How to Play Mage Supports
Today, i’ve decided to share with you a concept to how to play Mage supports such as Karma, Morgana, Bard, Brand and Zyra In this section i will discuss alot of information about Positioning, Itemization, Laning, Trading, Roaming and Warding.
Positioning
For mage supports, you want to be positioned next to or just behind your ADC .You should go up when you want to use abilities but fall back once you have done so. You should utilize thunder lords when using your abilities, and getting the most gold from your support item, by waiting for all 3 stacks to be up when going for a trade. You want to focus whoever is close to your carries, exhausting them when they get close and protecting your team as much as possible, you should CC anybody who is close to them.
Other: You need to be positioned as closely as possible, and some times take enemy damage for your carry, you should both try to dodge skill shots but if they are going to hit the adc, you can get in the way of them.
Itemization
Itemization is the core to your damage. Items that made specifically for the support role are great to purchase when you’re playing mages. There are 2 major building routes to take when playing Mage champions, you can either go full damage or you can purchase supportive items that give healing and shields. In general, you want to build what’s best for your team Usually, supports that are mage for example karma or sona would build Sightstone (eye of the watchers,) Redemption, locket and then Ardent censer.
Other: There are a lot of websites out there you can look at what you should build on certain champions. I have tried to sum up what you should build. In most cases, sightstone first and then full AP or sightstone, redemption locket and then AP items after, You can also build full peel on mage supports, like Karma, Nami or Sona,
Laning
The laning phase consists of you being able to help your adc. Hes job is to farm and get ready to do damage in team fights. Your job is to protect him and help them farm. You should do this by using your healing and shielding your ADC. Having a good laning phase will help you in the later part of the game. To be a good support you must protect the adc as much as possible. When playing mage supports you will want to utilize your damage early game by using your abilities as much as possible, without losing to much mana. A really good time to do this is when you have your support item at 3 stacks and thunder lords ready. In one quick session you should use all your damaging abilities on the enemy adc or support, and proc thunder lords. In the laning phase you want to make sure to earn as much gold as possible (utilizing your gold income item) and doing as much damage as possible to the enemy making them having to back off.
Other: You should focus on helping your adc farm and do damage to enemies when they get to close to your ADC. Protect them at all costs during the laning phase.
Trading
Trading is one way of getting ahead in the early game, it also helps you to get ganks by getting the enemy low. You want to trade as often as possible if it is safe to do so. If the jungler is missing then it probably isn’t worth trying to trade. You can trade however if the enemy jungler is shown on the otherside of the map. You can trade auto attacks when the enemy ADC is going to last hit minions as they will be auto locked and they can’t hit you back if you’ve hit them. Another way of trading is to use your spells, again you should use them if the enemy is auto attacking minions as they wont be able to reply with abilities either. If you’ve gone for the blue starting item for supports (spelltheifs) then you should go for trades when you also have 3 stacks and when thunderlords is up. If you can get a good trade off with thunderlords then it would do a lot of damage to the enemies.
Other: You want to go for trades near the bush so you can drop agro from minions. You want to go in for trades when you have more minions.
Roaming
Roaming is a great way of snowballing another lane in the early game. You can roam and try to blow summoners or get a kill on another lane. As a AP support that has CC it is much easier to do so. You can roam whenever you are able to, such as the ADC backing. There are a few types of roaming, 1 is to roam to get kills (ie gank mid) or 2 to place vision. It is a good idea to ward high traffic areas or strong bushes such as river bush this is because that bush can grant a wide range of vision. When roaming make sure that you’re watching the map to see where the enemies are and that they wont collapse on you when you’re roaming.
Other: You should not roam if it will put your ADC behind, only roam if they will not be at a disadvantage of you not being there for example they should be still able to farm and stay healthy and safe. Don’t roam if they will not be safe.
Warding
You are the support of the team, it is your job to provide vision for the team, and help them out when you can. You should build sighstone as soon as possible and use all your wards providing vision for the river, dragon and the lane. In the early game you want to provide botlane vision, this is mainly focusing on the enemy jungler appearing bot to gank, with vision you will be able to see where the enemy jungler is if he does come.
In the mid game you will want to be placing wards at “high traffic” area’s and where a lot of action has been. For example if there is a lot of action around mid lane, you should ward mid lane. You will need to keep using your vision and using your trinket to deny vision. I usually upgrade to Sightstone, and then when i’m level 9 I will change trinket, if you ward a lot having a yellow ward as a trinket is a good idea- but when you’re level 9 you need to change the trinket
Warding objectives is crucial for obtaining baron, rift herald or dragon safely. If your team is going to do the objective then you should ward behind it, and bushes near by- you should only ward them if the enemy jungler isn’t shown on the map. If he is shown on the other side of the map then it isn’t worth the time wasting a ward.
Other: If your team is doing baron or dragon, you can drop a pink ward to deny vision. If a ward was there, do not auto attack it as it will grant vision of the objective. Instead you should leave it because it will not show the health of the dragon or baron.
Other information
You will be the carry of the bot lane early game- you may have seen memes or people referring to “i carry you early game so you carry me late game.” this is true for the supports, without a good support your adc has not much of a chance to farm safely, build safely and stay healthy. Your job early game is to just protect your ADC, in the mid game its to protect your Team. Stay next to your ad at all times, focusing and dealing damage and Crowd controlling any enemies that get close to them. If you can keep your ADC, mid or any of your carries out of danger, then you’ve done your job.
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