Top 7 Best Roaming Supports in League of Legends

There are many ways to win a game. It’s a fundamental truth present in most types of games. This is especially true when elements of strategy and teamwork are involved, much like in League of Legends. 

When we bring up supports, most thoughts gravitate toward a more traditional role. Images of healing, shielding, and buffs come to mind. Babysitting your carry is one of the most basic things support champions can do, but as we mentioned at the start of this article: there are many ways to win a game.

Does your teammate need help midlane? Is the enemy jungler just camping the other lanes while yours is having difficulty with clear times? Whatever reason, you may find yourself having to roam from time to time. 

Whether it’s to help out specific lanes or just set up ambushes for the enemy junglers, it can be a good idea when the situation calls for it. Just as you might expect, some support champions do exceptionally well at this particular role, and while anyone can technically do anything they want, a few recurring themes we’re going to see with the most effective roaming supports is mobility, CC, kill potential and efficiently they can do it. 

Let’s have a look at some of the best roaming supports in League right now.

Also read: Can Support Carry in Solo Queue?

1. Bard

By sheer design, Bard has to be one of if not the best roaming support in-game. Everything in his kit promotes roaming in one way or another. Let’s have a look at the specifics. Bard’s passive is Traveler’s Call. See? Even the name implies mobility. 

It encourages you to move around to collect chimes, and to an extent even discourages staying in the lane, as they appear in seemingly random areas around you, forcing you to move away from the lane. These chimes give him movement speed, experience, mana, and meeps. These meeps allow him to hurt in the later parts of the game, and they hurt. A lot. 

But all this is useless if you leave your carry to die in the lane, right? Fortunately, Caretaker’s Shrine should tide your carry over for your short trips to mid lane. You can also use it to help your friendly jungler by leaving shrines throughout your jungle during meep collecting excursions.

When it comes to the actual ganking and presence in other lanes, you’ll be happy to know that Bard excels at that as well. Magical Journey is especially versatile, and can make for some excellent ganks when coordinated with your friendly jungler. 

You can come at odd angles and bring even an immobile jungler with you. Tempered Fate is great for either saving turrets and allies or setting up the enemy team for a coordinated attack. You can use it from across the map, so it’s a nice tool to have that you can use for different things.

2. Pyke

If Bard checked all the right boxes for a roaming support, Pyke would have about 90% of it, but also brings a lot to the table in exchange for that missing 10%. As many people will confirm, sometimes the best defense is a good offense. 

Pyke is the embodiment of this philosophy, as he offers little to defend himself when he does get hit, but can easily weave in and out of teamfights with relative ease, kill a squishy target, then retreat into the shadows. While he is squishy himself, Gift of the Drowned Ones gives him a degree of sustain that is more than enough to get through the laning phase. 

In the later parts of the game, this can be a boon for those hit-and-run encounters where you find yourself jumping in and out of a fight. He also benefits from building lethality, as it adds to how much post-mitigation damage he can recover after an encounter.

Ghostwater Dive and Phantom Undertow are excellent tools for getting around the map as well as escaping. He also has a lot of tools that play around vision. These are what allow him to roam and gank so effectively, even without your allied jungler. For example, you can bypass brushes where you suspect have wards by using Ghostwater Dive. 

This prevents other lanes from seeing where you are and forces them to get Control Wards. You can also use Gift of the Drowned Ones to check if a brush is warded by walking in after taking damage. 

If you recover gray health, it isn’t warded, as it only triggers when you are unseen. Death from Below needs no introduction, as it’s what allows Pyke to zip around the battlefield while quickly dispatching low health champions to finish them off. In many ways, Pyke doesn’t have any single iconic skill, because all of them tie in so well together.

3. Blitzcrank

While simple to play, Blitzcrank accomplishes his assigned role so well, and he doesn’t really need to do anything else. Blitzcrank is probably one of the first champions you encounter in League of Legends. Rocket Grab alone can destroy even the most coordinated of teams. It’s just so high-impact with very little downsides. 

If you miss your pull, walking away to try again is a viable option. He’s able to roam relatively well with the right boots and Overdrive. If the brush is warded, well… Blitzcrank is infamous for just being there. If anything, this serves as a deterrent for the enemy mid lane champion to miss some much-needed minion kills, especially during the early game. 

When paired with a friendly jungler, it’s almost an assured kill if Blitzcrank is at least level 3. His full combo can be devastating when you hit your Rocket Grab, and while he doesn’t scale as well into the late game, his ability to be disruptive in other lanes, pick off enemies, and soak up damage during clashes by just building mana makes him an overall solid pick as a roaming support. 

Also read: Is Playing League of Legends Good for You?

4. Pantheon

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Grand Starfall is a big factor in why he is on this list. In fact, most of the roaming prowess Pantheon gains are only felt toward the shift to mid game. Gearing towards a mix of durability, damage, and mobility are optimal for a roaming support build. During the laning phase, he is able to harass and deal huge amounts of damage even during the early game. (lilyjackson.com.au)  

Once Pantheon hits at least level 3, he becomes excellent at trading and mitigates a lot of damage for his carry with Aegis Assault. Even the damage he does without the carry is strong enough. In most cases, this makes the enemy bot laners play a bit more conservatively, ensure you and your carry hit level 6 before they do.

Grand Starfall is amazing as a roaming tool because you don’t waste the time walking to the other lane. It also makes positioning the only factor, as wards will do little to nothing to prevent it. 

When the enemy laners push too far, make sure you punish them hard and coordinate with your jungler for the best results. When ganking, you don’t even have to directly hit your ultimate. Shield Vault and some damage can go a long way, especially during the mid game.

Read also: Top skirmishers in LoL

5. Rakan

The League’s resident charmer is well known as a support because of his ability to engage and counter-engage. His skillset revolves around quick movement and CC, which allow him to jump around the battlefield with relative ease. 

This makes him not only excellent at dodging skillshots and spells, but also dash through walls, making clutch plays by repositioning with Grand Entrance and Battle Dance, and potentially captivating the whole enemy team long enough for your allies to get into better positions or make clash-winning wombo combo to end it.

This built-in mobility is also what makes him a potentially good roaming support. While he is smack in the middle average when it comes to base movement speed (it’s 335, if you’re wondering), his skills more than make up for it. 

He’s able to get in on the action from far away by using Battle Dance to get near an allied champion, unload on his opponents, and then dash back for a hasty retreat if he needs it. 

Read also: Best Battlemages in LoL

6. Braum

Braum is weird in the sense that he is a nice beefy champion with CC and still offers a lot of utility. He has a lot in his kit that makes him excel at roaming and he does very well during clashes, given you have decent reflex and good positioning. While not particularly mobile, he has a lot of tools that make him excellent at roaming and ganks. 

Braum is able to jump into the fray with Stand Behind Me. What makes him really good for ganks and roaming, however, has to be Concussive Blows. Even when not coordinated with a jungler, Braum is able to potentially land a stun and bonus damage just by getting a hit in. This works best with ranged mid lane champions who are able to contribute to the stun counter.

When Braum hits 6, he becomes a teamfight machine with Glacial Fissure. It’s also great for picking off fleeing opponents or just setting up favorable conditions for the times you do roam and gank. A wide and versatile range and use of CC in addition to decent mobility and the ability to block projectiles while your teammates unleash a barrage of attacks earns him a spot on this list.

Also read: Best AD Mid Laners

7. Thresh

On paper, Thresh benefits a lot from staying in lane, mostly because he starts off with weak stats and compensates with the collection of souls. Naturally, minion waves are the safest source for that. If done right, however, he compensates by helping other lanes or the jungler secure objectives (large monsters and objectives like the Rift Herald and Dragon also drop souls). 

Items like Dead Man’s Plate complement Thresh’s already decent movement speed, which in turn allows him to roam and collect souls more efficiently. 

When he does encounter enemy champions outside of the bot lane, he has 3 crowd control abilities that can be used both defensively and offensively. He is also notoriously infamous for being able to coordinate with junglers who are otherwise immobile without him. His Dark Passage can be thrown out to your allied jungler who is still just catching up. 

By the time the Chain Warden has the target with Death Sentence, the enemy champion will be surprised to see 2 champions flying toward them. In most cases, this results in a secured kill. 

Even without hitting his Q, Flay and The Box make it very difficult to escape if Thresh is close enough. In fact, most people tend to underestimate the range of Flay. With so many tools under his belt, it’s no wonder he made it to this list.

Looking for more champions? Here is our list of the best manaless champions in LoL.