With the launch of their new show on Netflix, Arcane — League of Legends has seen an influx of new players, alongside returning ones.
With all these new players joining the game, it might be easy for them to get lost in the huge character roster. With every new champion, LoL surges closer to 200 in its roster. At the time of writing, the total list is 157. With all those champions, it can be easy to get lost, so in this article we’ll look at some good champions to get you started. This article specifically will focus on the Support role.
For a full Beginner’s Guide, see our guide here.
Supports fill a number of roles, primarily they exist to assist their team in achieving victory. They come in a number of different flavours, depending on your playstyle;
Enchanter – Ranged supports that look to buff or heal allies
Poke – Ranged supports that can harass (poke) the enemy in lane
Peel – Similar to Enchanter, but with a kit that provides slows or stuns to allow your ADC to escape
Tanky – Melee supports than work to soak up damage. Ideal if your team lacks tanks in other lanes
There are other terms, but they easily fit into the above.
Best Champions to Pick
Enchanter: Janna
Janna is a perfect first champion for this role. She’s mobile, has a knock-up, a slow, and a shield for her ally. Her ultimate is also an AOE heal which knocks away enemies. Her kit is also very simple to execute. With her slow (W) and shield (E) both point and clicks, and her Ultimate being a self-cast. Only her knock-up (Q) is “cast”, though it can be placed and left. Janna is, of course, very weak and highly susceptible to being ganked by the enemy team choosing to engage upon her. However, as mentioned above, her kit should allow you to trade well in early fights.
Lux is also a poster child for LoL, featuring in many of the games cinematic trailers.
Poke: Lux
Lux is a bit of a “meme” as support in LoL. Often joked about, due to her having so many skins, it’s assumed people just play her support to use the skins. That’s unfair, because Lux has an amazing kit, and has one of the most devastating kill threats for support. For Lux, it’s all about comboing abilities and auto-attacks.
Peel: Nami
Janna is a champion that fits this really well, however, we’re going to look at the other good peel options, Nami. While her abilities are a little harder to land, that allows for her to bring more to the game. The key to her kit comes from her Q, an AOE stun that can change the course of a fight. That’s not all, however, her W is a point-and-click heal, which can bounce between enemies and allies a total of four times. Her E allows you to boost an allies damage on-hit, as well as speeding them up. Her ultimate just finishes off the package, her straight line ultimate is a multi-person knock-up, providing yet more CC to her kit.
Tank: Alistar
There are a lot of options when it comes to tank supports. Alistar fits right into the sweet spot between tanky and easy to play. Crucial to Alistar is his W+Q combo. If done correctly, you can charge at an enemy champion and knock them up instantly on arrival. The rest of his kit is solid, he has a passive heal after X amount of minions have died in the lane as well as his E which gives him a stun after 4 enemies are hit. His ultimate is what separates Alistar from the rest of the tanky supports. Reducing all damage taken for a few seconds, Alistar is able to tank incredible amounts of damage for his ADC.
Honourable mentions:
Support is a busy role, and almost any champion could be made viable given the right situation. If you want to keep it traditional, you could look at these:
Enchanter: Zyra, Sona, Lulu, Soraka
Poke – Zyra, Morgana, Bard
Peel – Yuumi, Zilean, Nautilus (also works as a tank)
Tank – Leona, Reel, Braum
You can find full character descriptions and ability breakdowns on the official League of Legends page.