Idea on how to balance scaling utility spells
TL;DR at the bottom
A problem I'm sure Riot and most players can agree on:
Ability Power scaling on the utility portions of abilities is too difficult to balance
Why is this? Well, most champions also use ability power to effect the direct damage output of abilities as well as objective taking, and having a single stat that can increase both utility and damage allows a double dip effect that is simply too powerful in most cases. The way Riot has handled this in the past is either removing the scaling portion of the utility and making most of the value from base stats, or weakening the damage parts of the champion's kit in order to let them keep the high utility. The issue here is, there's still a lack of options in both of these cases.
Here's a list of Champions with utility that scales off of AP
And now, here's that same list of champions trimmed down to only include utility that affects other champions, but scales off of AP
All of the champions in the previous list have one of two issues:
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The potential scaling of their abilities must be weak so that high amounts of ability power would not give the kits too much power in both utility and damage.
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The utility is the only part of the kit with ability power, and the rest of the kit has no real synergy with ability power items and so the utility scalings are rarely seen utilized.
Solution/Idea
Offer a completely new stat-line for utility scaling which effects champions outside the user.
For simplicity sake, the name of the stat in this thread will be MIND(MD), a term stolen from most other MMOs when looking at defensive magics. How this would work is to create a large set of new items with various uses and niches to involve this new stat of MIND, as well add this new scaling onto current ability for utility scaling. In the cases of utility that effects the user only, the abilities can continue to scale off of ability power to keep use when building full AP, but also include Mind scaling if the player decides to go for such a build. Meanwhile, utility spells which are meant to affect allies or enemies will have the utility portion scale purely off of Mind, while any damage portions would remain Ability Power scaling. That way, the user must make a clear cut decision on if they wish to strengthen their own offensive abilities, or focus on strengthening their utility alone.
What will this look like on a champion's ability?
Here's an example
> Ebb and Flow (Rank 1) - Nami unleashes a stream of water onto the target champion, which then bounces to nearby unaffected champions up to twice, alternating between allies, enemies, and herself.
> Ebb and Flow heals allies for 65 (+ 40% MD) and deals 70 (+ 50% AP) magic damage to enemies, with each bonce being 85% (+ 10% per 100 MD ) as effective as the previous one.
Previously, Ability Power was the only stat which effected this ability's scaling. Now, with AP effecting damage and MD effecting the utility, it is more clear to enemies and allies what Nami's goal within teamfights are, and will allow players to specialize far more into one style of play if they so choose.
What will this look like on items?
As it stands, this stat essentially exists without a name, living on in 
and it's later items known as a direct %increase to heals and shields. The issue is, this stat is artificially better on champions with higher base healing values since the % increase will be translated to a directly higher flat value. It also raises the problem of any heals and shields then double dip in scaling power with any ability power the player currently has.
On say, , 8% increase in heal and shield power could be replaced with 15 MD, which would then be translated into 
,
, and 
. Completely new items could also be introduced to give a larger variety of item builds that could focus on MD for utility supports, offering item passives and actives tailored for use by these supports. The best part is, since the main stat, MD, on these items would be useless on carries, there would be no worry of other champions/roles abusing these items!
For a long period of time now, support players have been asking for more powerful items specifically tailored to them. The easiest form of comparison between this idea was towards that of jungle items and how they could only be used by junglers since it required smite to purchase. However, no one could agree on a single summoner spell that only supports would use every single game. Here is the next best alternative. By having an ability which only effects utility and NOT damage, therefore being desired by supports only, you have the ability to create items which are near guaranteed to be used by supports and can help deal with many of the issues supports have been having.
People don't like how Sightstone builds out of health items but not not every support has a strong desire for health? Ok, now it offers Mind.
People want supports to have stronger gold-income items that won't be abused by other roles? Ok, make the primary items to assist with gold-income have Mind as the primary stat.
People want items for supports that offer an easier time gathering experience in the mid-late game? Ok, same idea as with gold-income items. The best part is, because of how little utility effects objective taking and PvE, people attempting to abuse these items outside of supports would greatly struggle simply because they would like any damage or tankiness which are essential to PvP!
"But Fenris, what about tanky supports that don't have any scaling on their utility?"
ADD SOME
With this new stat, an entire new avenue would be opened up since you wouldn't have to worry about said scaling double dipping into either damage output or direct tankiness, outside of a stronger shield. But since each champion would have their own MD ratios on abilities with utility, you could easily balance it out for champion-specific cases.
Example 1:
What would building Mind increase - Strength of shield from W and slow from E and R.
What would building something other than Mind increase - Damage of Q, E, and R, or direct tankiness depending on the stat you choose to build, however in this balance case no built Mind would result in much weaker utility than we see in the live version of Thresh, which would result in clear trade-off decisions when building items.
What would building Mind increase - MS increase from passive, Slow from Q, Shield from W, and heal from R.
What would building something other than Mind increase - Damage or overall Tankiness.
Again, it's a clear trade-off. Ekko can choose to be incredibly sticky and have high utility, but he will give up BOTH tankiness and damage in order to do so. He can choose to build Tank, but then will have little to no utility. He can build damage, but then will not be tanky nor have excessive utility. Finally, there's the option where he builds a little bit of all stats and acts as a hybrid, but then he would be lacking in all areas rather than dominating in one, which would make him much easier to deal with than having straight flat values for utility or utility that also scales off of his damage as it does now.
Final Thoughts
Mind is a stat I would love to see implemented into the game as well as the creation of new branches of items to compliment it. Of course, any development of something along these lines would require an extreme amount of time to code, bug-fix, and properly develop and balance into the game, so if anything is ever mentioned of something like this being implemented I will patiently hold my breath.
TL;DR
Create a completely new stat to replace ability power in utility scaling and make items to give this new stat, so that supports have more dedicated items towards them that can fix role-specific issues such as gold income and experience gain, or overall relevance in the matches. This stat would allow for all utility abilities in the game to have this scaling added since utility and damage would now scale off of separate stat lines, making it much easier to balance as well as more impactful decision making in-game on what items would be best for a situation.
Thank you to anyone who took their time to read this. Please comment down below your thoughts and let's see what Rioters think of this idea.