Hey Iittala, you ask a very good question.
It is always important to consider what items you need to buy in order to complete your current objectives and ultimately win. In order to accurately determine what you need to buy, you must consider this question: “what is my role at this stage of the game?”
AP “supports” (Zyra, Karma, Vel-koz) are all about dishing out massive amounts of damage. They tend to also have utility, but they are concerned with three things:
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Damage (AP): Do I need more damage in team fights? If I need pure AP, perhaps Rabadon’s Deathcap is the best item for me. If the other team is comprised of a lot of tanks, maybe I need more magic penetration and I may want to purchase Void Staff.
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Frequency of damage (Cooldown): If my damage is in a good place, I may want to increase the frequency I can throw out my abilities in teamfights. (Just watch your mana costs).
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Survivability: Am I capable of unleashing my abilities and still survive throughout the team fight? This is important for you to gauge before this point. If their talon is constantly ulting you and insta-killing you, you may want to consider an item such as a Guardian Angel to revive yourself after Talon kills you, or a Randuin’s Omen to mitigate his burst, or perhaps you need Zhonyas which provides invulnerability, armor and also increases your damage (it’s a win, win win). If, for example, the other team has a Leblanc that tends to focus you, buying a Banshee’s Veil will disrupt her burst, or perhaps you can buy an Abyssal Scepter for magic resist, AP, and a passive to help your team.
If you are playing a more traditional support, such as Leona, Blitz, or Thresh, you aren’t as worried about damage; rather, your focus will be on these three things.
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Survivability: Am I tanky enough to survive the role my champion requires of me? If I am playing a Leona or Thresh, I may need to launch right into the middle of the other team. If I am too squishy, I will be insta-killed and my utility is wasted.
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Frequency of Utility (Cooldown): If I can survive long enough to complete my intended purpose, do I need shorter cooldowns in order to continue to be relevant in team fights?
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Team Utility: You may need to buy items that either buff your team or debuff the other team. These buffs can be auras (such as Frozen Heart which reduces the other team’s auto attack speed), actives (such as Righteous Glory, which allows your team quick engages or disengages), or a combination of the two (such as Locket of the Iron Solari which provides a magic resist aura and an shield for team members as an active).
Fortunately, certain items often completes all three tasks, such as Frozen Heart, which gives you armor (survivability), cooldown, mana, and gives a passive which decreases the opposing team’s auto attack rate (which means less damage).
In either situation, you must consider which is most important for your team in that specific game. Don’t get locked building the exact same items for every scenario.
Lastly, you must consider when, and if, to sell your support items. When I play an AP support, I often upgrade my Spell Thief to Frost Queen's Claim early, which gives cooldown, ap, and a sweet active to slow the other team. If I hit full-build, unless I absolutely must have the active, I tend to sell it because there are stronger items (Rabadon’s, Liandry’s, Abyssal Scepter, Void Staff, Zhonyas, Morellonomicon, ect). I tend to upgrade my Sighstone to a ruby Sighstone near full build too. It is important to keep your sightstone to maintain vision even into late game. The one exception to this occurs when I am fairly certain that one last team fight will determine the outcome of the game. Here’s an example: Baron and Dragon are down, and both teams are grouping in midlane to determine the outcome of the game. If this happens: refer back to your 3 goals and consider which one is most important.
If I am playing a tanky support, I tend not to sell face of the mountain. The active can be incredibly important to save your adc or apc. Since a Sighstone also offers you health and vision, I tend to be even more selective when to sell it as a tanky support; however, always consider what role your teams needs you to play and refer back to your 3 goals ;)
Throughout this, you must consider these questions:
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What support am I playing?
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What is my team comp?
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What is their team?
Lastly, I want to clarify that even AP supports need team utility. I may need to to buy a mikael’s or a locket on a karma or Vel-koz support. In the same way, even tanky lock down supports may need damage. If I buy iceborn gauntlets on blitz, it gives me survivability and a bit more burst damage.
Hopefully, this gives you lots to think about; however, in an attempt to be specific to your needs, please answer my questions:
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What supports do you tend to play?
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What do your builds look like for each champion?
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Why do you choose those items?
*Pro tip: If you hit full-build, you can still buy elixirs which are automatically “drunk”.
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you still put out damage and thus are able to apply relevant contributions to a teamfight rather than just ccing or disengaging. Plus if your ADC sucks you can at least be semi-relevant.