Being a Support in League of Legends is polarizing. For some, it’s not much, but it’s honest work; playing support simply means to help your laners do their jobs in various ways. For others, it lacks the fast-paced action that other lanes possess. At first, you are mostly positioned in the bottom lane together with your bot carry (typically a marksman), but eventually proceed to help out your other teammates.

Supports have had a lot of history since the game’s conception, and I can say that nowadays supports have a better status compared to previous seasons. Their agency and the potential to help win the game match that of the mid lane and jungle roles.

Therefore, champions who can enable their teams to enact on crucial objectives is a huge factor, and JD Gaming won their series as proof during the recently concluded LPL.

With the upcoming changes to the bot carry role, it is the perfect time to find a reliable support pick and bring your duo carry partner to the top! Scroll down for our recommended support picks from Patch 10.9 going forward.

Taric, the Shield of Valoran

Pros

• Decent skill floor
• AoE invulnerability ultimate
• Tanky support who can share his armor to an ally target

Cons

• Dazzle (E) requires active coordination for maximum efficiency
• Mana-heavy during the early game
• Melee support with no dash engage/disengage

Runes and Abilities

For runes, take Aftershock followed by Font of Life, Bone Plating, and Revitalize to synergize with Taric’s kit. Under the Precision tree, take Presence of Mind and Legend: Tenacity for the mana and crowd control mitigation. Your stat runes should be 1x Attack Speed and 2x Armor to combat the physical damage of the enemy bot carry.

Take E>W>Q from levels 1 to 3, then proceed to max R>E>Q>W in that priority. Your E’s cooldown scales inversely as you rank up, making it more accessible during the midgame; your Q is a heal but the mana cost scales upwards per rank, which makes it unoptimal to max this first until you obtain your core items; W is a utility spell that works enough at rank 1 for the early and midgame, and doesn’t get any additional value until you gain bonus armor and health yourself.

General Gameplan

Taric Is a hybrid between a tanky support and an enchanter support; he has the same utility as other enchanters, but isn’t as powerful, while he has some negligible degree of tankiness but cannot endure as much as the likes of Alistar and Leona. Play like an enchanter during the early stages, and once you obtain your core items, you may start to become more freeform in what you can do for the team.

Maximize your passive’s value by attempting to attack the enemy with every spell you cast. Bravado reduces your cooldowns by a second per autoattack, while you gain 100% attack speed and additional bonus damage on your next two basic attacks.

Taric works best with a team composition that features a hypercarry (common to bot carries and Master Yi) because of their glaring weakness when behind in exchange for sheer dominance once they snowball. Establishing a win condition under these premises is a valid strategy if you are playing with a duo or a premade team.

Blitzcrank, the Great Steam Golem

Pros

• The best hook support with potentially game-changing picks
• Low skill floor, with a good amount of room for skill expression
• One of the only few champions with a Silence ability (cannot cast abilities/spells/items)

Cons

• Missing Rocket Grab (Q) is a huge strain on mana and lane tempo
• Grabbing at the wrong place and the wrong time can lead to death
• Improper use of Overdrive (W) limits Blitzcrank’s outplay potential

Runes and Abilities

For runes, take Aftershock, Demolish, Conditioning, and Overgrowth in the Resolve tree. Blitzcrank benefits from having tanky stats to stick onto the enemies with his threatening crowd control and pick potential. Afterwards, take Biscuit Delivery and Cosmic Insight for the early-game sustain and cooldown reduction. Stat runes should be 1x Scaling Cooldown, 1x Armor, and 1x Health.

For levels 1 to 3, take Q>E>W for asserting early threats onto the enemy bot laner. Max R>Q>E>W in that order. Leveling Rocket Grab (Q) and Power Fist (E) reduces their cooldown, which is perfect once laning phase finishes and making crucial picks grant so much tempo for your team. Ranking up Overdrive (W) raises the attack and movement speed buffs, which is not necessary if you know how to manage the 5-second boost accordingly.

General Gameplan

Every player who is playing in Ranked will always be on the lookout for Blitzcrank’s Rocket Grab. The higher you are in the ranked ladder, the more often the enemy would strategically hide behind the minions. Use this knowledge to your advantage as you set up unique angles of approach, while threatening with your Overdrive to close in the gap for easier hooks.

Speaking of Overdrive, a skilled Blitzcrank player will understand how risky it is to simply throw out a hook. They instead use Overdrive paired with Power Fist to quickly chase down and knock up an enemy. Once startled, it becomes easier for the Blitzcrank player to hook an escaping enemy back to him when they’re panicking at the threat of a hook. Use this concept to establish a mix-up against the enemy and raise your chances of landing hooks to almost a hundred percent.

If you can coordinate with your team, initiate an early invade in your enemy’s jungle. Because his Q covers so much distance once it hooks someone back, there is a large chance that the captured target has to burn his Flash, giving the opposing laner (your ally) a huge advantage against them.

Know how much area your hook can cover and reach in order to make game-changing hooks for your team. Blitzcrank is the best champion for players who want to create picks and lock down enemies for his team, while not having such a high skill floor.

Bard, the Wandering Caretaker

Pros

• Champion with high outplay potential with Magical Journey (E) and Tempered Fate (R)
• Great poke damage
• Great roaming and engage setup for his allies

Cons

• Above average skill floor
• A wrongly-landed Tempered Fate (R) can cost your entire team objectives, kills, and even games
• Communication with your lane partner is crucial, especially if you decide to collect chimes or roam to other lanes

Runes and Abilities

For runes, take Guardian, Font of Life, Bone Plating, and Revitalize under the Resolve tree. Follow this up with Zombie Ward and Relentless Hunter from the Domination tree, and your stat runes should be 1x Attack Speed, 1x Adaptive, and 1x Armor.

For levels 1 to 3, you can either take Q>W>E or W>Q>E; pick the former if you plan to threaten the enemy at level 1, or pick the latter if you want to support your jungler’s first clear with a substantial heal.

Max your skills in the following order: R>Q>W>E. Ranking up Q scales down the cooldown while scaling up the slow and stun duration; W increases the value of the empowered heal; E is a utility spell that works optimally even at level 1.

General Gameplan

Bard may have had his Caretaker’s Shrine (W) and Magical Journey (E) nerfed this patch, but his poke game still rocks to this day. With his buffed Meeps, his autoattacks do pretty well during burst trades. Capitalize on this fact by making sure you roam enough to empower your passive, while maintaining a lead with your lane partner against your enemies.

Because Magical Journey sets up a portal that crosses walls, Bard can setup unique approaches for himself and his allies, which is best if your jungler or mid laner is ready to gank with your help.

Maximize your Caretaker’s Shrine heal spots by letting them scale up for 10 seconds. The increased healing always benefits everyone, but make sure to position it in a way where the enemy cannot stomp down your heal spots.

Be mindful of landing your Tempered Fate (R) for it can put ANY champion, turret, or monster under stasis (similar to Zhonya’s Hourglass). If you trap your escaping ally, you are essentially spelling doom for them. However, if you manage to catch a pursuing enemy team, suddenly putting them into a 5v1 beatdown will severely cripple their tempo.

If you are escaping, you can bait enemies into your Magical Journey and stun them with Cosmic Binding the time they come out. Allies (including Bard himself) travels faster than the enemy, which is great for luring enemies into a trap.

Thresh, the Chain Warden

Pros

• High skill ceiling and playmaking potential
• Great tournament pick
• Incredible amount of utility and crowd control

Cons

• If passive isn’t built up early, makes mid game transition difficult
• Squishy support; cannot take too much poke early on
• Requires proactive playstyle and proper team coordination

Runes and Abilities

For runes, take Aftershock, Font of Life, Bone Plating, and Overgrowth under the Resolve Tree. Afterwards, take Perfect Timing and Cosmic Insight under the Inspiration tree. Your stat runes should be 1x Scaling Cooldown Reduction, 1x Armor, and 1x Health. These runes primarily give Thresh the durability to engage and make plays that he is known for.

For levels 1 to 3, take Q>E>W for the immediate trade, additional poke damage, and shielding. Max R>Q>E>W in that order. Ranking up Q largely cuts down its cooldown, while E gets a larger damage and slow amount. The fact that W can pull your ally at a large distance makes this utility spell worth taking at level 1, then maxed last.

General Gameplan

Similar to Blitzcrank, Thresh’s hook can set up amazing picks for his team. The main difference however is the sheer utility of Thresh’s kit that complements with proper coordination once he lands his Death Sentence (Q).

On that note, aggressively throwing your hooks are a huge waste of resource when there is a lack of intent and setup. Instead of using Overdrive, Thresh can replace with a Flay engage and then landing a predict hook based on the enemy’s tendencies and the space they’re given to move. Narrowing the distance creates more tension for the enemy team while they attempt to dodge your hook, increasing your success rates.

Thresh relies on scaling towards the mid game with his Damnation passive. Collecting souls grants him a myriad of stats that also complement the different functions of his abilities, such as damage mitigation and poke damage.

You can use Dark Passage (W) to check brushes for enemies planning to surprise you or your ally, for it grants vision of a small radius. Be cautious of its long cooldown as it may be crucial times if your ally or you yourself get flanked by the enemy.

Experienced Thresh players can setup a duo-long range engage with Death Sentence and a prepped Dark Passage with enough distance for your ally, while not letting it despawn due to being too far. If all goes well, your ally dashes with you as you recast your Q to dash towards the enemy, and you now can 2v1 the unfortunate target.