The best support champions in League of Legends

The support role in League of Legends can often be a thankless job. A good support can go relatively unnoticed during the game, but playing poorly can get you ruthlessly flamed.

The types of supports in League can be split into three categories: Enchanters, engagers, and poke supports. While some champions cross over into multiple categories, it’s a pretty safe golden triangle to go by.

Enchanter supports, like Soraka or Nami, focus on keeping the bot lane carry alive through the laning phase with heals and shields. Enchanter supports usually go well into poke supports because they can out-sustain the poke, but struggle into engagers due to a lack of mobility and relative squishiness.

See League of Legends on Amazon

Engage supports, like Alistar or Leona, look to all-in the enemy bot lane during the laning phase with crowd control and high early-game damage. They can capitalize on enchanters during the laning phase because of their lack of poke, but can’t deal with poke supports effectively since they whittle down your health before you can even think about engaging.

Poke supports, like Zyra or Brand, succeed by annoying the enemy laners as much as possible with long-range abilities, forcing them to waste their potions or heals. If an enemy gets greedy, they also have a fair amount of burst in their kits to delete them from Summoner’s Rift. Because of this, they can deal with engage supports. But enchanters can usually out-sustain a poke support’s mana pool, rendering their poke ineffective.

With this in mind, let’s break down the top five supports for League’s Patch 12.11.

Janna

Pros

• Good scaling
• Amazing in disengaging and protecting your allies

Cons

• Squishy
• Not that easy to master

At the start of the season, Janna was one of the most popular champions in solo queue due to a new and rather unusual way of playing her. The strategy was simple—all you had to do was to pick Smite, assist your jungler, and pick up all the objective bounty gold. But now Janna returns to the meta as traditional support who reigns supreme in the bot lane.

Item build

Janna has lots of crowd control tools, which she can use to lock down enemy champions or to disengage and create space for her allies. When you have a support with a few CC abilities, it’s always worth picking Glacial Augment as your main rune. With this rune under your belt, you will be to create slow zones around enemy champions that have been struck with an immobilizing skill, slowing them down further and creating more space for your team to react and finish them off.

Afterward, it’s best to choose runes that will allow you to replenish your stats during the laning phase and that will help you with gold management and cooldowns. Biscuit Delivery is a must-have for Janna due to her being mana-hungry, especially in the early game. Magical Footwear will allow you to spare some gold, which is needed for other support items. Lastly, we have Cosmic Insight, which lowers the cooldowns of your Summoner’s Spells and active abilities on items, of which you will have quite a few.

To finish your rune choices, there is no better option than Font of Life and Revitalize from the Resolve tree. The former marks the opponents you immobilize, allowing your allies who attack the marked enemies to heal. Revitalize, on the other hand, enhances the power of your shield and heals, which combined with Heal is very powerful.

Ability priority

While playing Janna, the best way to spend your ability points is R>E>W>Q. Eye of the Storm (E) has both aggressive and defensive capabilities, since it empowers your healing and shielding every time you impair an enemy champion, and you can use this ability to shield your ally as well. Once they’re shielded, they deal more damage, which can make a difference when trading in the laning phase. Zephyr (W), on the other hand, gives you more movement speed while available, making it easier to roam, which is key in the meta. It can also strike a single enemy and slow them down for a fair amount. 

Game plan

Janna is truly versatile support, however, one of her cons is a fairly weak early game. During that phase, her cooldowns are long, her abilities consume a lot of mana to activate, and she doesn’t have strong basic statistics on her own. Thus, before you reach level six, you shouldn’t be stepping out of the line too much. instead, you should just try to safely get to that milestone with your AD carry. 

Once you reach level six, you could start roaming throughout the map. Janna is quite squishy and doesn’t have a lot of ganking potential, but when combined with a jungler, she can really make a difference. Therefore, if there’s a window of opportunity somewhere on Summoner’s Rift, don’t hesitate to roam there and do your best.

Janna also does great in teamfights, due to her aggressive and defensive qualities. She can land a crowd control combo and help you catch enemies that are fleeing or out of position or can make a lot of space with her ultimate, where her allies can heal as well. What you do depends solely on the game state, so make sure to evaluate that throughout the match.

Renata Glasc

Pros

• Amazing poke
• An ultimate that can decide teamfights
• Incredible scaling with today’s meta AD carries

Cons

• Not very mobile and squishy
• Difficult to master

Renata Glasc is the latest support to join League of Legends, and she has already heralded herself as one of the best in the game. The Chem Baronees possesses a truly powerful set of unique abilities that can influence any state of the game.

Still, it doesn’t mean that picking Renata will instantly win you a game. There are sufficient ways to counter the champion. At the same time, she’s really tough to master, and many players will have issues playing her in their first matches.

Item build

On Renata Glasc, your best bet is to go for the Guardian tree. While playing the champion, you will be looking to make an impact in teamfights, and in most cases, you’re going to be at the back, shielding your teammates and providing aid with your other skills. For this reason, having Guardian to enhance survivability is recommended.

With the other three choices in the Resolve tree, you’ll improve your poking, sustainability, and tenacity, all of which are essential on Renata. Due to her not having any escape tools and being quite immobile, choosing Cosmic Insight is a good option. It’s also worth going for Biscuit Delivery since Renata is quite mana-hungry.

Ability priority

Renata Glasc’s skill priority is R>E>W>Q. With Loyalty Program, you have the ability to poke opponents and shield your allies at the same time. Since today’s meta is full of AD hypercarries, your best plan would be to go for W afterward to increase their damage and grant them additional survivability.

Game plan

With Renata Glasc, players can sometimes get lost due to the many possibilities that the champion offers. The main goal during the game, however, should be to scale well into the mid-game where you can start wreaking havoc with your ultimate.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t think about skirmishes early. Although, due to Renata being quite mana-devouring, immobile, and squishy, those can often end up badly for you. Therefore, be careful in the first minute of the game, and always keep an eye on the enemy jungler’s location.

In the deciding teamfights, remember not to overcommit and stay behind your front line. Your abilities can influence the battles in a major way, so it would be a shame if you died early. Also, keep in mind that opponents are probably aware of your potential, and will hence try to eliminate Renata at the beginning of each fight.

Senna

Pros

• Unique playstyle
• Strong in most parts of the game
• Global ultimate

Cons

• Squishy
• Needs a good duo partner to wave clear
• Immobile

Supports don’t usually have to do damage, this task in most cases belongs to other champions on Summoner’s Rift. Usually, champions in the support role should tank the damage for their carries, or provide their squads with healing and crowd control tools. Well, Senna is an exception. With her unique passive that allows you to harvest the souls of dead minions and champions, you can still build damage-dealing items and become a force to be reckoned with.

Item build

Since you’re going to aim to deal as much damage as possible, we won’t be looking at standard building routes for support. Still, on Senna, you’re not going to collect a lot of attack speed items, especially since you’ll have empowered auto-attacks. Thus, it’s best to pick a rune that works with that kit perfectly, like Fleet Footwork. With that, players are going to build Energy stacks when attacking and moving. Once you have 100 of them, your next AA will heal you and grant you some much-needed movement speed.

Down the line, we have runes that are quite normal for AD-based, ranged champions like Senna. Presence of Mind will help you to solve a few mana issues you’re going to have, mostly in the early and late game. Legend: Alacrity will give you attack speed with every takedown, and as we explained, you won’t be building this stat through your items, so it will come in handy. Last but not least, players won’t stack health on Senna, so dealing more damage to enemies with more health with Cut Down is self-explanatory.

To provide yourself with a bit more sustain, it’s wise to grab Biscuit Delivery from the Inspiration tree. At last, oftentimes the best pick is to go for Approach Velocity since you’re pretty immobile, and it might help in chases a dozen times. 

Ability priority

On Senna, the best way to prioritize your abilities is R>Q>W>E. Piercing Darkness (Q) is your main source of damage, which can also restore health to your allies. And, since you’re in the support role, your partner in the bot lane might need some health here and there. Afterward, it’s better to prioritize Last Embrace (W) instead of Curse of the Black Mist (E), since the former deals damage and roots enemies. 

Game plan

Senna support is a unique combo. You are quite strong early, mediocre in the mid-game, and strong late. There is, however, a perfect way to utilize her kit. 

In the laning phase, don’t hesitate to go for trades, especially if you have a champion that synchronizes with you well, like Caitlyn, Lucian, or Xayah. If you manage to start snowballing in the laning phase, you won’t take as much of a hit to your power spike in the mid-game as you usually do, since you’re going to be ahead of your bottom lane counterparts. Also, remember about your global ultimate, which on some occasions might serve as an ideal finisher to the enemy top laner, jungler, mid laner, or even an enemy from your part of the map.

Senna excels in the late game because you’re going to be an additional damage threat, which enemies will need to take into account. Still, you’re very squishy and immobile, so in deciding teamfights don’t overextend and deal damage from the back line, protecting your carries at the same time. 

Yuumi

Pros

• Brings great sustain in lane
• Synchronizes well with almost every marksman
• Ultimate can be used in multiple ways

Cons

• Squishy
• Useless on her own
• Mana-devouring

While Yuumi is likely one of the most disliked champions in League due to her annoying kit, she’s also one of the best supports today. With her healing, crowd control, and AoE ultimate, she has all the tools necessary to be called a top support. 

Item build

One of the reasons Yuumi is so difficult to play in the lane against is her Prowling Projectile (Q). While she’s attached to an ally, she can control the direction of it with her mouse, making it relatively easy to hit. Thus, to increase your poke and eventually win the laning phase, it’s sensible to pick Summon Aery, which will send an additional missile in your enemies’ direction once you hit them with one. 

Unfortunately for Yuumi mains, she is heavily mana dependent. Therefore, it’s helpful to pick Manaflow Band, which grants you additional maximum mana once you hit an enemy. Down the line from the Sorcery tree, it’s also wise to choose Transcendence and Gathering Storm. The former lowers your cooldowns, while the latter boosts your ability power throughout the game. 

When it comes to the additional tree, it’s smart to go for Presence of Mind and Cut Down from Precision. The first one will provide even more support in terms of mana, while the second will allow you to deal more damage to champions with more health than you. And since you won’t be building health, it’s perfect for a mage support like the Magical Cat. 

Ability priority

On Yuumi, there are two ways you can maximize your abilities. It’s either R>Q>E>W or R>E>Q>W. And it depends on your team composition and who exactly you are facing. If you need more poke damage to win the laning phase and don’t rely on healing, pick the first path, since it will increase the damage you deal with the mentioned Prowling Projectile. Although, if you have found yourself in a more defensive situation or under pressure, choosing Zoomies (E), which grants you healing, over Q makes perfect sense as well. 

Game plan

Yuumi is a truly unique champion in the game. There is no other champion in League that depends on attaching to your allies and strengthening them. She’s an incredible addition to practically every composition, and the game plan on her is also very simple. 

Since it’s easy to hit enemies with your Q, and with the ability to provide a shield to the ally you’re attached to at the moment, she offers a great advantage in the laning phase and makes trading almost always valuable for you. Try to dominate the lane from the early minutes, so after the 15-minute mark you can start taking over the map. 

As the game goes on, Yuumi’s biggest strength is her ultimate. And with the flexibility of being able to attach to any ally, it’s your choice when and how will you use it. If you’re ahead, don’t hesitate on attaching to powerful bruisers and fighters, to make even more damage behind the enemies’ front line. If you’re behind, you can use it as a disengage tool. If opponents have an assassin or two, use the ultimate while attached to one of your carries to protect them. The key on Yuumi is judging the situation at all times and communicating with your team. Once you do both of those right, the chances that you win will increase tremendously. 

Pyke

Pros

• Unique playstyle
• Great roaming and finishing 
• Very mobile for a support

Cons

• Squishy
• Difficult to play once strongly behind
• Tough to master

In most cases, support champions are supposed to provide utility, healing, and crowd control tools for their teammates. And while most of them work just like that, there are a few unique exceptions, with Pyke being one of them. 

Item build

Despite having a great finisher in the form of his ultimate, Pyke still has two strong crowd control tools that will immobilize enemies once hit properly. Therefore, it makes sense to pick Aftershock, which grants you armor and magic resistance once you immobilize an opponent. But, more importantly, it makes you explode after a couple of seconds, dealing damage to enemies around you. With Pyke’s kit, you will be trying to get behind enemy lines quite a lot, so this rune goes perfectly with it.

Furthermore, in the Resolve tree, players should aim to increase their survivability, add some tenacity, and empower their CC tools a bit more. Bone Plating is perfect for the first option, making you take less damage once you get hit by an enemy champion. Font of Life makes your allies heal once they hit an enemy you immobilized. Unflinching also boosts your tenacity, which rises as your health drops. 

When it comes to filler runes, it’s wise to have Zombie Ward from Domination tree, since you’re going to be roaming a lot and therefore clearing vision. Relentless Hunter is perfect to add to it since it increases your movement speed.

Ability priority

On Pyke, you should go for R>Q>E>W. Your Bone Skewer (Q) is your main tool until the mid game comes around, as you’re going to be helping other lanes, and there’s hardly a better ganking mechanic than pulling enemies towards you. Afterward, putting points in Phantom Undertow (E) makes much more sense than maximizing Ghostwater Dive (W), since the former is your second crowd control tool, and also deals a fair amount of damage. 

Game plan

Pyke is exceptional support and valuable in every phase of the game. There are some ways that will help you utilize him to his maximum potential. 

Contrary to many other traditional supports, you may leave your lane as early as level three. At that point, you should already have a point in your Bone Skewer and Phantom Undertow, two powerful CC tools that when combined with your jungler and one of the other laners, should almost always result in a kill. What’s more, due to Pyke’s high mobility and passive, you shouldn’t take much time returning to the bot lane, and you still should have plenty of health and additional experience from eliminations.

Therefore, you should rarely ever fall behind if you execute your early-game plan correctly. As the game goes on, you should be even braver and try to get behind enemy lines to finish off low-on-health enemies with your ultimate. If that’s not possible, though, just try to unexpectedly hit your Bone Skewer and pick off enemies alongside your teammates.

Either way, when playing Pyke, players should be aggressive. Your game state and careful evaluation of both teams’ compositions will help you choose how you want to do it.

This article includes affiliate links, which may provide small compensation to Dot Esports.

---

Make sure to follow us on YouTube for more esports news and analysis.