Doran's Shield start on a support?

[quote=Emi]So I've begun testing out this start as a support, and I've found it to be really useful. The extra health regen is really good for supports who don't have an in built heal (Lulu, Thresh, Zyra, etc) and tend to be weak against champions who can poke a lot with their auto attacks. The extra health is also pretty useful when going into all in trades. Of course, I usually get a gold item (most often Ancient Coin) if I have enough gold. So the point of this thread is: Do you think the Doran's Shield start is viable? Yes or no, could you explain your reasoning?[/quote]

[quote=NateKiller]Yes, or at least for aggressive supports like [[Leona]] that need the health to win fights.[/quote]

[quote=Luther3000]It's not just viable, it's becoming pretty standard. Most supports are doing it the majority of the time. Shield has been broken for a while. You already explained the reasons why yourself. :P[/quote]

[quote=Emi][quote=NateKiller] Yes, or at least for aggressive supports like [[Leona]] that need the health to win fights. [/quote] True, and I feel like Leona is one support who's really vulnerable to autoattacks because of the fact that she's melee. [quote=Luther3000] It's not just viable, it's pretty standard. Most supports are already starting with shield the majority of the time. It's a pretty broken item. You already explained the reasons why yourself. :P [/quote] I guess I did haha. I was honestly just curious on other people's take on this start. I mean, the gold income items were made pretty much specifically for support as of Season 4, so I was wondering if it was better to start with one of those or with the extra sustain from Doran's Shield. On that topic, what supports do you believe are the best suited for this start? Leona's already mentioned, and I personally think (like previously mentioned) that Lulu, Thresh, and Zyra also might benefit slightly more from these. However, in contrast, with like Soraka or Sona, I don't think it's quite as good, as they have a consistent heal and are ranged anyways. Any other champions?[/quote]

[quote=Bioalchemist]COMPLETELY dependent on lane matchup and your adc imo, essentially how aggressive you expect the lane to be and how much you expect to trade damage. but yes doran's shield is a good start in a good chunk of cases especially with the most popular supports. i dunno if i would narrow it down to certain champs. i think it is useful on all champs in a given circumstance like a leona versus a lulu or something...the leona would definitely want it...but if it was leona vs ali i would start relic. just depends on how you expect the lane to run from my experience.[/quote]

[quote=GrandmasterD]Shield is just borderline borken as an item atm. Technically it is actually a lot stronger than [[Doran's Blade]] as a start even on ad carries, although it'd make it harder to last-hit.[/quote]

[quote=Kazega]The past couple of weeks in the LCS match ups the shoutcasters would mention how Leona would take Relic Shield or ancient coin over Doran's Shield. It goes to show how the guys at the top influence the meta so much. I've been seeing champions like Trundle and Darius for the first time in a while because of how much the LCS does that. To me though I feel like Doran's shield on a support is a bit like an all in. The trade off being that you have to sell it and that you won't be able to ward properly until the first back. I'm not so sure that being vulnerable to ganks is a good trade for all that opening power if you still die because you didn't see a gank coming in. But that is my low level opinion.[/quote]

[quote=Mooninites]I probably wouldn't build it on [[lulu]], it's good on supports like [[thresh]] and [[leona]] because they all in. It can be good on [[sona]] and [[zyra]] to shore up their very poor early game survivability. I agree with Bioalchemist, it's dependent on your laning partner plus the enemy bot lane.[/quote]