General Discussion21-3 in ranked games purely by playing support

Hey guys, for those you said you can't climb out of rank playing support (mainly pos 5), I am currently 20-3 playing support in Legend (pretty sure its enough games to not attribute this to luck). Here are some quick tips from me that I've constantly applied through my experience playing support (that most supports in this MMR don't actually do):

- Unless you actually win your lane super hard, don't rush into big items like Boots of Speed (yes, this is a big item for a support). I've seen some supports queue up arcane boots and literally have 1000 gold unused throughout the laning phase because they wanna rush it. This does nothing for your lane, and hurts your carry if he's up against a strong harass 3-4 duo. Instead, spam buy regen (if your carry needs it), or mangoes/clarities (if you are playing someone that spams spells - lich, disruptor, cm etc.). Some items that are worth considering are raindrops (catch them off guard with your magic tankiness), magic stick (against offlaners like necro, tide, bristle). Personally, instead of boots of speed, i usually opt for an early windlace if I want movement speed (let's say i'm playing against a pos 4 tiny who rushed boots and I don't wanna get chased down by him, I may opt for this). TL;DR until around minute 8-10 i am usually a slave to my carry in terms of regen and buying mana pots for zoning the enemy

- Play the lane if the lane is in a good spot, otherwise go for a pull (but always notify your carry so he doesn't overextend, especially if he's someone that doesn't have a reliable escape like drow, spec, medusa). For example, if the lane is slightly in front of your tower, please don't go for a single pull, it really ruins the lane because a single pull into a full creepwave doesn't kill the entire wave, so your next wave will end up pushing into them. So what should you do when the lane is in a good spot? MAKE SURE that they don't pull their hard camp - either block by sentry, or contest if you think you are strong enough, but always watch out - you can contest if their pos 3 is in lane playing with your carry, but if he's missing chances are both the pos 3 and 4 are at the hard camp, so contesting it may lead to your death. Another option is try to go for a kill if they are overextending and you see an opportunity to wrap around (since the wave is near you). The other case is if the lane is not in a good spot (i.e. near their tower), then you may go for a pull and notify your carry to back the off.

- Often times supports either sap too much exp, or leave their carry alone too much to solo exp. I think this is very situational and comes with experience - if you feel like your presence in the lane allows you to dominate the enemy 3 and 4, by all means stay in lane next to your carry and hit your buttons. Your carry will be very grateful even if you share the exp with him, and you getting levels allow your spells to hit harder especially in the early stage. If the enemy 4 is out roaming, and your carry is fine dealing with the 4 alone (let's say your carry is an AM and the enemy offlaner is literally doesn't want to get his mana sapped), then you can go ahead to do something like collect bounties, ward, stack, or watch out for your mid laner. But always be a lookout if they're 4 comes back, you should then immediately go assist your carry. But situations where your carry is farming under tower, you should be preventing them from pulling instead of sitting next to him under the tower if he literally does not need your help (unless you have something like a bristle diving the shit out of him).

- Always track the pos 4's position, the moment he is missing, you notify your mid laner, and keep tabs on mid with a tp scroll ready. Keep spam pinging missing, but in the meantime you can look to exploit the fact that their pos 3 is alone. Often times TP-ing early to save your mid/offlaner actually ends up with your team getting the kill instead (because at this mmr people like to overextend), so letting your team get ganked is kinda a good opportunity to turn things in your favour (but you have to be very alert on the mini map).

- A good trick (that probably only can work in this mmr) is that sometimes the enemy 3 and 4 doesn't know how to back off when their creep wave is dying. Heres a situation - you have 4 creeps vs they're 1 creep, and the enemy 3 is still trying to go for a deny or a last hit. The moment their 1 creep is almost dead, you should instantly go for a slow/stun/disable, which allows your own creeps to attack them (and the damage is very significant, trust me). Even if you do not kill him, it's very good to burn their regen (and also in this rank, offlaners and 4 don't really buy regen to keep themselves in lane)

- STACKING. Very useful tip - sometimes nothing is going on, lanes are pushed, ults are down and your cores are just farming. Always look at the timer and look for an opportunity to stack. Sometimes I literally sit a full minute in the triangle to double stack the ancient and hard camp when I don't find anything else useful to do. It's good for you to earn your support gold, and good for your core too. However, don't stack the ancient camp if your core is someone like a slark, ursa who aren't good at taking stacks (or at most just stack once) - this actually ruins their game if theyre too weak to take a double stacked ancient camp.

- Another thing I can think of - don't tp into lanes unnecessarily. Let's say you died fighting in the lane, now your safe lane is pushed and nothing is going on. There is absolutely no reason to rush tp into the lane upon respawning and put it on CD. The moment a fight breaks out elsewhere, you will miss the opportunity to help out. Helping out via tp is very game changing, so value your TPs please.

- Sometimes I don't get level 6 by 10 minutes, then thats when I buy the tome instantly, so remember to tell your team you want the tome if you aren't level 6 by 10 (this is what you should ideally aim for). For eg if I'm disruptor, at 10 mins I buy the tome, and I instantly get a smoke and look for a kill on their cores (the level 6 spike for heroes like disruptor is really good, its still very early for enemy carries to fight back). Around this time it's usually quite safe to leave your carry alone as well, then you can make some plays around the map.

- Sometimes I like to trade with the enemy 4, and when the 3 comes to help the 4 and I know I can't escape, I instantly walk into the opposite direction (into their triangle). If they chase you, it's a good death. Basically, deaths are good if you can create space and waste their time (i.e. pulling them away from your carry). It's even better if you can juke them, salve up upon walking up high ground, etc.. If you want you can consider juking and tping home, but the drawback to this is that your carry will 1v2 them for a while especially if you haven't pulled them away from the lane far enough.

- Feel free to use your spells on range creeps if your carry is unable to secure them. Always use your mana - a full manapool means mana wasted every second. And honestly I can buy up to 6-7 mangoes during the early stage and delay my items, but it really doesn't matter because it helps you win the lane or at the very least not lose too hard.

- Sometimes I like to save buyback, and go into the fight first to bait them into me (especially when fighting close to my tower). Let them use their spells on you, especially if your team is behind you. You give them vision, you waste their spells, and even if you die, you can buyback instantly tp and fight with your team - trust me it's worth it especially in the right situations (in mid-late game this is especially useful because enemy cores will spend their bkb early on, and once you've bought back and TPed into the fight you will be way more useful with your spells).

- One go to item I always buy as a 2nd item is glimmer cape, so damn useful at this MMR, you should try it. Then ideally i get a bullwhip and keep spamming it on my cores. If enemy has good chase down, force staff is a good option.

- Don't show in maps unnecessarily, especially during the mid game. Legit just stay in trees, behind your creepwaves (keep track of day and night, if its day you need to stay even more behind your waves). I always stay behind my cores in the trees with glimmer/FS ready if they get jumped on. You are weak mid game, so don't throw your life away by showing in lane especially when the enemy is missing. By being missing, you also keep the enemy unsure as they will not know when you are. All about positioning in the mid game.

- Picking your pos 5/4 wise - I usually wait for the other 5/4 to pick and decide on what I will pick. I will pick a pos 5/4 with a stun if my other 5/4 does not pick someone with a stun, or pick a tankier 5/4 if my other 5/4 picks a squishy one. This may seem like a simple concept but honestly I think it helped me climb as a support too.

BTW I used to be Ancient 5 at the highest, but dropped because I wasn't consistent in playing seriously, but now I'm climbing back after recalibrating to Legend 2 (Legend 5 now). Maybe that's why it's easier for me to climb with support. Feel free to leave any additional tips to climb as a support player down here!