Best support?

you guy all forgot about gangplank. seven pages of bickering and no one thought about the guy who posted this thread use's gangplank.

gp is a good support for two reasons one he can use parley on a rare minion without damaging ap carrys kills and getting extra gold for and two after your done lanning you can easliy go back to killing like a boss.

Yup! This is viable too.

Since GP can easily build an early Philo for gp5 and mana regen (Parley harass), that Philo could easily grow into a Shurelya and you can use Shurelya's Health to synergize with Atmogs later on (if you can afford it).

Darius is a support these days, if low ELO players learned to dodge blitz they will need to learn to avoid his E (the pull is E, right?).

Or you can go "Xin Zhao support", which basically means you'll dive for the kill everytime E is refreshed. Very popular on normals.

Pull is real short range.
Barely enough to close the gap between bushes.

I know, but reportedly it worked with Corki as carry in decent-ish elo (1300+)

just because it worked 1 time doesn't mean it's viable

I've played support graves and won before, like crushed my lane, but thats 1 game, try replicating that game over and over

Hadn't seen this thread before, but my god Mooninites, stop acting like you're the ****ing god of supports and everyone else is clueless. It's great that you're an experienced support player, but that does not automatically mean no one else has knowledge of supports and how they work.

Anyway, my personal issue with these kind of tier lists is that it doesn't take into account how situational support picks are.
If you pick a Soraka against a Janna, a Lulu or a Taric, you'll be fine. If you pick her against Alistar, Leona or Blitzcrank, the lane could be a lot more troublesome (highlighting 'could' since the most important aspect of bottom lane matchups is whether or not the players involved play it correctly).

I disagree with your opinion on Alistar completely. I think his laning phase is in fact quite strong. He does require a strong early AD to lane with him who can deal a lot of damage when he lands a Headbutt- Pulverize combo (to make full use of his offensive potential), but that's pretty much the only thing you have to worry about. Alistar does not get zoned by Soraka, Soraka doesn't even work well against him imo. If Alistar lands his combo on your carry, what can Soraka do about it? Nothing, all she can do is heal part of the damage that the enemy AD will deal back and even then it might be troublesome (especially if the enemy AD is someone like Tristana or Miss Fortune who both have a healing debuff). Alistar is a good pick for a kill lane when played aggressively, Soraka normally does not do well against kill lanes.

I also don't think Lulu is one of the worst supports, I think she's a great pick as long as - again - you pick her in the right situation. She's a much better pick against an Alistar than Soraka, for example, because she can either use her Whimsy to prevent Ali's combo or use it on the AD after Ali has used his combo while shielding her carry from any damage Alistar might inflict. Then, when Alistar decides to disengage since his Q and W are on cooldown and his AD still barely managed to deal damage, she can slow him heavily, allowing her AD to chunk his health and 'warn' him not to do it again.
I realise this may sound easier than it actually is, but if played correctly, Lulu should be fine against an Alistar.
Her poke is also stronger than Soraka's, especially since Soraka normally does not max Infuse first and she often has to use it on her carry as well. At best, you could say Soraka's poke is better because she can give her AD free mana and the AD she's laning with can use that to poke a lot ( Caitlyn, Corki).
I realise Lulu has to use her shield defensively at times as well, but she still has her spammable Glitterlance too so I still think she's better at poking.

I know you said you don't think she's bad and called her ult good too (which I completely agree with), I'm just saying I do think she does certain things better than others, as long as you use her in the right situation. As a sidenote, have you ever tried her against a team with a Galio? My god it's fun to interrupt his ultimate by using Wild Growth on a teammate xD

Sona hasn't been nerfed to a point where she's useless. She's still pretty good at poking with her Q and passive, she still has a great ultimate for teamfights. As long as you pick her against someone who does not have heals ( Janna preferably), she's fine. If you pick her against Soraka, then yes, she's not gonna do well in lane since her harassment will be ineffective given the fact that Soraka can heal it back easily.
I agree she's by far not as strong as she used to be, but people are overreacting. She's decent.

I agree with your opinion on Taric, though I don't think EUW looks at him differently than players on NA do. He's (very) strong in lane, but not so great once the laning phase is over. His armor buff from Shatter is incredibly strong so it's hard to trade with Taric + an AD, but he does get mana issues. His burst damage also shouldn't be underestimated by the way, it's actually not bad.

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Overall, if I'd have to name the top supports, I think I'd go for Soraka, Janna and Alistar. I feel like these picks work against most (though certainly not all) other supports/ADs.
After that, Taric, Lulu, Nunu, Leona, Blitzcrank and Sona all have flaws or are simply more situational picks, but if played correctly they can still work much better than my top 3 (especially a well-played kill lane with a Leona, god that's devastating).

/2cents

I just remembered Nidalee. Lately I have been playing support with all the free wards, heal + attack speed buff, an absolutely amazing poke, and great mobility after level 6. The funny thing about that is (while playing support, getting no cs) I still carry half my games. :P

Dat spear.

Darius actually makes a good kill lane support like Volibear and Blitzcrank. Have successfully done this for a series of games for my guide.

Darius is going to be especially effective as a kill lane support right now, because he's still new and people haven't realized that if they just stand a little ways away from the bush he's in he's basically useless (unless he burns Flash, but then he's burned Flash). Really, he's a melee with a fairly short range pull and no gap closer. His early game damage is about the only thing he's got going for him, so he's probably better paired with someone like Blitzcrank, putting Darius in the position of damage dealer rather than support. Such a lane would have pretty good kill potential at level 1 (Blitz pull, smack a bunch and Darius Q), better at level 2 (Blitz pull and knockup, Darius Q, smacking, Darius pull, more smacking etc.), and getting caught is pretty much instant death after 6.

In general, the issue I have with kill lanes is that they're meant to capitalize on the opponents' mistakes. Which is fine, if your opponents make mistakes. But as people play against any given kill lane, they start realizing what constitutes a "mistake" against hit, and stop doing those things. Because of this, one way of measuring a kill lane's effectiveness is how many things count as mistakes against it (in case it isn't obvious, I think this is a great way of measuring it). This is why Leona is fairly popular as a kill lane support right now; her gap closer, two stuns, and innate tankiness make her and her carry able to punish laners for being alone, even if they're positioned properly (i.e. tower hugging at level 6), plus the length of her stuns are frequently underestimated in terms of damage dealt right after she and her carry return to lane after shopping. In short, there are a lot of ways to make mistakes when playing against Leona.

Returning the Darius, measuring this way he doesn't look so good. There are relatively few ways to make mistakes against him. Being in range of his pull and trying to duel him are about it. Given his obvious damage potential, I don't believe the second is likely, and the first is too easy to avoid. Darius is simply too easy to kite, at all stages of the game, to do well against someone who understands how he works.