What is Cernonnus Support?
Cern is, in my opinion, one of the only hunters that can actually perform decently in the Support role, he has OK CC and enough peal to not render him useless as the game goes on, along with building Animosity, he can still do some damage whilst having tankiness.
You're going to be slowing people down and immobilising threats for your team to follow up on whilst still being able to deal damage to secure kills or set up kills for your teammates.
How does the build work?
With this strategy, you're relying on two core features:
- Cern's inbuilt slow in Winter Chill,
- Frostbound Hammer's slow on basic attacks.
Once you build Frostbound Hammer, you're going to see the effect of the stacked slow, really helping your carry get some aggressive and punishing offensive play by slowing down their assault.
It's a pretty easy concept to understand for someone who wants to play hunters in support, slow and CC aggression whilst still being able to deal damage as you're not offering the best frontline for your team.
Obviously, there are pros and cons for this kind of build:
PROS
- Early game pressure after an item or two.
- Ability to make fast rotations.
- Objective secure/damage if your carries are dead.
- Good teamfight ult and abilities.
- Good boxing.
CONS
- Inability to tank early.
- Doesn't scale as well as other picks.
- Doesn't specialise in anything, lacking consistency.
- Power-spikes peak early and slowly fall in value.- Becomes redundant if the core items are nerfed.
And if you are willing to risk the high cons, this kind of support is a fun type of playstyle to play in casual mode!
I WOULD NEVER ADVISE ANYONE TO DO THIS IN RANKED.
Unfortunately, Cern support isn't my greatest forté, but I thought I'd post a fun build I made. If you have any better builds, let me know in the discussion as playing hunters in support has always been a blast to me.
Benevolence
Cudgel
Healing Potion
Multi Potion
Heroism
Frostbound Hammer
Gauntlet of Thebes
Shogun's Kusari
Sovereignty
Toxic Blade
Y
Magic Shell
Belt of Frenzy
Heavenly Wings
Purification Beads
Executioner has a great passive, and you wouldnt want to miss out on that!
One other thing in the writeup that would be good to talk about would be starting in autumn stance, applying the debuff then moving to winter.
This build is balanced properly to provide utility (prot auras, AS aura that also benefits this build, anti-heal) and reasonable tankiness. Frost getting a nerf in the next patch is going to hurt this a bit though.
When I said that he has teamfight in his kit, I was more specifying about what he can do to offer follow up; his 2 roots and disincentives the enemy from crossing it, which can force them into a choke, his ult is good for obvious reasons, and of course frostbound stacking with his passive is good if you want to spread slow around like wildfire.
Overall, I'd argue he's one of the best ADC supports along with the likes of Anhur and Danza.