FOTM Report: Camille Support

Hang on...what? That's right, we've taken arguably the most overpowered top laner and placed her as...support. In one of the latest NA LCS matches, Echo Fox picked up Camille early, only to switch her over to support at the last moment against FlyQuest.
This provided them the opportunity to counterpick Swain against Poppy, kept Camille out of the enemy hands, and surprisingly provided a pretty decent support for the team. How the heck does it work though? Let's check out the highlights:

Introduction

Hang on...what? That's right, we've taken arguably the most overpowered top laner and placed her as...support. In one of the latest NA LCS matches, Echo Fox picked up Camille early, only to switch her over to support at the last moment against FlyQuest.

This provided them the opportunity to counter-pick Swain against Poppy, kept Camille out of the enemy hands, and surprisingly provided a pretty decent support for the team. How the heck does it work though? Let's check out the highlights:

How to Play

Runes: Flat Armor Quints, Attack Damage Reds, Flat Health Yellows, Flat Magic Resist Blues
Masteries: 0-12-18, Courage of the Colossus Masteries
Abilities: E, Q, W then prioritize R > E > W > Q
Summoner Spells: Flash + Ignite
Starting Items: Relic Shield + Potions
Core Items: Eye of the Equinox, Boots of Mobility, Redemption, Locket of the Iron Solari, Iceborn Gauntlet, Knight's Vow

Why It Works

Powerful Long Range Engagement Power

Camille's ability to engage from long range allows her to gank enemy targets from absurd distances for an instant stun. This allows her to initate from a large variety of angles, resulting in the ability to catch enemy targets off guard. Just check out this insane first blood by Gate against FlyQuest if you need more proof.

Powerful Isolation Ability
Although Camille support deals less damage than Camille top, she still provides a powerful isolation ability in the form of her ultimate. This allows her to pick off squishies, and the base percentage damage on her ultimate also allows her to peel tanks off of her carry if necessary.

Good Shield-Based Sustain
Although Camille does not offer any direct sustain for her carry outside of the Targon's proc, she can trade with enemy laners to some extent via her passive. Combined with her Tactical Sweeper (W), she can stay healthy in lane, hold aggro, and be a general nuisance.

Potential Pitfalls

Marksman Reliant
Late game, Camille can still be very strong when it comes to soloing enemy champions. However, she needs to build tanky in order to survive through laning phase. This means that she deals considerably less damage than a lot of ranged burst mages that are common bot lane, and can result in being outplayed if she does not have enough damage to follow up on her stun.

Weak Peeling Power Early
Camille needs enemies to be close to the wall in order to land her stun without flash. This means that if the enemy laner positions properly, it can be very difficult to trade effectively, especially if the enemy laners decide to focus your marksman early on..

Snowball Reliant
If Camille's lane gets ahead and she becomes tanky enough to jump around the map at will, Camille can feel extremely overwhelming. However, if she fails early, she could simply be jumping around to her death.

Difficult to Practice in Ranked
Camille is essentially permabanned for the majority of ranked games. This means that most players won't have an opportunity to practice playing her, and unfortunately she is not a very forgiving champion if you fall behind.

Conclusions

Camille support could potentially work in an organized team composition as displayed by the recent picks in NA LCS. However, I wouldn't recommend trying her in solo queue or thinking about maining it any time soon considering how much she's banned for her top lane power.

Feel free to try it out in a normal and let us know how it goes though!

Suggested Rating: Tier 3

What do you think about Camille Support? Comment below!