league-of-legends
At higher levels one can see more and more junglers. That means someone has to solo lane top. Which champions are a good choice for solo laning? Which ones should be avoided?
Thanks
edit: as pointed out by Raven Dreamer – I forgot to mention I was thinking mainly about 2v1 situation
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 ratioJanna 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.
The recommended champions are the same for every one, regardless of level. They do not change to reflect any of your stats. The champions chosen as 'recommended' are those whose skills are more straight forward than others.
Annie for instance is a burst mage with no utility (besides her passive). Warrwick's auto attacks give him life, as well as one of his spells making him the safest jungler.
In general there is no easy to kill champions in the recommended tab that don't have some sort of escape, excluding maybe Sona or Soraka who are support characters.
Best Answer
First off, nearly every champion can solo top with the right masteries/runes and first item.
The first item has to bring you sustain, it really depends on your champion but usually recommended:
Ranged AD - Life steal! Either Doran's blade or (better - vampiric scepter) Non ranged - Regrowth pendent > Philosophers stone AP ranged - Regrowth pendent > Philosophers stone
I understand those items are really generic, but if you play defensively they can keep you in lane indefinitely.
As for champions, some are obviously better than others, and as already mentioned, sustain is THE main thing you need, along with an ability to help you last hit.
Do NOT pick a champ that can be ignored at a tower
So Leona, although tanky, isn't really an option because her damage is so ignorable. Same applies to champions like Soraka etc.
Recommended top lane champs for me are:
I think I covered most of the good solo tops, but to be honest it falls down to either tanky champs who can handle the harass and are hard to push out of lane, damage dealers with life steal that are hard to harass or casters with inbuilt sustain.