So, I'm not a terrible support or anything but I seem to be lacking at poking in bot and getting wrecked in team fights. I usually go as Sona (My main support) and I also support as Soraka a lot. Anyone have any tips that could help? For me I'm having a lot of trouble against Thresh and Blitzcrank due to their grabs, as well as Yasuo, Yi, and Kat who constantly get in your face.
Highly aggressive supports such as 
and 
are your biggest counters in lane solely because you are more of a back line support in lane AND in teamfights. This doesn't mean you can't be highly agressive yourself but it will cost you tons of mana if you aren't doing this effectively (landing almost every ability). What you want to do as 
is take Q early if you aren't already and poke at the ADC as much as possible. will try and grab you but your job with him is to always keep minions between you two. He can't grab what he can't get to obviously.
As for ganks from 
or anyone else, you just need to ward. Ward further down the river by the dragon pit and not just that one bush close to lane. This will allow you to plan about 7-8 seconds ahead and position yourself to strike back or just move to your tower safely.
In teamfights you need to ALWAYS stay in the back especially as 
and just spam your spells. You are a healer who has some CC but your main goal is to keep everyone safe and you cant do that if you die. is an exception due to that fact that she has a decent amount of damage with Q+Autos. She can be in the front if needed but you should try and shift a bit from the front to back line, trying to land your ult on multiple enemies.
I'm pretty sure I've missed something but I hope I helped a bit.
EDIT: Ah, yes. What Zmuecat said was another one of the main things about winning these lanes. If you have too much trouble trying to figure out what your opponent is doing just try the champion. This often gives you an idea first hand about their weaknesses and how you can exploit them.
I main Soraka and she is really squishy. The main thing is paying attention to Thresh and Blitz and try to decide if they are going to go for a grab or not. You can't do a lot of poking as Soraka but the sustain you give your adc makes up for it. Mainly stay behind the adc and heal them when needed. For items as Soraka I normally start with Ancient coin, 3 hp, and 1 mp. If you don't spam your q you shouldn't run out of mana that fast. Try to stay in lane until you have enough money for Sightstone and Boots of Mobility. Once you have a sightstone ward dragon and either a tribush or the one bush closest to bot lane. ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION TO WHERE THE ENEMIES ARE!!!! As Soraka I try to keep my adc healed, bottom river warded, and watch out for possible ganks against us. If the adc is focused on last hitting and poking they might not be able to see if champions are moving towards them. Mid game you can start roaming to small fights and helping out but you should either stick with your adc or your jungler. Pay attention to when people are fighting. If you think your teammate will get a kill try to ult for the assist. In teamfights try to heal everyone to ensure you get the bonus gold for assisting on the kill.
Sounds like a positioning Issue. Both those champs require direct line of sight. Stay behind your minions and keep a ward in your side Bush during the early landing phase.
Best tips I can give you is your enemies jungle is better to ward than your own Late game. change your trinket to sweeper after you get sightstone. beg your teammates to upgrade their trinkets. Sometimes they forget. Remind them that it's only 250g And vision wins the game. Supports are excellent roamers, if ur carry is ahead go gank mid. buy pink wards Often. And use them. I see a lot of supports sitting on their pink ward waiting for the "right time " to drop it . The right time is now. A pink ward and s a great way to bait the enemy.
So Sona is hard countered by Thresh and Blitz (and Leona), as is Soraka. I think the best you can do is try and anticipate the hook and dodge it, since if you get hit, it's pretty tough to survive; basically try and poke them down (especially if their hook is on CD; you want to punish them hard for missing it) if you can so they're afraid to engage, but be wary of the hook. I generally play Braum (tanky plus has a dash to safety) into champs like Thresh or Blitz; Leona and Alistar are also good since they want to be in the enemy team tanking and locking people up. Sometimes I play Janna as well, but that's just because she's my best support; it's more difficult of a match up imo.
As far as dive-type assassins, Sona's ult is one of the most powerful counter engage tools in the game, imo. If you're in a teamfight and they dive your team, you can ult them and your team can just delete them. Basically they generally are going to try to engage on you, so look to counter engage if you can; the same is basically true for Soraka's E, though it's less effective vs. Yi.
EDIT: Some more general tips; Sona and Soraka are sustain supports, they naturally get targeted by the enemy team because they're squishy but also be cause they keep their team alive longer. I generally try to stick near my back line in teamfights and try to provide the utility I can from there. As far as poking in bot, you need to look for opportunities to do so; when an opponent missteps, misses a big spell, etc. don't just poke whenever you feel like it. Sometimes, if the match up is neutral or favorable, you can force trades; I've found that a lot of supports at lower elo (especially since oftentimes they don't play support) don't know how to react or zone properly, and it's easy to shove them out of lane by playing aggressively (use caution though).
I would suggest playing or , only because they have a way to force the fight to them. (Not to mention 
).
RULES OF A SUPPORT: -Do not take CS (Unless your ADC isn't around.) -Ward as much as possible -Tank Damage for your ADC if possible -Try not to take any kills from your ADC -Do not push lane without your ADC -Wait for your ADC or someone ganking your lane to start engaging, then follow slightly after -Do chip damage to your Opponents, but try not to take kills
*** Some utility supports are, and 
***
They are very very good supports, however I like aggressive supports better, so Blitz and Thresh are better for me, (Same Rules Apply.)
Both Sona and Soraka are vulnerable to all in by the likes of a Blitz. I would not have fun playing Soraka in that lane.
If you're playing Sona vs. a tanky engage bot lane what you need to do is start poking the enemy ADC right away. Don't be too crazy with auto attacks because auto attack cause minions to attack you and the enemy AD can trade back with his higher AD. What you do as Sona is abuse your Q's full range almost on CD (it's very very long range for a targeted ability). Maybe powerchord. Damage you deal to the enemy AD is much more important than the enemy support, they're squishier, have less potions, and are ultimately the carries. When you create an advantage in lane by poking their carry, you will find that blitz or whatever might have second thoughts about doing aggressive stunts.
Ultimately though playing Sona is about the long haul. She's very good in lane and poking but one mistake and you may die. So in a sense Blitzcrank is seen as a decent Sona counter.
Also be wary of the level 2 powerspike of the likes of a Blitz lane. Help your AD dmg creeps level 1 but let them last hit. You never want to be caught out by a level 2 bot lane when you're level 1. If they're outshoving hard the safe thing to do is to retreat back toward tower. Since they shoved more hard it should push toward you naturally. That's the drawback of shoving too hard is enemies get to tower hug. It's a balancing act to get the momentary lane advantage. I call it a "slow push." It's only extremely relevant the first few levels in game, because champions have not outscaled minion wave power too much yet and can't 100-0 other champions too easily yet.
You should get level 2 around the middle of the second wave.
I main both Blitz and Sona, and I can counter both with both. It's really not as hard as everyone makes it out to be. Both Blitz and Thresh pull, so two easy ways to gimp them against you are: 1. stand behind minions, even if you have to maneuver every few seconds or get zoned out a little. Avoid getting zoned towards the river bush as that means there's probably a hungry jungler waiting for you. Your Q is great harass as it's unavoidable, but you have to make sure you're in a safe position to do it (or they've used up their hook/grab.) Be mindful of when they have their flash up, you can even bait it (and their grabs) out if you're good. 2. Use the brush to your advantage. Ward it if they're using it, but clear out any enemy wards you can. Hide in the brush and alternate between being close up and being very far back. You can make them second guess themselves and start using up their grabs, which allows you to go in for a bit of poke. If they don't, they're going to be worried you WILL poke them, so you can use that psychological advantage by pressing them back a bit, even while you're safely sitting further back yourself. Sona is one of those odd supports that I sometimes play behind my ADC. Sometimes I like to soak damage for my ADC, but I prefer Sona to be safer so I can spam heal them and boost their speed if they get in trouble or have a good opportunity. My poke is intermittent. Again, it's both a head game of keeping them guessing, and a safety issue, all rolled into one. Oh, and it helps me if I take the gold earning mastery with gold earning runes. Not conventional (I doubt most people like it,) but since I've been giving all the CS to my ADC, I find it keeps me flush enough that I can still build a little AP to go with the wards/sightstone.
I play a lot of bot lane, both as ADC and Support, and here are my observations: #1 characteristic of bad supports is that they refuse to buy Sightstone + Lens, especially when there is a hooking , long-range support opposing like Blitz or Thresh. Leona's W is not to be sneered at, either. Those supports zone just by being there unseen in brush, and having your support buying damage items instead of providing vision will usually lose you the lane. #2 characteristic of bad supports is that they farm minions, thereby robbing their ADC of the gp he needs to increase his damage output. In the case of AP supports, this often burns the mana they should be saving to harass the oppos. In addition, it has the effect of pushing the lane out very fast, making the ADC more vulnerable to ganks. #3 Positioning is key. If support lands a Q on the enemy when ADC is too far back in the wave to follow up, it's not nearly as damaging as when you are both there to attack at the same time. Remember your ADC's mobility range, and try to stay where he can add to your damage and you can defend him from ganks.
I know this is really, really basic stuff but you'd be surprised how few supports practice these simple strategies at low levels. Often, simply providing vision is enough to win you the lane, the dragon control, and the game. If you scan the river bush and there's no enemy ward, you can pretty much tell yourself "gg" and go for the gusto :)
I'd like to add, having good synergy/communication with your carry is ESSENTIAL. i play support to my friends so we can usually plan out vocally what we are picking, where we are going, what items were going to need right away, who to focus fire, ect. if your not in person or skype with your carry pings are your new bff. Wards are beyond super important and good warding can turn around most any game, but dont try to ward alone, ask your jung to join you in enemy bush unless your enemy jung is engaged with him elsewhere. Playing safe is a supports job. :)
Watch professional games (LCS, streams, high elo Spectating from the client), read guides (such as on Mobafire), and watch your minimap!
