what to do when not with your team as a traditional support

so I think the big issue of why traditional supports are so aggrivating to play and less powerful in game is that they have less options when alone.

when you are in a team as sona/nami/lulu you can do plenty.... peeling, absorbing damage, and healing are all very useful... but champions like leona can do all the same things you can. Which normallywould be fine.

The problem comes when you put leona and sona out placing a ward... and they meet an enemy. Leona can tank them for long enough for her team to come. if she built some ad she can actually burst them pretty hard with her triple aa and possibly scare them away with the burst, or she can of course just run away safely with very little threat. as Sona I can try and fight and because of my low ratios I will lose unless horribly fed..... I can try and slow them and stay with them until my team arrives... but they can kill me before that happens usually... and even if they don't, with my abilities and possibly my ult used, I am not as powerful in the coming teamfight that may happen. and if I run, unlike leona, I may still die from being so squishy.

supports need more options in fights, the question is what really can be put in the game that will give traditional supports more often... one way is to make traditional supports OP in teamfights, so that they have an appropriate strength and weakness. This would require huge buffs to their support ratios so that they can basically lock down teamfights by themselves. we could possibly define the role again to make traditional supports EXTREMELY powerful in early levels... and I don't mean like 5-10% higher base values... I mean like they should be able to 1v1 an adc and win until at least level 9-10.... that way their late game power is negligible because they are able to feed their adc early in the game. another option is to literally give them something that only they can do. but I feel that would be much harder to do considering so much possibility for abuse. a very interesting item idea perhaps would be to give something that gives you a buff whenever you use a spell that affects allies.... so when in a 1v1 you would actualy be able to use your heal or shield and gain a significant buff, but it wouldn't affect newer supports o.O

but overall traditional supports need more options or more power put into their strengths because they basically just have extra free weaknesses that they can't compensate for... sure you can try and stay with your team all game... but you can't ALWAYS be with your team, and if you end up trading 4 for 4 and your support is alive... you still are in lots of trouble because of their inability to 1v1.

tl;dr the problem with traditional supports is there lack of options when not with a teammate compared to apc supports and tanky supports. They need something to do or they need their strengths to be more defined so the weaknesses are compensated for