Long post: We need better ap items in the support role (featuring Ivern)

I was watching RedMercy's vid about champs that are strong this patch, and (of course) Ivern showed up. In his vid he was talking about how Ivern's clear speed allows him to edge up on his jungling opponent rather easily (can confirm that if you can do a good clear unmolested, you can be the highest leveled champ in the game for a good few minutes). Then he gets to the build, and that's when I remember this topic that I was trying to convey for some time now:

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Notice how we got a mix of ap to put a bit of VALUE INTO HIS SCALINGS, then there's some support items? This is basically what I've been parroting off every time I make a post like this. You aren't going to find a good spot for half these mage supports balance-wise if they aren't encouraged to build the very thing they're designed to need.

Hold the phone, though...we could just build Rylai's like Ivern does, right? Possible, but not optimal, since Ivern has his own cash flow while dedicated supports don't. Where Ivern can just buy a few mid lane items and top off with support ones, someone in the support role will spend a good half the game or more trying to build one 3.2k gold item after buying essentials. That or they say "fuck you" to vision and skip it to buy those types of things earlier.

Like, I've been saying it on repeat: The game environment doesn't promote building what mage supports want to build, unlike tank supports, yet mage supports have a ton of space carved out in their kits for it. You can't enhance Janna's passive or her E's bonus ad without ap. You can't boost Lulu's attack speed buff without ap. You can't increase the potency of Sona's slow or damage reduction without it either. And, yes, some supports or champions that can support actually would like to do a bit of damage. Forcing everyone to play like a Warden is making the role extremely dry. Even Riot supports the notion of having supports that are meant to hurt, hence why Zyra and Brand have been pushed more and more as legitimate support options.

"But MID LANERS TOOK FQC!!"

Yeah, when it had 150% mana regen by itself and a huge slow on a low cool down that would scout and cc for free. No one took that shit because it gave 50 ap quickly. They took it because we don't have mana pots and this one item would make mana a complete non-issue even by the time you simply got Frostfang. To boot, it'd gen like 2k gold over the course of a match. If 50 ap on a support item is really that big a deal, why didn't they nerf its ap or remove it? They nerfed its mana regen by 50% and hit its active, not its ap.

"BUT DAMAGE IS OBNOXIOUS! YOU GUYS DON'T GET TO DO DAMAGE!"

• Any rpg, which this game borrows heavily from, has a whole slew of different classes and abilities, and some of those classes can be supportive in an aggressive or defensive manner.

• Assuming someone wanted to build FQC first item, if they managed to build a Codex, you're gonna feel that next spell pretty damn well anyway. It's not like we're gonna have 2 full build items by the time laning's over, and at that point one to two items that give 40 - 60 ap a piece isn't going to make Lulu chunk you for 50% of your health in one Q.

So now that that's out of the way, I'm here calling for a real effort to make more ap items tailored for the support budget, especially since Banner had its ap removed so it could be a good purchase on more champs (I don't really think that worked). I'd also like to say that we need a rework of Zeke's so that whatever it does isn't windowed to 6 seconds of clearing minions with your crit animation, but that's for another thread.