Support Guardian help

I main support Guardian, i always call tank duo/long lane at the beginning, i keep finding that at the start either pre chat or beginning of the game the mid laner role, wants to go duo lane and i find myself left in mid or solo alone to fill the gap.

I often see them fail and as a tank build i can't contest alone so we lose long lane and mid really early.

So what do i do? I need to build tanky for the team in later team fights, but i can't push a wave off my tower without taking pokes pushing me really far behind in terms of exp and gold due to returning to base. If they have a good jungler i find i am taking more damage when they decide to try and kill me.

Is solo tank build viable? Do i build damage and forsake the tank role? Or do i try and ride it out and hope for the best? Or something else? I'm finding myself solo too often and i just don't know what to do.

You can't solo as a tank; most solo-ers get a few damage items, but then you're not really a tank, right?

I don't understand your last statement. Are you forced to pick solo lane, does your lane partner die, making you solo, or what?

Mid lane or solo lane decide they want to use their god in duo lane at the start, so instead of 3 of us being in the long lane, because the mid and solo don't want to leave i have to go mid or solo. I don't go there by choice i am left there.

I've NEVER seen that problem before... I suggest making a friend or two in-game, then partying with them, so this problem is literally solved at its roots.

I guess thats one way to resolve it, it seems to happen to me once every 4 games, its quiet common for me.

My last game, we had me on Athena, Thor duo lane, Bakasura jungle, He Bo mid, Hel solo. When we all locked in He Bo said hes going duo with Thor and i should go mid or solo, they (thor and He Bo)said He Bo isn't a mid god (Athena is?) luckily an enemy left during the picking stage and we didn't play, but i frequently get this.

I guess i'll wait till the last moment to lock in, if i find i'm going solo then i'll switch to a solo god and we will have to do with no tank.

Eh, it *can* work, it just requires a bit of..finesse. My first conquest ever in the game, I went duo lane with my friend as Poseidon and Ao Kuang, respectively, facing the old Guan Yu and Apollo. By playing safely, and waiting until 5, we got into late laning phase without a death and could nuke the apollo whenever I caught him in a whirlpool. So sometimes mages CAN be viable in the side lanes. It's not nearly as viable, but if people are stubborn on it, you really don't have a choice.

But onto what the mid should do. There's, in my opinion, only three tanks viable in mid lane: Hades, Athena, and Ymir, in that respective order of power.

Get CDR Boots instead of reinforced greaves, and pick up a polynomicon with voidstone. Past that, you should be able to build tanky and not do that horribly. Your main downfall is mana, as you're doing to have to use your dash through the minion wave, turn around, and auto attack through the minion wave, to effectively clear. But *NEVER* underestimate early game athena's damage. If they have an Ao Kuang or Anubis, bully him heavily with the 1+3+2+Reproc-of-3 combo.

So yes, you ARE going to have to build a bit of damage to stay relevant, but it is worth it in the end, for since you're forced into the mid lane from a mage being in long lane, you want to win the lane. You'll still be useful late game, as long as the short lane does even remotely well. As athena, try to give the long lane some ganks whenever possible - a mage with a support being ganked pretty much guarantees a kill.