The following champions are considered support champions, in the sense that they will either heal/shield an ally and/or buff their armor/magic resist/movement speed.
Janna excels in supporting teams.
She has many support abilities:
- Howling Gale which launches enemies into the air in a line.
- Eye of the Storm shields an ally for a determined amount of damage and gives a damage buff, and it is the only shield capable of protecting turrets.
- Moonsoon is a teamfight changer ability as it aoe heals your team and blows away enemies in Janna's ability ratio
Janna as also a natural passive that is buffs the movement speed of your whole team.
- Tailwind grants 3% move speed buff!
Karma can contribute with great magic damage bursts. Additionally, she has a single target movement speed buff. Karma is a special support champ in the sense that she does not posses an ultimate ability per se, but her ult, Mantra, gives her a bonus effect on all of her other 3 spells:
- Heavenly Wave + Mantra = AOE Heal in a cone in front of Karma
- Spirit Bond + Mantra = Single Target Move Speed Buff x 2
- Soul Shield + Mantra = Very High Scaling shield + Aoe Magic Damage around the shield bearer, in my opinion her best ability of all.
Kayle makes an ally invulnerable to all damage for 2-3 seconds! Additionally, she heals allies and slows enemies, making her a very nice support pick. Unlike Janna and Karma which build defensive and AP items, Kayle builds Hybrid items like Hextech Gunblade and Guinsoo RageBlade.
For a quick overview of her abilities:
- Divine Blessing heals up an ally and grants a movement speed bonus.
- Intervention grants invulnerability for 2-3 seconds, which can completely alter the course of a team battle if used well.
Lux is considered a support/mage. She can tear up teams with her chain of abilities, possesses a 2 unit root, AoE slow, and an amazing Ultimate.
Additionally, her main supporting ability is:
- Prismatic Barrier shields an ally for damage.
Morgana is just like Lux in that she is a support/mage. However, she is considered a better support for the shield she grants:
- Black Shield is a very unique shield that blocks magic damage and any negative effects: all snares, silences, blinds, etc. This shield scales with 80% of her total ability power. It is a total carry protector and game changer skill.
Additionally, Morgana has a single target root, a magic resistance debuff AoE DoT, and a powerful AoE stun.
I mean, is Sona good for help?
Sona is the queen of support in my opinion, closely followed by Soraka. All her abilities except for the ultimate give your teammates a buff and she can not be ignored damage wise.
- Hymn of Valor is an aura granting a buff to damage and ability power.
- Aria of Perseverance is an aura that increases armor and magic resist to allies. On cast, it will heal the most wounded ally nearby. The Powerchord bonus decreases total damage output of the target by 20%
- Song of Celerity gives a temporary movement speed buff to your allies, in addition to the aura which grants a fixed movement speed bonus!
Can we count Soraka and why?
Soraka is one of the oldest support champions, and one of the most powerful ones. She has a single target heal plus armor buff and the ability to grant mana to an ally.
- Astral Bleesing heals for a decent amount while granting 20-80.
- Infuse grants mana to an ally. No other hero can boast an ability like this.
- Wish is a global heal. The epitome of an incredible support heal.
- Consecration, her passive, increases magic resistance for nearby allies by 16.
Is Taric a tank, or a good support champion?
He can be both. Taric's base armor and health and armor/level and health/level increase are very high compared to all other support champs.
Taric can heal and has an Armor Aura, Damage Aura, and a Stun, which makes him a reliable support character. However, one of his downsides is being a melee character unlike many of the others mentioned.
- Imbue, if casted on an ally, heals Taric and your ally. If casted on Taric, he heals himself an additional 40%.
- Shatter is an aura that increases allies' armor by 10-30 and increases Taric's by double this amount!
- Radiance heals Taric by an amount per second while granting an aura that increases attack damage by 15-45 (and double that on Taric). Make sure to use while taking down towers and in team fights!
Zilean is an amazing support champ with the unique ability to revive champions.
He is a great addition to a team because he posseses:
- Time Warp is a single target Speed Buff/Debuff
- Chronoshift revives a fallen enemy with scaling (200% of AP) restored HP and Mana. That's like fighting a 5.5 vs 5 :)
- Heightened Learning, his amazing passive, gives all allies an 8% bonus to experience gained!
As you can see, LoL offers you a wide variety of support champions to play.
Which champions are viable to play nowadays on LoL as support?
Depends completely, for instance:
Your team has an AP carry, AD Carry, a tank and a Beefy Meat Shield champ, what are you lacking? Since you already have an AP carry you can play a pure support champion like Taric, Janna, Soraka or Zilean.
Now if your team has already a Tank, an AD carry and a Jungler, your team will need some magic damage source, then playing Morgana, Lux or Sona will make the team composition solid.
If you want a current metagame opinion on which are the most played support champions, I would say Sona, Karma and Zilean.
Almost every champion in League of legends can play every role.
BUT they are not viable in all those roles.
What can Leona do?
Leona is GREAT for tank and GREAT Support roles. You can make a huge difference in the game if you are playing one of those two roles as Leona.
Can she Jungle or AP Carry?
Yes she can. But she shouldn't be doing it.
I'll not make too much enforce in showing you the right way to do the Jungle or the AP. But here some information any way =)
How to Jungle as Leona (This is a little out of date, but gives you the general idea)
Compilation of AP Leona
But why this is not a good idea?
She does an amazing damage? YES She does, and if you play Leona as an AP, she will wreak havoc, if you play her as jungle you will clear and gank really fine, even as an AD carry Leona. But, she is not mastered this way, because she loses for others AP like Annie and Brand for example. so is better you play AP Brand, and play Support/Tank Leona for real and play for fun AP Leona.
Here good guide for tank leona e for support leona.
Best Answer
You list primarily tanky supports, who were hit the hardest with the removal of Heart of Gold. This leaves two other GP/10 items: Philosopher's Stone and Kage's Lucky Pick. I ignored Avarice Blade as I don't feel it compliments the support role.
A Philo stone can build into Shurelya's Reverie, Eleisa's Miracle, or Ohmwrecker. Shurelya's is still a great support item, and Eleisa's reduces the cooldowns of the summoner spells Heal, Clarity, and Clairvoyance. It can also free an inventory spot if purchased early enough! Ohmwrecker is outshined by both items, and I don't recommend buying it on a support.
Kage's Lucky Pick turns into Shard of True Ice, Twin Shadows, Morellonomicon, or Will of the Ancients. The first two are most viable on a support, and the Shard continues to provide GP/10.
So a lot of things affect whether GP/10 is still viable.
For a Philo Stone:
For Kage's Lucky Pick:
Another new item is the Sightstone. For an investment of 950 gold, you can place up to 2 wards at a time, with each ward lasting 3 minutes. The Sightstone holds 4 wards total and refills when you return to base. This breaks down to 50 gold/minute, and starts saving money after 19 minutes (assuming you immediately place wards when available). It also provides +180 health, making it a strong choice for tanky supports.
Previously, GP/10 items were essential to compensate for the cost of wards. This is largely mitigated with the usage of a Sightstone, freeing money for other items.
A Philosopher's Stone costs 700 gold and pays for itself in 23.33 minutes. Kage's Lucky Pick costs 765 and pays for itself in 25.5 minutes. These times are halved if you sell the item. Because it takes so long to make money from GP/10 items, it's best to buy them as early as possible.
Compare this to the gold granted from kills/assists. A champion who hasn't been killed is worth 300 gold, and 50% of that for an assist. The more times a champion is killed, the less money the kill rewards, with a minimum of 15 gold.
Since 2 GP/10 items provide 60 gold/minute, you have to get a 150 gold assist every 2.5 minutes for assists to equal GP/10 items. You can get an additional 5 GP/10 from Quints and masteries, resulting in 90 gold/minute and needing an assist every 1.66 minutes.
The new pick-pocket mastery offers an additional avenue to generate gold. Unfortunately, this isn't very viable on melee supports.
While supports are no longer required to get GP/10 items to support expensive ward-buying habits, these GP/10 items are still cost-efficient for longer games AND they upgrade into items that are very useful for most supports.
Ultimately, the decision to buy GP/10 items comes down to play-style and preferences. If you prefer to play aggressively and need extra stats to stay alive, skip GP items. If you're trying to maximize gold gained, GP/10 is still the better choice (unless you can get an assist every 1.6 minutes!).
tl;dr: GP/10 is still very viable, especially since those items build into new support-focused items. However, it's no longer a necessity since the Sightstone makes warding much cheaper.