The 'Ally Buff' Keyword and how it can expand itemization options.

After reading Xypherous' thoughts on a big ticket support item and consolidating support buffs into a category that can be referenced and thus affected by itemization, I decided to make a rough draft of how such a concept could open a new bevy of itemization, particularly for support champs.

Note that some of my numbers for items come from the current PBE changes, (You can see them here: http://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/champions-gameplay-feedback/NT7UcOWt-613-planned-adjustments-to-more-stuff-part-2-teleport-support-items) which aren't final.

Simply put, all abilities that are capable of directly, positively affecting the user's allies will have the 'Ally Buff' keyword on their tooltip. Then you can make items that increase the power or duration of said buffs. Buffs that can only affect the user would not have this keyword and would thus be unaffected. Despite the name, a champ will benefit from any ally buff modifiers even if the ability is self-cast. Note that some buffs can't be modified by effect modifiers (Such as Kayle ult), and some can't be modified by duration modifiers (Such as Heimerdinger passive) Finally, for an ability that does multiple things, only the portion of the spell that directly benefits the ally is modified.

EXAMPLE Nami has 100 AP, +10% buff effect, and +10% buff duration. She casts a rank 5 E on her allied Vayne. The on-hit damage would increase from 105 to 116.5, the on-hit slow would increase from 40% to 44%, and the duration would increase from 6 seconds to 6.6. Additionally, her passive would grant 88 movespeed instead of 80, and last for 1.65 seconds. This would also be the case if she self-cast the ability.

Abilities that are 'Ally Buffs' E W W W R W, E Passive Passive, E, R E Cannon E E (Including Mantra'd) W, R R (Note that this can affect the enemy heal too!) W, E, R W R W E Passive, W, E Human E W W, E W, R R Q, W, E W, R Q, W, R W E, R

Borderline edge-cases R Passive W R Let me know if I missed any here.

ITEMIZATION OPTIONS The items in the 6.13 support itemization changes can be simply modified so that "Heal and Shield Power" becomes "Ally Buff Effect" Next up, we can modify the Ancient Coin line of support items, swapping some of the extra regen stats (Or the CDR they're about to get back) for more oomph on their buffs. Finally, we can modify some existing items to give them more of a niche.

Point Runner now grants 20% Ally Buff Duration while active. This will carry over to and . On , this bonus becomes a whopping 50%, turning the holder into a potential tower diving/defending monster, even when the active isn't useful.

Finally, what this allows us to do is make a large force-multiplier (ala or ) item for supports that allows them to double-down on their utlity without resorting to an overpowered active or overtuning the combat stats, which would result in other roles poaching the item for themselves. I present to you the Tome of Eternity.

TOME OF ETERNITY Recipe: + + + + 750 gold = 3800 gold +400 Health +400 Mana +100% Base Health Regen +100% Base Mana Regen +40 Ability Power +15% Cooldown Reduction Unique Passive: +25% Ally Buff Effect Unique Passive: +5% Maximum Cooldown Reduction Unique Passive: On Kill or Assist, restores 20% of maximum mana, and additionally grants 15% movement speed and 25% Ally Buff Effect for 6 seconds.

This item, while a substantial investment to finally complete, has useful components that a support can feel comfortable sitting on. Once completed, it becomes a substantial multiplicative force for their utility, with hopefully a statline modest enough to turn away champions who can't take advantage of the passives. Most AP mages who would consider this would be better off with .

FAQ: Will this affect items? No. Current item actives and aura effects are balanced around their current effects and cooldowns, which could cause all sorts of craziness when given something to scale with. I don't want to make another Runic Bulwark.

Won't this break [champion]? Implementing this concept will more than likely result in the reduction of existing AP utility scaling in current support kits so that things don't get too terribly crazy.

"Ally Buff" sounds weird! I know, it's more of a placeholder name until I can think of something that rolls off the tongue better.

TL;DR Buff spells get a keyword. Items modify those spells.