Support Masteries

Today I will be going over some general mastery pages for the support role. There are generally two different pages that I switch between when having to play support. I will decide on which mastery page is most efficient depending on what champion I'm playing, and the enemy whom I'm against with (Draft mode). In special cases, I'll make specific changes to the allocation of some of the mastery points but generally these set ups will suit most champions and situations. Here are the pages that I use:

1-13-16

Offense

• 1 point in Summoner's Wrath to get the 10 armor/magic resist reduction for early all ins

Defense

• Standard armor, magic resist, HP masteries for tankiness
• Damage reduction from champions in order to take harass and come out ahead in all-ins

Utility

• Mana regen to harass more often in lane
• Summoner Spell cooldown reduction in order to have exhaust and flash up more often (45s shorter flash cooldown)
• Biscuit for extra sustain in lane (life saver for heavy ward starting items)
• Vision ward is very useful for level 1 strategies and scouting
• Gold generation masteries to help increase gold flow

Generally I like to use this page for offensive supports such as Leona, Thresh, Alistar, Taric, and even Sona. The damage reduction from champion combined with a potential early Doran's Shield buy will reduce damage from champion auto attacks by 13 which is massive early game. If you decide to go all in with all that damage reduction, and take potentially 4 autos from both the enemy AD and support, you have reduced 104 damage in that exchange. Considering early game you have less than 1000 HP, that is a hefty amount of health you will have saved. 

The rest of the utility tree masteries are pretty standard for supports, extra gold generation and starting gold will help out with your lack of farm and buy extra items at level 1. Summoner spell cooldown reduction is very useful especially if the enemy AD runs 9 in the defense tree. In the event you both blow your flashes during the same engage, there will be a 45 second window where the enemy AD is much more vulnerable.

9-0-21

Offense

• Extra 3% cooldown reduction
• Improved exhaust
• 10% Magic penetration for a bit of extra damage

Utility

• Mana regen to harass in lane or to support your AD more (heals and shields)
• Summoner Spell cooldown reduction to have summoners up more often
• Item cooldown reduction (useful if building active items like Locket of the Iron Solari or Shurelya's Reverie)
• 6% cooldown reduction (9% in total, very useful on long CD early game spells like Soraka's heal)
• 3% Movement speed will help you harass or avoid damage better

Generally I'll use this page for safer supports such as Soraka, Lulu, Janna, Nami, Zyra, and situationally Sona. This set up allows for more poke and sustain in the lane rather than all-in potential. Some modifications to these masteries may include taking 1 point out of item cooldown reduction and getting pickpocket, or taking armor penetration and attack damage per level instead of magic penetration. I generally don''t feel that pickpocket is that useful of a mastery point and would prefer being able to use my items more often. Supports like Janna can benefit from the armor penetration early game when harassing with auto attacks. You can also take out the Summoner's Wrath mastery and get an extra 1% in cooldown reduction if you do not plan to all in or trade heavily in the early game (e.g., Soraka) since the flat 10 armor and magic resist shred is not as impactful in the late game as it is in the early game.

So there you have it, two generic support set ups, one for short ranged offensive supports, and the other for long range defensive supports. Of course, these are just my preferences but hopefully it was able to give you some ideas and insight on support mastery options and you should always make changes according to the situation. Thanks for reading and as always don't forget to check out our Youtube and Twitter pages for more updates and content in the future!