A Lack of Support Items for Ability Power Champions Who do Damage More Than Healing
I main
and those who have played him enough can support me when I say that zil does more damage to champs than healing to teammates. My concern is that with how Riot is approaching support items I feel like they are focusing too much on tank support items and instead of creating new items they are changing up other items and how they work to benefit tanks more than ability power users, which can cripple a few champs builds.
You see if you ever played zil you would know he doesn't heal frequently or shield as much like lets say,
,
, or
so getting an item that optimizes damage while also supporting your adc is a great find. But now I feel like there is barely any support items that can really help him with that anymore because of the changes Riot made. For example Banner of Command
this item was once a ap item it gave ap so you could do damage and I believe some armor as a bonus, but than a patch came and it became a tank item. Of course I decided that this item would not work well on zil anymore so I decided to look for something else and found the item that won me close games, Zeke's Harbringer
. This item was perfect it gave me ap and crit to my adc and some armor as a bonus, but in this recent patch Riot has changed it so it is more of a tank item and the new passive has made it so. Instead of giving crit now if I were to have it zil would have a frost storm like shield that slowed enemies, this of course makes it a horrible idea to put on a mage because most mages shouldn't be so close to their target and without the ap the item has lost the main component I was looking for, to deal more damage while also helping my adc.
Now I try again and look and the only thing I really found that can help my adc in a fight was
and almost every supp has a stun, snare, knock up, etc so I'm not sure about how useful this item would be especially compared to Zeke's Harbringer. My point is I feel that support items for champs that (can) play support that focus on dealing damage rather than heal seems to be lacking now without Zeke's Harbringer champs like,
,
, and
.
There are of course support items for ap such as
and
, but those are more for healers and the such and on a malzahar or zyra its effects would have no effect.

Required for any AP support. This is core.
Required for ANY AP mage or support, period. CDR is especially important to max on Zilean
Good late-game cheap damage spike. Not as good as
Arguably the best item for any AP mage in the game currently. Must-buy.
Great item for Zilean - get as many movement-speed boosting items as possible - He has one of the most powerful hastes in the game, remember that he pairs best with champions that need to stick on their targets.
Your best option for dealing with bulky tanky initiate-style teams. Mind the no CDR - you ALWAYS want Max CDR as Zilean.
Still probably the best defensive item against attack damage. The movespeed boost is just too good. This allows you to reliably keep up with your hasted targets. It also give you time to react to being exploded by AD assassins.
Still arguably the best MR item in the game.
Way better than anyone gives it credit for, it's especially amazing on Zilean because he is one of the KINGS of counter-engage.
Solid choice, but I personally think its overrated.
Again, really solid choice. Most Zileans will favor damage over this, because they use their ultimate to turn the tables.
Underrated - Absolutely Killer if you start becoming the target.
Those are fun lanes to be against.
>
,
is really feeling this right now. She has a shield and it matters, but the cd is so long that buying shielding/healing items isn't really worth while. She just wants cdr, mana, and ap and truckloads of it all.