How to build out a Guardian for Support Role in Duo Lane

Update1 11/11/2014:  Since posting this, Cabraken and Sylvanus have been added to the guardian pool.  Cabraken does not have tools that many of the other guardians do to support well, but if you use him Gem of Isolation after Sovereignty works well.  Sylvanus is very strong even after 3 rounds of nerfs, but you'll want to look at Rod of Ascelepus after Sov and your magic protection item. /update1

So you want to play support? Good luck!

That being said, let’s delve deep into the heart of the items you’ll need. The most common mistake in ranked play is for a support to forgo Watcher’s Gift and Midas Boots. These items are necessary in any competitive play. If you play in casual, you can certainly opt for tankier items or higher damage items. Watcher’s Gift and Midas Boots will always be better in mid to late game play by a support however. When using Watcher’s Gift, it is vitally important that you let your adc or other teammates get the final hit on all minions. When getting Midas Boots it is important to realise that you are not particularly tanky yet. Early support play is more about juking and threatening your opponents with CC until they provide you the opening to attack. I’ll go more into support strategy in another post, but some mention of it here was necessary to point out why you want Watcher’s Gift and Midas Boots.

I want to note, that as support, your damage isn’t really important, your ability to CC, zone, bodyblock and bodyshield are what make for a good support. That being said your leveling and items are far less important than supporting your team. One of the easiest way to support is to ward. You should start the game with two wards, always. Some supports like to go put out the two wards initially to cover their lane and immediately port home to grab two more or go back and grab health and mana pots. I am more in favor of grabbing the two wards and 4 multi potions and starting the game with one ward at the enemy’s blue camp in your lane so that you can watch for a possible offensive invade. Take every advantage you can, if you can prevent them getting their initial blue, you will have a huge early game advantage. After your initial pots run out grab two wards and a sentry on every back. Sentry Gold Fury, Sentry Fire Giant (after enemy team is around level 12) and ward duo and mid lane every chance you get (if mid and jungle aren’t.)

Two paragraphs in and we’ve barely made it to item 3, who knew supporting was so difficult! Third item will be a physical protection item, as you're laning against an ADC doing damage to you, and minions and towers do physical damage. Most often this is Sovereignty or Breastplate of Valor. Fourth item could be Breastplate or a magical protection item or a CC reduction item. Here it is really dependent on how much CC the enemy team has, whether or not there is already a lot of team fighting going on, and whether you are being focused my some magic damage gods. Stone of Gaia is the default for magic protection, but Bulwark of Hope is good if you’ve fallen massively behind in levels, and pestilence is okay if the enemy team has some sustain gods.

Here’s a couple of example builds leaving off the last two items. The first is the “I don’t want to think about it” build:

• Watcher’s Gift, Midas Boots, Sovereignty, Stone of Gaia, Magis Blessing or Hide of the Urchin.

This is a build that gets you cdr for your CC early:

• Watcher’s Gift, Midas Boots, Breastplate of Valor, Stone of Gaia, Magis Blessing or Hide of the Urchin.

This is for a sustain heavy opponent:

• Watcher’s Gift, Midas Boots, Sovereignty, Pestilence, Magis Blessing or Hide of the Urchin.

So let’s talk about those last two items. These are the ones that are situational depending on your enemy’s composition and where your team might be weak. Pestilence can go here if you haven’t gotten it already, Witchblade, Voidstone, Mystical Mail, Midgardian Mail, Ethereal Staff, Gem of Isolation, Divine Ruin, Soul Reaver, Bancroft’s Talon, Polynomicon, Pythagorem’s Piece.

What are these situations that make some of these items better than others? Your team doesn’t seem to be putting out a lot of damage, you aren’t being focused even in team fights, and the enemy team doesn’t have much for sustain:

• Polynomicon, Soul Reaver
• Witchblade, Soul Reaver
• Bancroft’s Talon, Polynomicon

Enemy team has two assassins and a hunter:

• Witchblade, Gem of Isolation (if you are always defending your squishies)
• Witchblade, Midgardian Mail (if they are dumb enough to focus on you)

Enemy team has high sustain:

• Pestilence, Divine Ruin
• Pestilence, Mystical Mail

If the enemy team seems to be really good at focusing targets or you’ve been focused down a few times:

• Bulwark of Hope, Gem of Isolation
• Bulwark of Hope, Midgardian Mail

Ok, so support has a lot of options. If you are new, and you just want an all around build that won’t get you laughed at:

• Watcher’s Gift, Midas Boots, Sovereignty, Stone of Gaia, Breastplate of Valor, Magis Blessing/Hide of the Urchin (depending on enemy CC), Bulwark of Hope and finally replace Midas Boots with Reinforced Greaves or CDR boots.

This is about as tanky as you get, you will be nigh indestructable; you also will do next to no damage. This is fine as long as you use your cc at the right time (not just on cooldown) and keep wards up at all the right places.

Actives! Hand of the Gods 3! (AKA Wrath of the Gods) No choice! Get it next after Midas Boots! No Choice! No arguments! Period! End of discussion! That being said you do get to choose your second item. Ymir, Ares, and Khumba usually get Blink 3, with some folks liking Combat Blink. The low cooldown on Blink 3 makes this a no brainer for initiating a fight, but it won’t get you out of trouble most of the time, hence some folks like combat blink. Most of the rest of the Guardians will get Enfeebling/Weakening Curse or Spiked Shell/Shell of Absorbion with a very few getting Girdle of Support. Your mileage may vary on any of these, and it really comes down to team comp and personal play style.

Consumable are easy. Multi-pots, then wards, then wards again, then sentries and wards, then more sentries and wards, etc.

Now why did I start this little guide/blog with “Good Luck!” Well, when you play the support role you have to rely on your team more than in any other role. You will have teams that are just thirsty and neglect their farm. You will have teams that feed their opponents whenever you are not there. You will have adc’s yelling at you for leaving lane when you are legitimately helping with mid harpies. You will have adc’s that don’t help you get their blue buff so it takes you a minute to kill the camp and then you have to back because your health is so low. Not doing damage means you need to be where the damage dealers are. You aren’t a jungler, you don’t roam the map solo. Your job is to support the damage dealers. Any time you are doing a camp or harpies by yourself you are in the wrong place and taking someone else’s farm. All that being said if you can learn how your teammates play early and support them in what they want to do, you will have a better time of it. Also, you need to gain the trust of your teammates. They need to know that if you initiate it is safe for them to follow up. They need to know that you will have their back when the enemy turns on them.

As I said before, “Good luck,” and don’t feed!