First of all sorry for the delay of the release, but with the LCS super week and the preparations for Gamescom, there was simply not a lot of time to finish this article. Let's get it started now with Nami.



Nami – The Tidecaller



Nami is one of the more recent additions to the roster of supports in the league and even though she didn't seem to find her place among the top tier supports at her release, she now is one of the most picked supports on a competitive level. This might have something to do with the several small buffs she got on her over a few patches and with her kit, she will add a lot to any ADC. While her passive will always give the allied target of her spells a movement speed buff, the more interesting part should be the rest of her abilities.

Her Q is easy to explain, it is a quite long lasting stun for everybody who gets hit by it. Her W has two faces it's a really powerful heal if it's used on an allied target and a harrasment tool if casted onto an enemy, also this can bounce from one target to another and therefore apply both effects on one use.

Nami's E is a damage buff that she will mostly use to make trading easier for her ADC as it also adds a slow that is applied for three auto hits. Her ultimate is a wave that will knock up every opponent it hits in a large area. It also has a huge range.



Thresh – The Chain Warden



Thresh is probably one of the strongest supports at the moment. With his unique save mechanism on the W he can easily change the game and save teammates out of horrible situations. Need more to change the game? Well you can still grab people with the hook on your Q, throw yourself at them, then knock them back with your E and keep them in place with the 99% slow on your ultimate.

Besides that Thresh has the annoying tendency to outtrade enemy ADCs in early game skirmishes, because of the passive on his E that adds bonus damage to your next auto hit, if he hasn't hit enemies for a while before that.

You might think of Blitzcrank when hearing the first time of Thresh, but be assured that a good Thresh can do a whole lot more than even the best Blitzcrank in almost any situation.



Lulu – The Fae Sorceress



Lulu is quite similar to Nami in a lot of points even though she has no heal which probably makes her a little bit weaker. On the other hand, her ultimate enables her to do great engages together with a tank like for Shen or Malphite, who can rush in and stun/knock up multiple people. After that Lulu will use her ult just to knock them up once more.

In the end, Lulu is quite strong in lane as well as in team fights, but her W won't make up for a real stun on an opponent. The relation to Nami is pretty much the same as it is with Thresh to Blitzcrank, you can do a lot of great stuff with her but Nami can probably still do more in most situations.



Alistar - The Minotaur



Even though he seems to have fallen out of favour on a competitive level you might still sometimes see an Alistar supporting in the realms of solo queue. It's probably not that he wouldn't work anymore, it just seems to be the case, that there are always champions that can do anything Alistar could do plus a little bit more.

I personally expect him to make a comeback any time. This is mostly because of the crazy amount of cc and engage that he adds to a team, some of you might still remember the Malphite ultimate into Alistar knockup combo that we saw quite often in season two and that brought horror to the teams caught by it. Sure a Nami would add more utility and the heal out of Alistar isnt the greatest, maybe a Thresh can even engage better, but a good Alistar will always be able to bring terror to any team that is up against him be it in the jungle or the support role.



Zyra – Rise of the Thorns



When Zyra joined the league you usually saw her being played in the midlane and she could really be a bully there because of her plants and the cc she has. Nowadays most teams seem to prefer having her in the support role, adding the cc she has to the high base damage that she offers. With these tools she is often still a bully this time for the enemy ADC and support though.

In teamfights Zyra really starts to shine. She is able to catch people off guard easily with her E. After that there won't be an escape most of the time if she slows you with her plants just to knock you up with her ultimate then, to make it possible for her team to go for the kill. Sadly she doesn't offer any utility besides that and will „only“ make it possible for any bot lane with her to become a danger on sight for her enemies.



As always feel free to discuss anything below. After Gamescom there will be more to read as we move on to have a look on a few junglers with the next part of the series.

Other Positions:
ADC: Part 1, Part 2
Support: Part 1