Support champions are some of the most versatile characters in League of Legends, as nearly any champion can potentially fill the role. So long as you have crowd control and enough utility, there are infinite ways you can support your team rather than just dishing out damage.
This includes items, as there are tons of support and non-support options that can substantially raise your win rate. If you don't know what to build on your conventional or unconventional support, these items should always be your go-to options.
10 Steel Shoulderguards & Relic Shield
It's impossible to talk about the items of League of Legends without mentioning the exclusive support items, which have gone through various changes with nearly every seasonal update. The current metagame has two pairs of items that act as a support champion's first item, increasing their income of gold while raising certain stats before evolving into a Ward-producing item later in the game.
The Steel Shoulderguards and Relic Shield are the lesser of the pairs, going towards tanks with the ability to finish off minions to provide bonus gold for themselves and their partner. These items are certainly not bad, but they can be fairly boring to use compared to the AD and AP support options, even if they're absolutely vital for powerful support champions like Leona and Thresh.
9 Spellthief's Edge & Spectral Sickle
Speaking of which, Spellthief's Edge and Spectral Sickle are the damage-based versions of the starting support items. Instead of focusing on minions, the user will get gold whenever they hit opposing turrets and champions, encouraging you to poke foes with your damage and crowd control spells as much as possible.
These are infinitely more fun to use, as hitting another human player is often far more dynamic than just executing minions and slowly helping your ally farm. These also grant far better general resource restoration, particularly mana with Spellthief's Edge, making them better options for a majority of the game's support options.
8 Redemption
Redemption is another item that's almost exclusively used by supports, and it is one of the few items with activated abilities that you can get addicted to using quite quickly. Alongside granting additional mana and health regeneration, it can cause a surge of energy in a small area from incredibly long distances, healing allies while lightly damaging foes.
This item is vital for most heal-based support mages, but it's even better on characters like Thresh and Rakan who can't heal their allies easily. It isn't a mandatory item like the earlier starting options, but it's a solid addition to any support build in the game.
7 Zhonya's Hourglass
Most players might not think of Zhonya's Hourglass as a support item so much as a mid lane item, but its ability to turn you invulnerable for a brief moment is even more beneficial to supports who your foes are aggressively targeting. Rather than just supports, this item is a must-build for nearly any spellcaster, as it gives enough armor and AP to help your stats hit record highs.
This is especially great with supports like Morgana and Zyra, who both have moves that excel at close range. Using this item after letting loose your abilities will give your opponents a huge headache as they figure out how to attack you after the effect wears off. By then, you may have already killed two or three opponents from your passive damage effects.
6 Abyssal Mask
Those looking to try an underrated item should absolutely look into an Abyssal Mask, especially if you're unsure about building into a tank or damage-based support set. It grants some additional mana and AP, but it also grants a damage boost to all allies on targets you've fully stunned or disabled.
It's important to make sure your effect triggers this effect, but those that use it properly can give a ludicrous boost to your team's damage output. Stunning foes is one of the key jobs of a support, and being able to maximize your partner's strength will make you a great support in any player's eyes.
5 Umbral Glaive
Before the recent item shop rework, many AD items had a powerful passive ability to reveal wards that you walk over. These were vital for overpowered AD supports like Pyke and Senna, as they let them ruin an opponent's vision network and let you ruin foes through stealthy attacks from anywhere on the map.
These effects are now much rarer, but the Umbral Glaive retains this effect and is one of the most important items thanks to its inclusion. Since this isn't a legendary item, it can fit into any AD support build, and given its utility for your team and the overall board, it's easily the most valuable AD support item you can get.
4 Knight's Vow
Knight's Vow is one of the more comical items on this list, letting you funnel damage away from a chosen ally and letting it harm yourself instead. It's essentially a tank item that spreads damage thinner, and while it won't work well against foes that deal damage over longer periods of time, it's a great way to prevent allies from being killed in single large hits.
This makes it a wonderful counter item against burst damage sources like Xerath and Veigar from the mid lane, who each have attacks that can often take out half your health bar with little struggle. You'll need to build this item on a tank like Braun or Alistar that can handle this extra damage, but your teammate will absolutely be thankful for you to watch over them.
3 Imperial Mandate
The Imperial Mandate is one of the newest items in League of Legends, and it's quickly become a staple of AP supports that love to poke their opponents. This mythic item will mark any foes you stun or slow, which will explode for more spell damage when an ally hits them afterward.
This is an excellent item for champions like Lux and Seraphine who can stun opponents with most of their abilities, but its power also comes from a mythic passive that inherently raises your ability power for each fully-built item. This can help you hit record highs of damage as a support, which most other mythic items are incapable of in this role.
2 Ardent Censer
Most players will not be surprised by the picks for the best support items in League of Legends. The final two items both give incredible boosts to your team and provide remarkable stats to the user, and Ardent Censer does this without any struggle for all sorts of support mages.
This item not only increases your healing and mana regeneration but will also raise your and an ally's Attack Speed whenever you heal them. This can lead to some ridiculous amounts of power with mages like Nami and Sona, and if you're laning with any champion who values rapid basic attacks, it's bound to give you an absurd amount of strength in the late game.
1 Locket Of The Iron Solari
Ardent Censer might be good for mages, but the real best support item in the game has to go to the tanks, who have access to the powerful Locket of the Iron Solari. This item gives a great general defensive boost to the holder, but it can also be activated to provide a damage shield to all allies around you for a short time that's based on your bonus health.
This means it'll scale great into the later sections of the game, as well as giving an additional damage shield to yourself when invading with champions like Leona and Rell. It's absolutely a must-build item for any tank support, and with its low cooldown time, you can almost always have it on-hand for any teamfight you might need it for.