League of Legends has evolved immensely over time since its release. The meta has shifted hundreds of times and so it has always been a question as to which runes are the best, especially for support. As for Season 12, many changes have been seen in the support role but don’t worry because we’ve got you covered!
The best runes in Season 12 have been Summon Aery, Glacial Augment, Aftershock, and Guardian. They have dominated the meta, synergizing best with meta champions like Lulu, Janna, Leona, and Rakan.
Also check out: Best ADC runes
Most Commonly Picked Runes for Supports in LoL
Glacial Augment
Season 12 brought a rework to the keystone from the Inspiration tree, Glacial Augment. It has been changed for the better and has observed a much higher pick rate since the start of the season.
Immobilizing an enemy champion will cause 3 glacial rays to emanate from them towards you and other nearby champions, creating icy zones that last up to 3 seconds. Enemies hit with icy zones are temporarily slowed and receive a 15% damage reduction to allies.
The new and updated Glacial Augment rune activates as soon as you hit an enemy champion with any strong form of crowd control such as a stun or a knock-up. It is extremely strong and synergizes best with champions such as Janna and Morgana.
It best synergizes with Magical Footwear / Perfect Timing, Biscuit Delivery / Future’s Market, and Cosmic Insight.
Summon Aery
Summon Aery is a poke-style keystone that does consistent damage upon poking the enemy champions with abilities and auto-attacks or summoner spells against them. It also gives a small shield to you yourself or to an ally who has been buffed.
Damaging basic attacks, abilities, item effects and summoner spells against an enemy champion signal Aery to pounce at them dealing damage. Healing, shielding, or buffing an ally champion signals Aery to jump to them, shielding them.
This rune is most commonly used by champions such as Lulu, Yuumi, and Soraka. It best synergizes with Manaflow Band, Transcendence / Celerity, and Scorch.
Also check out: Best top lane runes
Arcane Comet
Arcane Comet is a great rune for poking the enemy champions as a poke support champion. Damaging an enemy champion with an ability activates a comet to their location, dealing damage when it lands on them. Its cooldown is lowered upon hitting the enemy champion upon landing.
Dealing ability damage to an enemy champion hurls an Arcane Comet at their current location and deals damage upon landing.
This rune is best on champions such as Lux, Veigar, and Xerath. It best synergizes with Manaflow Band, Transcendence, and Gathering Storm.
Also check out: Best jungle runes
Aftershock
Aftershock is one of the top-picked keystones from the Resolve tree. It is most beneficial to engage champions like Nautilus and Leona. It grants the champion bonus resistance upon engagement, then dealing damage to nearby enemies in a circle.
Immobilizing an enemy champion grants static bonus armor and magic resistance for 2.5 seconds. After the duration, you release a shockwave that deals magic damage to champions and monsters nearby.
It synergizes best with Font of Life, Bone Plating / Second Wind, and Unflinching.
Guardian
Guardian has been a popular rune for a long time. It has consistently been strong on champions such as Thresh and Rakan, granting you and an ally a shield upon taking damage.
While within 350 units of an ally champion, you raise a guard against unit-targetted abilities for 3 seconds. If you or an ally champion take a certain amount of damage, the guardian keystone activates, granting you a shield for 2 seconds.
It best synergizes with Font of Life, Second Wind, and Unflinching.
What is the Support Role in League of Legends?
Support is one of the five roles in League of Legends that brings utility in the form of crowd control and enchanted buffs and debuffs to the rift. Their job is to make sure their ADCs have a smoother game.
A Support’s job is to ‘support’ the ADC in the form of crowd control, damage amplification, healing, etc. It is one of five roles in League of Legends that a player can pick when playing any of the Draft modes. It is one of the most important roles in the game because not only does it provide peel for the AD Carry, but also for the rest of the team in skirmishes and team fights.
The support role has many categories. A couple of those categories are:
- Enchanters
- Engage / Tank
Enchanter Supports
The enchanter category of support is more focused on amplifying their allies’ abilities and providing them with damage buffs. They are also good at providing defensive support such as disengage or a debuff for the enemy.
However, they are very fragile therefore they need to provide support from a distance and need to stay at the back of any fight.
A couple of examples are:
- Nami
- Lulu
Nami
Nami is one of the most popular support champions in League of Legends. She benefits best from Summon Aery as well as Electrocute. She offers two forms of crowd control with her Aqua Prison (Q) and Tidal Wave (R). She can also heal herself or an ally using Ebb and Flow (W). If the healed ally is close to an enemy champion, Nami deals damage to them. Finally, Nami also has an ally buff. Nami’s Tidecaller’s Blessing (E) empowers her ally’s next three attacks infusing bonus magic damage into them.
Nami is overall a great champion to have as your support as she provides a ton of utility for her ally.
Lulu
Lulu offers unique abilities that can be decisive in game-winning fights. She takes advantage of Summon Aery and Guardian as they synergize with her playstyle. She is often picked in the bot lane for her unmatched synergy with champions like Twitch and Kog’Maw. She can slow her enemies with Glitterlance (Q) and even polymorph them using Whimsy (W). She can also provide allies with bonus movement speed and attack speed if she casts Whimsy (W) on her allies. On top of that, Lulu can reveal the enemies using Help, Pix (E), enlarging them and granting them various buffs.
Lulu is either loved or hated for how useful she is and how annoying she is to play against. She is an excellent enchanter support and you should definitely try her out.
Engage or Tank Supports
This category of support champions focuses on being on the front line of skirmishes and fights. They are very durable and provide great crowd control for their carrys to take advantage of.
Engage supports are often referred to as tanks because of their strength and durability. They come very close to tank champions, however, they are not self-sufficient therefore they are played in the support role.
A couple of examples of engage supports are:
- Leona
- Nautilus
Leona
Leona is one of the highest-picked engage supports. Utilizing runes from the Resolve category such as Aftershock, she is a very powerful support champion known for her ability to lock targets down in place for a large duration. Leona can dash to an enemy after hitting them with Zenith’s Blade (E) stunning them and can follow up with a second stun using Shield of Daybreak (Q). She can also temporarily gain bonus resistance using Eclipse (W) and finally, she can stun or slow using Solar Flare (R). She is a pick or ban champion in any rank.
Nautilus
Nautilus is yet another exceptional engage support champion that takes advantage of the Aftershock keystone. He can hook a champion, dashing to them and knocking them up using Dredge Line (Q). Nautilus can also provide a shield for himself to add to his durability using his Titan’s Wrath (W) and slow the enemies around him using Riptide (E). Depth Charge (R) allows Nautilus to target an enemy champion from a distance, knocking them up after detonation. He also has an extremely convenient passive Staggered Blow which allows him to root any new target using an auto-attack.
Other Support Champions and Runes in League of Legends
Other meta support champions have been listed below:
- Senna (Fleet Footwork)
- Renata Glasc (Guardian)
- Pyke (Hail of Blades)
- Yuumi (Summon Aery)
- Morgana (Arcane Comet)
- Swain (Conqueror)
Final Thoughts
Various keystones and runes suit various champions. The same champion might utilize two different sets of runes based on the matchup of the playstyle. We recommend experimenting with each of them to see what you prefer best! What are your thoughts on the newest patch? We love hearing your feedback, so hit us with it in the comment section below!
(5 votes, average: 4.60 out of 5)
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