RANK 1 SUPPORT TEACHES YOU HOW TO LAND YOUR SKILLSHOTS

Hi I'm Stunt, a former pro support, multiple time rank 1, challenger s3-s14 support. I'm writing these guides to share my knowledge with the community, hope it helps!

Though it’s hard to guarantee skillshots to land 100% of the time, there are certain rules you can follow that can help maximize your chances of hitting spells.

Forced actions are moves people have to do to achieve a certain result. A basic example is last hitting. If a champion wants to last hit, they need to auto or shoot a spell at a minion while it's low. This is great time to shoot a skillshot because the enemy will be locked in their last hit or spell animation and will be less able to dodge. A more advanced example is when people have to flash/dash a certain direction to live. You can predict where they will dash with your skillshot because they have to go there to live.

When you are trying to land a skillshot, you ideally want to shoot it when the enemy has less options. And when you are trying to dodge a skillshot, you want to walk in a way that gives yourself the most movement options as possible. Examples of areas that have less movement options are choke points that only let you walk one or two ways such as next to a turret. The most movement options you can get is open space.

In general, it's better to layer the easy to land CC first into the harder one. For example, on Thresh you can slow them first with flay before shooting hook. Or you can wait for Varus E or Ashe W to slow them before trying to land your own spell.

Most players have subconscious habits when it comes to movement. Pay attention to how the enemy moves in lane and how they try to dodge your first couple of spells and incorporate that into how you shoot your next skillshot. For example, if the enemy ADC dodges a spell to the left twice, next time I will guess left. Or if they constantly move left right left right in lane, then you can just aim where they're about to be even though it's seemingly random.

People will want to throw their skillshots when your movement is predictable, so wait until they think youre movement is predictable and then do a sudden change in movement. They will shoot their skillshot where they think you will be in 1 second.

If you don't have a good angle to land a skillshot, sometimes the best way to generate pressure is to just not use the skillshot at all until you have more landing conditions met. This at least gives the threat of you being able to use the spell on them at any time. Same applies to chasing. If you have a lot of room to chase, you can just hold the skillshot while they keep trying to dodge until they're forced to finally walk in a predictable way.

I hope this guide helps you guys think a bit more about how you send out your skillshots. At the end of the day we'll all just probably throw them out randomly anyways.