trilane supporting tips and tricks

So i would like to know more about supporting in a trilane.. when i do it i sometimes dont see to get enough levels. i mean i do pull, even double pull but at the end im sometimes still far behind.. cuz i need to stack and zone out the offlaner.. sometimes just dont get the xp i should be getting.. Any tips? ty

When U are playing support in a trilane and you are the one stacking for your mid or your carry, it´s ok to be a little underleveled, sometimes my carry is at lvl 6 and I´m only in lvl 2 or 3 because I am stacking, dewarding and securing runes. If U are a #5 it´s not a big problem. Of course, you also need some xp, but I usually get it when my carry or my mid is going to farm the stacks, I stand close to him so we can share some xp, but I leave him all the money from the jungle, which is the most important.

The best way to get XP in a trilane is to get kills. After all, getting kills is the whole point of doing a trilane in the first place.

So my advice is : do not try to zone the offlaner. Zoning is for dual lanes. Just try to kill him.

If the offlaner is playing extremely passive/scared and your carry is freefarming, essentially it means you don't have anything to do on this lane anymore, because it's already going well. So you have two options :

- Roaming mid

- Jungling

Of course jungling is only for a very restricted set of heroes e.g Sand King or Crystal Maiden.

Generally in pubs roaming mid is the best option, by far. It will net you XP as well BTW, because as always kills give tons of XP, so does stacking for your mid hero, so do bounty runes, etc. Besides your mid player is probably going to lose his lane if you don't bring out the baby wipes :)

It's ok to be behind a little throughout the game, farm the jungle and the lane when nobody else is farming there. What's slightly more important depends on who you're playing, if you're playing something like CM then levels isn't as important as gold or if you're Bane, then exp is more important that gold until a certain point in time. Their importance, exp and gold, isn't too far off from each other but just know what to prioritize.

With that in mind, what heroes are you playing? Some supports are better at several different things. CM for example is NOT a good zoner but she's good at getting gold/exp in the jungle, getting committed kills and roaming for kills after getting boots. While on the other hand let's say you have a Skywrath; he does a much better job at zoning AND roaming. So which support do you stick with the safelane core? Skywrath is the right answer;

Skywrath has:
A strong zoning ability
Good long range slow
%Dmg amp silence
MUCH faster movespeed
Longer attack range and faster attack projectiles

CM has:
Better crowdcontrols
Good global mana sustain
Easy jungle farm with Frostbite

CM's skillset means her getting the occasional jungle farm while securing the rune for herself (hopefully a bounty) or for the mid lane sets her up as the better roaming support in this scenario.

These are just examples but they're to illustrate that you should understand what heroes you're playing and adjust your play to it. Identify who's doing what and if you need to swap roles because you realize you're better at it... do it.

There's three major mistakes I see inexperienced supports do in a trilane:

1) Fail to get kills/firstblood. With three heroes with any kind of synergy, you've got a good chance of getting that early kill IF the opposition don't know you're there. Try not to show until you're in a good position to get a kill. This might mean waiting a creep wave or two out of vision, or going in hard straight away.

2) Neither support buying Sentry Ward. If the enemy offlaner can see you when you're waiting, it's easy for them to avoid you. It also gives their mid security to know where you are. Finally, they might block your pull camp - trilanes with no pulls and stacks is a poor trilane indeed.

3) Don't be too passive or assume you're just there to babysit. Trilane supports should be active around the map. Sure, make your presence felt in lane, ideally get kills/assists, make sure your lane is controlled and your carry fed. BUT, remember you can and should be stacking camps, jungling a bit, roaming, TPing to other lanes, smoking etc. Your carry doesn't want you sat there soaking XP too long unless they're Spectre or something, get them in good shape to solo, and go get stuff done.

As a support you can always farm the jungle with 2 supports. If you have a big camp stack and your safelane is safe you can clear it togheter with the other support. Try to roam mid and oflane or safelane. If your midlaner dies take over that lane so you get the exp. If you are getting more experienced with playing support your knowlegde about ganking and map control will improve alot. By playing support you will learn when and where the enemy heroes are and you can mostly estimate where the other team is going to gank. If you have the feeling the enemy team is going to gank the midlane just stand in the forest near the midlane so you can zap a bit exp and counter gank when possible.

Controling the map is what a support does and by doing so you get exp. I played support alot but only recently i start to be more active in the early game. If you want to learn to support better you should try to learn to gank in the early game. By playing heroes like Vengeful Spirit you will learn how to gank and this will translate into you getting better in warding, ganking and giving you a better feeling about the game.

If you have a better feeling about the game you will gain more exp because you wil get more kills and you will learn when to farm, when to pull and when to just soak some exp from another lane.