The current stigma of supports has been detrimental to the balance of the role.

What I like to start out with is that I think support champions have the highest impact in the game while providing the least amount of effort currently. I give it to the fault of poor support itemization only being point and click or massive AOEs that can be activated pretty much any time with no real consequences. I also blame the fact that this game rarely has any mechanics that can screw over your team with a badly used spell or item active. You can definitely screw yourself over with a bad use of Zhonya's but can ever do any wrong pressing E on your ADC on Janna. In terms of supports the only thing that can potentially harm your team is Tahm Kench's W, Bard's ultimate, and Blitzcrank's Q.

Now what I can say is almost any support that is common and isn't troll (Lux and Nidalee) are not trash tier. There's obviously some that are top tier but any support are either balanced or really strong. I think still it's really strange how the top tier supports in meta never really change and its always these few champions used constantly. It's also interesting to see that while support champions have the highest pick rates with high win rates. They also have the lowest ban rates in the entire roster.

When supports get nerfed, it's likely they weren't too good at being a support. They get nerfed because go outside of bottom lane and make their enemy laner have a horrible experience that is worse than facing a Yasuo or Riven by the denizens of Gameplay. We will probably never see support champions leaving bot lane ever again after what she has done and it's better that way.

I'm not too sure how I remember season 2 supports compared to season 1 but there was this video that explains why Janna is the best champion in the game. The funny thing is that Janna does the same thing today and still is the best support champion ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrsTE1vpoXM

Now a huge issue with supports is itemization. They have been getting buffed every season with no real signs of nerfs to itemization while never reforming them.

Season 3 introduced sightstone. Now you don't need to waste 1000s of gold on wards anymore. Still a ward bitch nonetheless because no ward limits. There was Runic Bulwark and while people back then didn't like the removal it was completely necessary as that item was broken as hell. I don't even consider it a support item because how every team required two of these items.

Season 4 added ward limits and gave supports more gold. There's also utility ratios that made some champions mediocre or just made them even stronger. It also brought in mage supports like . Now supports actually earn money and can buy items. At a decent rate.

Season 5 didn't add too much to supports initially but Zeke's Harbinger showed up which was very strong but got indirectly nerfed as time goes on. It's There's also Tahm Kench who was complete cancer for any assassin anyone during his time. People actually banned a support other than a piece bronzodia . It was an interesting sight to see.

Season 6 is where supports got massive buffs despite never being really a focus in the major updates. Supports got a sightstone combined with their gold item allowing for more build options. They got windspeaker's which got barely touched ever since keystones and bond of Stone for the tank supports. Then there's also item updates that gave various items boosted healing and shields that ended up allowing shields and heals to be 1.5 times bigger than they were in previous seasons. Many champions went from mediocre to extremely strong because of those changes. We also see a huge rise in supports that are mainly offensive because of increased item space and keystones granting more offensive options with no cost at all.

This preseason introduced Redemption and reworked locket. There's also Courage of the Colossus. Now they never did nerf windspeaker's or the healing/shield boost. This devolved support itemization to always build these items on anyone not named Zyra or Brand. These items are necessary to survive the extremely strong initiation from junglers mid game and protect high damage late game marksmen. Those items are going to be toned down for sure but the rylais changes is going to bring Zyra and Brand supports to become ever stronger afterwards. There's knight's vow but I don't see it that much despite giving tank supports life steal based on their ADC.

There needs to be massive reform in support items. At this point it's just stacking a bunch of shields and healing effect to give people 600+ shields or 400 HP every few seconds. Some people have already said this but it really needs to be fixed. Support items are way too defensive while having almost 0 options to go on the offense.