I think the problem with Ardent Censer is the same fundamental problem as with Mikael's Crucible, Knight's Vow, Sightstone and older support items, in that it reduces the support to functioning as a bonus inventory for their allies, especially the marksman. It doesn't really feel great for the support personally, because they get no benefit from it, and out of all the support items it's one of the least interactive ones as well, as it just adds bonuses to heals and shields, yet it is still worth purchasing, even mandatory at this point, simply because it gives a bunch of stats marksmen synergize particularly well with. On a caster, being incentivized to autoattack could be a novel point of gameplay introduced by this effect, but on autoattackers, particularly marksmen, this item does not alter their gameplay in any respect, and simply makes them even stronger at what they do already. Effectively, as long as Ardent Censer exists and is strong enough to be bought, it will remain mandatory and not very healthy to the game, as it forces the support to purchase an early- to mid-game power spike to their marksman.
Because of this, I think it might help to rework or remove the item, but on top of that, support items need to definitively stop imitating items from other classes. As controversial as items like Locket and Redemption are, at least they give supports an active that can truly benefit their entire team, including themselves, and that works by actually having an impact of its own, instead of just giving bonus stats or some effect other classes can get through their own itemization (e.g. Mikael's Crucible and Mercurial Scimitar/QSS, or Sightstone versus trinkets). Right now, we're also at a severe loss for items that truly focus on enhancing the utility already present on support kits, beyond simply buffing their heals and shields, so if support itemization needs more passive effects, they should focus on making the unique utility of each support more valuable, instead of making the class all blend into a set of hollow shells for the same selection of actives and bonus stats.
What could also help in the game's current environment is support items that benefit members of other classes equally well, or better yet, which work distinctly better on non-marksmen. Right now, enchanters as a subclass are already very much built around marksmen, whether it be due to their focus on back line peel and protection, or just the marksman-specific bonus stats they give on some of their abilities. This kind of design, along with a steady influx of support itemization changes that have made them even more synergistic with marksmen, is a major reason why bot lane has remained so stagnant for so long, as any non-marksman trying to break in as an alternative carry role operates from a stark disadvantage. Giving supports access to items that specifically benefit assassins, mages, fighters, tanks, or other supports, without benefiting the marksman too much, could at least throw more opportunities out there for non-standard bot lane comps to succeed, even if it takes them much more time to become meta.
, they can also speed juggernauts into the fight with 
and you could possibly argue 
although I've had games I threw it on the mid laner with great effect, especially if it's a cassio.
more busted and do almost nothing for 
. The life-drain isn't the problem, it's the attack speed with the life-drain.
