what am i doing wrong in conquest?

Well, technically I'm pretty good in conquest for someone who plays excursively by them-self. I played a lot of season 2 ranked and earned Gold 1 by the end. It's no diamond but for someone who never plays in a party i feel like that's an accomplishment. I main support and I think i do a pretty damn good job. I barely played any season 3 in ranked, but with season 4 coming up I want to get back into it. Here's my dilemma. I understand the basics of each role. Where i get confused is items. Lets say I'm supporting with Silvanus or Fafnir, two of my main guardians. You don't have to worry about health pots because they have self heals. But lets say i wanna rock Bacchus or Khumba, two of my best, how do you approach items? I start EVERY game with lv 1 boots, 2 wards, ward the map, recall, then grab Watchers and 3 health and 3 mana pots, make it in time for the first jungle, then proceed to my lane. That's how i run support. But when you recall for the first time, what are you supposed to grab? If you're playing Bacchus or Athena, or any god without a self heal, what do you get? Wards are crucial, but should you get multi pots and wards, or mana pots and wards? This goes for any role really? I mean everyone should be contributing to wards right? If your a jungle what items should you be focusing on mid and late game? I'm so confused by what you're supposed to do. Please help.

Hi W0okie,

Welcome. Well, I'm not an expert, and so take what I say with a grain of salt, but here's some feedback.

Wards are usually not recommended to start. THey're helpful, yes, especially against early gank attempts, but there are stronger starts.

Even if you're a healing Guardian, you shouldn't NOT get healing potions. They're sort of important early, so as someone like Sylvanus, you might start Multi Potions and Mana Potions, but you should get some early healing somewhere.

With S4 (not sure if you play PC or console), you'll almost always get Chalice of the Oracle sometime pretty early...it's a reasonable price to pay to ward for the entire game. This means you can get whatever potions you think will help you most, if you need them. After the 10 minute mark, you'll probably start considering Sentry Wards instead of potions.

Other classes have healing, or they get lifesteal. For a Support, unless you have those heals, your best reliance is to split camps or waves with teammates here and there, because with the buff to Watcher's Gift, you actually have some decent sustain, at least until you sell it late to complete your build. One situational item you could consider is Pythagorem's Piece. It's definitely situational, but the lifesteal/power aura for ALL teammates in S4 can be somewhat helpful, and that will also give YOU some lifesteal...not much, but it's something.

You asked if you're a jungler, which items should you be focusing on mid/late game? Depends on the god. Give us a name or two, and we can propose some basic builds.

Well to take it from Bran..

For junglers the starts should be as follows:

Bumba's Mask and Bluestone Pendant + potions for ability based junglers
Bumba's Mask and Death's Toll + potions for basic attack based

Warrior Tabi is always the first item for every jungler. But after that comes some variety.

Heartseeker should be considered for ability based junglers of course for the passive. Think of it as the Soul Reaver for assassins but way more consistent and cheaper. I suggest it 3rd to 4th item but 2nd if you are snowballing. It is very useful mid and late game, as your main target as squishies just makes it more viable and makes your job easier.

Mid to late game almost all Junglers go defense to compensate for their health so they can mitigate damage more as they target the opposing junglers and ADCs. Something like a Hide of the Urchin or Spirit Robe. If one of your abilities has healing you should consider shield of regrowth.

To add my 2 cents into whats been said.

You always want to start out with health and either mana or multi pots at the beginning. How many depends on if you run out the wards before the game starts. This is because the extra health regen allows you to play aggressive in lane to secure pressure and look to kill or invade. I prefer the health and multi potions because watchers gives a ton of mana back this season, so if you're having mana problems it's more likely you are spamming your abilities a bit too much.

As support you ideally want to back with 1500 gold. This allows you to finish boots, Talaria is the go to choice for most this season as there's so much to contest the added movement speed is amazing, and buy [chalice of the oracle] as well for the ward coverage. After that the only consumables you are really looking to buy are the sentry wards until very late game where you can look into the rituals.

As far as jungle goes you generally want to pick up cheap - medium priced items as well as wards to place aggressively. But as far as a particular build goes, that's very god dependent so I'd have to know the god.

to anyone who tells you not to start wards: do not listen. if you have the skill to skip pots, or just want to quickly run out and ward, please do it. wards = best item. people highly undervalue them early and late.

This is from 2 months ago...

Hey Bran come check this

I'm not going to say wards aren't important, but I would say this statement is a bit subjective, and multiple things may contribute to when early wards are key.

• Firstly, the statement "if you have the skill to skip pots," well, it's not exactly a skill thing. Yes, sometimes you can bait abilities out and dodge them, and yes, that requires some skill. But this isn't always possible. If you say you can dodge enemy attacks the majority of the time, I'd say there's a good chance you're likely playing too passively, and being outpushed because you're not getting in range to damage the wave yourself. Either that or you're always playing on a smurf account XD Skilled or no, buying potions is a functional strategy...and yes, I acknowledge you didn't fully say NOT to buy potions (though that was one of your options...skipping them), but even 2 extra potions over 2 early wards can be helpful.
  
  
• Regarding potions as a strategy, they not only provide general sustain to help you stay in lane longer, but specifically, it can work both aggressively and conservatively. Aggressively, if your god has an obvious early advantage over the other god, buying potions may help you outpush by keeping your health up while you bully them out. Another strategy this way would be to take some damage as they target you, while you finish clearing the wave...if they spent their abilities hitting you instead of the wave, once you've cleared, your healing potions will get you back up in health while you AND the wave are able to push them back, hopefully under their tower where they lose some gold. Conservatively, if they've got a stronger early game, getting as many potions as possible can help you stay in lane to farm, turning a potential outpush into a stalemate. The closer you can stay to their level, the more difficult it will be for them as the game progresses, as many early-game gods aren't as effective later on.
  
  
• I'll address your other thing...running out and warding early. That's fine, but that's also what I would consider situational. You're using up to 100 gold early...it's not an enormous amount, but in the early game, 2 extra potions might be more functional. Also, depends on enemy and matchup. Many times, and depending on what lane you're in (e.g. Duo), it's not all that common for an outnumbered gank attempt to be made in the first 2-3 minutes. And if their team/gods have weaker early games, they're less likely to attempt it. It's a better idea if you have a weaker game, don't have an escape, etc., and in these cases it's a stronger case for early wards...but another strategy would be just to stay closer to your tower so you're not overexposed.

@Bernardo: Hi.

Skip pots because skill lel.

If you buy wards at the start you run out and place them then back get potions and head to lane. If you don't have potions and the other support does you should lose lane easy. If they don't punish you then you're playing against TERRIBLE players.