User blog comment:Emptylord/Class Reworks - Itemization Follow-up/@comment-5035765-20160512211319/@comment-1330314-20160515101714

If a mage "support" picks a utility item capable of assisting their teammates, though, wouldn't that be a good thing? If your issue is with Annie / Brand / Nidalee going bot and turning it into a kill lane, then utility options that cater to them would help them fit better into the support role while still providing damage as their main contribution, as is already the case for the new Athene's on some utility mages. Season 4 onwards has proven that utility truly is as valuable as, if not more valuable than damage, and even though some mages were really popular after supports got more gold, it's the latter who became truly dominant.

As someone who also worked on a spell vamp model similar to the above Gunblade's, I think it does have some crucial differences from WotA, namely the way its healing is gated. Will of the Ancients was removed because its spell vamp was impossible to gate, and only really worked on champions with low-cooldown AoE damage and little to no mana restrictions (i.e. Vladimir). The above model can work on fewer spells, and overall favors bursty AP champions a lot more, since AP DPS champions would end up hitting the cap. Perhaps there might be an issue with CDR on an offensive AP item, but then again there are items out there that are far better at dealing damage, and the main purpose for buying Gunblade is sustain and a bit of CC (it's also worth mentioning Abyssal has offensive power through its aura and still has CDR).