Hey there, Master Fledgling here.
A quick, interactive post: Name a support or two you play to good effective that aren't normally seen! The rules are that you MUST build a support item and sightstone for it to be a sensible pick, as well as a cheap-ish core build -- meaning if the champion needs massive farm or items to be useful, they're probably not a good idea. My current support in test is Hecarim, with his core looking like this:
Cheers all,
-MF
Lapis3 votesDoes Orianna count as an alternative support? Because she's great to break out every now and then
Mimy2 votes
Support..
I'd try it.. if given the chance..
This would be for the soul puropse of gettng stuns/slows off the enemy allowing your team to clean up. Shadows will reveal enemies and slow them for your team to get them. Captain would be because when you press E you move quickly so your team can move quickly
Zohnyas for E into enemy team.. Ult use active and they'll follow captain to jump upon your stunned enemies.
ZZrots make good for keeping a lane pushed if your team easily forgets it.. hint hint top lane.. Also minions spawned from your zzrot will give you gold when they kill minions allowing you to earn money.
Aeolian Melodies2 votesI often have good success with support Lux - mostly when laning with a poke-heavy ADC. My boyfriend and I like to go Ez + Lux.
I honestly don't get why 
are or were all legit supports at some points but Lux isn't and people get their panties in a twist when I pick her. Like, wtf is your problem? Double snare, shield for the whole team, AoE slow that provides vision, AoE snipe that has decent base damage and provides vision, long range to safely poke in lane, passive made for poking.
Even the ult - what, you can accept Annie and Brand's ults, but not hers? You think I'll keep it to KS you? I'll blow it as soon as I bind them so they're an easy kill for you.
You're welcome.
Always get:
(pinks as needed ofc)
Items that I often work with (order and whether or not I get them depends on the game itself):
Struggling:
/ 
as needed to help the team, 
because struggling means less gold, and less gold means less items, which means less CDR, and Lux has longish CDs
Winning this fucking game:
(if didn't build Crucible)
Siyther1 votesthe reason ppl dont like Lux support is cause til about lvl 9 she out damages the adc and takes all the kills .
TouchpadExpert2 votesthe reason ppl dont like Lux support is cause til about lvl 9 she out damages the adc and takes all the kills .
Actually it's because her spells tend to push the wave. Namely her ultimate and her E. Or at least that's why I dislike her in the role. Her root going through minions is nice and useful for removing the "hide behind minions and you'll be safe" mentality. And the shield being able to affect multiple allies is nice too. She's like a Sona support, minus the heal and plus hard CC.
Siyther1 voteswith any adc its stilll a kill lane dont get me wrong i play lux support and it is very good but most games at least in my terrible ass elo lux support ends up with the most damage and kills end game. she needs nothing to be relavant mid to late game. But nearly evry game ive played that had a lux support outright won the game not always wins lane. i LIke her better than Morgana cause snare 2 ppl and her ulti is much better
Aeolian Melodies1 votesActually it's because her spells tend to push the wave. Namely her ultimate and her E. Or at least that's why I dislike her in the role. Her root going through minions is nice and useful for removing the "hide behind minions and you'll be safe" mentality. And the shield being able to affect multiple allies is nice too. She's like a Sona support, minus the heal and plus hard CC.
Her spells push the wave
: wut?
Sona has hard CC (a stun). Lux has only soft CC (but from better range and available more often).
TouchpadExpert1 votes[{quoted}](name=Aeolian Melodies,realm=NA,application-id=WEuoGbmp,discussion-id=trnPz9Ep,comment-id=0001000000000001,timestamp=2015-10-05T23:51:47.924+0000)
Her spells push the wave
Sona has hard CC (a stun). Lux has only soft CC (but from better range and available more often).
Correct. Which is why I don't play him. It's either a kill lane or he is a lack luster support.
Before 6 Lux pushes waves harder. After 6 Fiddledix pushes waves harder because his ultimate.
She can if you R+Q spam and shoot directly into the minion waves. If you avoid doing this then she does not. R+W can rack up damage without hitting the minions.
Incorrect. Lux's E hits harder than Morgana's W which I generally use for zoning purposes and racking up damage after landing a snare. R does not affect minions, E does not affect minions. Q only affects one minion if it even hits a minion.
Correct. Which is why I don't play him.
If you know how to actually direct what your plants target (hint: they target whatever you have left clicked) they don't push at all as long as you don't hit the wave with your skill shots.
Aeolian Melodies1 votes
Your arguments for Karma, Morgana's W as well as Zyra can also be applied to Lux. Her E doesn't push the lane if you use it to hit champions that are not standing in the middle of the creep wave. As for her ult, typically you use it when you go for the kill (to help burst down the target for your ADC) and the CD is not that short in the laning phase that it's actually a factor in pushing the lane.
Also, Fiddlesticks can't help pushing the lane if he pokes with Dark Wind: Lux can at least place her E and aim her snare in a way that she doesn't shove the wave unless this is what she wants to do with her ADC.
At any rate, Brand, Karma, Fiddlesticks, Vel'Koz and Zyra were (or are) all used competitively so I don't think that the "but her spells push the lane" argument is the reason why she never made it to competitive play as a support, which really is something that intrigues me given the kind of mages that get picked for support these days. If Kennen, Brand and Vel'Koz can make it, why not Lux? Is she too squishy? Zyra isn't exactly tankier.
Aeolian Melodies1 votesthe reason ppl dont like Lux support is cause til about lvl 9 she out damages the adc and takes all the kills .
you were saying?
iluvalar2 votes
Heimer scale so well with hp5, he need nearly nothing else to be a decent support tank. And if they ever blink an eye, you now got a tower and promoted full Carry
F33dMeKills2 votesPlay Zilean. If you can play Zilean correctly, you'll be winning majority of all of your games as a support. I'm not gonna go into in-depth details here though. Easily getting promoted by playing him.
Chaotic Reks2 votes
is a pain in the ass bot lane, playing him as AP support gives him the ability to box up bushes and poke with E.
this guy can just be played anywhere, he has great damage poke and sustain and his ult is ridiculous on your adc
hohohoholy shit
CIockw0rk1 votesOh oh oh, i really cant listen to proven advice,
I really want to be different, i really need to troll everyone, Then i will either quit the game bcuz they are all noobs but me, Or i will stop playing my stupid support picks and pick viable ones.
Onwodori1 votesOh oh oh, i really cant listen to proven advice,
I really want to be different, i really need to troll everyone, Then i will either quit the game bcuz they are all noobs but me, Or i will stop playing my stupid support picks and pick viable ones.
Troll elsewhere. The meta is an amorphous construct only held together by current mindsets and what the LCS is brave enough to try.
Aeolian Melodies1 votesOh oh oh, i really cant listen to proven advice,
I really want to be different, i really need to troll everyone, Then i will either quit the game bcuz they are all noobs but me, Or i will stop playing my stupid support picks and pick viable ones.
were never intended to be primarily supports and yet they are all played as supports competitively or were all played as supports competitively at some point; some of them even became more popular as supports than they ever were in their intended role and are currently mostly seeing play in the support role rather than their intended role and lane.
Supporting has become more a mindset and a playstyle than something that is tied to a champion's kit. Currently all you need to be a support is some form of CC paired with either decent base dmg or decent tankiness. Shields? Buffs? Heals? Nobody gives a fuck anymore because these abilities tend to have piss poor scaling.
Now, maybe if champions that are supports by design such as 
were given incentive to be picked over and the likes - if they were given ACTUAL scaling on their abilities, not utter jokes called "utility scaling", and if they were not treated as if scaling on their damaging abilities was an absolute sacrilege - then perhaps you would have a point.
However, currently if the lane goes to shit or goes even, there is no difference between Annie with Talisman + Crucible and Nami with Talisman + Crucible, and if the lane is won, Annie can opt for a build that includes AP items which will amp her dmg and make her a threat in her own right; if Nami does that, she'll still get shit damage and she'll get slightly better healing, wooooo.
I love pure supports. I live for pure supports. But bot lane is no longer theirs. It hasn't been theirs for at least two seasons straight now.
TouchpadExpert1 votesAs far as off meta supports my go to is Anivia, especially with a Vayne.
Your can also do Volibear support too.
Wolf Queen1 votesashe does well with her too
Pelkrock1 votesGalio count? normally build pretty tanky ap mostly standard support items. His ult can win games and his harass is decent early if you land your Q's.
50000000000000001 votesMaokai is sort of a meta pick, but I still like him a lot. He can use coin or relic start depending on how you want to play the lane (coin allows for sapling poke while relic provides amazing sustain for self and ADC), use sapling to check bushes, has snare and knockup, and AoE damage reduction. His passive charges extremely quickly with 4 people using spells, which gives him tons of sustain, especially combined with relic shield. He can peel pretty well with his snare, knockup, and slow at close range, and long-range slow.
His weakness is that his MR is 30 at all levels. Enemy mid roaming and/or enemy mage support is his main weakness. He also lacks any defensive steroid pre-6. Maokai basically plays like a Leona, but with weaker all-in and a lot more utility.
Maokai support has really low skill floor since he doesn't have that much mechanics, but he has a pretty high skill cap. You can dodge burst with snare, which requires a lot of practice. In addition, using sapling at the right time is important because it has tons of utility with high CD. You can slow an enemy pursuer, check bush, block enemy's escape path in an all-in, create a choke point, etc. This spell also allows you to delay rushing sightstone. You should still build sightstone early, but you can upgrade your gold income once or get boots before getting sightstone.
Tyren1 votes
or
IMO sleeper op support. Just poke with barrels, and disengage until you and the adc hit 6
Flaherty1 votes
has been fun as support. I've only done it in normals though. Just start spell thiefs and then build him how you would in mid lane. Keep hitting the enemy ADC with your space STD and then at lvl 6 just initiate with your ult while your ADC shoots them in the face.
