Talk:Sona/@comment-210.245.132.4-20120402055335/@comment-83.146.239.200-20120506170614

Really, the most accurate definition of a support is someone who is able to babysit someone without hurting himself/herself. We could take supportive abilitities like heals and buffs into account, but several champions are considered as great supports even though they have only offensive/self-buff skills. Leona comes to mind.

Instead of splitting the gold even between two champions, a support allows almost all of the gold be given to another teammate while still being efficient.

And yes, it's true that tanky DPS is the strongest archetype in the game, but a babysitted ranged AD has the advantage of being ranged, hopefully being able to stay relatively safe and wreck people's faces, with their team providing support.