Pro supports carry with Zeke's Harbinger and Banner of Command

PRO SUPPORTS CARRY WITH ZEKE'S HARBINGER AND BANNER OF COMMAND



Supports rejoice, for you now have freedom! That is, freedom to build even more items that can get your carries to carry harder, your waves to push harder, and all around just do your best to win games on your own.

With Zeke's Harbinger entering the Rift and Banner of Command making its presence known in the 2015 LCS Summer Split Playoffs, bot lane players -- and their supportive top lane and jungle counterparts -- have more options than ever if they're looking to take over a game on their own. Many pro players have fallen in love with the pair of items, and Unicorns of Love's Zdravets "Hylissang" Galabov and H2K's Raymond "kaSing" Tsang certainly haven't avoided their charms.

COMMANDING THE LANES

Cannon minions do good work, and are deserving of a promotion. Whether they're sniping melee minions from afar or sieging down towers, they're the best friends of any team looking to beat up on their opponent's base. Fortunately, there's a good way to make them even better: Promote them using Banner of Command.

With its active, Promote, a target minion gains a ton of Magic Resist, Armor, and Attack Damage, making them much more formidable when pushing a wave. Plus, it makes them immune to magic damage. And that's not even mentioning the increase to their size, even if that's largely for intimidation purposes. What's more, it builds out of Aegis of the Legion, meaning it's a solid alternative purchase to Locket of the Iron Solari when team-wide shields aren't as necessary.



We've seen those powered up minions marching down lanes all over the place in the final Weeks of the 2015 LCS Summer Split and the Playoffs. Hylissang, in particular, is a big fan, having built it in four out of five of Unicorns of Love's games against ROCCAT in the Quarterfinals. "If you use it properly, it's really huge," he says. The proper way to use it? Dropping a Promoted minion into a lane without significant opposing champion pressure, giving it the opportunity to shove up the lane. "It guarantees that one of your side lanes will slowly push. And when you have a slow push, you can go with your team on the other side of the map."

That slow push in another lane basically replaces a split-pusher, allowing teams to look for objectives on the other side of the map. "Before you go to Baron, you can make bot lane split push," says Hylissang. "When you go to Baron, you have one huge wave splitting bottom with Banner of Command. You get Nash because of that, most likely."

As an added bonus, Promoted cannon minions are even more deadly when you add Baron buff. Because the cannons can sit outside of turret range and are immune to magic damage, post-Baron sieges are where Banner truly shines, explains kaSing. With wave-clearing mids like Orianna, Viktor, and Twisted Fate becoming so popular in the current meta, the invulnerability to Magic Damage that the Banner Promotion hands out is huge.



"You can siege and have one wave that [mages] can't really clear," he says. "Having Banner, you'll always keep damaging the tower. If you have a poke comp with Varus or something, then it works really, really well. All the mage mid laners can't find an answer, especially if they have an AD carry that doesn't have wave clear like Vayne or something."

When used the right moment, Banner of Command is one of the most powerful items a support can buy.

IT'S RAINING CRITS

Every support player knows the feeling: Your AD carry just isn't...carrying hard enough. Sure, they're spitting out damage with their Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer, but it's just not quite enough to close out that crucial team fight. One or two more crits and you're sure that fight would have gone your way.

Fortunately, the newly released Zeke's Harbinger is there to solve that oh so frustrating problem. After it's purchased, the support player can create a Conduit pairing with one of their teammates and together they charge it up by moving, attacking, and casting spells. Once the charges top out at 100 -- usually only taking a few seconds -- the duo gains 20% Ability Power and 50% Critical Strike Chance for eight seconds. It's a big ol', if temporary, buff.



Sure, you can buff your magic damage-dealing mid laner with it, but kaSing declares it more effective when it's paired with an AD carry. "It's mainly [bought] for the crit. On AD carries, eight seconds of 50% crit is really, really strong, especially in mid game team fights."

Hylissang agrees, saying, "If you build it first item, and you have [Infinity Edge] on your AD carry, it's really good for Dragon fights. You can stack it, then if they engage, you have Tristana with IE and Zeke's stacked up. She will start critting almost every auto-attack."

Don't think it's good in every composition, though. According to Hylissang, some AD carries certainly benefit much more than others. "Hypercarries with Zeke's are really good...[Zeke's being effective] depends on your ADC, really," he says. "If you have Corki, who doesn't build IE that early, it's not the best. It's good to build it for AD carries who buy Infinity Edge or [Phantom Dancer] first item, like Tristana or Caitlyn."



Hylissang also believes that mid lane champions that cast tons of spells at a rapid pace can certainly benefit from a supportive player nabbing Zeke's. He calls out Cassiopeia,Orianna, or Viktor as possible Conduit pairings for players looking to turn their caster buddies into a veritable killing machine.

And that's just what Zeke's Harbinger does; it makes it possible for one champion to become super powered, often to great effect.

A NEW ERA OF SUPPORTS

For a role so often focused around defensive capabilities and vision control, supports have a growing arsenal with which to assist their allies in carrying the game. Banner of Command and Zeke's Harbinger both provide immense power for the most gold-starved position on the Rift, and the pro supports are quite happy with what they can do with them.



"I always like these new items, because before you just built Righteous Glory, Locket, or Talisman, and that was all," laughs kaSing. "The fact that we have more item choice gives us more freedom to do what we want to do."

What impact will Zeke's Harbinger and Banner of Command have on the rest of the Playoffs? Watch Lolesports to find out.