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Introduction

A U T H O R

Hey everyone! I'm King Naki, a high diamond elo player and content creator for all things mid/support. I'm streaming daily on twitch so feel free to catch me on there! I've been playing LoL since late-2017 and have managed to climb the ladder due to my previous background in competitive play. I really enjoy creating guides and helping newer players get a grasp on the champions they want to play and also League in general. Thank you for checking out my guides and I hope they'll help you skyrocket through ranked or simply give you a better understanding of a champion you'd like to try out! :)


Role

S U P P O R T

The support role in League of Legends is probably the most underrated role in terms of popularity, but in terms of importance and play-making this role truly shines. Supports are almost always the kings/queens of mid to late game team-fighting and can literally turn the tides of battle in seconds through their heavy crowd-control abilities and team-buffs.

Your main objective as a support player is to seek out a win-condition on your team and do everything in your power to get them to carry your team to victory. This win-condition is usually your ADC (attack damage carry), but can also very much be your mid-laner, top-laner, and also your jungler (depending on the class they are playing (obviously an assassin will have significantly higher carry potential than a tank).
Because of this, it is sometimes your duty to choose who you want to support in your team’s struggle to victory. If your ADC is feeding and not performing admirably, do not dump your key-ability buffs or items on them as effects will be negligible, instead use your items/abilities on your mid-laner, top-laner, or jungler in a skirmish or team-fight. Ex. If your Jhin is 0/3/0 and your Katarina is 3/0/0, you want to prioritize getting her to carry the game as she already has a lead.

Your side-objectives as a support include shot-calling objectives and warding. Warding is difficult to learn and keep tabs on so I highly recommend you Youtube high elo support warding guides that will help you create vision and opportunity for your team. Shot-calling objectives is a difficult task initially that you will learn as you learn the macro (map knowledge and control of the map) in League of Legends. Generally speaking, you always want to be looking to make Baron, Dragon, and Turret shot-calls based on the situation at hand.

The priority is usually inhibitor > turret > baron > dragon (higher depending on type) > scuttle.

Always keep this in mind and direct your team to victory by using anonymous pings (simply click the ping button without selecting an option on the map), as pinging anonymously takes away stigma from your score/where you are standing as a player. Watching high-level Korean play, it can be inferred that spam-pinging is highly effective and you will literally see your teammates move to the objective you are anonymously spam pinging if you do this in the correct time-window and manner. Do NOT spam-ping randomly or too often as this will confuse your team and decrease your chance of getting them to converge on objectives later in the game.

This guide will teach you the individual abilities, runes, and items of the support you are playing so that you can build in an advanced way that will improve your chances of victory.


Ranked

C L I M B I N G

If you wish to climb with the support role you will need to follow simple measures that all slightly increase your chance of victory, forming a bigger percentage that increases your victory in the end.

First and foremost, if your team is toxic even in the slightest, mute them. You can either do /muteall or just mute the individual affecting your mental. You do not need chat to communicate to your team, all you need is pings, especially in lower elos where not many players call out enemy summoner spells.

Keep your champion pool small when climbing, usually ranging from 2-3 champions so that you are not constantly learning/readjusting to playstyles and keeping your winrates consistent. This isn’t just a random tip either, it is literally fact that maintaining small champion pools helps you climb. Usually these champions should be meta-oriented even in the slightest, so look up some tier-lists to help you get an idea of what champions are doing well in the current meta. If you disregard the meta, you can still climb but only if you are consistently proficient on said champion.

Try not to tilt whatsoever as that mental carries on to future games and statistically decreases your performance. If you feel tilted, take a break and come back to your climbing sessions later on.

Now without further ado, let's jump into the builds!

Runes

S O R C E R Y

KEYSTONE Arcane Comet: This rune allows Janna to heavily poke in lane-mid game and can almost never be missed with a Zephyr or Howling Gale cast. Since Zephyr is single target, this also decreased the cooldown of Arcane Comet significantly with each cast. Can be substituted for Summon Aery for less harass, more sustain. RUNE Manaflow Band: Use your Zephyr and Howling Gale to activate this rune in lane. After 10 activations, this rune upgrades and restores mana. RUNE Absolute Focus: This rune gives you a minor AP boost in lane and scales well into late game, providing you further AP. Since Eye of the Storm and Monsoon healing scale well off of raw AP, this rune provides additional shielding and healing power all game as long as you're at high HP. RUNE Scorch: Excellent harass rune in lane. Not that useful late game. Zephyr activates this rune instantly and is very difficult to miss. Abuse this in lane. Runes D O M I N A T I O N RUNE Taste of Blood: Provides sustain in lane. Pairs with Scorch, Manaflow Band and Arcane Comet effectively to give Zephyr casts maximum value in lane and allowance for constant poking. RUNE Relentless Hunter: Provides Janna with massive movespeed bonuses at max stacks. This rune with maxed Zephyr and Mobility Boots makes Janna one of the fastest champions in the game. Summoner S P E L L S SPELL Flash: Key summoner spell on every champion. SPELL Ignite: Harass rune in lane. Applies a -40% healing debuff for the duration. Amazing against healing champions such as Nami and Soraka. Time the cooldown of the enemy Heal as Ignite has a shorter cooldown and can be used strategically to engage when the enemy doesn't have Heal up.

Abilities

B R E A K D O W N

PASSIVE Tailwind: Janna’s passive that increases her movement speed and the movement speed of allies moving towards her. This passive allows allies to kite more efficiently if Janna is in the direction they are kiting in. Also increased Janna’s Zephyr and basic attack damage based on her movement speed. Making the first Zephyr thrown at an enemy do significantly more damage if Relentless Hunter and Mobility Boots have their movement speed activated. ABILITY Howling Gale: This ability is one of the main reasons one would pick Janna over other shielding enchanters such as Lulu or Karma. This ability allows instant knock-up and cancellation of almost all abilities in the game. Very useful for denying travel abilities such as Lee Sin’s Resonating Strike. ABILITY Zephyr: An efficient point-and-click harass tool in lane. Secures a land on Arcane Comet almost 100% of the time. Also procs Scorch and Taste of Blood. ABILITY Eye of the Storm: Janna’s shield provides AD that scales off of her own AP. This shield is the longest lasting shield in the game at the moment at 5 seconds, the drawback being that it decays over time so it’s peak defense is within the first 1-2 seconds after casting it. ULTIMATE Monsoon: Janna’s ultimate is a complete gamechanger if used correctly. Be mindful however, that her ultimate can actually have a huge negative drawback of knocking enemies out of range that would’ve otherwise died if used incorrectly. The pushback from Monsoon allows you to peel very efficiently for yourself or your allies so bait enemies into using their abilities on your carry and then blow them away with Monsoon.

Items

C O R E

CORE Shard of True Ice: Key poke-enchanter starting item. This item is the third evolution of Spellthief's Edge. Make sure to poke consistently in lane to evolve Spellthief's Edge and get a gold lead on the enemy support. CORE Mobility Boots: Allows you to zoom around the map and works well with Janna's Tailwind, her passive movement speed buff. Also allows you to roam and pressure other lanes if your lane is winning. This build allows you to have 40% (max) cool down reduction, so Ionian Boots of Lucidity aren't necessary. CORE Ardent Censer: Not as strong as it used to be, but still a necessary item for almost every team composition. This item procs on Summon Aery and Redemption, making it a key party buff for late game teamfighting. CORE Redemption: This item is a key teamfighting item for most enchanters. It has a whopping 3x scaling on heal and shield power bonuses, making Ardent Censer, Mikael's Blessing, and Revitalize especially powerful paired with it. With Janna’s late game power, you can heal full health bars for your party with this item and your ultimate, Monsoon. Items O P T I O N A L OPTIONAL Mercury's Treads: Strong boots choice against AP (Ability Power) dominated teams, especially champions such as Neeko, Lux, Morgana. OPTIONAL Ninja Tabi: Strong boots choice against AD (Attack Damage) dominated teams. OPTIONAL Banshee's Veil: Works well against AP dominated compositions or AP assassins that are targeting you. Ex. Evelynn, Nidalee, Fizz. OPTIONAL Zhonya's Hourglass: Almost always the better choice over Banshee's Veil, one reason being that you can skip your Redemption wind-up with this item and still receive the heal. Works especially well for AD assassins who dive you. Do you not use too early as the key is to get the enemy AD to waste crucial skills on you. OPTIONAL Rabadon's Deathcap: Best as a last item. Raw AP does wonders for your Eye of the Storm shielding and Monsoon healing. Also amps the AP from Ardent Censer and Shard of True Ice, making it fit well as a final item. OPTIONAL Mejai's Soulstealer: Rare opportunity item that works wonders when you are ahead. If scared of commitment, get Dark Seal instead. OPTIONAL Morellonomicon: Rare opportunity item that works well in negating the enemy’s team healing. Only get this item if your AP mage is not buying it, otherwise it’s a waste. OPTIONAL Mikael's Blessing: Situational item that is best used against CC heavy compositions to dispell CC off of your carries. Example: Effective against Morgana, Lux, Neeko.