Flexible Playstyles: Adapt your playstyle based on game conditions and enemy team composition

1. Against Engage and Dive Compositions:

• Protective Playstyle:
  • If the enemy team has champions like Malphite, Zac, or Rakan who dive your backline, focus on peeling for your carries. Champions like Janna, Lulu, and Thresh are excellent for providing CC, shields, or disengage.
  • Use your crowd control to interrupt engages and create distance between the enemy divers and your carries.
  • Positioning: Stay near your carries (ADC, mid-laner) during team fights, positioning yourself between them and the enemy threats.
  • Build Items for Survival: Build items like Locket of the Iron Solari (for shielding your team from AoE dives) or Mikael’s Blessing (to cleanse CC on your carries).

2. Against Poke Compositions:

• Sustain and Shielding:
  • When the enemy has long-range poke champions like Zoe, Jayce, or Xerath, your role is to keep your team healthy during the siege. Champions like Soraka, Sona, or Nami excel at providing healing and sustain to weather the poke damage.
  • Engage at the Right Time: Once the enemy poke abilities are on cooldown, look for a hard engage with champions like Leona, Alistar, or Thresh to lock them down before they poke you further.
  • Dodge and Position: Stay out of range of poke abilities and position behind minions to reduce damage taken.

3. Against Burst Assassins:

• Peel and CC:
  • If the enemy team has assassins like Zed, Talon, or Kha’Zix, prioritize peeling for your squishy carries (ADC and mid-laner). Champions like Braum, Tahm Kench, or Lulu are great for protecting your carries with shields, CC, or peeling tools like Tahm's Devour.
  • Ward Danger Zones: Ensure you have wards in flank routes and bushes where assassins might lurk. This gives your team advance warning and prevents getting caught off-guard.
  • Defensive Items: Buy Zeke’s Convergence (to boost your ADC’s damage and offer additional tankiness) or Redemption (to heal through the burst damage).

4. When Behind:

• Play Defensively:
  • Focus on defensive vision around your jungle and turret entrances to prevent enemy picks. Do not extend into areas where you lack vision or control.
  • Play more peel-oriented and avoid forcing engages when your team is behind. Instead, look for ways to stall and wait for your team to catch up in gold or items.
  • Assist your ADC and other carries by staying close and using your peeling abilities (CC, shields, heals) to protect them from enemy threats.

5. When Ahead:

• Aggressive Vision Control:
  • Move your wards deeper into the enemy jungle to keep track of their movements and deny them vision. This makes it easier to secure objectives like Baron, Dragon, or towers.
  • Use Sweeper to clear enemy wards and set up picks with champions like Thresh, Blitzcrank, or Nautilus, who can force fights when ahead.
  • Look for opportunities to engage and pressure the enemy, using your team’s lead to push for objectives and take down turrets.

6. Based on Your Team Composition:

• Frontline Focus:
  • If your team lacks a tank, you may need to act as the frontline engager even as a support. Champions like Leona, Alistar, and Nautilus are perfect for initiating team fights and absorbing damage for your team.
  • In this role, build tankier items like Knight’s Vow, Locket, or Dead Man’s Plate to survive longer in fights and help absorb damage.
• Peel and Utility Focus:
  • If your team already has a strong frontline, you can focus on being a utility support. Champions like Lulu, Karma, or Soraka can provide shields, heals, speed boosts, and CC to enable your carries to deal maximum damage.
  • In these cases, build Redemption, Ardent Censer, or Mikael’s Blessing to provide additional utility to your carries during fights.

7. Adapting to Game Phases:

• Early Game:
  • Focus on lane dominance and trading if you’re playing an aggressive support (e.g., Leona, Nautilus). If you’re playing a sustain support (e.g., Soraka, Janna), focus on keeping your ADC healthy and farming.
  • Keep your lane warded with Control Wards and river wards to protect against jungle ganks.
• Mid Game:
  • After the laning phase, transition to roaming and map control. Ward important areas like objectives (Baron/Dragon) and enemy jungle entrances.
  • Look to group with your team to secure objectives or rotate to other lanes to assist in tower pushes or dives.
• Late Game:
  • In the late game, your playstyle should revolve around objective control (Dragon, Baron) and team fight coordination.
  • Play around your carries, using your abilities to protect them while engaging or disengaging fights based on the game state. Your role is critical in providing vision and utility during this phase.

8. Versatility in Builds:

• Adapt Your Items: Depending on the game, you might need to adjust your item builds. For example:
  • Against heavy poke, build Redemption and Mikael’s Blessing.
  • Against all-ins and hard engage, build Locket of the Iron Solari and Knight’s Vow.
  • Against teams with AP threats, build Abyssal Mask or Zeke’s Convergence for extra magic resistance.

General Tips:

• Watch for Power Spikes: Adjust your aggression and playstyle when your ADC or team hits item power spikes. For example, if your ADC gets their Mythic item, you can play more aggressively in trades or team fights.
• Adapting to Win Conditions: Always keep in mind your team’s win condition. If it’s a split push strategy, provide vision and peel for the team to allow the split pusher to succeed. If it’s a team fight comp, focus on grouping and engaging with your team.

Adapting your playstyle dynamically based on the enemy team’s composition and in-game conditions will significantly improve your impact as a support!