Hello all. I'm a dedicated support main and I love every minute of the role. I was a little under 1400 elo in Season 2 with a minimal number of ranked games played. I was 7-3 playing support champions. I decided to do placement matches earlier a few weeks ago. I won my first as 1/0/9 Taric. I have lost six placement matches in a row since then. My elo is currently sitting at 1140. My ADC's no longer start boots 3, nor do they cs nearly as well. My teams can no longer time objectives, push towards them, nor do they group like they should despite my calls/pings and chat. I won lane in 5 of the 6 placement matches I've lost. I had one where my lane partner got to 6/0/0 and we crushed their support/adc. My team still managed to throw the game after getting caught 30 mins near top. We were winning very hard.

The common denominator in all of my games seems to be: lack of vision other than the wards I play, jungle feeding/not alleviating pressure, and my top lane has lost all six of the games.

What should I be doing differently as a support main to help myself get back up in elo? I duo que with a mid player who is quite good and consistently does a good job. However, my teammates still get caught and my top lanes have not won in any of my matches.

What are the best measures to take? Should I start queing with an ADC?

I just asked xspecial on his stream and he recommended against it saying it was very hard and not recommended.

Should I just learn something else...?

Drop the notion that your job is "hurr hurr sit in the bush die for my carry get carry fed". Focus on dominating the lane, roam whenever you can. Harass their jungler, gank their mid lane, steal the enemy jungle, and learn when to take objectives. Learn to force things, but don't overforce them. Also learn how to get your teams to slow-roll those early advantages you bring.

Wards are more important than your other items. Flood the map with them. A bunch of low elo ******* will benefit more from late game vision than from a Zeke's Herald.

Finally, learn some strong teamfighting supports, like Lulu.

try zyra support.

use zyra mid runes and masteries.

**** all over the other team because they underestimate your power.

Save your ultimate for when they are running from you, your adc and your jungler.

Play supports that don't build traditional support items, like Zyra with her Rylai's. Carrying with a support means you have to make the plays, and you have to keep an eye on that map at all times and tell your teammates "Hey, this ****face Lee Sin is coming to gank you! All clear, you can head back now."

Literally support your team.

Hopefully you have a decent understanding of the game and can offer helpful pings and strategy as the game progresses. Simply offering advice as opposed to negative remarks can help keep a team in the game. If you're support and your team is falling apart the only think you can do is pick them back up, offer some hopeful tactics, and do your damndest to enable your team when the moment of truth arrives.

You have to be mechanically skilled just like an ADC or mid so never stop practicing.

The reason why supports get you out of ELO hell is because of map control, something thats rarely mastered till 1500+ ELO.

Learn jungle timers, ward that. Then ward everything else possible. Carry 5 extra wards and toss them around randomly for fun. Ward, ward, ward, ward. Buy and oracles. Kill their wards then put your own. Ward their base, ward every bush you walk into, dont stop warding. Follow someone, predict where theyre going, and ward there. DONT STOP WARDING.

I've just started up this season fresh maining support as I did in Season 2 as well. One thing I will say first is, Taric OP. I try and get him legitimately ANY game I can regardless of who I'm matched up against.

The biggest piece of advice I could offer personally is just knowing counter picks, and communicating to try and pull them through. Blitzcrank doesn't get banned, boohoo. Go Leona + Caitlyn and you'll wreck them. Sivir counter picked your Taric? Oh boy. You're screwed. Except when you've got a Draven.

I'm only 1516 ELO at the moment, but I'm sure I'll go to higher places. Just what I've done personally to improve that I feel set me a step ahead myself.

Maybe it'll be easier when Nami's released due to people not knowing how she plays, etc. Could be hidden potential waiting to happen.

Duo queue, or learn other roles. I played support in 50% of my games (Sona, Leona and Janna were my most played champs last season), and yeah... it wasn't pretty.

I'm currently learning how to roam as a mid and how to counterjungle as a, uh... jungler, because those are the roles that carry at this level, and because supporting 1100 elo kids is a Herculean task.