The Best Support Champions in LoL: Tiered Ranking List for Patch 12.15 (2023)

The support role in League of Legends can often be a thankless job. A good support can go relatively unnoticed during the game, but playing poorly can get you ruthlessly flamed.

The types of supports in League can be split into three categories: Enchanters, engagers, and poke supports. While some champions cross over into multiple categories, it’s a pretty safe golden triangle to go by.

Enchanter supports, like Soraka or Nami, focus on keeping the bot lane carry alive through the laning phase with heals and shields. Enchanter supports usually go well into poke supports because they can out-sustain the poke, but struggle into engagers due to a lack of mobility and relative squishiness.

Engage supports, like Alistar or Leona, look to all-in the enemy bot lane during the laning phase with crowd control and high early-game damage. They can capitalize on enchanters during the laning phase because of their lack of poke, but can’t deal with poke supports effectively since they whittle down your health before you can even think about engaging.

Poke supports, like Zyra or Brand, succeed by annoying the enemy laners as much as possible with long-range abilities, forcing them to waste their potions or heals. If an enemy gets greedy, they also have a fair amount of burst in their kits to delete them from Summoner’s Rift. Because of this, they can deal with engage supports. But enchanters can usually out-sustain a poke support’s mana pool, rendering their poke ineffective.

With this in mind, let’s break down the top five supports for League’s Patch 12.15.

Janna

Pros

• Good scaling
• Amazing in disengaging and protecting your allies

Cons

• Squishy
• Not that easy to master

At the start of the season, Janna was one of the most popular champions in solo queue due to a new and rather unusual way of playing her. The strategy was simple—all you had to do was to pick Smite, assist your jungler, and pick up all the objective bounty gold. But now Janna returns to the meta as traditional support who reigns supreme in the bot lane.

Item build

Janna has lots of crowd control tools, which she can use to lock down enemy champions or to disengage and create space for her allies. When you have a support with a few CC abilities, it’s always worth picking Glacial Augment as your main rune. With this rune under your belt, you will be to create slow zones around enemy champions that have been struck with an immobilizing skill, slowing them down further and creating more space for your team to react and finish them off.

Afterward, it’s best to choose runes that will allow you to replenish your stats during the laning phase and that will help you with gold management and cooldowns. Biscuit Delivery is a must-have for Janna due to her being mana-hungry, especially in the early game. Magical Footwear will allow you to spare some gold, which is needed for other support items. Lastly, we have Cosmic Insight, which lowers the cooldowns of your Summoner’s Spells and active abilities on items, of which you will have quite a few.

To finish your rune choices, there is no better option than Font of Life and Revitalize from the Resolve tree. The former marks the opponents you immobilize, allowing your allies who attack the marked enemies to heal. Revitalize, on the other hand, enhances the power of your shield and heals, which combined with Heal is very powerful.

Ability priority

While playing Janna, the best way to spend your ability points is R>E>W>Q. Eye of the Storm (E) has both aggressive and defensive capabilities, since it empowers your healing and shielding every time you impair an enemy champion, and you can use this ability to shield your ally as well. Once they’re shielded, they deal more damage, which can make a difference when trading in the laning phase. Zephyr (W), on the other hand, gives you more movement speed while available, making it easier to roam, which is key in the meta. It can also strike a single enemy and slow them down for a fair amount.

Game plan

Janna is truly versatile support, however, one of her cons is a fairly weak early game. During that phase, her cooldowns are long, her abilities consume a lot of mana to activate, and she doesn’t have strong basic statistics on her own. Thus, before you reach level six, you shouldn’t be stepping out of the line too much. instead, you should just try to safely get to that milestone with your AD carry.

Once you reach level six, you could start roaming throughout the map. Janna is quite squishy and doesn’t have a lot of ganking potential, but when combined with a jungler, she can really make a difference. Therefore, if there’s a window of opportunity somewhere on Summoner’s Rift, don’t hesitate to roam there and do your best.

Janna also does great in teamfights, due to her aggressive and defensive qualities. She can land a crowd control combo and help you catch enemies that are fleeing or out of position or can make a lot of space with her ultimate, where her allies can heal as well. What you do depends solely on the game state, so make sure to evaluate that throughout the match.

Renata Glasc

Pros

• Amazing poke
• An ultimate that can decide teamfights
• Incredible scaling with today’s meta AD carries

Cons

• Not very mobile and squishy
• Difficult to master

Renata Glasc is the latest support to join League of Legends, and she has already heralded herself as one of the best in the game. The Chem Baronees possesses a truly powerful set of unique abilities that can influence any state of the game.

Still, it doesn’t mean that picking Renata will instantly win you a game. There are sufficient ways to counter the champion. At the same time, she’s really tough to master, and many players will have issues playing her in their first matches.

Item build

On Renata Glasc, your best bet is to go for the Guardian tree. While playing the champion, you will be looking to make an impact in teamfights, and in most cases, you’re going to be at the back, shielding your teammates and providing aid with your other skills. For this reason, having Guardian to enhance survivability is recommended.

With the other three choices in the Resolve tree, you’ll improve your poking, sustainability, and tenacity, all of which are essential on Renata. Due to her not having any escape tools and being quite immobile, choosing Cosmic Insight is a good option. It’s also worth going for Biscuit Delivery since Renata is quite mana-hungry.

Ability priority

Renata Glasc’s skill priority is R>E>W>Q. With Loyalty Program, you have the ability to poke opponents and shield your allies at the same time. Since today’s meta is full of AD hypercarries, your best plan would be to go for W afterward to increase their damage and grant them additional survivability.

Game plan

With Renata Glasc, players can sometimes get lost due to the many possibilities that the champion offers. The main goal during the game, however, should be to scale well into the mid-game where you can start wreaking havoc with your ultimate.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t think about skirmishes early. Although, due to Renata being quite mana-devouring, immobile, and squishy, those can often end up badly for you. Therefore, be careful in the first minute of the game, and always keep an eye on the enemy jungler’s location.

In the deciding teamfights, remember not to overcommit and stay behind your front line. Your abilities can influence the battles in a major way, so it would be a shame if you died early. Also, keep in mind that opponents are probably aware of your potential, and will hence try to eliminate Renata at the beginning of each fight.

Soraka

Pros

• Fantastic utility and healing
• Global ultimate
• Annoying in lane

Cons

• Squishy
• You will probably be targeted first
• No engage or hard CC

When it comes to healing champions in League of Legends, there’s probably no better one than Soraka. With two healing abilities, she can immediately restore hundreds of health points for her allies. But like every champion in the game, she also has plenty of cons that can be easily exploited. Nevertheless, we’ll walk you through them.

Item build

Aside from her healing, Soraka has an annoying kit with her Q and E, which can often win you the lane. She’s great at poking, therefore it’s worth increasing that asset even more by choosing Summon Aery. That major rune from the Sorcery tree will send an Aery to enemies, which damages them a bit more. If you want a more aggressive option, though, you can always switch that for Arcane Comet.

You will be using your abilities left and right, so it’s more than natural that you will quickly run out of mana. To help with that, it’s sensible to pick Manaflow Band, which increases your maximum mana and gives you a bit more mana regeneration. Transcendence and Scorch, on the other hand, lower the cooldowns of your abilities and increase your damage, which as we said, can make a tremendous difference in lane.

When it comes to the two filler runes, the best choices are Bone Plating and Revitalize from the Resolve tree. Soraka will most likely end up as the first target of your enemies, so it’s smart to pick up some defensive qualities with those two runes, which make you take less damage and enhance your healing power.

Ability priority

On Soraka, there’s one proper ability priority order: R>W>Q>E. As we explained, her poking qualities can often win you the lane in the laning phase. Nevertheless, her strongest asset is still the healing she can provide from Astral Infusion (W). Once the mid game comes around, you want to have it maximized so you can save your allies from going back to the fountain.

Game plan

When playing Soraka, a lot depends on her duo partner in lane and on the opposing bot duo. If you have the chance to do so, you should poke the enemy AD carry and support, creating space for your ADC to peacefully farm. But if you are matched against duos with aggressive supports that might easily pick you out of nowhere, like Blitzcrank, Pyke, or Thresh, we advise you to play it safe. You’ll still have plenty of work to do in the late game.

Soraka will be targeted by opponents due to her incredible healing, which has a low cooldown, and her global ultimate. The amount of health you can restore in a short span of time is eye-watering. Therefore, it’s best to eliminate Soraka as fast as possible. As a result, you should always hide behind your allies. If they bite a bullet or two for you, you will always be able to patch them up quickly.

In terms of items, Soraka works the best once she has some utility-improving ones under her belt, like Redemption, Moonstone Renewer, and Ardent Censer. Besides them, it’s really smart to have some items that increase your survivability in teamfights, like Warmog’s Armor or Frozen Heart.

Taric

Pros

• Tanky
• Game-changing ultimate
• Plenty of utility

Cons

• Immobile
• Easy to shut down

Taric is yet another unique support in the game who has often been called one of the most versatile options—and for good reason. In his kit, players will find healing, a stun, and an ultimate that makes his team invulnerable to any damage for a few seconds. Mastering and making perfect use of him is no easy feat, though.

Item build

Taric is one of a few supports in League that has a targeted stun, which comes from his E. It’s fairly easy to lock down enemy squishes with it, so it’s smart to pick Glacial Augment. With that, every immobilized champion will send three glacial rays from them toward you and other enemies, which will often turn the battlefield in your favor. Each zone slows opponents and reduces their damage against you and your allies.

Down the line, players should choose runes that enhance their utility, both in the laning phase and the game overall. Therefore, Magical Footwear and Biscuit Delivery should be picked, which allow Taric to save some gold early and grant him a bit of extra health and mana in the first six minutes of the game. Cosmic Insight, on the other hand, lowers the cooldowns of your item abilities and summoner spells, which will come in handy in the late game.

Last but not least, you want to be as tanky as you can so you can properly use your ultimate in teamfights. To boost your defensive qualities, it’s smart to go for Conditioning and Revitalize, which give you additional resistances and increase your shielding and healing power.

Ability priority

While playing Taric, players should go for this ability priority order: R>E>Q>W. Having Dazzle (E), his stun, on a lower cooldown is much more helpful than having a stronger heal early on since you want to go for favorable trades and roams whenever you can. Nevertheless, after you have Dazzle at level five, easily maximize your healing potential from Starlight’s Touch (Q).

Game plan

The game plan on Taric is as simple as it can be. You want to put your stun from E to use as fast as possible, so you either should look for trades in the laning phase or for opportunities to roam with your jungler. When it comes to the former, though, you may get easily poked out by ranged supports, so in most cases you should just try roaming as soon as you hit level three, similarly to Pyke.

As the game goes on, the crucial point of playing Taric is proper ultimate usage. If you use it too fast, enemies will just disengage and wait for it to wear off. If you use it too late, your allies or you might not live long enough to receive the invulnerability from it. Therefore, it’s necessary to know about the risks of the enemy team composition and how to play against them. What’s more, try to stay more in the backline before you use your ultimate so that your life doesn’t go to waste.

In terms of items, Taric will pick up standard options for tanky, utility-oriented supports. Items like Locket of the Solari and Winter’s Approach (which transforms into Fimbulwinter) are mandatory. Afterward, you can either increase your support utility with picks like Watchful Wardstone and Knight’s Vow, or enhance your tankiness with Randuin’s Omen, Frozen Heart, or Warmog’s Armor.

Amumu

Pros

• Two great crowd control tools
• Quite tanky
• Fantastic engages and teamfighting

Cons

• Tough to make an impact once fallen behind
• Skillshot oriented

Originally a jungler, Amumu has been shifting toward the support role in the past few years—and in season 12, he’s one of the best in the game. His tremendous crowd control tools make him an invaluable asset for any team, while his tankiness and other abilities allow him to quickly take control of the bot lane and late-game teamfights.

Item build

Amumu’s gameplay relies mostly on going in with his Bandage Toss and then immobilizing as many enemies as he can with Curse of the Sad Mummy. Therefore, the wisest major rune Amumu support can get is Aftershock. It increases his resistances after immobilizing enemy champions, which makes it easier to survive after you engage. After 2.5 seconds of immobilizing an enemy, the rune will also explode, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies.

Next in line we have Font of Life, Bone Plating, and Unflinching. The former marks the enemy champion once you immobilize it, allowing your allies to heal when they target the marked opponents. The other two runes simply bolster your tankiness by making you take less damage from enemy champions and boosting your resistances a little.

Amumu’s main asset is his ultimate, which has a long cooldown. To lower it, you should choose Ultimate Hunter from the Domination tree, which shortens it with every unique takedown. Cheap Shot works nicely with your kit since it makes Amumu deal more damage to impaired champs.

Ability priority

On Amumu, there is no better ability priority than R>Q>E>W. Bandage Toss (Q) is Amumu’s main gap closer, engage tool, and skill overall, besides his ultimate. Like most of his abilities, though, it has a lengthy cooldown and takes quite a lot of mana to use, so it’s best to maximize it first to make it easier to use. Afterward, it’s much smarter to put points in Tantrum (E) instead of Despair (W) since the former makes you take reduced damage and deals more damage than the latter if you activate it.

Game plan

Amumu’s game plan is very similar to other aggressive supports like Blitzcrank, Nautilus, and Pyke. Your goal is to take over control of the game as early as possible.

Naturally, at first, you’d like to win your bot lane, but that’s often dictated by your duo partner and the two enemies you are facing. In the end, some compositions should always win over the others. And with Amumu, once you go in, you put it all on the line. If you have an aggressive, high-damage early AD carry like Lucian to follow you, you may easily engage. But otherwise, it’s not advised.

In the meta, supports often follow junglers around, so if you’re not lucky in the bot lane, you may search for some easy kills and assists in other lanes, especially since they may activate your Ultimate Hunter rune faster. In teamfights, your main goal is to engage into squishy targets, though that’s easier said than done. You will be your team’s frontline, however, so make sure you engage onto as many targets as you can and stun a few enemies with your ultimate.

When it comes to items, Evenshroud is your best choice due to the defensive qualities it brings. Afterward, you should obtain more defensive items like Thornmail and Watchful Wardstone, though Zhonya’s Hourglass is also advised.

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