Can Support Carry in Solo Queue?

Climbing the ranked ladder is hard. It’s even tougher in the solo queue when you don’t always get to coordinate with your team, regardless of which role you play. As a support, it’s even worse. 

While in bot lane, the real impact does come from the support difference, at the end of the day, the carry is still the one who – you guessed it – carries the game later on. If your Kai’Sa carry can’t CS and the enemy Vayne has excellent reflexes, it can be very difficult. 

You can spend the first 10 minutes trying your best and doing everything perfectly, but if your teammates can’t keep up with their lane counterparts, there’s not much you can do, especially as a support player… Or is there? 

Today let’s have a look at what support players can do at their maximum potential and – if in the worst-case scenario – if they can carry the game in solo queue?

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

What Can I Do?

The short answer? Most definitely. First, let’s briefly describe what a carry is. A carry isn’t necessarily the one with the most kills. Rather, it’s someone who largely influences the game either through damage (the carry most people are familiar with) or with CC, peeling, or other forms of utility. 

Does the latter part sound familiar? Supports often pack some form of either CC, peeling, and most definitely utility. In fact, the reason why most supports end up in that role is due to the fact that they don’t need absurd amounts of farm or gold to be effective. 

They are more skill and level-dependent rather than the item. This gives your carry the freedom and space to take in all the gold. So again, to reiterate, YES a support can carry.

Different Strokes for Different Folks: The Semi Carry

Of course, support players have a variety of playstyles. In fact, I dare say they have the most variety out of all the other roles. I mean, think about it for one second. You have tanky in-your-face types like Braum and Malphite, enchanters like Lulu and Taric, assassins like Pyke, and even… well whatever Renata Glasc is. You get the picture. 

There are different ways you can go about it. Generally speaking, you’re going to want a solo-friendly champion for solo queue. What do I mean by this? Some champions are excellent when coordinated well with teammates, such as bard. However, the sad reality is that, while it sounds good on paper, the reality is a different thing altogether. 

Champions who can also turn into a semi or full carry are good options. Champions like Senna, Thresh, or even Ashe (I’m not trolling, it’s a thing in Korean League of Legends) are decent options.

Basically, champions who can scale like a traditional carry or damage dealer are good options. The rationale is this: if your AD carry fails, you can simply take over his role and transition into a carry yourself, usually through damage. 

This also applies to supports who are actually AP carries in disguise, such as Brand, Annie, and Veigar. If simply dealing damage isn’t your thing, peeling champions like Janna and Lulu can technically carry by peeling, protecting, disengaging, and overall just giving your opponents a hard time.

The Damage Sponge

As I mentioned above, there are other ways to “carry” the game. One of them being tanky champions. That isn’t to say all they do is soak up damage. Oh no. Oftentimes they come with some form of CC. Have a look at Braum, Alistar, Nautilus, and other tanky champions. 

Their role is to be annoying enough to give your opponents an incentive to take you out. This gives your carry much-needed space to either free-hit or… escape. When we get caught up in stats and kills, sometimes we forget this is an objective-based game, and that as long as you win, well… those sacrifices may have been worth it. 

Don’t fret though, because most of these champions also come with some form of coping mechanism to survive the punishment.

Alistar has a total of 3 skills that offer some form of CC, and his ultimate basically turns him into Rambo while removing CC on himself. This puts your foes in a bit of an impasse. Assuming positioning is decent, do they waste their skills on a meat shield like Alistar or attempt to get past him to target the squishier champions while running the risk of getting caught out of position? Decisions, decisions. 

Even if you do end up dying, you still would’ve contributed greatly to the team. Going 1 for 4 is never, ever a bad thing. Unless it happens to you, of course.

Also read: Best AD Mid Laners

The Traditional Support

Traditional supports are basically enchanters. With the points we brought up before, it’s difficult for them to carry per se, but it’s possible with scaling champions like Bard. I mean, if he has enough Meeps, boy do those hurt. 

And I don’t mean going AD Lulu and building carry items while depriving your AD carry of gold and minion kills, but I digress. That’s a story for another day. The way these champions carry as actual, traditional supports is with their utility and peel, in most cases.

The Assassin

Pyke isn’t the only assassin who is also a support in the game. Options like Nidalee, Pantheon, Kennen, and even Teemo in some cases exist, and they can be quite effective depending on the lineup (and admittedly, elo), especially against squishy line-ups. 

Pyke and Pantheon specifically offer little to no downsides in the support role either, as they can actually do what they were meant to without being too dependent on the farm. 

The ability to let your carry farm while being able to burst down key targets, later on, is, for the most part, very satisfying. This definitely falls under the category of being able to carry. 

The best part about it is that it isn’t really even off-meta, so you won’t get raging teammates too often when you’re in solo queue. If your carry fails towards the mid game, you will have been transitioning into a powerhouse anyway, so it all evens out, all things considered. 

Also read: How to Farm Under Tower?

Conclusion

We get that supporting other players can be hard, especially in the solo queue where your efforts can go unnoticed for extended periods of time. To be powerless despite doing well yourself can be frustrating, to say the least, but you’re never really truly powerless. Supports have the potential to heavily impact the game by making tough calls and “taking one for the team”. 

A well-placed ward could turn what would have been a messy and for you and your carry into a  counter-gank in your favor. The credit probably won’t go to that humble ward you placed though, but seeing that Victory on-screen is all the thanks I personally need.

For more tips and tricks, check out this article on damage turrets in LoL.