User blog comment:Aciong forCE/ Lost of early game support ward wars and early defensive gameplay + the solution/@comment-9200603-20140106151654

I disagree that it's all defensive play. As a support main I actually buy a gold item on very few supports and I almost always end the game full build. When I don't it's something like I have all fully built items except for an enchantment on my boots or I never felt the need to upgrade my Chalice. I don't eve bother with the red trinket most of the time. I'd rather have more vision and more sustain than the other support/adc than more control over their vision. Because let me put it this way, their red trinket doesn't mean anything to me if my adc and I both have a trinket up and I have actual wards in my inventory. You can red trinket all you want, I'm just going to set another ward there and then laugh in your face.

I actually start Sona off: Faeire Charm, 3 Rejuv biscuits, 2 mana pots, 2 sight wards, and the yellow trinket. She's not going anywhere. Start level 1 Q which means that my adc has a little extra ad (and my Q/power chord damage) to harass with, get my heal second for sustain and I will out harass the other support and adc (saying my adc is decent as well) out of lane all because the other Sona started with a spellthief  nd had no sustain or vision.

Leona on the other hand works wonderfully with the Relic Shield. She doesn't have a heal built into her kit, so this is her only way she can heal her adc, it gives her a decent amount of extra money (and it's a lot harder for Leona to get assists to make money than it is for Sona since Leona has to get in the front line and take the risk of dying for that assist) it makes her tankier, and so it's worth having less sustain. Leona doesn't have mana problems because even though she has high costs, does she really want to be jumping right into the enemy team every 5 seconds? So the only thing you have to watch out for is the lack of health pots/the one less ward. That's okay. Leona is going to want to go in pretty early, tag the other support or adc down, and then let the adc slaughter them. She can go back once one or both of them have died. The problem with making the relic shield less expensive for her is that she's gained a lot of power now that having this relic shield means she can buy a bunch of fancy items (which was always more of a problem for the healess, and the melee supports) and she's going to do a lot more damage than other supports later in the game. Give her a kill and/or an assist or two in lane and hopefully you're able to find her poor adc all alone because there is no way you're taking Leona out unless she turret dives you at half health and can't kill you fast enough.

I guess right now I find the support items --other than the Relic Shield on melee supports-- fairly useless. I can play a really offensive lane with a Charm, some pots, and wards. If the other lane can't play offensively it just means that I'm not taking as much harass. I could definitely see switching up to the coin and spellthief if their prices were lowered because I could get the sustain of the charm from both of the gold income items, as well as some pots/wards but at this point I start off with ~40ap and ~50 extra health or so from my runes/masteries so the +5 health regen and the +10 ap isn't enough appeal to turn me into a fragile support with no vision.