Learning to farm with... Episode 2

Learning to farm with...

Throwing a strange pick in here, and moving onto the support role! Usually supports DO NOT CS. That is the role of the AD carry, and the support tries to prevent the enemy ADC farming and keep their own carry safe from counter-harass. They also ward, set up kill opportunities for their carry and generally make life as easy as possible for the ADC. However, melee supports can grab relic shield which provides a nice buff to cs'ing and allows the support to share farm with the carry whenever they have a stack. All supports can use this, but only melee supports get the execute passive. however, one support that does not get this execute bonus, but often takes relic shield as their prime gold generation item is Thresh.




Thresh takes relic sheild because it's useful for him to build tank stats to perform his role as he does not scale very well with AP, so he builds CDR and tank items to get as many spells off as possible (and therefore CC people as much as possible), and therefore relic shield scales really well on him! With the introduction of Righteous Glory as well, starting Ancient Coin is becoming less and less viable for The Chain Warden. However, it can be hard to CS with him using relic shield because he does not benefit from the execute passive, and so it is important to have good CS'ing skills so you can focus on harassing and doing your job as a support while using the relic shield stacks!

Why Thresh

Thresh, as mentioned does not benefit from the execute passive on relic sheild despite building it. Therefore, duo to Thresh building NO AD it can be difficult at all stages of the game to get CS. On top of this you have to track your relic shield stacks so you don't steal your carries CS, and do all the normal support things like setting up kills with your amazing CC, warding and keeping you lane safe and harrassing the opposing ADC to make it harder for them to farm.

What makes this easier?

As a support you won't be constantly last hitting. The relic shield does have  a cooldown, so this will give you time to observe the waves, and how to control them, between last hits. Because you're not required to hit every CS you will find this to be less stressful than a solo laner would, and you get passive gold from your support item anyway so it's pretty hard to fall behind

Summary

Thresh is one of the only supports that has a hard time last hitting, and one of the few that is allowed to last hit while in lane with their ADC and not be called a troll. Therefore, if stuck in a support role and wanting to improve your CSing, Thresh is the prime pick.