The pure supports are those that will benefit their ADC lane
partner in the bottom lane directly by healing, improving
resistances, or the like, yet they tend to be squishy. Examples of
these would be Sona, Soraka, Zilean, Lulu, Nami, and Karma. Some
supports provide a great amount of crowd control (CC) or other
abilities that make it easier for the ADC to secure the kill and
are generally tankier than the pure supports, such as Blitzcrank,
Leona, Maokai, Thresh, and Nautilus. Then there are those that are
a bit of a combination tank/support and are generally built as
such, including Alistar, Taric, and Galio.
I think Taric is one of the best, as he can heal, has an ability
that provides an Armor bonus to all surrounding allies, has a very
reliable stun, and an ultimate that increases AP/AD for all neaby
allied champs. He packs a good deal of burst damage and is tanky to
boot - excellent all around support/tank. If your ADC lane partner
is mana hungry and needs to spam abilities for maximum effect, like
Ezreal, then Soraka is a good choice because she has a no mana cost
ability with the utility of either giving mana to an ally or
silencing/damaging an enemy. She can also heal with a regular
ability and her ultimate in addition to increasing MR with her
passive. Sona is great since she can deal a great amount of poke
damage and constantly has auras active as part of her abilities,
with the ability to heal as well.
Each support can be nearly equally useful to their lane champ,
however, if played well. Choosing your support is situational as
well, since if you already have a tank that is going top or
jungling, it would probably be more useful to the team to have a
pure support instead.
League Of Legends Champions Guide : elohell.net