League-of-legends – it the best time to leave the Laning Phase

Left to their devices, minions will eventually be able to push even to the base turrets. Which side accomplishes this, however, is random, and it's basically based on how attacks are being distributed.

Minion targetting works on the following priority scheme, brought to you by the League of Legends Wiki:

1. An enemy champion who is attacking an allied champion.
2. An enemy minion who is attacking an allied champion.
3. An enemy minion who is attacking an allied minion.
4. An enemy turret who is attacking an allied minion.
5. An enemy champion who is attacking an allied minion. (Tangential, but this lower priority is why they don't pay attention to you when they're bashing your towers)
6. The closest enemy minion.
7. The closest enemy champion.

Now, when waves engage each other, there are a lot of minions attacking a lot of minions. So each minion picks some sort of target, but it is mostly random within that scope. So blue's caster minions could all be focusing down one purple melee minion, while purple's caster minions are split with two on one blue caster and one on a blue melee. The focus fire will reduce the enemy numbers, in turn resulting in one side having an advantage. But because how the focus fire is attributed is random (both mechanically and because the actual positioning of the minions can differ greatly as a result), the side that gets an advantage is completely random.

This compounds due to two major factors as the game progresses.

• Once siege minions enter the fray, they both deal more damage and take substantially more damage. They can prolong battles long enough for secondary and tertiary minion waves to support them, which can greatly turn the tide of battle even more depending again on how focus fire is attributed.
• If a small minion wave pushes far enough, then when the next minion wave comes in the enemy will have a shorter travel time before its support shows up. With the aforementioned siege minion stalling, the end result is that one side builds up a massive force that just has to deal with the opposing side one wave at a time.

As such, eventually, they amass enough force to push down full towers, much harder than the defense can manage. Even when the defense can stall, the sheer numbers built up from the initial push can have a devastating advantage... at least until their focusing messes up and the force builds up in the opposite side.

Each support champion plays a different role (e.g Teemo would play differently than Sona, Soraka would play differently than Fiddlesticks). If you're looking at a specific support, perhaps you should ask "How do you play Sona as support effectively?".

In general, if you're claiming the role of support your biggest responsibility is do cater to the whims of the range AD you will roll with bottom lane. Often times when I play support I'll ask the range AD which he/she would prefer (Some like having the auras and diversity Sona can provide, while some like the extra control Janna can offer, and others like the extra mana from Soraka).

Regardless of the support champion you end up with there are a few important jobs you have:

• Ward: Vision is key to preventing ganks and following enemey movements, as you're support and $$ is less important to you than other roles, spend it on wards (here is a guide on it Where/How to ward
• Clairvoyence(CV): Get the ability it'll help with finding junglers, keeping up with dragon/blue/red/baron spawns, and also is useful to toss in Top's river every once in awhile(saves him from being ganked)
• Let your partner get last hits, in fact unless necessary don't even bother hitting minions unless you're pushing. If you're doing damage and your partner is trying to last hit, your damage may mess up their timing.
• Be map aware: This ties in with Ward and cv, but keep an eye on where champions are in case you need to alert your partner to back off. Also, you may get pings to cv certain locations, so pay attention.
• When possible buy an oracles elixer to help kill enemy wards. This will prevent them from being map aware!
• Do what your class is made to do. As this is class specific, I'm not going to elaborate but if your skills can benefit your lane partner use them when needed.

Playing support will take some getting used to, but they can be fun. Don't expect to be the highest level on your team, don't expect to have a full set of items quickly, don't expect to be rich. Unless your character can handle it, you shouldn't be near the front of team fights.

This is only some basic tips, and I'm sure I'm missing some, but it will get you going.