- Malzahar
TL; DR - Wide power spike, anti assassin, pick potential, moderate damage dealer.
My number one carry support pick is Malzahar…It’s important to clarify my meaning of “carry”…in this sense, I mean doing a lot of damage, or taking the responsibility of kicking *** from your ADC. There are other ways to “carry”, which I explain following this.
Anyways, Malzahar remains powerful throughout the entire game - a huge advantage when blind picking or unsure of other champions’ power spikes. His greatest asset is his voidlings (W), which learning to use in conjunction with his E and Ult is of the utmost importance. His ultimate is a huge playmaker as well.
I’ve found that since the recent Malzahar “nerf”, where his voidlings have a small cooldown in between casts, using the fog of war and forward vision control is extremely important to maximize Malzahar’s damage potential. By casting a voidling before the enemy approaches you, then casting E, W then R, before they register the first voidling, it’s nearly a guaranteed kill.
Assassins should hate Malzahar with a passion. Suppose an assassin decides to assassinate the ADC, depending on how close you are to the enemy team (as Malzahar), ulting the assassin completely shuts him down…and pretty much guarantees the kill. I can’t express the importance of keeping distance from as many of the enemy champions as possible, due to the ease with which they can interrupt your ult.
- Bard
TL; DR - Great playmaker, efficient roamer, should sync with jungler, game-changing abilities.
This is a toughie between Bard, Blitz, and Thresh…I’m sure in future articles I will discuss the others, but Bard holds a special place in my heart for play-making - since it’s extremely satisfying to pull off a massive play.
First I will discuss Bard’s weaknesses – the laning phase. Although, in my Bard career I have been pretty fortunate to dominate in laning phase, there are a higher number of supports that provide more utility, sustain, and/or poke in lane over him. The best way to negate this, in my experience, is by building scaling hp seals, armor quints and marks, and MR glyphs…this extra tankiness takes off the squishy aspect and allows Bard to focus more of his sustain for the ADC. I also run 12/18 with Thunderlords - to keep a more threatening poke aspect…Another viable option (which sometimes I run), is to replace the armor quints with movement speed quints, if you prefer more of a roaming playstyle.
Now on to the juicy stuff…Bard, in my opinion, has the greatest potential, as a support, to make plays that can change the momentum of a game. His best tools are his Magical Journey (E) and Ult.
Let me start by explaining the power of his Magical Journey (E).
With this ability, Bard can create a portal through walls that allow him, and/or his team, to disengage from a fight, close distance on an enemy, get a pick, rotate around the map faster, and catch the enemy out of position. There is nothing more satisfying than recalling, having boots of mobility, walking straight to mid lane (collecting chimes as you go), then magical journeying through one of the corner walls to pounce on the enemy mid-laner.
His ultimate of course provides the ability to stop an enemy for a few seconds, greatly increasing the chances of a successful pick or gank, due to being able to position accordingly. It can also stop an entire team from taking an objective temporarily, or even eliminate a few champions (whether enemy or ally) from a team fight.
Roaming with a jungler - depending on the situation, is one of Bard’s best strategies, since it allows your jungler to feel more confident in all aspects, whether getting vision/jungle dominance, or performing a gank (especially minion crash dives). The magical journey allows your jungler to gain distance he/she otherwise couldn’t - which increases the chances of a gank being successful.
The amount of creativity Bard’s kit has to offer is insane. Literally, pages upon pages of guides couldn’t explain his potential. For instance, on a tower dive gank, as Bard, you can choose to “turn off” the turret with his ultimate, or freeze the enemy in place instead…you can choose to magical journey into the dive, or save it for escaping instead.
I know I only discussed 2 champions here, and I picked them based on their uniqueness and ability to just kick ass. As a support main, I hope this article can open some possibilities for you or help you to see these champions in a different light.
If you’d like to see more content for the support role please make sure to leave some comments on this article and share it with other aspiring supports out there. Until then, take care and enjoy your time on the rift.
