Aphrodite - Support (yes! support!)

Aphrodite is a wonderful support to take even though many people cry for tanks. She has incredibly vulnerable early game and, if suppressed during this vital phase, it will be incredibly hard to keep up. She works incredibly well with bursty hunters that can immdiately follow up on her kiss like cupid, artemis, ullr and anhur. (Special note goes out to cupid since he can add to her already substantial healing to allow an aphrodite to be incredibly agressive with little punishment in the end.) During the early game you will either want to be incredibly agressive and poke the enemy as much as you can, or play super passive and hover near the tower at all times. Your playstyle will be completely based off of how your adc acts. If your adc is clearing waves faster than then enemy, agressive. If they are on point with follow-ups, agressive. If they play any other way, defensive. The most important thing to note is once you hit level 5, you can tower dive them for days on end.

If you notice my skill build ends at level 10, this is on purpose. After level 10 you can build based on whats needed. Kiss gives utility and bonus damage to your soulmate, good for if they're fed. Back off will give you the extra damage if you find yourself getting focused or alone alot. While i personally put my ult on low priority, I level it at level 5, 10, 18, 19, 20. While the cool down and duration of invincibility does scale up, it's satisfactory at level 2. The only reason i put levels in it early is if I'm running an ambulance service running around saving people at the last minute and need the cooldown to consistently do it.

With the update to watchers gift, it makes it significantly easier for non tank supports to succeed. In case you were not aware, it no longer grants a gp5 effect, but give bonus gold for being near a minion death along with 10 hp and 5 mp. This gives mana hungry supports (like aphrodite) a bit of help for mana sustain, however when i say mana hungry i mean HUNGRY. Hence the start of 5 glorious mana potions so you can pump out them heals.
With the addition of lotus crown, it had become a necessity to aphrodite's kit, even when not playing support. The temporary protections stim is amazing for tanking towers, winning trades, and the clutch get away with 3 hp left. CD shoes are a necessity for keeping you and your adc healthy.

Now for your defensive items you want to choose sovereignty and heartward (better for your team and gives you ALOT of mp5 in conjunction with lotus crown) or hide of the urchin (lower defense and less utility for just you, but and frees you up for a damaging item.) You want to build your defensive items FIRST no matter how tempting a damaging item is. Spirit Robe is a nice defensive item in general against CC heavy teams, or just that one CC reliant burst person (coughanubiscougharescough)

Out of the offensive items you really only want to pick one (two if you choose hide of the urchin over sov/heart) The slot for an offensive item may also be overrode for a utility or specific counter pick item. Rod of thauti is my favorite since it ramps up your heals also. Spear of the magus is the prime choice if your team has alot of mages and none of them plan on building it (you'll want to ask your team before you pick this item.) Gem of isolation is only if your adc never gets close for you to slow qith back off and you;re playing incredibly aggressive.

Now for utility, ah, utility. Rod of ascelpus is a great item in general, usually subbing for a real damage item in a support aphro build. It flourishes more if your team has thier own natural heals (ie with chaac, hercules, isis, etc.) This is usually my go to item. Alot of people prefer Breastplate of Valor or Chronos' pendant for the cooldown, but its not necessary if you yourself cant tank alot of the damage. Really, breastplate of valor is good against physical teams that arent building crit for that extra defense and CD. Chronos' pendant is good if your entire team is ahead so you can throw in the extra damage often.

NOW for counter items. Each item has it's own niche to be used in.
-Divine Ruin/Pestilance: Obviously when you're against another healer in the duo lane, you want to rush one of these items. Divine Ruin is cheaper, but doesn't let you tank. Pestilance has limited range, but lets you stay in the fray.
-Witchblade: You want to get this if the enemy team has alot of auto attackers. This is not just limited to physical people (think chronos, freya, zeus). If you nab this early game it will utterly cripple them until they build attack speed. Late game it gives your team a slight edge in team fights.
-Celestial Legion Helm: not one of my personal favorite items, but with its new (actually useful) passive it helps when the enemy team is all crit -expletive omitted- Thats it.
-Winged Blade: This item is good for teams that try to slow you to death. When someone's running away and you randomly move faster instead of slower it's intimidating and causes some people to panic. This is only for team with LOTS of slows.

PROS
-Substantial Healing that she doesn't have to aim
-Grants bonus mobility/damage with gives her an edge in small skirmishes
-Her ult can break her and her soulmate from CC (and at rank 4+ it lasts long enough for her to kiss someone else, granting it to her and two other people.)
-Late game is phenominal. Even without power her heals hold compared to other healers.
-Can build for the situation without suffering, very versatile.

CONS
-Other healers will almost always out heal her
-Can't keep up in team fights
-Her ult can't be used when she's knocked up (fix hirez! plzkthx)
-Squishy. Squishy. Did i mention squishy? tankiness is 100% build reliant.
-Very Easily shut down early game