Foreward:
This guide DOES come at an awkward time, but I have more than overlooked her changes on Wednesday and the way she is played as a support will not be affected by her new scaling and ability ratios. However, some items may be more preferable than others, but this build here is still solid. I will update on Wednesday with all the new details, so don’t you worry!

Introduction
Welcome one and all to the Church of Harley, I am your pastor, Rider! In this guide I will be going over how to play Harley Quinn in her most versatile, supporting role. Although I do enjoy playing her as a marksman, her playability in such a role will be severely hurt with the upcoming gameplay update at the end of the month, so I'm going to future proof this guide to the best of my ability!

Harley Quinn is one of the most interesting supports in the game. She's a great champion to learn the basics of lane zoning and dominance and a great team asset with a potent heal, two forms of hard crowd control and solid wave clear in order to push down towers fast!

Turbine's Official Tips and Bio:
Play Style:
Stay Close to Harley and her big hammer! Harley Quinn excels at helping her allies escape from tough situations.

About Harley Quinn:
Always fascinated by psychotic minds, psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel viewed the Joker as the case that would make her famous. During their therapy sessions, the Joker began slowly manipulating her, causing her to fall madly in love with him. She helped the Joker escape Arkham Asylum and became his accomplice in many crimes. Over time, her association with the Joker drew out the madness that always had lived within her. Harley eventually grew tired of the Joker's abusive behavior, and left him. She has since committed many notorious crimes on her own, and still has a soft spot in her heart for her "Puddin'". Harley is an extremely skilled gymnast, and has increased strength and agility. She also makes use of various joke-themed gadgets, such as giant hammers, pop-guns, etc...

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Augments

Wayne Enterprises Augment, Codename: Castle
+ 24.06 Health (G)
+ 3.25 Attack Armor (S)

Holt Holdings Augment, Codename: Forcefield
+ 3.9 Attack Armor (G)
+ 20.05 Health (S)

Holt Holdings Augment, Codename: Phalanx
+ .39 Attack Armor/lvl (Max 7.41) (G)
+ .39 Power Armor/lvl (Max 7.41) (G)

Holt Holdings Augment, Codename: Scorpion
+ 3.9 Attack Armor (G)
+ 2.52 Movement Speed

OR INSTEAD OF SCORPION:
Wayne Industries Augment, Codename: Wolf
+ 24.06 Health (G)
+ 3.25 Power Armor (S)

The most effective way to play Harley Quinn is to set the pace early with your zone control and auto-attack harass. Thus, I prefer to pick early game flat bonuses to armor and health. The additional armor and health from Castle and Forcefield make her surprisingly resilient to drone aggro and trades with the opposing marksman in lane (who is likely doing more physical damage than anything else).

I like to pick up Phalanx for the money stats it provides as it scales into the game. Likely you're not going to be needing as much power armor early because trading with the opposing marksman and mitigating drone damage is higher priority. Also with this build order you'll likely get some early power armor from your [[Gorilla Grodd's Helmet (2)]] or Oa Gambit (2) .

Lastly, I like to finish off with some more early attack armor or some power armor if my opponent has a strong magic controller in the lane. If I need more attack armor, I'll go for the (G)old with Scorpion, otherwise for more power armor I'll side with Wolf for the Health bonus as well.

How to build your own Augment set:
Just as an aside, if you're looking to customize this set of Augments or looking to make your own set for another champion, keep this little bit of information in mind: (G) (S) and (B) stand for Gold, Silver and Bronze, respectively. That means that Gold has the best rated stats of any Augment for that stat. Silver is a little worse and so on and so forth. All in all, never use an Augment that has a bronze rated stat. I guarantee you can find a variation with the stat you are looking for that has a silver or gold variant!

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Mods

THE MOST IMPORTANT MOD YOU WILL EVER PURCHASE

Empowered Amulet Of Isis (3)
Keyword: Mercury's Gift: - Activate to give nearby allies a 30% movement speed boost for 8 seconds. (Tier 3)

This mod is so vital on most any champion in the game that can make decent use of its stats. Hell, even if a champion doesn't need the will regeneration that Isis provides, the other stats more than make up for it. What makes this item and this mod a true tour de force is the increased movement speed buff and increased duration for modding it. This can make the difference between a disaster or a safe retreat. A decisive engagement or a sloppy extended teamfight. The item is so cost effective that as long as you're not one of the hyper carries on your team (like a blaster or a marksman) I'd consider including it in your buildpath. (Yes, I'm looking at you top and jungle!)


Altered [[Gorilla Grodd's Helmet (2)]]
Artifact gains Investment 1: 3 Credits per 10s at Tier 1 and Investment 2: 5 Credits per 10s at Tier 2.

You know what stinks? Sharing a lane with someone else. You get almost NO gold for your time spent in the lane and if you don't get some kills or assists you're totally hosed going into midgame! That's where investment comes in, so you can make sure that you still have a somewhat steady source of income. Also, the stats on Grodd's are pretty nice in that you get will for your heal and the power armor that you omitted from your augments.


Empowered [[Abin Sur's Lantern (2)]]
Will Harvest: Gain stacks every 45s. (Tier 2)

So we haven't gone into Harley's skills into detail yet, but two of her main supporting abilities scale off of her bonus will. What better way to get bonus will than from Abin Sur's. And with a stack earned every 45 seconds instead of every 90, it stacks that much faster - capping out at 400 bonus will and then a bonus 10% CDR for fully stacking it.

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Stolen Powers


These two Stolen Powers are the top of the tops for competitive teamplay (though not necessarily for solo queue). As a support, one of your biggest responsibilities is owning the vision of your half of the map. This is best achieved by X-Ray Vision which gives you a good window of figuring out where enemy cameras are and/or clearing them out. X-Ray is best used in tandem with Surveillance Cameras so once you clear enemy cameras you can place your own.

As for why Blue Beetle's and Robin's? I prefer Blue Beetles because any amount of gold is to be desired on support and if they're warding a lot, you're likely getting at least 30-60 gold per X-Ray Cooldown. Also, every time your own ward is cleared by an enemy and you have Blue Beetle's, you'll get that 30 gold bonus. I don't think that is an intended function onf the Stolen Power, but it hasn't been fixed since Blue Beetle's release so take advantage of it anyway.

I prefer Robin's cameras because 5 charges are really rad for if your enemy is clearing out your wards. You won't have domineering control over enemy vision as if you took Green Arrow's surveillance cameras, but you don't need to recall to base every two minutes with Robin's. Also, as the game gets later, your cameras aren't so much a tool to deny enemy vision so much as they are to provide yourself vision. The more vision your team has between Raider (EMP) Towers and cameras, the better.



All of these Stolen Powers are sufficient alternatives to the two listed above. I only don't list Gaslight Catwoman's X-Ray because I don't think the extra range on the vision makes it a viable alternative to a lower CD or more gold.

Solo Queue Superstar Stolen Powers
If you're finding that people aren't taking advantage of your master-level vision control, you can always build greedy and take other Stolen Powers that keep you alive longer so you can be a true superstar.



Swap out your X-Ray for one of the Healing Wave spells and then you can provide your team a neat buff while increasing your effective HP pool. Heal can help you out in a bind and the additional defensive stats or offensive stats from either empowered heal may prove the difference between you surviving and getting the kill or you just coming up short.

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Item Build

DISCLAIMER: Many items are changing with the September 24th, so this build is subject to change at that point and I will be putting out an update at that point.

Starting Items

[[Gorilla Grodd's Helmet (1)]] &  Modular Health Vial (2)
Walking out of base I take these two items and walk to lane to ward with 400 gold in the bank. By buying the health vials now instead of later, you actually have two charges as the laning phase starts instead of only being able to conceivably getting one.

After your passive gold gain has gotten you to 500 gold, immediately upgrade your Grodd's to [[Gorilla Grodd's Helmet (2)]]. I already got into it a little in the mods section about why you need that Grodd's, but you need that Gold Gain, and Grodd's has stats that any young Harley Quinn needs to be a grown-up support-carry.

Core Items

[[Abin Sur's Lantern (2)]] & Amulet Of Isis (3) & Entropy Aegis (3)

Much like I already mentioned in the mods section for the first two items, but those two are your bread and butter. The amount of will that the Lantern will give you combined with the team utility of the Isis is truly intense. Just NEVER FORGET that your Amulet of Isis has an active ability! You have to press the number of the item in order to get its true potential and get that move speed boost for your team. 

The last "core" item I'd suggest is that you build is Entropy Aegis (3). In most scenarios the enemy team is going to have som form of blaster that is going to be keen to blow you up in order to get a teamfight underway. What better way to prevent that than by giving yourself a spellshield and power armor. Also, Aegis boosts your will pool, further boosting your heal potential for your team.

Optional/Situational Items

[[Metallo's Heart (3)]]
If the enemy team has a lot of attack damage assassins and bruisers you might want to consider picking up a Metallo's Heart. It gives a fair amount of armor, will and cooldown reduction. All three stats are vital to being a will tank and being deceptively durable in teamfight situations. However, if you're finding that your hp pool isn't enough consider...

[[Booster Gold's Power Suit (3)]]
Instead of will, this item gives you health and the same stats as Metallo's Heart. Also the keyword makes you able to be the pointman on dives because you can take way more damage from turrets. The amount of health and armor makes Harley seem more and more like an enforcer.

Suit Of Sorrows (4)
Now if youre really having a tough time with AD assassins on the other team and their marksman is fed as well, now you may be in desperation armor mode. Suit of Sorrows gets you some bang for your buck in that it gives a hell of a lot of armor and then the keyword to reflect some of that damage back at your would-be assainators. That little bit of damage reflect may make the difference, but I do find that Suit of Sorrows doesn't seem as helpful without a substantial HP pool.

[[Steel's Breastplate (3)]]
Steel's Breastplate is a cute item that uses your substantial will pool for good use. This item used to be king when its damage mitigation was a toggle and not a duration, but if you can use the active at the right time it can pay for itself. It gives you attack armor and will and the keyword activation applies 20% of the damage you receive to your will pool instead of health for five seconds, so it's not too bad.

Consider if you want damage and will

Eye Of Ekron (4) & [[Rip Hunter's Time Pack (4)]] & [[Deadshot's Visor (3)]]

Eye of Ekron will end up being the most viable of the bunch once the new update rolls around in that it gives you Power Damage based on your will pool and also gives you will. Harley's new version of Pies! will have both a will and PD ratio so this one is worth considering for more damage.

Rip Hunter's would be nice if it didn't have as much CDR and had some other stats instead. But it does provide attack damage and will so you can do more work with your auto attacks. It's active is really neat and worth playing around with because you can set up people chasing you by teleporting back to your marker and using your hammer to knock your pursuer into your team.

Deadshot's Visor was once known as the item designed for Harley Quinn. It gives Attack Damage, Attack Speed and will and has the toggle ability to consume some of your will to amplify your on hit damage. If you find yourself auto-attacking a hell of a lot and you have a lot of will items already, you can always consider this item to up your damage contribution.

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Skills

Passive: B.F.F.S
Whenever Harley executes a skill, she gains 10% (+1% per 333 Bonus Will) Attack Speed and 5% (+1% per 333 Bonus Will) Move Speed for 3 seconds. If an ally is nearby, the ally also receives the boosts.

Move Speed:     5%    7.5%    10%    12.5%
Attack Speed:    10%  12.5%  15%    17.5%

Explanation:
This ability in tandem with her Q ability is what makes Harley Quinn such a formidable component to push compositions. Make sure to keep note of who has your BFF buff by looking for the four diamonds on the ground at your best friend champion's feet. Whenever you cast any of Harley's four abilities (with the exception of casting "Best Medicine" on someone other than your targer) they will get this movement speed buff and attack speed buff.

When trying to maintain your team at tip-top fighting condition, it’s prudent in extended teamfights to wait the full 3 seconds between casting abilities in order to get the most bang for your buck. While in dire straits, you shouldn’t hesitate to cast a heal and a knockback in quick succession to save you or your carry’s life. In extended engagements and skirmishes – DO NOT PANIC – time your abilities and get the most attack speed and movement speed that you can.

This ability to pace the usage of your buff also really comes in handy when pushing turrets. If you are attacking a turret with your carry while your enemies are away or have an odd-man rush, make sure to space your abilities and keep BFFs on the primary auto-attack based carry to get the most damage on the turret.
Because you can buff attack speed consistently, Harley becomes a fearsome pushing asset!

Q: Pies!
Harley Quinn throws pies at the three targets closest to her. Each pie deals 50 Attack Damage.

Damage:          50     100     150     200     + 50% Bonus AD & + 70% Power Damage
Cooldown:        11      10       9        8
Cost:                 35      50      65      80

Explanation:
Pies is simultaneously both Harley Quinn’s primary form of waveclear and poke in the laning phase. It has good base stats but it isn’t a “one-point wonder” so make sure to max it first so you can hit harder in the early game.

The big thing that you’re going to need to learn about Pies! is its range. It’s slightly further than your basic attack so you’ll find that you can scrounge up a lot of “fadeaway” kills when your opponent seems just out of range of both you and your marksman in lane.  Once you have a command of how far your three pies go, you can then much more creatively place yourself in lane to get optimal damage output.

I find a good rule of thumb is to try to get at least one lane opponent in range of your Q before casting it to get the most value out of it.  You have to remember a couple of things when placing yourself in position to harass your opponents. Make sure that your opponent is one of the three closest targets. Pies! hits the three closest targets regardless of them being champions or not, so be sure not to lose some damage out on drones!  Also make sure you’re not going too insane when you’re trying to harass certain “pokey” champions. Some movement patterns you take to position your Pies against certain comps may end up getting you absolutely destroyed by others.
Specifically look out for Green Arrow and Joker. They can really do a number to you in a short period of time!

W: Back Off
Harley Quinn knocks a targeted enemy back and deals 60 Attack Damage.

Damage:          60     105     150     195      + 65% Bonus AD
Cooldown:        16     14       12       10
 
Explanation:
This spell is as straightforward as they come. It’s your go-to “oh crap” button. If some nasty assassin or baddie is looking to spoil your day, just a quick tap of the ‘w’ key and bam, they’re at full auto attack range distance away from you! However, the distance that your enemy needs to be from you before Back Off works is extremely close. They really have to be in your face before you can use the spell so don’t necessarily walk towards them in order to knock them back because you’ll be wasting the distance that you’ve successfully retreated!

However, Back Off, isn’t always a defensive spell and there are a couple ways of using it offensively. Your most trustworthy thing you need to remember is that the champions fly and are knocked down for a fixed duration.  Though Harley Quinn no longer stuns enemies she knocks into walls, it is still somewhat prudent if you’re trying to secure a gank or a teamfight to knock your target into a nearby wall. They will still be cc’d for the duration of the knockback, but not travel any further because of the wall or obstacle allowing more time for your teammates to catch them and chain crowd control.

The last somewhat cheeky thing you can do with Back Off is to use it in tandem with [[Rip Hunter's Time Pack (4)]] . Say you’re being chased by an especially thirsty foe, simply activate the Time Pack, walk a couple steps and make sure he continues to follow you past your Time Pack marker, activate it again and then send him flying into the awaiting arms of your allies. You’re sure to wow several of your friends and randoms in solo queue if you can pull of this rad maneuver.

As far as skilling this goes, always skill this last. You’re doing it for the displacement moreso than any of the damage that ranking it up provides.

E: Best Medicine
Target allied champion regains 45 Health and receives the BFFs effect.

Heal:          45     90     135      180     + 17.5% Bonus Will
Cooldown: 20     18      16        14
Cost:          45     65      85       105

Explanation:
Best Medicine is another very straightforward spell. You cast on yourself or an ally, they are healed and gain your BFFs passive. Getting the most of this spell is just simply practice. Every time you want to use it in lane on yourself you have to consider if you’re likely to be in an extended fight for the next 18 seconds. Its cooldown is quite large for not a little pay out early, so definitely get a feel for the ebb and flow of the laning phase.

Later on in the game when you’ve built a substantial will pool, this spell becomes an absolute monster. You will be able to cast heals over 500 health (25% of the average Marksman’s health pool) with a single spell. Its cooldown will be lower and this is what allows Harley to be exceptional at protracting skirmishes until her team outsustains the enemy in battle.

R: Puddin’ Time
Harley Quinn smashes her hammer to the ground, dealing 100 Attack Damage in a cone. Enemies caught in the cone are Knocked Up for 0.50 seconds.

Damage:          100     175     250     325      + 65% Bonus AD & 80% Bonus Power Damage
Knock-Up:        .5        .6        .7        .8         + 0.04% Bonus Will
Cooldown:        125     115     105     95
Cost:                 90       100    110     120
 
Explanation:
Harley’s ultimate ability is a real teamfight monster. The cone in which it does its damage is quite substantial and it is key for interrupting key spells that may be ruining your team’s day. I find that pudding time is a great follow up to further cement Area of Effect mages in succeeding in teamfights, or a really good disable from range to shut down enemy wombo combos.

Key things you want to use Puddin’ Time on are Nightmare Batman’s ultimate or Wonder Woman’s Ultimate to free your teammates from their devastating effects in fights.
Other than that, do not be afraid to use it to secure kills in ganks and laning phase. It has a significant amount of damage and the knock-up crowd control provides a substantial window for your team to get more damage out.

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Conclusion:
In conclusion, I think Harley Quinn is an underestimated support pick that provides significant damage and crowd control while also sustaining her team through long fights. She’s only going to get stronger with her skill changes on September 24th and though she is listed as an “easy” support she definitely requires a different mindset from the current popular support picks