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An (Almost) In-Depth Guide to The Support Role

38 1 172,759
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by MysticBadger updated January 18, 2014

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About Me

Hello Everyone! I am MysticBadger and I'm a Gold support main in League of Legends (if that means anything to anyone). I love playing support and my favorite support was Thresh. I main Hades and Sobek here in Smite, and have found that playing support in Smite has its distinct differences than supporting in League.

DISCLAIMER:
This is a very dense guide, with a ridiculous amount of information. If you have time to read all of it, you will get a TON out of it, but I've done my best to make it to where you can find the general details quickly.

Also, not all of the god playstyle subsections are complete. I tried to get at least one completed in every type, but am going to complete the Bruiser section first.

Also, with school starting, I will try to continue to update as often as possible, but the frequency of updates may drop. Just be patient, I didn't abandon this guide and am still working on it :)

So, with all that being said, let's get to the guide!

Introduction to Support

When you hear the word "support", you typically think of someone who helps an individual get kills, or lay down some crowd control for your team in a teamfight. Most of the time, this is true, but with Smite the support role is more of a dynamic role.

Brace yourself! There's a little bit of reading to understand the types of supports. I recommend reading through it, but if you don't want to, there are "Key Takeaways" at the bottom of the section.

So How Is Support Dynamic?


Well, there are basically 3 different categories of support:
  • Traditional
  • Tank
  • Bruiser

Traditional Supports

These gods are ones whose primary role is to provide utility to their lane/team; providing utility means that they can give allies mana, health, crowd control (cc) reduction, or increased mana/health regen. When you play one of these gods, you want to help your lane/team sustain into late game, sustain during long teamfights, or to give someone just enough health to live.

You are your carry's wingman, and you better not let them fall without good reason!

Tank Supports

These gods are ones whose primary role is to soak up damage in teamfights and be an engager during the laning phase. When playing one of these gods, you want to be the primary target of the other team. Ideally, you want to get right up in the other team's face and force them to deal with you with everything they have. By doing that, you take the focus off of your squishy carries, allowing them to maximize their damage output.

You are the engager, so get in there and lay down some hard CC!

Bruiser Supports

Playing the bruiser support can get a bit more complicated than the previous types of support.

When playing one of these gods, you typically want to play halfway between a tank and traditional support. It is a little more complicated to play these gods, simply because you must rely on your decision-making more than the other types. Bruisers are typically melee and (in laning phase) have to get close to the minion line and enemies to dish out damage. Because of this, when you decide to go in to put damage down, you have to make sure your carry can follow up, otherwise you'll go in and basically engage in a 2v1; if you don't die, youll take a considerable amount of damage and that may cripple your laning phase.

Outside of laning, you want to act like a typical bruiser (kind of tanky, but still able to dish out a TON of damage). By playing this way, you will help your carry or team kill the enemy by being a front line, and laying damage down which will in turn provide your carries with an easier target to kill.

Pick your engages wisely, then go in there and help your carry get a kill! This is a kill lane!

Key Takeaways

  • Not all supporting gods have the same playstyle.

  • When playing traditional supports, stay by your carries! Always!

  • When you're the tank support, be the front line and try to see how many ults you can get the enemy team to waste!

  • Bruiser supports require a bit more decision making; you can (and most often will) be punished for making the wrong decision.

  • Making a great decision with bruiser supports will most often net your carry a kill.

The Most Important Things To Know

The most important thing to know about supporting is this...

You are the playmaker.

That's right. YOU. Not your mid, not your jungle, not your top, no, not even your AD Carry.

Sounds crazy doesn't it? How can I be the playmaker, when I'm just a lowly support? Well it's simple, really. You are the one keeping the team alive. If they're not alive, they have no opportunity to do anything. You are the one with the Crowd Control, locking targets down for your carries to demolish. Without your CC, there would be no hope for the carry to snag easy kills.

As a support, you are perhaps THE most important member of the team, yet also perhaps the most unrecognized. Take pride in supporting, because you are the one who makes everything easier for the team behind the scenes.

The Second Most Important Thing


The second most important thing to know, or remember, is to ALWAYS try to give your carry the kill. Yes, even if you're sitting there dancing around an enemy at 10hp.

Never Take The Kills ...unless you absolutely have to. Then it's alright. :)

How Warding Is Important And Why You Should Do It

So why is warding important? At first glance, it doesn't seem worth the 75g for 3 minutes of vision on one small part of the map, right? Wrong. Completely wrong. The Ward and Sentry Ward are the most OP items in the ENTIRE game.

How are wards OP? They Don't Do Anything.


You know the saying, "Knowledge is Power"? That is completely true, and believe it or not, that saying applies to Smite, and every other strategy game, too. Wards provide vision on enemy positioning, and movements which provide you with more situational knowledge.

Situation 1: Pushing Your Lane With No Ward

Let's say you're pushing your lane and you're winning your lane. You get right up to the tower and get ganked, resulting in your enemy laners getting a double kill. They are now caught up to you, and pushing, and because you're both dead, you're losing valuable xp. Had you put even one measly ward down, this whole situation could've been prevented and you'd still be winning your lane just as hard, if not harder.

Let's revisit that situation again, but this time you placed a ward down near the enemy blue buff.

Situation 2: Pushing Your Lane With A Ward On The Enemy Buff Camp

You are winning your lane, up 2 kills on the enemy laners, and have level advantage. The minions are fighting in the middle of the lane and you just clear all of the enemy minions, starting your push to their tower. However, because of your ward placement, you notice the enemy jungler clearing his jungle buff camp that you were smart enough to ward. With that knowledge, you now have even more of an advantage than before, because you now know it would be dangerous to push with the potential 2v3 situation. The jungler clears his camp and hangs out behind a wall for a bit, waiting for the perfect time to jump you. But you see this and stall the lane push, which makes the jungler waste his time. Sure the enemy laners now have a bit of free farm, but now you can continue to choke them out and dominate your lane with the jungler gone.

That ONE ward prevented a double kill for the enemy team, wasted about 1 minute of the jungler's time, allows you to stay in control over your lane, and in the long run starves your enemy laners of gold and xp.

If you ask me, that is definitely worth a mere 75g.

And that's just during laning phase too. Once late game hits, it provides even more function, as you or teammates can use Shielded Teleport to position themselves on the ward for fast splitpushing, catching someone out of position on the enemy team, or to catch up to the team as they start a teamfight.

How To Ward Efficiently


Now that you understand just how important wards are, let's take a look at how to really use them to their fullest potential.

Wards have a set radius of sight, so even tho it may sound common knowledge, you do not want to place wards too close to each other, or within the sight radius of another ward. This is redundant warding, as you have 2 wards functioning as only 1. This is the definition of inefficiency, but I have seen that happen in games before. To ward efficiently, it's best to place the ward where it will have the most vision; typically, this is where one or more jungle paths meet and the main jungle objectives (Gold Fury and Fire Giant).

Below is a map showing the most important places to ward, represented by a White Dot.



This does not mean to ONLY ward these spots. If everyone on your team is warding (and warding consistently), these spots will all be taken. You can either hold on to your wards and simply replace the existing ones when they run out, or ward other junctions.

When you get used to warding, you will wonder how you even managed to play without them. The hardest and most important part is simply to remember to keep putting them down!

Recap

  • Wards are not useless!
  • Knowledge is power!
  • A single ward can save your teammate's life, or even your own
  • Ward efficiently, not redundantly
  • The Ward is the most OP item in Smite.
  • Wards allow you to make better decisions

Who Are The Traditional Supports?

Here are a list of the traditional supports: Aphrodite, Chang'e, Hel, Eset, Nu Wa, Ra

Traditional Support Analysis

In this section, I will go over the playstyle of the traditional support more in-depth, as well as the individual playstyles of each support.

NOTE: This section will possibly change as I play each god more, as well as more detail being added over time. If a god is missing, don't worry, they will be added here later as I become more familiar with them.

Traditional Support Playstyle


Your main job is to keep your carry healthy and out of danger. The carry is the muscle of the team, but you are his lifeline. Whether your carry likes it or not, he relies on you and you rely on him.

Laning Phase

While playing a traditional support, one of the most important things you have to have is the ability to read your carry. What this means is that you have to know when they're trying to just farm, as opposed to just applying pressure. It can be very challenging at times because everyone has their own unique playstyle. It is very easy to misread your carry's actions, but over time, it will become universally easier to read your carry accurately.

Teamfighting Phase

Teamfights can often get disorienting. Sometimes you can lose sight of the carry you swore to protect, but that's ok!

In teamfights, you want to focus your efforts on the highest value god on your team. For example, if you have an Ao Kuang that destroys everyone on the other team, but gets blown up quick, try to make sure he has enough sustain to last the teamfight. Keep him alive so he can keep getting kills. This is the single-most important thing you can do in teamfights.

In the event that the carries aren't even being focused or hurt at all, it's better to go help the person taking the most damage. This will most often be a tank or bruiser. The healthier your front line is, the harder it makes it for the enemy to kill your squishies!

Aphrodite's Playstyle


Change s Playstyle


Hel's Playstyle


Isis's Playstyle


Nu Wa's Playstyle


Ra's Playstyle

Who Are The Tank Supports?

Here are a list of the tank supports: Athena, Bacchus, Geb, Sobek, Vamana, Ymir

Tank Support Analysis

In this section, I will go over the playstyle of the tank supports more in-depth, as well as the individual playstyles of each support.

NOTE: This section will possibly change as I play each god more, as well as more detail being added over time. If a god is missing, don't worry, they will be added here later as I become more familiar with them.

Tank Support Playstyle


As a tank support, your goal should be to be the front line for your team, soak up as much damage as you can, and to CC everyone on the other team. You are a pivotal part of the team and without you, your team wouldn't be able to teamfight as efficiently or safely.

An important thing to note is that you are not to be running into the middle of the team, doing your combo, and dying. You need to know the damage output of the enemy team, and know your limits as to how long you can stay so you can get out alive.

Laning Phase

During the laning phase, you want to be a bully to the enemies. You're built to absorb damage, so you want to get in their face and be obnoxious with your crowd control. This creates opportunities for your carry to capitalize on to get kills, or at the very least, put damage down on them.

It is, however, a fine balance. You simply can't run at them, be in their faces, and expect to live forever like that. You need to establish lane dominance before you can do that. To do that, your goal is to outtrade them in damage with small skirmishes. In other words, damage them more than they can to you, but not for an extended period of time; run up, damage/CC them, then retreat back to behind your minion line and regen some health. By doing this, you can also actively gauge how much damage they do, which helps you know when, or if, to go all-in.

Teamfighting Phase

Teamfighting is where you really start to shine. Here, you serve as your team's front line and you want to be the one who goes in first to try to CC the enemy carries. You also need to keep a close eye on your health, because ideally you want to make it out alive, your job is not a suicide mission.

While you're CCing the enemy team, it's also good to keep an eye on your squishies. If you notice one of your carries getting jumped by an enemy tank or carry, drop what you're doing and go be a meat shield for them. Your job in this situation should be to try to get the enemy to disengage from your carry. This is referred to as "peeling" for your carry (just in case anyone hadn't heard the terminology before).


Athena's Playstyle


Bacchus's Playstyle


Geb's Playstyle


Sobek's Playstyle


Vamana's Playstyle


Ymir's Playstyle

Who Are The Bruiser Supports?

Here are a list of the bruiser supports: Ares, Chaac, Guan Yu, Hades, Sun Wukong, Tyr, Zhong Kui

Bruiser Support Analysis

In this section, I will go over the playstyle of the bruiser supports more in-depth, as well as the individual playstyles of each support.

NOTE: This section will possibly change as I play each god more, as well as more detail being added over time. If a god is missing, don't worry, they will be added here later as I become more familiar with them.

Bruiser Support Playstyle


The first thing you probably noticed was how out of place Zhong Kui looks. For now, this is experimental, simply because I think it could work, but haven't played him enough to really know for sure.

Playing a bruiser support can be more difficult than the previous 2 types. Most simply put, if you choose to engage on your enemies in your lane and underestimate their damage, your carry will follow you in and that could spell a disastrous end for both of you. On the other hand, if you outdamage them, you will most often get at least one of them and that will help your lane to snowball in your favor. In the early to mid game, bruiser supports are high-risk, high-reward.

Laning Phase

This is the time when you want to exercise caution when you make decisions. You need to make small trades of damage with the enemy, to get a sense of how they're damage is scaling to make the best decision. Information is power and the more you know about your enemies' playstyle and damage output, the better you can play against them. I advise only going all-in on someone when it is a guaranteed kill, with no question about it. Otherwise, play cautiously and wait for your enemies to make a mistake to capitalize on.

Teamfighting Phase

In teamfights, you typically want to be slightly behind or next to your tank, to help create a better front line. Here, you should try to track down the enemy carries and unload all your damage on them. If you can take them out early and quickly, it will quickly swing the battle in your favor. However, if you're losing the teamfight, and your team disengages, your role changes back to protecting the carry. Make sure they can get out alive, even if it means temporarily engaging the enemy by yourself. Now, you don't want to just suicide into them, so do your best to get out, but ultimately you need your carry alive to waveclear, if the enemy team tries to push down a lane.

Ares's Playstyle


Chaac's Playstyle


Guan Yu's Playstyle


Hades's Playstyle


Sun Wukong's Playstyle


Tyr's Playstyle


Zhong Kui's Playstyle

Summary

If you got this far, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this guide. You are awesome! :)

I've been playing support for a long time and tried to put everything I know into this guide, so I hope it has helped you understand the general concept of supporting better and the finer details of it as well. I'm sure I forgot some stuff, so I'll add more as I remember.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I am always open to feedback and discussion!

P.S. Hi-Rez, make a support with a hook ability!

Credits

I want to thank the people who have helped me make this guide better:

Jordenito

Baransun

Fibonacci161

Subzero008

I really appreciate it :)

Future Content

    Planned future content:

  • Elaborating on some of my points
  • Simplifying information that may be hard to understand
  • Individual analysis on each god for traditional supports
  • Individual analysis on each god for tank supports
  • Individual analysis on each god for bruiser supports
  • How to play the different supports in a failing lane
  • A "God Synergy" section
  • A "When To Pick What Type Of Support" section

Update Log

01.18.2014


01.15.2014


01.08.2014


01.06.2014


01.05.2014


01.04.2014


01.03.2014

Leave a Comment

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Collapse All Comments

1
Technotoad64 (46) | May 31, 2017 6:11pm
Quoted:
P.S. Hi-Rez, make a support with a hook ability!

It might be necro, but these old guides are hilarious in hindsight sometimes.
1
catabolise | May 1, 2017 9:35pm
i really wwant to see a youtube video of this front line ares in action i have 14000 worshippers and i really hate playing a front lane as ares i use ares like a duo lane jungler and gank everything.
1
timeforwowXD | August 17, 2016 8:42am
I have had a few isis support... well if there is a baccus its a great counter, just silence or stun his burp XD with geb you can also knock up odin jump ;D
1
DucksRock (41) | August 17, 2016 8:51am
this guide isnt relevant anymore as traditional supports just dont really work.
1
Bankerz | April 11, 2015 2:34am
Argh no! This is a very good guide and that's why I'm so upset. I need a detailed guide for Guan Yu and I really hope you add him soon since I feel you would be the best person to do so. Keep it up! Hope to see Guan soon 😊
1
Sami8s | August 13, 2014 3:10pm
I really like this :) But I think that this guide has some things missing/wrong...

Wards are 50g in Smite, 75g are in LoL :)

And I'm not 100% but I do not think that bruisers are a kind of kill focused support...
I think (I can be wrong) that bruisers are sudo tanks as you said, but not a kill lane...
I CAN BE WRONG <3
1
Webbo | August 8, 2014 7:46pm
This guide is absolutely great, I have been reading smitefire for quite some time now but never actually signed up (I know... shoot me) your guide has made me sign up because I wanted to tell you how great this was. Thankyou very much! I am currently trying to learn all that I can before I start on league and this has helped me.
1
Iceius | August 7, 2014 1:44pm
I feel like the part that you need to have HoG and that you start att the blue buff for your ADC and keep helping him get that also rotation as a support seems to be missing i believe.
Watcher's Gift is a must since your ADC always need to get the last hit on minions to get his stacks, a good and expierienced ADC normaly Have both Heartseeker an Devourer's Gauntlet or aleast one of them, so the support would fall behind without this item (this aplies in ranked atleast).
1
Wafflebob | May 30, 2014 11:54pm
Question! If you are a tank support and non-traditional support should you still be sticking to your ADC like glue or are you more of a roamer? What if there are no other supports to protect the ADC? What should you do if early game you and your ADC get heavily pressured by classes that have higher sustain and get forced back to your towers where you just kinda wither?
1
Tacion | May 7, 2014 5:55am
Hey Mystic, good post (as per all your posts in all games) good to see ya here
tacion
1
Gangion | April 7, 2014 2:18pm
Ok so I've been playing a lot of Scylla and I've been really confused if she's a good support or not? And if she is how do I build her?
1
Shavul (7) | April 5, 2014 5:15pm
You see, I main support too. People around here say that I'm quite good.

I want to help you with the individual thingy on Sun Wukong. I'm quite succesful with it and I believe I can give you some insight on the playstyle for that god.

PM me if you want my help.
1
Greenevers (105) | March 26, 2014 10:33pm
Although a bit late, nice guide! I don't really support a lot, but this guide helped me get my carry 19 and 2, wasn't doing too bad myself with Ra. Called me "the greatest" support role he's seen played. Upvote obv
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League of Legends Build Guide Author MysticBadger
An (Almost) In-Depth Guide to The Support Role
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Table of Contents
About Me
Introduction to Support
The Most Important Things To Know
How Warding Is Important And Why You Should Do It
Who Are The Traditional Supports?
Traditional Support Analysis
Who Are The Tank Supports?
Tank Support Analysis
Who Are The Bruiser Supports?
Bruiser Support Analysis
Summary
Credits
Future Content
Update Log

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