User blog comment:ND999/Lore of LoL - Blast from the past: Doran/@comment-26815373-20151225002122/@comment-26815373-20151228050843

I think I understand what Jason means. Like old and old 's, champions with items that are practically mandatory tend to suffer unless ahead. In both of those cases, you effectively had one fewer item slot, and, unless you were doing well, the bonuses provided by your exclusive item just weren't enough. I'm also reminded of as it offers 'free' stats which Riot doesn't like, and I can see why. It turns a game of skill into a series of stat checks.

Incorporating Doran's items into his kit's functionality might not be the healthiest thing for those reasons, and as far as Doran jungle or support, I'm not sure what could be done. One possible path might be to make Doran's passive (or have a clause in it that says): "Doran can build any item from any other item, ignoring build paths, and incorporating a current item (or items) into the cost of another item." This might be broken, but in my mind, it lets him use his Doran's items without suffering the normal constraints that those items offer (such as having no build path). I am just spitballing, of course.