Hello, this is a support 101 guide about all the support characters and when to play them. In this guide I hope you will see a new light with support characters, as they are often seen "Underpowered" with an exception few. Support characters are exactly what they sound like, they support the team, and rather then kills, they get assist, for the most part. Support characters are based on utility of helping their team mates rather then the skills to just purely bash someone's face in. This could be anything to aura's (Like Sona), to healing (Like Soraka and Taric) To providing shields (Like Janna and Karma). In all situations, Support champions should be prepared to help their team mates at all times, whether it would be healing, shielding, or buffing your team.

Pros

-You help get your team "fed"
-You provide many useful things to a team
-You provide sight, usually with wards

Cons

-You make or break the team, depending how good you do
-You are usually squishy playing as a support champion
-You will be aimed for when they see you're keeping the team alive
-You will usually have a very little damage output
-You usually can't save yourself when you're alone

-What to get

The preferable skills on most support champions are Flash and Clairvoyance or Flash and Heal, however, some support champions also can be a carry, such as Kayle, Lux, and Morgana, so their Heal/ Clairvoyance can be replaced with Ignite/ Ghost. Clarity is also very viable, but most champs have Greater Seal of Scaling Mana Regeneration runes for that.

-What NOT to get

Skills such as Rally(Not really worth it), Smite(unless you're jungling for some reason), and Exhaust(Unless your team badly needs it).

Everything else is viable, depending on your play style and needs.

As a support champion, you let the person you're laning with take the last hits. You try to avoid it at all cost because they need money more then you. You provide your own gold by purchasing gold per 10 items, or the mastery Greed . Unless you're someone like Taric and has a passive like Gemcraft you should only hit minions to push your enemies back or let your carry/lane partner last hit.

Of course you would like to save everyone on your team from dying, but face it, that's not possible. So in order to prevent the least amount of loss possible, here is the priority of whom you save first: Yourself > Highest killing spree Ally > Tank > Everyone else. This is so you live to save someone else if you're about to die as well as two or more other allies. Saving yourself first so you can heal someone else(If it's single target like Soraka).

You're support, so remember, help your team. Don't be an idiot and do your own thing, not helping your team out. You're support, you help the team, so be a team player. Work with the team you have to get the job done, and get it done right. If you see an ally needing a heal or a shield, do it. If you see a team fight starting, buff or shield the carry of your team, and heal the person dying the fastest. Use your ultimate accordingly, and use it to your advantage (Unless you have no ultimate like Karma). Okay, now good luck and have fun. =)

Some support champions work better on AD heavy teams ( Janna). Some work better with AS/Movement speed characters. ( Kayle and Sona) Some are better for tanking against AP ( Galio) So is best to choose wisely and carefully for your team's need. But remember the most important thing when playing any champion.....Have fun! =D

Change log

-8/20/11 Mobafire guide published =)

Some of the builds are, or was inspired by other mobafire guides. Thank you Xeigan, HoneyAndCream, OllieBubba, Sir Firo, Triixter, and everyone else who supported ME playing the support champions. Another round of applause for Xeigan for his special Sona build. Thank you everyone and have fun playing support champions. =)