Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Supports that Work Mid

11:31 AM  , ,  No comments

I've experimented with a few of the greedier supports, and if you can put them mid, they scale extremely well.  They aren't the usual mids, or even really known as semi-carries but they can work.

Here's the list of supports I've tried that should go mid when possible, and why:

  • Warlock
    • Needs levels (extremely good teamfight skills)
    • Scales well with farm due to Ultimate and Agh's
  • Leshrac
    • Highly dependent on multiple items to reach full potential (Bloodstone, BKB)
    • Needs levels badly, especially before BKBs come out
    • Spammable nuke (Lightning) against enemy mid
    • Can push tower hard if enemy mid leaves lane
  • Lina
    • Ultimate is better at higher levels (compared to Lion, for example)
    • BKB-piercing ult with Agh's (one-shot those supports!)
    • Can become a powerful right-click semi-carry with her passive
    • Should leave mid at L6, refill mana, and gank at least once (repeat when ult available)
  • Phoenix
    • Now in Captain's Mode (6.85!)
    • Needs hp, health regen and levels desperately to have impact
    • Level 2 Ultimate (SuperNova) is much better than L1, due to survivability of egg.
    • Great early-Mek carrier (heavily benefits from Mek).
The following supports are viable mid, and scale reasonably well into midgame (gank & snowball).  However, they MUST be active around the map or in other lanes after Level 6, or their "time to shine" will pass them by:
  • Abaddon
    • Benefits from levels
    • Can get VERY tanky with the right items
    • Best with aggressive mid-game carries (DK, CK, Luna, Slark, etc)
  • Ancient Apparition
    • Needs L6 ASAP for Ult
    • Needs levels
    • Powerful Agh's upgrade
    • Can gank other lanes without leaving mid (after L6)
    • Can zone out melee opponents with Cold Feet and 600 range auto-attacks 
  • Bane
    • The early Fiend's Grip is an auto-kill on the enemy mid.
    • Tends to get focused lategame, and can really use an Hp item, or BKB
    • Really annoying for enemy mid to lane against
    • All Bane's abilities are more effective earlier in the game - the faster he can level them, the greater his impact.
  • Ogre Magi
    • Needs levels
    • Falls off hard lategame, but can have massive impact early-midgame with levels
    • Transitions surprisingly well into a right-click semi-carry with appropriate gear (Crystalis + Shiva's/Scythe)
    • Can alternately use his farm to get teamfight item (Veil, Pipe, Mek, Crimson, etc)
    • Should leave mid at L7 to roam and gank
  • Nyx
    • Needs levels
    • Needs to have early game impact and snowball (Dagon / E-blade, etc)
    • Leaves mid at L6 to gank
  • Earthshaker
  • Enigma
    • He's a better jungler, but if someone insists on the jungle and there's a solar and lunar eclipse at the same time and no one wants mid...
    • Eidolons allow zoning of enemy mid, and pulling lane back
    • Malefice stun is good defensively
    • Can push tower if enemy mid leaves lane
    • Needs levels - all his abilities are good.
    • Needs early Blink, benefits heavily from BKB.
  • Jakiro
    • Needs levels
    • Strong 1v1 laner (tough, great harass)
    • Get early Mek for ridiculous push
    • Benefits heavily from utility items (Force Staff, Veil, Eul's, etc.)
  • Mirana
  • Shadow Shaman
    • Needs levels
    • Needs hp, mana regen & mobility items badly
    • Can take mid tower at L6 with Serpent Wards
    • Downside:  vulnerable in mid, not very strong 1v1 laner (tends to push lane when harassing)
  • Windrunner
    • Scales well with items (Focus Fire ult) and levels (all abilities good)
    • Needs team synergy to be effective (on team with Drow, for example)
These supports are sometimes sent mid for an early level-6 ultimate. Usually happens when you have a jungling carry, the mid lane is available, and solo offlane is too dangerous:
  • Io (usually sent mid as part of dual mid - with CK, Tiny, Sven, or PA)
  • Lich (Sacrifice also annoying to enemy mid)
  • Treant (early levels in Living Armor to help other lanes, especially an aggro-tri)
The following supports should probably NOT go mid, ever, even though they scale well with levels, because they don't need items that badly, fall off too hard after midgame and can't snowball very well).  I've seen it done, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea:
  • Dazzle
  • Disruptor
  • Earth Spirit
  • Lion
  • Rubick
  • Shadow Demon
  • Treant
  • Visage
  • Witch Doctor
If you ever see these mid, go cut your eyes out and throw your computer out a window.  They scale extremely badly, and are wasted mid:
  • Chen
  • Crystal Maiden
  • Enchantress
  • Keeper of the Light

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