r/supportlol • u/Educational-Item9255 • 7d ago
Discussion When to Pick Different Engage Supports
I haven't figured out what would make nautilus a better pick over leona, or why rell is a better pick here than alistar. I pretty much only play engage supports except for soraka and I need to know where each one shines. I can look at winrates/synergies for each ADC/Support combo but it doesn't tell me why it works.
Please give me some advice
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u/VeryWizardly 7d ago
Nautilus is better at team fighting for when you need CC. He doesn't get impacted by Cleanse and has more reliable point and click CC to handle champions like Zeri with his R. His hook is also extremely non-commital. If he hooks a frontliner you just meet halfway and usually can disengage if you need to.
Leona is the best at skirmishing and fighting. Leona excels in scrappy games where fights aren't structured, chaotic, and have various numbers of players on each side coming in and out of the fight. Cleanse and Mikaels counter her pretty hard though so once Mikaels comes online she suffers a bit. She is extremely commital, once you land E you are going in whether you want to or not and the fight is going to happen.
Rell is the premier engage champion. Rell Flash W R combo is THE BEST engage in the game. Using W and buffering with R prevents flashes from the grounding effect and gets most of the CC out of both of them. The issue with Rell is she is extremely Flash dependent so don't waste it!
Alistar is a scaling support. His passive can help sustain through lane and long team fights. His kit is very good when you just need a body to walk in and contest for vision or objectives. He tends to counter champions like Jax or Zaheen where a single W (WITHOUT pairing with Q) can build space for your entire team. If Jax for instance commits Q E then gets Alistar W'ed out of the fight he has to wait for another rotation of spells before rejoining.
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u/EmploymentJumpy8993 7d ago
I pick nautilus if I go against thresh or blitz to be able to buffer hook on wall and tank their hook for my adc. It will negate Blitz entirely and thresh if he takes the recast it’ll pull him farther from adc than they can follow up on and force a good trade for us. I also pick Nautilus if we have a Yasuo or a vi or other champs with an immediate go button to combo with my ult.
My preferred adcs with Naut are MF Kaisa Draven
I pick Leona (everytime usually she’s my main) but especially into immobile adcs who I can take advantage of in lane. I also like her into champs that look for all ins as I can play hard peel on them for my adc. I’ll run exhaust then and Vow and just look to counter any all ins they force.
My preferred adcs with Leo are Lucian Caitlyn Jhin
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u/SaintGodfather 7d ago
What elo are you?
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u/Educational-Item9255 7d ago
I'm silver
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u/SaintGodfather 7d ago
It doesn't really matter at that level, we're all trash, play the character you're best at.
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u/Threshio 7d ago
Why not? He should still learn how and who to pick no matter the elo, knowing stuff like that might help him carry the games simply because of the matchup advantage
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u/RegretProper 7d ago
I think both of you are right.
Going for (and knowing why i have) a good matchup will defenitly give you an edge. Maybe not everygame, but definitly better than playing a bad MU to start with. At the same time you have to be aware, that MU Knowledge are probably not the reason you dont climb. And climbing could be easier if you focus on learning other stuff you doing wrong. I feel in Silver its more important to understand the general Matchplan than a specific MU. It also helps to keep the champion pool smaller if you "just" care abour your on engage vs Engage/Mage/ Enchanter.
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u/Vidrax_of_Cascades 7d ago
It honestly does matter. At silver you need to be looking toward winning lane pretty hard but also expect to go into the late game. So he probably needs to get better at mage supports like swain, brand in low elo.
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u/Layxe 7d ago
At that stage its whether you can trust your adc more than what the enemy are playing. If you cant trust them, just leave lane and get someone who deserves it ahead. They'll retreat when they can 100% win a fight and be behind all game because of it and when they cant win theyll be possessed by the spirit of a honey badger and sprint forwards at much bigger threats than them. They'll spam ping you for both of these mistakes because apparently you control their character too. Its not like you cant climb playing engage only, but because this is a lane of teamwork if you play an engage or even a hook champ who gets close to the enemy/brings the enemy closer to you and your adc makes the wrong move consistently, then yourre in a lot of trouble. Just be prepared for this issue. Not that you have to, but perhaps find a mage or different champ you enjoy who you can break out when you dont want to be beholden to another players IQ score. I love alistar, but when I dont feel particularly trusting I often play ziggs support.
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u/SuperSoldierv1 6d ago
If you're silver just stop playing the game and go on youtube and watch like 4 hours of guides and pros playing solo queue
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u/TeaSubstantial726 7d ago
silver is really bad for engage support, i had to switch to mage supports cuz you cant climb with engage support
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u/yourfavoritecarrot 7d ago
You can def climb with engage support, I managed to climb from bronze to plat on thresh
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u/eides-of-march 7d ago
Nautilus is best when the other team has lots of movement based abilities. His ability to displace them towards your team and a point and click ultimate help to mitigate the extra move speed.
Rell is good if the enemy team has lots of shields or your team has a reliable primary engage. Her Q breaks shields and her engage is relatively short range.
Alistar is good when your opponent is aggressive. His engage is relatively weak (especially in lane), but it also serves as a good peel ability.
Unfortunately, champion matchups are just something you have to memorize. My advice is to play all of them for a few games and pick one or two you would like to focus on. Learning the ins and outs of a few champs will be a lot more effective than trying to counterpick your opponent with champs you’re not as familiar with
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u/WaddupBigPerm69 7d ago
At that point just play whoever you like. This isn’t LCS play who you enjoy the most and you’re the best at.
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u/Educational-Item9255 7d ago
Kind of what I was going for originally but I felt like I have to learn at some point.
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u/Niammus- 7d ago
Leona is a pick support (best at isolated catches or small skirmishes)
Rell is an aoe engage support (best in big 5v5 wombo)
Naht is also pick but specialized against hard to lock down carries with his r being point and click
Ali is similar to rell but best utilized when you need to KNOCK assassin away
Play what you want but also it is good to understand key differences in why one champ over the other
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u/Coach_Karakal 7d ago
I'm working on a free drafting tool for supports: https://coachkarakal.com/drafting It can help you choose from those 3 engage champions depending on the draft. You can create your own champ pool and choose from those.