How To Support - The Way To Play

There's a few things about support that most people don't understand and find it hard to transition to. You don't matter at all. Well, you do somewhat, but your team is the most important thing. Your job is to make sure your team can do theirs. Get them gold, kills, save them from dying, lock down enemies, it's all part of the dirty job of support. I know what you're thinking, "Oh that sounds easy enough." And it is, but it's a lot harder to actually do. When you're playing ADC you have to focus on your surroundings to not be killed, and the enemies to kill them. With midlaner you have to focus on when to drop all of your kit and burst down an enemy. As a solo you want to be able to start a fight and finish a fight. As a jungler you want to focus on rotating, dropping your kit to gank, and picking off the weaker enemies. All of these require some knowledge of your surroundings and the enemy team, but as the support you have to actively focus on enemy team position, the surrounding area, your team position, the communication your team is putting out, your team health, and then the whole time try to tank, lock down, and block the enemy team. While saving yours. You're probably the most important role because without you a team will shatter into nothing. You have to be constantly aware of the mini map.
Here is where most people fail at support: they think they can boss people around instead of serving them, and they think they can take on the enemy because they are tanky. This leads to several problems. You're the SUPPORT, not the team leader. You have to adapt quickly to what people want and proritize, and this means altering your thinking from, "How can I gank this player?" to "How can I help my ally gank this player?" Often instead of just rushing in you'll wait for the jungler to drop their kit on them, and then you come in and use your CC to either stop the victim from fleeing, or prevent them from killing your jungler if things went bad. The other issue many guardians face is not knowing when to pull back. Yes, you may be able to tank a Xbalanque easily, but remember, you do no damage! NO matter how tanky you are, the lack of damage means if you try to 1v1 an enemy god you WILL die!

The first is fairly obvious. The team comes first. Always. But all the same, don't sacrifice yourself needlessly. That said, here are some general rules about support.

1. The team comes first
Remember, you can be a few levels below everyone else, but you want your damage dealers to be a few levels above them. This usually means letting them kill off minion waves and giving them kills

2. Ideally you want to get no kills, no deaths, and a lot of assists
If you get a kill that means you get a lot of gold, but your damage dealers get less. Generally defense items are cheaper than others, so get those assists instead. You get half of the gold you'd get from a kill anyway, and your teammate gets the EXP from the kill.

3. Only back when you can get a full item or you're at less than half HP
You're tanky. Everyone knows this, that means that unless you're a massive nuisance or are on your own they won't target you immediately. Therefore you can survive a bit longer. Because either you can get a full item and be a lot stronger, or you can still help secure a kill or ward.

4. Be aware of the map
If you don't know what's going on, how can you be where you need to be? How can you know when someone is in trouble, or if someone is rushing you from behind, or if the enemy is split pushing lanes? Always pay attention not just to your minimap, but to what's around you.

5. Buy wards every time you back to base
This is part of Rule 4, but is important on its own. Wards let you be able to prevent ganks, to know where enemies are at any time they pass through them. Buying a full set of wards is only 220 gold and can reveal a lot of area that can save your team. Rememebr it's not just you that sees it. One ward can let the solo laner know that the jungler and midlaner are on their way to gank, which can let your jungler, mage, and you as the support to head over to save your solo laner and to possible force a team fight and take a tower. All from spending 50 gold on one ward. Always buy wards. And if possibly try to convince your jungler, nicely, to get wards too.

6. Your ADC is your VIP
ADC stands for attack damage carry, and that's exactly what they are. Mages burst them down, junglers pick off low health enemies, solo laners are bruisers, but ADCs are the attack strength of your team. If you have to sacrifice the bruising of a solo, or the finishing of a jungler, or the bursting of a mage then do it, because with your ADC there, assuming you do a good job of keeping him safe, the enemy team will perish.

7. You will never not be needed in a team fight
Your crowd control abilities can often sway the entire flow of a team fight. Silence the mage? No bursting. Root the jungler? No finishing. Taunt the ADC? THe enemy team is now doing a LOT less damage. Athena's taunt, or Bacchus's belch, Ares' ult: these can effect the entire enemy team and easily let your team pick off the squishies, and then it's just mopping up. Be there for all the team fights you can. Without you, your team will fall.

8. Don't use all of your abilities at once
This is also known as "don't blowing your load early". Remember, you don't do any damage that's worth anything. You're not a mage, you can't burst them down. You're not an ADC, you can't blast them away with basics. You have CC, and usually CC overrides other CC, and you want them to be down as often as possible. Time a CC for when they go in to attack. The other reason is they don't want to be helpless. If they know all your abilities are on cooldown, they'll simply attack and wipe out your entire team because their support has abilities up. Save your CC for the opportune moment!

9. Know when to back off from a fight
You can tank a lot of things and shut down the enemy team, but if your in a 3v4, 3v5, or 4v5 then you will most likely lose. You want to get a squishy maybe, but retreating is better than having a 45 second respawn timer. Hit that VRR and toss on some CC for your squishies to escape before getting the hell out of dodge to refuel and regroup. It won't do your team any good to have three members dead.

10. Always stay near a teammate unless actively rotating
You do no damage. You're good at shutting down the enemy. Maybe you should stay near someone who does damage but can't shut down the enemy as easily? Stay near a squishy, you'll be able to keep them alive and they'll get kills which will put your team ahead. If you're on your own you're doing nothing, and nothing makes you lose a game faster than nothing.

If you follow these rules, you won't be a bad support, but alone you won't be a good support either.

There are three main ways to play a support: Crowd Controlling, Healing, or Tanking.

All guardians come with crowd control, and usually other supports all have some form of crowd control. But these CC effects are used in various ways and with various strengths and combos.

Crowd Control
These supports are played with a major emphasis to their crowd control, as they usually have a hard CC effect that's not their ultimate. For example, Kumbhakarna has a mesmerize that prevents all enemies from doing anything for up to three seconds or until they take damage. Bacchus' belch shut down whole teams. You generally play these gods to try to keep the enemy from doing anything for as long as possible. Examples of these are Ymir, Kumbhakarna, Bacchus, Athena, Geb, etc

Healing
Sylvanus, Terra, Guan Yu, Aphrodite, and Hel are the main healer supports. YOu generally want to make their heal as strong as possible while still remaining tanky. These gods are meant to make the team strong rather than shutting down the enemy team. Items like Rod of Asclepius, Sovereignty, Heartward Amulet, and Lotus Crown are recommended, also reccommended is cooldown to be able to heal as much as possible. You want your squishiest ally to last as long as a bruiser. You'll generally have some light CC, but will mostly use it to keep enemies off your team. Heal your allies whenever you can and stay near them.

Tank
Big examples of this class are Ares, Cabraken, and Xing Tian. You generally want to be right in the enemy's face, taking a ton of damage, and the gods are usually built for this. Cabraken, for example, can destroy a team's mobility, but most of his abilities are right up close. Xing Tian doesn't have as much CC but can have insane HP5. You want to force the opposing team to have to deal with you so much that your team can freely attack

There are many different defensive and utility items in Smite, and many can be used to various effects in different situations. Some well known staples are Bulwark of Hope, Hide of the Urchin, Sovereignty, Breastplate of Valor, Stone of Gaia, and Heartward Amulet. There are generally a few categories you can put these into, but first there are a few things you need to know.
First, there's a defense cap. It's usually 325, and at the cap you can mitigate 80% of damage. But if you have no health, then you still won't survive. Health is just as important as defenses, because the more health you have the longer you can stay in a fight.

Now I'll list good items for each area of defense.

General Defense (physical and magical) - Hide of the Urchin, Spirit Robe

Health - Mail of Renewal, Midgardian Mail, Sovereignty, Reinforced Shoes, Heartward Amulet, Bulwark of Hope, Hide of the Urchin

HP5 - Mail of Renewal, Stone of Gaia, Traveler's Shoes/Talaria Boots, Gauntlet of Thebes (if healer)

Physical Defense - Sovereignty, Hide of the Nemean Lion, Breastplate of Valor, Cloaks

Magical Defense - Bulwark of Hope, Oni Hunter's Garb, Heartward Amulet, Genji's Guard, Cloaks

Cooldown - Breastplate of Valor, Genji's Guard, Shoes of Focus, Spirit Robe, Mail of Renewal

CC Reduction - Spirit Robe, Bulwark of Hope, Oni Hunter's Guard, Reinforced Shoes

Aura/Team Items - Rod of Asclepius (if healer), Sovereignty, Heartward Amulet, Lotus Crown


These are some of the best items that can be used in the support role, and with the exception of Rod of Asclepius, all are available for every god in the game.