A Beginner’s Guide to Support Items in Season 14
In a game with over 200 different items and an ever-growing roster of champions, itemization is one of the more challenging aspects to learn as a beginner. At the start, knowing what League of Legends items to buy, and when to buy them is where many players fall flat.
In this beginners item guide, we will go over every Support item in the game to help you understand when you should and shouldn’t buy them. Because there are 3 main Support playstyles, we will discuss what items are viable for each of the utility, tank and mage Supports, while providing a few examples along the way.
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The Basics
Before we move on, it’s important to discuss the terminology and provide a little background information. When you first start playing League of Legends, you won’t understand what every item does. This is natural for any game, as nobody expects you to know the ins and outs before playing.
Many players copy the same build path over and over again, and never change their item order. On the other hand, some players don’t buy items, or buy items that are not going to benefit their champion such as AP items on an AD reliant champion. This is where our Mobalytics guide will come in handy. By knowing when to buy each item, you will have an advantage over the enemy who hasn’t fully grasped the concept yet.
Items fall into one of two categories within a build:
- Core:
- Core items are almost always brought on your champion and syngerize really well with your champ’s kit and what they want to do. As an example, Boots will nearly always be a core item and it’s an expected inclusion.
- Situational:
- Situational items are not necessarily purchased every game, apart from when you need them. More often than not, situational items will be reactive to what the enemy has. For example, if the enemy has lots of AP damage, you should buy magic resist.
Essentially, every Support item will fall in one of these categories depending on the champion you’re playing.
Support Pre Game Builds
If you stumbled upon this article in search of how to build your Support champ, you’re in luck. Our free Pre Game tool gives you a build curated by our high-ELO experts right before your match begins.
If you’d like to try the Pre Game, just click here to sign up for an account! It’s quick and easy, and there are a ton of other useful tools within the Pre Game feature itself and the rest of our platform. Now, on to the rest of our adventure through Support items.
Starting Items for Supports
As of Season 14, all Supporters purchase the same Support item. After they have earned a certain amount of gold from it, they can upgrade it into one of four different items. Each item provides unique buffs to your champion to make them stronger.
The item you should always start with is World Atlas. This item will be upgraded once you earn 400 gold from it. You can earn gold by killing minions or damaging an enemy champion or tower. You should only take minions when there is a stack available.
After you’ve completed your original quest, your item will be upgraded to Runic Compass / Bounty of Worlds. They grant more stats and more gold income. You will continue to stack this item the same way as your original item.
Once you have earned 1000 gold to complete this item, you can then choose what you want to build it into. There are 5 options.
- Bloodsong
- Usually taken on AD Supports who like to poke. It gives additional damage, so is good on ranged champions like Senna.
- Solstice Sleigh
- This item is for those Supports with built-in CC. Picking up this item will help you in chasing down those enemy carries! It’s good on champions like Bard.
- Celestial Opposition
- This item reduces incoming damage which allows tanks to soak up more damage when they go in for trades and skirmishes. Good on champions like Leona.
- Zaz’Zak’s Realmspike
- Zaz’Zak’s is a damaging Support item that helps with poke. It deals extra damage after you hurt an enemy champion. You’ll see mages like Zyra picking this item up.
- Dream Maker
- Dream Maker is for utility supports like Janna or Nami, as it provides healing or a shield to your allies.
Complete (finished) Items for Support
Completed items are items that no longer need upgrading and have reached their final form. They cost quite a bit but are cheaper for Supports than any other role. Because we can’t cover every champion or playstyle, we’re going to go over some of the more popular items that a Support can take. There is a range of different Supports with different item builds, but we will only go over items that are more commonly found on Supports.
Locket of the Iron Solari
Locket of the Iron Solari is a tank item that provides a lot of defensive stats. It is usually picked up on tanks, such as Leona. Most players pick this item due to its active which can provide a large AOE shield that can protect you and your carries in a fight.
Redemption
Redemption is an item that is good on utility and healing or shielding champions. You usually buy this item on utility Supports like Sona. However, it can be brought on the majority of champions in the Support role.
Knight’s Vow
Knights Vow is a tanky item that directs damage to you instead of your carry. This means you’ll buy it on champions who are tanky like Maokai.
Vigilant Wardstone
Wardstone is probably one of the most frequently picked up Support items in the game. It allows you to hold more control wards and place more down too. It is picked up on champions like Nautilus.
Imperial Mandate
When slowing or immobilizing a champion, and someone else damages them, you will deal extra damage to the target. With this in mind, it’s only picked on champions with multiple utility tools in their kit like Nami.
Trailblazer
Trailblazer is a highly unique item that provides movement speed as its core feature, as well as a bunch of tanky stats. It is usually purchased on champions like Blitzcrank who abuse its movement speed to close the gap between them and the enemy champion.
Mikael’s Blessing
Any Support can purchase Mikaels, but it is only purchased in unique circumstances. You want to take this against teams that have a lot of CC, as its active can help your allies escape. Lulu is someone who can take it.
Shurelya’s Battlesong
This item provides a lot of utility and empowers your allies. It provides movement speed and is usually brought on utility champions like Janna.
Staff of Flowing Water
Staff of Flowing Water is an AP Support item that is brought on champions with healing or shielding tools. It is usually brought on champions with low cooldowns as well, such as Nami.
Dawncore
This item is pretty rare and is not brought often, but it basically empowers your healing and shielding power. This means it ispicked up on champions who are pure utility, such as Soraka.
Zeke’s Convergence
When you use your Ultimate, you deal AOE damage to nearby enemies. It is good on champions that have CC or who need to get onto the enemy in team fights. It’s usually picked up on engage or tank Supports like Leona.
Support items Tips and Tricks
Here are some tips for itemization as the Support:
- Learn to adapt.
- Adjust your item build whenever you need to. While our build paths or item suggests are a good basis to go by, make sure you adapt to whatever circumstance you’re playing in. For example, if the enemy has lots of AP damage- purchase Mercury Treads.
- Make sure to purchase Control Wards.
- You should always purchase a Control Ward whenever you can and place it somewhere on the map. Also, make sure that you buy them consistently throughout the game.
- Prioritize Control Wards over items (in the late game).
- Unless you’re going to complete or buy a much-needed advanced item, instead of purchasing and filling up your item slots, save it for Control Wards. This will make warding objectives and taking Baron much safer.
How to find the right build for Support
If you’re struggling to find an appropriate build path for your champion. You have a few options available to you:
- Trial and error
- Just play the game and try to find an appropriate build path yourself by seeing what works well on your champion.
- Copy the build from the pre-game
- As we mentioned at the top of the article, in the pre-game, you can see what we recommend to build on your champion and when. This is useful as you can just launch it automatically before every game and get a build without having to search before the game starting.
- Research Summoner Profiles
- If you want to keep track of your own builds in your match history and study the builds of any summoner, our Summoner Profile feature for your LoL match history is your go-to tool.
- Try out some of the recommended items.
- Each champion in the game has a dedicated list of items that Riot recommends to build. Give some of them ago and see what tickles your fancy.
In Conclusion
That sums up all the new items for Supports in Season 14. Let us know what your favourite item is!
For more articles like this, or for articles to help you on your climb, why not head over to the Mobalytics Blog for more!
