This is a collaboration piece with DovaDoesntLIE. I main support so its hard for me to tell people how to play behind from a dps standpoint. Overall support is going to be behind, and it shouldn’t matter all that much to be a couple levels behind. Supports are still effective from behind and their items are all fairly inexpensive. DovaDoesntLIE is the only one of use, with considerable ranked Conquest experience. Straight off at level 30, he was matching up in ranked conquest against fan-favorites: Incon, weak3n, kikisocheeky, and cyclonespin. He would also like to mention he has played ranked with manray, and that he loves him. He was BMed by akillathehun, so he really doesn’t like him.
Cake:
Since playing from behind is more relevant and more of a pressing matter in Conquest, this post focuses on Conquest and to some extent Siege/Clash.
If you find yourself behind in lane, and no one is coming in for ganks, then it is important that you always keep your guard up. If you are levels behind everyone but the support on the enemy team, chances are they are looking at you like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Ward, ward, ward. They cost money, and they will save your life, just make sure you aren’t going to overextend, and you will be safe in most all situations. This goes hand in hand with not overextending, but stay close to your tower, you never know when you’re going to start losing a fight. Stay close so that you can retreat into it when necessary.
Stay on top of wave and get buff and exp camps before you back and when you come back from base. If people (junglers) are getting angry at you for dropping their yellow as you return to lane, let them know that you are behind and if they want to win the game, they need to let you get some farm. (Note: only drop speed buff if the jungler is alive, the enemy jungler is at risk for stealing it, or if the jungler is nearby). If everyone is behind, you are going to want to split wave and camps. ADCs and Mids will have priority over these camps since they are supposed to be a ray of hope in the late game.
This is probably the extent to where I can help most people with this problem, with the support knowledge that I have. I’ll leave the rest up to Dova.
Dova:
This is going to be almost purely for conquest, but if you really reword my advice it can be used to fit most any situation. This is not advice that always works in every situation, but is more of a general rule-of-thumb.
A VERY important thing to remember is that you being down in levels is NOT the end of the game. Games should NEVER be thrown because you are underleveled and upset about it, even if you are getting repeatedly ganked. If the enemy jungler is farming your lane while you are down, that means your team can be applying pressure to other lanes where help is actually useful.
Should I stay or should I go? Imagine this, you are a level or two behind your counterpart and you can see they are heading towards a potential teamfight in the midlane, so what’s the play?
A. You can try to steal a buff and farm waves while they are gone.
B. You can take a safe route to the fight and stay at a distance, sacrificing lane farm.
C. You can aim to gank to the low health enemies and finish them off for the kill bonus.
D. You can act like your counterpart never left, and never let your team know that a gank may be heading their way.
If you are in the solo lane, then most of the time A will be a good choice, so long as you tell your team to expect the enemy solo to be heading their way. Farm is HUGE for the solo lane, and having a blue buff while the enemy does not is a fantastic way to start catching up quickly. If you are a agile solo laner and are confident you can finish off a kill without being killed, then you can also try C.
If you are a jungler or a mid-laner, most of the the time if you can see your fed counterpart rotating you are already too late to really swing the fight. From that point you need to decide if you feel that you can try to help, without being killed, and if you can help while being safe, is it worth it? You should be leaning towards B or C if you feel that the fight has a potential to swing if you arrive, but if that is not the case then farm up with A. Junglers are better at C than mages, but a well timed ability from the mage can just steamroll an unsuspecting enemy.
If you are an ADC then you really have to think about this. Rotations from your lane don’t happen very often so you need to consider how big this fight is going to be, where it will take place, and how you will be able to help your team. Certain gods are just flat out better at rotating, and others can offer help from a distance so consider how quickly both you and your counterpart will arrive, and how well your ultimate would do in a team fight. Your ultimate is the main way you can help your team while staying safe, which is the most important thing as an underleveled carry. A is normally the safest and easiest option, but B can be done really well if you position yourself exactly where you need to be. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PUSH THE FARM TO THE ENEMY TOWER OR STEAL BUFF IF YOU HAVE NO VISION IN THE JUNGLE. The worst thing to do is letting them gank you because you wanted the extra farm, well second only to D, which ADCs will do the most out of any role.
If you are a support then the it is almost always the right answer to go is B. Everyone and their dead ancestors will hate you if you do anything remotely close to D. Supports get no farm anyways, lets be real. Don’t try to be a self-sacrificing hero and die over and over whilst telling yourself it was so your team may live, but don’t act like you won’t be helpful if you are underleveled because you are always underleveled as a support. Support counterganks are a great way to stall a lane or simply just prevent the potential from the gank to get the kill so don’t worry about farm being lost.
With careful play you can start winning, even when you are losing.
-VVGL
Your SMITE Support 