Vynertje's Support AMA and advice thread

[quote=Vynertje][quote=utopus]Mechanically, what are the top three things you yourself could improve on? What are the top three things that a support player should improve on to get from D5 to D4? Basically, i'm asking what ultimately differentiates a D5 support player from a D4 support player.[/quote] Good question. Top 3 things for me: 3. Helping my adc last hit under turret better 2. More consistency in trades, i.e. not picking bad trades, not getting hooked at completely random times etc 1. Analysing enemies' behaviour, i.e. calling incoming ganks by judging the enemies lane behaviour or learning dodge patterns of specific enemies to hit more skillshots. [i]I must admit though I'm a bit arrogant and think I don't have that much to improve on as I was Diamond II last season.[/i] Second part of your question: The differences between D5 and D4 are marginal, but in the bigger scheme of things it's the ability to 'lead' the team and look past just laning - or at least that's what I think I see. For example, a somewhat non-experienced or lower rated support will know he's supposed to ward, but will not 'learn the trade' of warding and counterwarding. This will mean that literally every game I play at low-mid diamond I will have most wards placed, most wards destroyed and most pinks bought overall. They will prioritize big items over wards, which is a really dumb thing to do. I rush sightstone and tier 2 boots every game and once I get sightstone, I roam away from my lane to place down wards deep in the enemy jungle (if possible and safe). This costs me a little bit of xp but gives my mid, jungler and bot ourselves a big edge because it makes it so easy to predict where the enemy jungler will be and allow you to react accordingly. I know this might be a bit vague, and if you have any questions I'd be happy to expand on this. As a TLDR: don't be selfish and priorize vision control over everything - make sure you have a pink and 3 greens on the map at all times once you get sightstone. [quote=The_Nameless_Bard] Brings me to a question: I'm completely jaded when I see people picking things like [[Varus]], [[Ashe]], and [[Jinx]] in this Elo because they tend to be utter trash, have no idea how to play a low mobility carry, and often just feed unless the enemy support happens to be garbage. What support would you suggest to pick with these sorts of people? I often opt for [[Braum]], [[Janna]], [[Nami]], or [[Soraka]] with mixed results.[/quote] [[janna]] is your top pick with those, but the other supports listed work just fine as well (perhaps with the exception of soraka because she has little cc/defense). Most importantly however is to just rush defensive items like mikaels and make good use of exhaust. You could also add [[lulu]] to that list if you pick her in the right matchup.[/quote]

[quote=emoriam]Why did you decide switching to support as your main role (from what I've seen you mostly played jungle before)? Are there any things you would change about the role which bother you in your gameplay for instance?[/quote]

[quote=Vynertje][quote=emoriam]Why did you decide switching to support as your main role (from what I've seen you mostly played jungle before)? Are there any things you would change about the role which bother you in your gameplay for instance?[/quote] 1. I've always been switching between roles honestly, I mained about every role at some point. However, I just feel like I'm best at support, although jungle remains my second pick. Besides that I like the support meta (S4 Nami and now Janna) a lot so I don't mind sticking to it. 2. Only about 1/10th of the league champions is a support as primary role which means it's very limited in terms of flexibility. I don't really like that aspect so I'd love to see some new supports on the rift. Besides that I think the core gameplay of supports is fine besides some item fine-tuning (which again limits flexibility lol).[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark]What supports would you recommend for someone playing [[vayne]]?[/quote]

[quote=Electro522]My best ADC by far is [[Sivir]]. I have a good feeling that [[Janna]] synergizes with her amazingly, due to the shields, speed, and disengage of both. Am I right?[/quote]

[quote=Vynertje][quote=Vapora Dark]What supports would you recommend for someone playing [[vayne]]?[/quote] [[Nami]] is really good with [[Vayne]] because she can keep her safe in lane and once you hit 6 you can fuck shit up. [[Sona]] essentially does the same but slightly worse so I wouldn't recommend her unless you have no other options. If you want to have a terrifying level 6 you can also pick [[Lulu]] because with her shields/heals/speedbuffs [[vayne]] can pretty much go ham - pre-6 is hard though. Finally, [[thresh]] is pretty good as well due to his overall versatility. [quote=Electro522]My best ADC by far is [[Sivir]]. I have a good feeling that [[Janna]] synergizes with her amazingly, due to the shields, speed, and disengage of both. Am I right?[/quote] Yeah the synergy between those 2 is very good, tho it helps that janna is in such a broken state atm.[/quote]

[quote=Gnug315]What is the most deciding factor in deciding whether to push lane early (vs. very competent opposition)? ADC type? Gank risk?[/quote]

[quote=Vynertje][quote=Gnug315]What is the most deciding factor in deciding whether to push lane early (vs. very competent opposition)? ADC type? Gank risk?[/quote] If possible, you should always push early - if you push succesfully you can get the lane to reset back to the middle by the time most junglers start to gank. You can also force the enemy to lose cs to the turret that way. However, by 'if possible' I mean that sometimes it's just impossible to win the push war and fighting for the level 2 push will sometimes only cause you to lose a lot of hp if the enemy lane is too dominant - imagine a lane like Lucian Nami (enemy) vs vayne leona (you) - you're never going to win out on early trades so you're better off letting them push back and safely farm under turret till you can actually trade back. Hope this clears it up, feel free to ask if you feel like any of these terms need clarification.[/quote]

[quote=Out Of Pancakes]What do you think about [[blitzcrank]]?[/quote]

[quote=Vapora Dark]He's a pretty cool guy.[/quote]