User blog comment:Lukeatlook/Pyro's Item Overhaul 5 - Supports and the CDR Overload/@comment-5035765-20140721000242/@comment-1330314-20140721002111

Because the CDR and active are usually both powerful enough to justify not having too many other stats on the item (and even then, any item, even, has workable stats alongside its CDR and active). The power focus on CDR and actives is a way of making sure only supports are incentivized to buy the item: if the item offered more personal stats, it would a) risk getting picked by non-supports for the stats and effects and risk overloading other roles with utility, and b) force a cost increase on the items, which would make them less appealing to the supports who are meant to purchase them. The only alternative would be to shift power away from the CDR and active, and for a support, whose focus is on utility first and foremost, that would be terrible.

I do think, however, that we can affort to have more AP support items in the game. Not just low-end, high-utility items like or, but also items that offer a good blend of AP and utility at a reachable cost, like. That way, supports willing to itemize for AP could have a clear path set out for them, one that would (hopefully) present an interesting and viable alternative to the current all-item utility support path, and a different form of power expression.