User blog comment:Lukeatlook/Pyro's Item Overhaul 1 - Expanding Support/@comment-1330314-20140310130222

You've put a huge amount of effort into this. The organization of your items is beautiful, and a lot of the changes you propose make perfect sense. That said, I don't think that many of these changes would work, partly because some of the effects you propose wouldn't be healthy to the game (namely, ultra-powerful auras such as the Runic Bulwark aura), and partly because some effects would create really bizarre edge cases (particularly with Soul Shroud). Here are my thoughts overall:
 * The addition of Shurelya's Reverie looks functionally good, though I disagree with your reasoning. It's true that Talisman of Ascension's active trumps that of the other support items, and that coupling it with super-safe gold generation makes it a lazy insta-pick, but I feel this should be addressed by buffing other support items to its level. I'm quite happy with the recent changes to the blue line, and I think that in time it'll get picked more often due to the massive boost in pushing power it provides.
 * Adding regen items to the build path of tier 2 support items makes perfect sense. I don't know if it's a necessary change, but it definitely looks good.
 * Though the organization on the six-core system is perfect in terms of stats and build paths, the main issue I find with it is that some of the items you've added are frequently picked in conjunction with existing gold income support items. Mikael's Crucible in particular is core on most supports alongside whichever support item they pick, and inserting it into the gold income system could create weird itemization problems. I also have other qualms with some of the choices you've made:
 * I have mixed feelings regarding the removal of CDR on Zeke's Herald, particularly as it's already not an attractive item for supports due to its AD-oriented stats. Though its aura is potentially strong, its base stats are vastly inferior to those of Face of the Mountain. Considering the latter is already extremely attractive due to the strong peel on its active, you're going to have to provide more of an incentive to build this on supports. The core issue is that they can't really do much with the AD and life steal on Zeke's, so if you want to solve its problems you're going to have to somehow make those stats attractive on supports, at least through this item.
 * Talisman of Ascension's aura is extremely powerful. My concern, however, is that it looks like it offers too much invisible power: auras are extremely difficult to handle because they provide passive bonuses which, although powerful, don't seem as strong as they actually are. Increasing all regeneration by 20% might tip siege and extended trades too much in favor of the wielder's team, especially as this is effectively an improved, team-wide passive that is not only cheaper than the item itself but that also synergizes with it. For 750 less gold, you get the same buff to your regeneration, in addition to a buff to your mana regen which you also share with your entire team. You mentioned Dr. Mundo and Swain as beneficiaries of this item, but neither are supports, or at least not supports who would follow the Ancient Coin line. Having this item around with a Mundo or Swain on your team could give them crazy levels of regeneration, and could even lead to bizzare abuse cases where they'd buy this item to stack it on top of Spirit Visage for a crazy 44% increase to their healing.
 * Having Shard of True Ice grant up to 90 AP is great for AP supports. However, it also has a lot of unattractive aspects that would make it likely far too unattractive: for one, the inclusion of a Blasting Wand as part of its recipe is not a good idea, as it requires a massive chunk of gold to purchase in one go (and it's only a mid-tier item). Secondly, the Snowball passive makes an already super-high-risk item line even riskier, and also has the potential problem of making the item overly binary (either you effectively snowball and end up with an extremely cost-efficient amount of AP, either you get crushed and end up stuck with a near-useless item that offers no bonuses to your team). Thirdly, the lack of CDR may turn away even mage supports who scale super-well with AP, as did Frost Queen's Claim before its rework. I also don't think an AP aura would really work: unlike AD, most champions don't experience a reliable power increase with AP, and every champion interacts with AP differently, if at all, which is one of the reasons Will of the Ancients' aura got removed.
 * The idea of Meki Pendant as a mana regen/CDR item looks nice and fits well with many items. No criticism here.
 * The changes you made to Locket of the Iron Solari actually look really nice. I'm not a big fan of health regeneration in the form of an aura, and the addition of a Kindlegem as part of its recipe fits perfectly. Locket is already core in every game, but this I feel would make it healthier and give it a more powerful feel. I also agree that the removal of Emblem of Valor gave Aegis a terrible build path, and so the removal of a Rejuvenation Bead looks like a huge improvement.
 * By contrast, I don't think Runic Bulwark would be a good idea. The original Runic Bulwark was removed because its aura was simply too strong, and this falls into the same problem: eventually, tanks will end up with enough defensive stats so that this makes the entire team a lot tankier, but this doesn't and wouldn't get perceived as well as it should. The other problem I see is the conversion of MR to armor: sure, it's harder to stack MR than it is to stack armor, but this passive means that tanks, who already get super-cheap access to massive amounts of defensive stats, get even more free defenses. Seeing as hypertanks (i.e. champions who stack tank items and still output a lot of damage and utility) are already a problem in LoL for this very reason, I don't think they need any more free stats.
 * Arcane Helix is a little bizarre. Unlike the other Tear items, it has no synergy with its own mana (bar the lessened effect of the channel's mana cost), and its active looks like it could easily keep a lot of champions indefinitely in lane, particularly top laners and supports (despite is super-high recipe cost). If you really want a tank-oriented Tear item, I recommend you scrap the active on Helix and instead add some kind of mana scaling (i.e. "regenerate X% of your mana every 5 seconds" or the like).
 * For the same reason, Innervating Locket is equally bizarre, as it has even less synergy: it's a Tear item that offers plenty of mana but no mana scaling, and its active heals allies based off of your health despite it offering no health at all. If you want this to be a healing item, I'd recommend you turn the active into a mana-based heal. I would also be very careful with this, as item heals are extremely powerful, and healing allies for potentially 40% of your health is way, way too strong (it's effectively a Mundo ult for everyone, even if the channel means you'll be interrupted sooner), even if it were single-target.
 * While you do yourself see that Soul Shroud has abuse potential, the problems tied to having it extend the CDR cap to 50% are actually quite serious: you could end up with situations where has two Tibbers at a time, or where  gets to lay her shield on two people simultaneously. You can also end up with  being able to lay down 2-second stuns every 3 seconds,  throwing double barrels,  getting only 1.5 seconds downtime on his hook, and  having 0.5 seconds downtime on his 55% slow, effectively granting him a permaslow. These are not the only abuse cases out there. CDR is balanced around the 40% cap to the point where some abilities are designed to be just shy of overlapping when the cap is reached. Increasing the cap would mean rebalancing every ability around this new cap, which in turn would force Shoul Shroud as a mandatory support item due to the additional CDR it provides.
 * Sapphire Sightstone's stats are nice, and while the spell mod component is unique and interesting I don't think it would quite work: Clarity is a terrible spell, and only a crutch for those new to the game, and so I don't think its use should be encouraged (heck, I don't even think it should be available on Summoner's Rift). The focus on Clairvoyance synergizes naturally with the vision the item provides, so I'd recommend you focus on that part instead.
 * Emerald Sightstone's dangling 5% CDR is a bit strange: sure, it covers the 5% gap usually left by masteries, but that's not the best solution to the problem. As with Clarity, Revive is not a particularly good spell (bar the elusive Revive+Teleport strat) and is unhealthy to gameplay by design (it negates a death, which can be a significant investment for the enemy team), so I don't think its use should be attached to this item. Focusing on Heal alone would work a lot better.
 * Mana Manipulator's effect looks far too good in terms of sustain. Part of the reason the old Mana Manipulator was removed, aside from its nonexistent build options, was that the mana-based sustain it gave in bot lane could be a little bit too good. This takes that problem up to eleven: with this item (which can also be used as a starter item, with the price it has), you effectively get to top your carry up on mana for free and have them last indefinitely in lane, even if you're not . If you want an interesting effect, I would suggest mana vamp, i.e. restoring mana based on damage dealt (exclusively to champions would be the healthiest effect).

I'll also respond to your earlier post, which also had some really original ideas. Overall, you have a lot of brilliant concepts, plus a great talent for organization, but there are a lot of changes and new effects I don't agree with.