Playing a support champion in League of Legends can be a daunting task due to the variety of characters and items that can be confusing when you first start. While most players quickly figure out what a champion does over the course of a couple of games, learning which items are better than others can be much harder.
Here’s everything you need to know about support itemization and how to spend your gold efficiently on items that can carry you through a game, regardless of which support archetype you’re playing—tank, enchanter, mage, or assassin.
Starting items
You’ll have a different starting item depending on which type of support you’re playing. While enchanters or mages focus on getting ability power and mana regeneration, assassins want some attack damage while tanks aim to get a health boost.
Spellthief’s Edge
This mage support item grants ability power, health, and a great passive that gives you additional gold when you poke your laning opponents. It’s recommended for supports like Lulu, Morgana, Brand, or Lux.
Steel Shoulderguards
This is the AD support item that grants you attack damage, health, and a passive to increase your gold income. This item is perfect for tanky AD oriented supports, such as Thresh, Blitzcrank, or Leona. The priority for the passive goes from cannon minion to melee minion to ranged minion. The cannon minion grants you the most gold, so saving stacks for it is a priority.
Relic Shield
This AP tank item grants you ability power instead of attack damage and is recommended to be purchased if you’re playing a champion like Nautilus, Rakan, or Bard. The priority for the passive is the same as Steel Shoulderguards.
Spectral Sickle
This is the AD version of Spellthief’s Edge. It’s mainly purchased by Senna support due to how well she scales with the stats given by the item. It can be argued that this is Senna’s item since no other bottom laners build it.
Boots options
Boots of Mobility
These are the core boots for most roaming supports. If you picked a champion like Nautilus, Leona, or Alistar who needs to roam constantly, these boots should be a priority for you. They allow you to cover huge distances in the blink of an eye.
Boots of Swiftness
These boots are a great alternative for roaming champions if you’re facing opponents who have a lot of movement-slowing effects. They’ll grant you less mobility out-of-combat, but their in-combat movement is higher compared to Boots of Mobility. The effect also allows you to get back to your normal movement speed much faster if you’re slowed.
Ionian Boots of Lucidity
The Ionian Boots of Lucidity are the core boots for an enchanter who’s hugging their carry. These boots will reduce your ability’s cooldowns by 10 percent, as well as your summoner spells. The movement speed granted by them is nice, but not as high as Swiftness or Mobility. It’s more than enough to allow you to roam if you need to, though.
Sorcerer’s Shoes
These are the bread and butter boots for Xerath, Brand, Lux, or any other ability power-oriented mage supporting a carry. You want to get early magic penetration to deal as much damage as possible and harass enemy laners. If you get an Oblivion Orb afterward, you’ll be doing true damage to most champions who didn’t buy a magic resist item.
Ninja Tabi
While other boot options are more valuable than Tabi, these will come in handy against heavy attack damage-oriented teams that rely on auto attacks. An example would be facing Yasuo, Yone, Caitlyn, or Pantheon. Tabi will increase your survivability by a lot against such champions, making it a precious pick in those matchups.
Mercury’s Treads
If you’re facing a heavy ability power-focused team or a composition that has too much crowd control, Mercury’s Treads is a must-buy item. It gives you essential early magic resist and reduces the duration from any crowd control landed on you.