Ashe is a really good place to start, she's only like 450 IP. Tristana is also a good choice and you can get her for free if you have a Facebook account (just friend Riot). If you don't I think she's still pretty cheap IP wise.
If you're dying a lot try playing a bit more conservatively. Poke at your opponent but don't over extend. Only do so if you know you and your lane partner (or just yourself if you're miding) can kill or really cripple the enemy. Poke at your enemy and try to draw them out.
Take a healing pot or two with your first starting item and always return when you have low health. Your tower can take a hit or two while you're away.
Mages and other ranged type champions are usually low on defense because they have high offensive capabilities. However most have some sort of crowd control to catch the opponent off guard.
Overall don't worry too much, it usually takes time to get used to how your champion works and others play against him/her. Just watch what others are doing and try to learn from it.
Also check out some guides on the forums and at leaguecraft.com (I know there are others but that's where I usually go). Lots of useful info floating about! Now if Riot would only put back up solo practicing you could practice a bit getting used to champions before heading out to normal games...
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.
Best Answer
This is a pretty broad question but I'll tackle a couple ways ignite could be used best. First Ignite has 2 effects, many people forget about the second(go read), and each of these effects have best uses.
The damage over time part (50 + (20 * lvl) true damage):
This is good for ending someones life when they are low hp and may get out of range soon. This is bad when that someone has a shield or some other mechanism of avoiding damage while low hp (its true damage but you can still avoid it). Ex: Shen's Feint, Janna's Eye of Storm, barrier, etc.
This is good when you need/want a bit of extra damage going into a 1v1 trade (you don't always need to use it to finish people off). This is bad if you use it too early because then they will either just run away(leaving you without an ignite).
The damage received by Ignite is true damage, meaning it ignores armor/magic resists. This is good for a bit of extra damage on an enemy with armor/magic resist. It is bad when that enemy is a tank with a lot of hp because you may misjudge the actual life they have left, and Ignite may be better used on a squishier target.
Before moving onto the second portion you mentioned Tryndamere being a good choice to use ignite on, this is true, but not just because he's at low hp when Endless Rage ends and it will tick to kill him. It is due to the second effect, the heal reduction, reducing the amount he can heal from his Bloodlust. This leads to the second portion of the spell.
Reduces health regen and healing effects received by 50%:
This is good for when the other team has a healer or you're fighting someone with a self heal. Often times using ignite early on an adc against a team with Sona, Soraka, Nami, etc will help to win fights because the target will receive less heal. However, if the other team has no direct heals this portion of the ability will only affect Lifesteal,regen, and Spell vamp. In team fights as mentioned above this is useful to use on priority targets earlier.
General Notes
Cleanse removes Ignite's damage, but the heal reduction remains. Keep this in mind when using it on a target with cleanse, as you'll only get half the benefits of this spell.
Ignite does not stack with other ignite's(the duration will just get refreshed), if you have a lot of ignites on your team already, it may be worth looking into other summoner spells.
Ignite does not play well with other heal reduction effects, meaning it doesn't stack with them. Miss Fortune's Impure Shots, Tristana's Explosive Shot, etc.
Fun fact: Tryndamere's full fury Bloodlust heal is 300 + 150% AP, Ignite's damage over time at max lvl is 410, so just remember without the heal reduction portion on Ignite, Tryn would most likely be able to survive.