I main Sona and Janna support...mostly Sona though. I'm starting to do everything with Sona...
Beware: I typed a novel.
Anyways, as a support, you need to focus on two things: warding and keeping your ADC alive. But even within those two things, there’s a lot of subcategories that go into them, like a bunch of millisecond decisions you have to make.
For example, when warding, you need to make the decision whether or not it’s worth the risk. If the enemy team is pushing you to your turret and you haven’t warded the river yet, chances are you are not warding that river until after you get the enemy off your face, and when you do ward the river, you should follow the buddy system (I usually ward near the crab and ping for the ADC to ward the small bush, and if I have my sightstone I will also ward the bush closer to the blue turret; it only really takes two wards to keep the river in vision, and I find that warding the river rather than the bush gives overall better vision—take a red trinket to take out the enemy wards in the small bush). However, you only need to follow the buddy system if your lane is under pressure because the jungler might come and try an early cleanup. Any other time, so long as the lane is NOT too drastically pushed in any other direction, you can pretty “safely” go and ward the river yourself (the jungler is more unlikely to gank a lane that isn’t pushing). But again, if you need to ward the river but your ADC is about halfway on HP, leaving the lane probably isn’t the greatest idea because that gives an opportunity to the enemy to jump on your ADC.
So basically: Be smart about when and how you ward.
Also, it’s very important to keep tabs on dragon. I normally start pinging that we should jump on that when I see the jungler has hit level 4, because I know he’s not gonna get to it until a few minutes later. However, I do feel it’s important for the jungler to be warding on the enemy side of the dragon area so we can get an idea of where the enemy jungler is. Most often than not, the jungler ignores me and I’m usually on the team that won’t focus dragon (or objectives in general…I’m in a bad place right now), and there’s simply only so much you can do to carry the game as a support.
As for keeping your ADC, you have to consider that sometimes you simply can’t. You might be stuck with an idiot who keeps trying to tower dive at lvl 3, or isn’t paying attention to your wards you so carefully placed (or your warning pings) and gets ganked, or focuses too much on poking than farming. I find that Janna is good to be paired with morons because she can at least peel the enemy off the ADCs face and give them an OP shield pretty early on, while Sona is my beloved “ks sup” (in this case, the “ks” means “kill secured”, because by all means, if I set up a kill for you with my OP Sona and you as the ADC don’t take it, I will. Don’t complain at me, I always ping).
Then there is to consider: if the ADC is going to die regardless of if I go back there and try to save them in vain, but I can get out alive, do I go back? The answer is most often “no”, because you will likely die and that will give the enemy one very avoidable kill. The exception is if the ADC managed to get the enemy’s health down low enough that you can finish them off (bonus points if both the supp and ADC are low enough that Sona’s Q gets them both and you get a double kill. Trollolol OP Sona <3). Contrary to bronzie belief, supports are NOT expendable. Their deaths still make the enemy team stronger, so they should focus on not dying just as much as every other role. Knowing if you can secure the kill (again, “ks”) or not entirely depends on your knowledge and comfort level with the champion you’re using. Like, I know when I can get kills and get out alive with Sona almost every time, and I take what I can get when I get it, but not so much with Nami or Soraka or even Janna because I don’t play them nearly as aggressively (Janna’s damage on W still surprises me sometimes because I play her more as a utility supp than an AP supp).
Supporting in a lot of ways depends on how good the ADC is and how well you two magically synergize in game. If you don’t synergize, that lane is never going to work because you guys simply aren’t on the same page. Most often than not, I find that when I’m behind in gold, it’s because the ADC is behind in farm, so I do think it is fair to say that the support is as good as the ADC.
Aside from that, you mention how you don’t know when to engage. Unless you’re playing an engaging support, like thresh or blitz or Leona, then you shouldn’t be worrying about engaging. Sona and Nami’s ults can be used as an engage, but they’re better used during a teamfight to temporarily disrupt the enemy team to give your team an advantage. Janna’s ult can be very difficult to determine when to use, as it’s a heal for her team and a disengage. I often find successful uses of Janna’s ult when I’m actually in front of the retreating enemy team and I use it to push them back towards my team chasing after them (which works very well with Janna’s passive speeding up her teammates), but not every play works out that way. Most of the time, I’m using Janna’s ult defensively to save my dying team during a fight, so it’s mostly a disengage. By all means, save the engage for the tank and focus on what you, as the support, need to do to help your team (especially if you’re Janna or Nami, consider who needs your E the most during the fight, or which teammate is being focused and needs a disengage? You have more things to worry about during the fight than before it even starts).
As for roaming, as a support you should be 1) roaming with your ADC, preferably after you got bot tower, or 2) roaming to mid lane to at least place a ward, if they don’t need help, when bot lane is empty and you have most of your HP and MP. Supports are best when they’re sticking with their teammates, and when you’re roaming when you don’t have to, you’re missing out on gold and exp you could be getting by being in lane (though sometimes after we capture bot turret and the ADC goes B, instead of pushing bot solo like a moron, I go to mid lane and help out with that tower or follow the mid laner to top lane)
I'm sorry, I feel very passionate about supporting. XD By no means am I the best support, but it's my favorite (if not most aggravating) role to play.
