League of Legends: How To Teamfight As Support

Teamfighting is one of the most critical aspects of League of Legends, and as a support, your role can often make or break the outcome of a fight. Whether you’re peeling for your carries, setting up game-winning engages, or providing life-saving heals and shields, your decisions in teamfights heavily influence the flow of the game. In this article, we’ll break down essential tips and strategies on how to teamfight effectively as a support, helping you maximize your impact and lead your team to victory.

How To Play Before the Teamfight

Teamfights in League of Legends often revolve around key objectives like Dragon or Baron Nashor. As a support, your responsibility for vision control is critical to giving your team the upper hand. With access to more wards through your support item (Spellthief’s Edge, Steel Shoulderguards, Relic Shield, or Spectral Sickle), it’s primarily your role to light up the map and deny the enemy vision.

Preparation begins early—while laning, ensure you regularly ward the river to spot potential ganks. As objectives like Dragon start to spawn, place wards around the pit and use Control Wards or Oracle Lens to deny enemy vision. Maintaining control of the area not only alerts your team if the enemy is attempting to take the objective but also ensures you’re not walking into an ambush if you decide to contest it.

Before engaging in a teamfight, vision provides invaluable information, such as the enemy team’s positioning and whether any key opponents are out of place and vulnerable. If the enemy team is grouped in an area, proper vision lets you set up for critical crowd control or an engage, tipping the fight in your favor. Conversely, clearing enemy wards and denying their vision puts them in a difficult position, forcing them to face-check areas or retreat from key zones.

Your ability to control vision determines how your team approaches fights. Good vision allows for informed decisions and optimal positioning, while lack of it could result in disastrous engages or ambushes. By prioritizing vision and ward-clearing, you pave the way for successful teamfights and keep your enemies guessing.

Positioning in the Teamfight As Support

Positioning during a teamfight is just as critical as vision control, as it can determine whether your team comes out victorious or falls apart. The ideal position for you as a support depends heavily on your champion’s role and kit, so it’s important to understand your specific duties during a fight.

If you’re playing a tank or engage support, like Leona or Nautilus, you’ll generally want to position yourself at the front of your team. Your job is to initiate fights, protect your allies from threats, or lock down key enemies. However, if your team already has a tanky top laner or jungler ready to lead the charge, your focus may shift to staying near your carry to peel and protect them from enemy divers or assassins. This dual role of engage and protection means you must constantly monitor your team’s positioning to adjust as needed.

For enchanter supports like Soraka, Lulu, or Nami, your primary objective is to stay in the backline near your carries. Your role revolves around keeping your team alive with healing, shielding, or crowd control while avoiding direct threats from the enemy. Venturing into the front line is a recipe for disaster, as enchanters lack the durability of tank supports, making them easy targets to burst down. Losing you early in the fight could leave your carry vulnerable and unprotected, so maintaining a safe distance is key.

Regardless of your role, always stay close enough to your team to contribute, but avoid clustering too tightly. Clumping together makes your team susceptible to devastating area-of-effect (AoE) abilities, which can quickly turn the tide of the fight in favor of the enemy. Positioning is about finding the right balance—close enough to support your team but spaced out enough to mitigate AoE damage. Mastering this balance will make a huge difference in your effectiveness during teamfights.

Supports that Engage

As a support who specializes in engaging, your primary role is to initiate teamfights by locking down key enemies and creating openings for your team to capitalize on. Champions like Nautilus, Thresh, or Blitzcrank excel in this role, as they have powerful crowd control abilities that can isolate a high-priority target. When initiating, it’s crucial to focus on the right target—typically the enemy ADC, a high-damage mage, or a healer—since shutting them down early can turn the fight in your favor. Avoid engaging on tanks or bruisers unless absolutely necessary, as their durability and crowd control can backfire, allowing the enemy team to counter-engage and turn the fight around.

Fragile targets, like mages and ADCs, are ideal for quick eliminations. However, if the enemy team has a fed bruiser or a particularly strong frontline, it may be challenging to lock them down effectively. In such cases, you’ll need strong follow-up from your teammates to chain crowd control and burst damage, preventing them from retaliating. If the bruiser is a significant threat, try to catch them off-guard when they’re isolated or wait for them to be out of position before engaging.

Additionally, timing is everything when playing an engage support. Make sure your team is ready to follow up on your initiation, and avoid overcommitting when your carries aren’t in a position to capitalize. A well-timed engage can secure victory, while a poorly executed one can leave your team vulnerable. Understanding when and where to strike will maximize your impact and ensure your efforts lead to success.

Following-Up the Engage

Not all supports are built to initiate a teamfight, especially those focused on healing and shielding, but they can still play a crucial role in following up on an engage. Certain supports, like Morgana or Lux, can lock down a target with crowd control abilities, such as Morgana’s Q (Dark Binding) or Lux’s Q (Light Binding). However, these abilities usually need follow-up from teammates to ensure the target is completely neutralized and eliminated. Similarly, champions like Nami or Seraphine have impactful Ultimate abilities that can initiate on multiple enemies, but their success often hinges on their team capitalizing on the setup to finish off or control the targets.

If another teammate leads the charge, your role as a support is to assist by keeping the enemy immobilized or preventing their escape. Use crowd control abilities or slows to chain CC, ensuring your team has the time to secure kills. If your kit lacks disabling abilities, focus on enhancing your team’s efforts by providing heals, shields, or buffs to sustain them during the fight. Alternatively, use your damage abilities to chip away at the enemy’s health and add pressure to the engage.

Always prioritize shutting down high-value targets such as the enemy carry or a dangerous healer. By supporting your team’s engage with well-timed abilities, you can maximize the effectiveness of your team’s efforts and help secure a decisive advantage in the fight.

As the Teamfight Goes On

During a teamfight, your role as a support will depend on the flow of the battle and your champion’s strengths. If your team initiates, your job is to follow up with abilities that either crowd-control enemies or protect your allies through heals and shields. Keep a close eye on your team’s carries, as they are likely the primary targets for the enemy. Use your abilities wisely—shield and heal allies under heavy fire, and manage your mana effectively to ensure you can continue to provide support throughout the fight. If you’re playing a support without CC or heals, use your basic attacks to chip away at enemy health bars and assist in securing kills.

On the other hand, if the enemy team initiates, you must make quick decisions about whether you can save the ally under attack. If the target is a tank or bruiser, they can often be kept alive with your shields and heals, allowing them to rejoin the fight. However, if the target is a squishy ally, such as a mage or ADC, saving them might be impossible, especially in the case of a well-coordinated ambush. In such scenarios, it’s better to disengage and retreat to avoid further losses.

Throughout the fight, monitor the situation closely. If your team gains the upper hand, capitalize on the advantage to secure kills and objectives. If the enemy begins to overpower your team, know when to retreat to avoid unnecessary casualties. Assist in disengaging by protecting fleeing teammates, even if it means sacrificing yourself for the greater good. A support’s role is often about enabling others to shine—if your death allows your carry to survive and turn the fight in your team’s favor, it’s a worthwhile trade. By making these calculated decisions, you can maximize your impact in teamfights and help your team secure victory.

Cleaning up the Teamfight

Once the teamfight concludes and your team comes out on top, focus on securing the objective you fought for if it hasn’t been claimed yet. Prioritize tasks like taking Dragon, Baron, or a turret to maximize the advantage you gained. Once the objective is secured, evaluate your team’s health and resources. If your team is low, it’s wise to return to base, heal, and spend gold so the enemy doesn’t catch you off-guard when they respawn. However, if you and your allies are still healthy, use the time to push lanes, set up vision, or prepare for the next play.

If your team lost the fight, take a moment to analyze what went wrong. Did your team engage poorly, or was the enemy too well-coordinated? Use these lessons to adjust your strategy for the next teamfight. While waiting for your teammates to respawn, focus on controlling vision in areas where the next objective might appear. Make sure you’re ready to rejoin your ADC or other teammates to assist them with whatever comes next. Whether you win or lose, staying proactive and planning for the next move will keep your team ahead in the long run.

Conclusion

Mastering teamfights as a support in League of Legends is all about understanding your role and adapting to the situation. Whether you’re engaging, peeling for your carries, or providing critical vision and healing, every decision you make can significantly impact the outcome of a fight. Positioning, timing, and knowing when to engage or disengage are key elements to success. By staying focused on your team’s needs and leveraging your champion’s unique abilities, you can turn the tide of any battle and help secure victory. Always remember, as a support, your actions enable your team to shine, and your contributions are crucial to dominating teamfights and objectives.