another synergy I wanted to point out another playstyle with TF. Jinx works well because of the CC stacking you can do. Yes it’s obvious to the enemy you’re going in, but it’s also obvious to Jinx who can back you up with Flame Chompers to stick them up for a long time. She can also poke very well with her W in addition to your Wild Cards. If TF ends up leaving her she can farm a bit more safely than other hyper carries because she has the range with her Rocket Launcher at that point too.
Counters
Sona: Able to counter your poke with a heal and poke back just as hard. Sona is able to dance outside your range and hit you just as hard if not harder. Sona also has a slightly longer attack range so she can hit her empowered autos while you’re stuck aiming. If you leave your carry her lane dominance will definitely show and you’re going to sacrifice a lot of farm for your carry in order to make plays elsewhere.
Taric: Outside of the ult, he’s kind of a tanky version of TF support, he doesn't have to pick his stun though and he can also heal off your poke. Basically any kind of fight you try and start he can quickly counter with similar skills and while you’re stuck at your health he can back off and re-group. Also Gems>Cards.
Zilean (redo):React/Poke; Mage; Spikes: Level 1, 2, 6, 13
Poke potential :7/10 Pick potential 3/10; Peel potential 3/10; Utility; 9/10;
I will openly admit I screwed up here. I didn’t have a lot of experience with Zilean, and to be honest, I’m still a bit salty at his rise to power. The way his kit was made was balanced around being mana gated. What I mean by that was Zilean’s skills are very strong, but balanced around the fact that he would run out of mana very fast if he used them in succession. Since his release the amount of ways around this kind of problem are too many to count. The Tear/Chalice combination make him basically a manaless champ and he can, when his rewind is at max rank, keep his move speed ability off cooldown almost instantaneously. He also makes fights 6v5s in his teams favor by reviving someone with a massive amount of health.
Synergies
Kog Maw: Still very strong and fixes Kog Maw’s issues of being slow and short ranged without W being active. If you do kill him on the off chance, Zilean will usually be around to bring him right back. Point still stands that Zilean gives hyper carries the tools to succeed.
Jinx: I’m listing Jinx here this time because after a bit of screwing around I could see Zilean really setting her up for a lot of crazy resets. If you avoid stacking the move speed on top of each other, Jinx can be running at full speed for a long time and either peel for herself or chase people down. Not a lot of early synergy, but once they get going it’ll be very hard to stop them
Counters
Blitzcrank: Beep Boop, POP!
Soraka: Still a strong counter due to also being able to save people and having the ability to silence Zilean before he can get in range to poke. Pair her up with someone who wants to have long fights and you’re in a pretty good spot.
Anivia: Engage/React/Poke; Mage; Spikes: Level 2, 3, 6
Poke potential : 5/10 Pick potential 6/10; Peel potential 7/10; Utility; 6/10;
With Anivia, zone control is the name of the game. Her E doubles in damage if the opponent has been chilled recently (hit by her Q or Ult). This means she doesn’t need a whole lot of items to do enough damage to be a threat. Her auto attack range is also incredibly large and she can harass without using abilities too. Once she hits 6 she can basically control where fights happen and lock off areas before and during fights. If you’re good with the wall you can really dictate fights and force people in to bad positions. As a final point, Riot finally fixed up her wall and let terrain affected abilities work as intended with them.
Synergies
Vayne: The reason I picked up Anivia support. I wanted to use her wall to create terrain for Vayne to Condemn anyone at any point. Lot’s of damage in this lane and early duel potential. You want to force skirmishes and learn how to make good use of Anivia’s wall. In a worst case scenario you can focus on zoning the enemy and letting Vayne get big anyway.
Twitch: Lot’s of AoE here, Twitch has a surprisingly strong early game if he is able to get a lot of stacks on someone early and Anivia’s wall can force them to walk a long way around an area. The only problem is there’s not mobility here. This is a very vulnerable lane and constant camp will hurt you if you play aggressive.
Counters
Leona: She’ll sit on your face and take advantage of your squishiness early. There’s not a lot of protection either. You have to poke her out before she has her full kit and scare her from going in. You can also try and bait using your passive and letting your ADC focus her down as they try and kill you in egg form. Her ult will be a constant flash pop from you most likely.
Zyra: Similar to what you do in terms of auto attack range and long range abilities, plus an ult that zones. Difference here being she can poke a bit easier and more consistently and her ult is a more potent disengage. The root is a bit easier to land as well, this will turn quickly into a dance of trying to avoid a hard engage and dealing poke damage, first to get caught loses.
Lee Sin: Engage/React;Tank; Spikes: Level 1, 2, 3, 6
Poke potential : 4/10 Pick potential 8/10; Peel potential 5/10; Utility; 3/10;
Lee Sin really doesn’t do much as a support besides try and make the lane a kill lane. Without Relic Shield and Sightstone there’s no way he’d be considered a support since he needs a little bit of itemization to be effective. One thing Lee does well though is make plays and be mobile, which is a lot more than can be said for most of the other supports on this list. This probably would have been more potent when Lee still had his attack speed slow on his E, but removing it was the right decision. He’s still much better in the jungle or even top lane, but if played aggressively and used by someone who really understands him and how to be a playmaker.
Synergies
Ezreal: Ezreal pairs really well with a lot of these supports, because he’s usually considered lackluster damage, and these champs all bring a decent amount of damage to the table while giving up some peel or CC in some way. It gives Ezreal the chance to really focus on just staying alive and doing what he can. There’s a decent amount of poke in this lane and a lot of mobility making it a nice lane to play aggressively and back out it a gank comes out. Ezreal can shift and Lee Sin can dash to him afterwards, basically giving him a free escape.
Lucian: Mobile and lots of early damage here. This is a lane to play incredibly aggressive early. If a Lee Sin Q hits, you want to take it and have Lucian follow up with his great level 1 as well. You also still have a lot of ways out of ganks by utilizing your teams mobility. If you lose this lane you’re in trouble.
Counters
Janna: She’s gonna interrupt everything you try and do. If she’s real quick she can stop your Q and the damage that goes along with it. If you ult aggressively she’s going to take advantage of you mis-position force you to stay there while you take huge amounts of damage. She’s also gonna poke you out really hard in lane and her shield is a hell of a lot more potent than yours is.
Braum: Better poke, better tank, better peel, just all around going to do what you’re doing but better. The only thing Lee Sin has on Braum is individual pick potential, Lee Sin can Insec kick someone back to his team, but even when he does that he’s in a bad spot.
Azir:React/Poke; Mage; Spikes: Level 1, 2, 6
Poke potential : 10/10 Pick potential 4/10; Peel potential 7/10; Utility; 5/10;
I haven’t looked too much into this as I’ve only tried Azir midlane. The possibility is there to be an amazing zoner and completely force people off waves. His range and punish ability is crazy, but he’s pretty limited in terms of a full out fight until he gets his ultimate. He can bring damage until then, but not too much else. Once you get your ult your peel potential goes way up and you can really help out a carry stay alive. Learn your limits though as Azir’s base armor is abysmal and one wrong step will lead to you losing a game changing amount of health.
Synergies
Caitlyn: Do even have to explain this lane? Crazy range, crazy damage early, and if you’re not sending the enemy back to base to heal you’re not doing something right.I could see this lane working really well, but you’re going to need to find a tank elsewhere since Azir has very little inherently tankiness.
Varus: Another heavy poke lane, a it riskier though for Varus at least until level 6. The difference between this and Caitlyn lane though is that once you hit 6 you have a lot of lockdown and kill potential. Your strategy here should be to try and keep the enemy low until you get some solid engage tools and then run headstrong into them once you get your spikes.
Counters
Thresh: He just overall does more for his carry while being more tanky. You’ll poke him out early yes, but his ability to force ganks with his hook and lantern makes him more of a problem come team fights, and he can still bring aggression in your face if he plays it right. Basically a good Thresh should be able to make use of your squishiness and avoid your poke.
Soraka: Heals for days to counter your immense poke. It’s a long cooldown, but Azir’s poke is done over a long amount of time, not immediate and bursty. This works in Soraka’s favor as she can take the time to keep her carry topped off. She can also lower your MR and make you squishier than you already are.
Lux: Engage/Poke; Mage; Spikes: Level 1, 2, 6
Poke potential : 8/10 Pick potential 6/10; Peel potential 3/10; Utility; 4/10;
Probably the most hated “support” in the game. She’s been around for a while and while some people can use her to great effectiveness her most recent changes make her very powerful with gold. This means solo lane Lux is usually superior and if you want to hit bindings you can play Morgana and do a lot more for your carry.
That being said, Lux can bring a lot of zone and siege potential to a team. Her level 1 is very scary because her base damage on her passive makes her win trades early on if she backs off after hitting someone. Her ult can help “secure” kills and her burst isn’t to be underestimated. She’s gonna scale harder with gold now that her passive has an AP ratio, but her damage without gold is still annoying.
Synergies
Ezreal: I’d take Ezreal over any other poke oriented ADC since Lux doesn’t have a lot of ways to help her ADC in terms of peel, but she brings a lot of damage. There’s a lot of magic damage too here and once you hit level 6 the long range clear and pick off potential is awesome.
Corki: AP bot lane, which means you basically get to bypass the normal runes and masteries of deterring AD damage. Corki doesn’t get a lot poke until he receives his ultimate, so the goal early is to have Lux zone and try and catch the enemy out with a binding while they’re away from their own minions to block you. There’s a good amount of early kill pressure here if you can hit bindings. The lane power swaps to a more poke oriented lane once everyone gets their ults since your enemy will probably have more upfront burst and damage with their ults than you will.
Counters
Blitzcrank: If you’re able to hit a binding, chances are he can hit a hook on you. The worst part about it is that it’s only a bind, meaning even if you do hit Blitz, he can still do all that he does. If you both hit your spells he wins. Small little trick to help combat this is to try and stand in a way that you’re in front of one minion since your binding can hit 2 targets and focus on using that small body block to keep yourself safe.
Leona: Similar to Blitz, she can still dash to you if you hit a binding. Her passive makes it even easier to pop you, and worst of all, she can hide behind minions, while dashing through yours. Poke her level 1, because by level 3 her all in can hurt you really bad.
Fiddlesticks: Engage/React/Poke; Mage; Spikes: Level 1, 2, 6, 11
Poke potential : 8/10 Pick potential 8/10; Peel potential 5/10; Utility; 2/10;
Fiddlesticks is actually really interesting in the support role. He can actually be played two different ways. One way is a hard CC mage that wants to start skirmishes or turn the tides of fights, the other way is an obnoxious poking mage that harasses from afar and sustains himself from any poke receives. It all depends on which skill you decide to max.
If you max fear, it gets longer in duration, but it’s a shorter range than his crows. The fear is absolutely monumental in 2v2 fights though as it will completely disable a champion from being able to do anything. It’s a point and click skill too, so unless you just happen to click a minion you’re never going to miss it.
If you max his E he gets huge poke potential and can silence from a distance making it pretty easy to move in or out to follow up or run away. Combine this with the amazing base damage on his ult and you have a really strong lane that can dominate for a long time.
Fiddle is squishy though, and his fear only hits one target making it a bit lackluster in terms of peel, if multiple people dive in you’re not gonna be able to do much unless you get some lucky bounces on the silence. Also while his poke potential and pick potential are high in ratings, they won’t both be high until level 13 when you have both maxed out. Basically you’re trading poke for engage or vice versa.
Synergies
Graves: Graves works nicely with Fiddle since he can make great use of the fear time to run up throw all of his burst down and get out. The level 6 here is a huge power spike. Fiddle ult and Graves ult together is a lot sudden burst in a lane usually known for sustained damage.
Ashe: In this lane you could theoretically max either skill. Ashe pokes very well with Volley, so you could play it safe that way. The other thing you could do is max your fear and have a hard engage once you hit level 6. If you stun someone with Ashe ult and time it right you can get people stuck in Fiddlesticks ult for the entire duration with his fear. Issue is Ashe will need peel against a bunch of divers and Fiddle can’t provide that.
Counters
Soraka: If you walk up to fear she’ll silence you, if you try and focus on poke (don’t know why you would against Soraka) she’ll heal it all off. The best you can do is try and silence her and move in while she can’t use any abilities. When you hit level 6 you might have a shot at bursting her if you can silence her, but if she gets her ult off you’re not gonna kill her or her carry and you’ll be a sitting duck.
Janna: If you ult in Janna’s view she will stop you. She can just hit a tornado in your direction and stop you. Even if she doesn’t stop you from ulting she can push you away and stall you while it’s going off. Her shield isn’t bad against poke either. Stay up too far and she’ll set up a gank in your direction and get you killed.
I’m sure I’m still going to get questions about a lot of other people as support, but I’m gonna call it here. I don’t want to go through every single champion and I feel like I’ve covered even the strange picks pretty well. Keep an eye out for the next installment where I’ll cover different itemization paths and their strengths and weaknesses.
Be sure to check out the rest of the series of articles:
