League of Legends: League of Lessons

Ward locations (early game)

Vision gained from warding each location

Ward A:

- Prevents offensive play from brush camping

- 1 enemy jungler gank path

Ward B (blue's prime ward):

- Most probable path to bottom lane from middle lane

- 2 enemy jungler gank path

- Dragons

Ward C (purple's prime ward):

- 1 probable path for blue team's middle lane to bottom lane

- 2 enemy jungler gank path

Ward D:

- Most probable path to bottom lane from middle lane

- Watch for counter-jungling from opponent junglers

- 1 enemy jungler gank path

Good places to ward

Green dot: good places to ward that have significant coverage of the warded area.

Red dot: vital area! Have a ward down at all times if possible, as this area contains important map objectives, like Dragon and Baron, that grant team-wide benefits.

Translucent white area around ward: estimated vision coverage for the ward.

Warding is one of the Support's most vital tasks in League of Legends, as without wards, your teammates are extremely vulnerable to ganks and getting caught off-guard by enemies waiting for an ambush.

Support's role in-lane

The Support's role in-lane, as stated above, is to babysit your steroid baby the best you can, so he can become a full-blown AD Carry that shreds the health of both enemy tanks and Carries. To do this, there are a few guidelines to follow if you wish to become a Support player.

1.The penniless player

Well, you are not exactly penniless, but this is a good way to depict the amount of farm you should be getting as a Support. If you are a good Support player, having less than 20 creep kills at the end of a 40-minute game should not come as a surprise for you, because throughout the game, you will probably be giving away all possible farm to your allies.

At the lane phase, you should be giving every single farm to your AD Carry, as long as he is in-lane. The only time you should be last hitting to farm creeps is when your AD Carry is not in the lane, or you know that your AD Carry will definitely miss the last hit on the creep.

Your primary source of income will be generated passively by both GP10 runes and items. This will be covered in greater detail when our Part 2 of the Support role is released.

2. Brushing of the enemies

Control of the brush in the bottom lane can give you and your AD Carry a distinct advantage in the lane, especially when you use more aggressive Supports that thrive on hiding in the brush and popping their heads in and out of the brush like a jack-in-a-box to deal damage or create disruptions.

When you are getting outplayed by the opponents in your lane, brush control becomes especially important, because if you don't have vision of the brush, and an enemy champion is hiding in it, then Supports like Alistar can easily stun-lock their targets for a good two to three seconds, which is more than enough time for their Carry to take either you or your AD Carry down.

3. Don't hurt my baby!

Keeping your baby healthy is yet another aspect of Supports. Most Supports have in-built defensive spells, like shields or heal. Shielding Supports are usually harder to use, as they require quicker reflexes to nullify the enemy attacks. I highly recommend using Smart-Cast for these champions, as it really does speed up the rate at which you cast your spells, whereas healing Supports should spam their healing.

Join me next time, when I will be covering the team-fight components and itemisation of the ever-so-important support champions.