General Guide - Smite Support Guide

Support role breakdown

As a support your main goal is to help your team out, whether it be; Diving, Peeling, Healing, Killing, Baiting or Tanking. This guide goes over all the general and detailed information you need from picking up a God to the first time to trying to hit Masters in Conquest Ranked. Each of the pages has specific information. This guide is written by an SPL Support (Genetics) any feedback/extra information you think I could add is always welcome on my Twitter or my Twitch.

The page below is a brief breakdown about the decisions you’ll have to make playing as a support in the game.

GENETICS CURRENT STARTER ITEM CHOICE

GENETICS CURRENT 1ST ITEM CHOICE

Main goals for support IN Season 11.

SUPPORT OVERVIEW

Season 11 has changed A LOT for support. Here are just the main changes that’ll effect us supports; New Duo Lane start where you hit 2 before the first wave (More fighting duo lanes), Protection buff moved towards the outside of the map (Junglers come over less), Green and Chest camp have swapped places, Teleport pads activating at 8 mins in the game (We are about to go global baby) and sweeping item changes from the new Void items to the recipe removal.
New duo lane start will shift duo lane towards more 2v2 fighting earlier on in the game
New walls on the outside of the lane allow for more ambush spots to gank duo lane and solo lane for roamers (Supports and Junglers)
New teleport pads allow for more lane swaps and more counterganks
Bastions are now tankier but provide a bigger reward so make sure your pressure allows for them to be taken and shared
Relics have been overhauled, simplifying the relic decision making for a lot of us and it should now be easier and more consistent to choose the right relic
New Void items allow for different build diveristy for dive gods

LANING PHASE - (5-6 minutes)

Recipes and Shards have been combined, Reducing the amount of decisions we need to make but reducing build diversity slightly, Sturdy bone should be your default option in 95% of situations.
Laning phase will be a lot different in season 11, With the new duo start making both adc and support hit level 2 with minimal damage there are different way to play the first wave. In previous seasons high clear adcs would do the triple camp start, run to lane and shove the first wave under tower. In Season 11 this will not be possible. If you have the worse clear but the better fight you should engage on the enemy adc to stop them clearing; With less damage taken from buffs, an extra ability and more base HP.
Horrific will be extremely strong in duo lane so beware fighting if the enemy has one and you don’t. Horrific combined with Ankh in season 11 so it reduces the amount of healing you get from pots, while this seems small… on top of the damage reduction and the slow to confirm damage it snowballs a 2v2 fight very fast.
Med and Horrific will be the 2 main relics early game so pay attention to which one your support picks if you aren’t one, If you are one then I’d generally recommend being wary around a horrific fight as jungle has less countergank potential now.
Supports still want to get their first full item on their first back; Thebes or Prophetic cloak

EARLY GAME - (5-12 minutes)

Early game as a support is often the most confusing time especially at the start of a season. A potential list of options for things you need to consider in this time period are; Where to ward, Where to roam, Where to gank, Stacking your first item, Choosing your 2nd item, Invading buffs, Defending buffs, Getting timers for your team.
With the protection buff moving to the outside of the map and teleport pads activating at 8 minutes, it’s safe to say that duo side jungle should be your default area of the map.
Stacking your first item is still really important and should be the main focus, even if you find yourself getting dragged around the map and fighting try to get as many stacks as you can while doing so. It’s not only beneficial for you but beneficial for your team with the auras they provide.
Starting your 2nd item tree is a decision you have to make around this time as well, Whether your double stacking, building physical or building magical defence. Play around the part of the map where you take the least damage.
Getting at least one other back in during this time (usually 2) is needed to provide vision for your team depending on whether you are playing aggressive, defensive or just chilling out.
The new raven, proximity and sentry ward dont really have that much value in this portion in the game, typically providing more vision is better than providing differenting types of vision.
With the class passives being removed in Season 11, both assassins and mages are weaker early game with the removal of the penetration and power respectively so be a bit more adventurous this season.

MID GAME - (12-25 minutes)

With gold fury spawning at 5 minutes, Pyromancer spawning after 11 minutes and Beacon spawning at 12 minutes. You’re going to need to be in places depending on what’s spawning next.
Beacon had a change in Season 11 with the removal of unleashed titans and the power increase, replaced by a enemy tower strike on the further up tower in each lane. This beacon is insane for snowballing games. It won’t provide as much from behind but denying it from the enemy is very important.
Your main goal as support in the mid game is trying to hit lvl 12 and 15 as fast as you can to get your 2nd relic and your starter upgraded.
Starter upgrades and relic upgrades are among some of the more important purchases a support can make as they provide strong auras/effects for your team.
Sentry wards and proximity wards gain more value in this part of the game where denying vision/area of control are more important especially around objectives. Try replace a normal ward with a proximity ward, 25 gold for the extra slow/reveal can be worth it from ahead.
Moving wards to different sides of the maps depending on which objective fight is happening next is a team job but wards are most often bought by supports. With relics having free upgrades when having minion assits you will have more gold in Season 11 for wards or item upgrades.
It’s less worth than ever to spend 800 gold rushing a relic compared to starting a new item in Season 11. Default building will be easier than ever.
*IMPORTANT* If you see the enemy building crit you will need to build spectral in your 2nd or 3rd item slot.

LATE GAME - (25+ Minutes)

Late game fights are centered around the Fire Giant, The Fire Giant Buff allows a team with a lead to siege and push the enemies structures down. A Fire Giant “dance” involves both teams contesting vision/poke for an advantage on the fire gian. After the Fire Giant is killed, both teams will group around structures looking to either attack or defend until the 4 minute Buff wears off and a dance begins again.
After the Fire Giant is slain try get vision of the pit to get a dynamic timer on your map or if you cant then write a timer down by adding 4:00 to the current in game timer for the next Fire Giant Spawn.
Sentrying the fire giant is about denying vision of the health bar and your carries positioning for the enemy team so try place 2 in the pit with other teammates.
As late game involves the most grouping this is where you will find the most 5v5 teamfights which normalises positioning and roles. Depending on your god you will do what your kit warrants either peeling/diving or a mixture of both.
You want to draw a fineline between doing nothing and doing too much, depending on how tanky you are determines how far you can push up.
Some relics and gods require set up for combos such a Sylvanus 1’s, AMC 1’s and the Bracer relic. Only attempt to fight over the Fire Giant when you AND your team are ready with the full set up.

Sieging/Defending

Sieging happens throughout the entire game starting with Bastions, which act as mini shields in front of the tower both blocking auto attacks and reducing the damage a tower takes.
Similiar to other MOBAs, you want to take the Bastions down before hitting a tower to get all the bonus gold you can, As a support you won’t be hitting these hard but helping to support damage dealers do it is helpful.
Always kill Bastions even if the tower is 1hp or you are missing out on 150g for free.
Towers that fall early don’t effect the gold lead much but open up paths for you to walk through as the tower cannot hit you anymore. An early T1 tower in mid for example is more important than a Gold Fury or a Pyromancer.
A big mistake people often make when defending a tower or Phoenix is they chase an enemy after they fail a siege, the main reason you can defend the structure is the extra damage it is dealing on it’s own.
Late game the Fire Giant Buff and Enhanced Fire Giant Buff makes sieging a lot easier for the aggressing team with the sustain and added siege damage. As a defending team your goal is to catch them out of positon and utilise the structure damage to kill them. As the attacking team you want to take the siege slowly as the Fire Giant buff lasts 4 minutes.
In high level games you will find teams splitting up in order to break apart a siege defence, this has several advantages but generally following your own role serves best when defending.