Alternative Sightstone upgrades - why do we need them and how can they work

#The Problem

Let's start with an observation: Support builds are pretty limited. You have your GP10 item, which most of the time is defined by your champion pick (some champions have a choice between two items, the rest always buy the same item), you upgrade it for 500g, you get a Sightstone, and possibly boots. Aside from the situations when you don't upgrade your Frostfang, that's over 3000 gold on the GP10 item and Sightstone alone, not counting boots.

This is far less diversity than the laners - or, with the incoming preseason, junglers - have. At no point is there any direction to be chosen - all you can do is to pick the components towards your unchangeable destination.

For most supports, Mikael's Crucible or Locket of the Iron Solari is the only bigger item they get to choose before the game ends, especially on higher levels of play. And even in the long matches, it's the things like Randuin's Omen, Banshee's Veil or Frozen Heart that are more popular than Zeke's Herald and Ardent Censer. Oh and with the preseason, prepare for occasional Righteous Glory and Banner of Command - still picked over Zeke's and Censer. As for full AP support, they will often leave Frostfang unfinished and opt for the usual AP things like Zhonya's Hourglass and Liandry's Tormen}. This is fine and whatnot, but here comes the little problem...

Which comes to one point: All supports build Sightstone - and upgrading it to Ruby Sightstone doesn't feel rewarding, especially for "true" and mage supports. We need more Sightstones.

#The Idea

We need to state few things outright: Sightstone is a support item. Yes, it's not a problem when the jungler gets one. It is a problem, however, if the jungler has to get one. That is not good, as it supresses diversity in jungle roster. Support items are supposed to be not as outright efficient as the others. Ruby Sightstone at low and average level of play is just a health boost when the builds get finished - in pro play, that 5th ward stack is important.

This draft balances those two things - raw stat power and vision game power. Here's the pattern:

• All Sightstone upgrades are equal in cost (possible change to what that cost exactly is, but for the start it's 1600g as is the current Ruby)
• All Sightstone upgrades grant +200 health (upgraded from +150 that basic Sigthstone has).
• All Sightstone upgrades grant a different statistic at the next level from the basic component from their recipe (basically you take a number from the typical upgrade of this item).
• All Sightstone upgrades have 4 Ward Refresh stacks, unless stated otherwise.
• Power of a Unique Passive is inversely proportional to the versatility of provided statistics. This means a Sightstone with mana will be better than the one with health or AP.
• No Sightstone can be "the best" in the vision game. That means increasing the Stealth Wards limit from 3 to 4 is out of the question - every support would have to build it every time.

#The Designs

Sightstone + Ruby Crystal + 400 g = Ruby Sightstone

• +400 health
• Vigor:
• Your Stealth Wards last for 240 seconds.
• Your Vision Wards have +2 health (7).

Sightstone + Sapphire Crystal + 400 g = Sapphire Sightstone

• +200 health, +300 mana
• Serenity:
• +2 Ward Refresh stacks (total: 6)
• Whenever your Vision Ward is being destroyed, you retain vision (but not true vision) of the area for 5 seconds.

Sightstone + Rejuvenation Bead + 620 g = Emerald Sightstone

• +200 health, +100% base health regeneration
• Regrowth:
• You gain one Ward Refresh stack every 90 seconds.
• Your Vision Wards regain their health points if they haven't been attacked in the last 10 seconds.

Sightstone + Faerie Charm + 620 g = Amethyst Sightstone

• +200 health, +50% base mana regeneration
• Transmutation:
• You gain one Ward Refresh stack whenever a nearby ward is being destroyed.
• Your Vision Wards reveal all enemy Stealth Wards in the range.

Sightstone + Amplifying Tome + 365 g = Opal Sightstone

• +200 health, +30 ability power
• Insight:
• You can place wards at an increased range (1000 units - Feral Flare range).
• Your Vision Wards true sight range is increased to match their vision range (1100 units).

#The Benefits

Here's why this idea is worth considering:

• Supports can get the desired stats - although in small amount.
• Supports can respond to the shape of the vision game.
• If they want to move their whole set of wards from place to place without going to base, they can get Sapphire for 6 ward stacks.
• If their wards are being cleared, they can get either Emerald or Amethyst to get the ward stacks back.
• If they need to drop wards in unsafe spots, Opal can give them longer warding range.
• The vast majority of support mains are going to say "hey, this is fun, I wish I could use those"
• None of those concepts seem unfairly stronger than other ones, or so strong that they have to be rushed ASAP no matter what.

Potential problem I've already discussed with some people is "but what if I want stat X with passive Y" - well, this is part of the item balance. Not always will the most desired stat match the most desired passive. It's similar to the situation with Zhonya's Hourglass - if it granted MR instead of armor, it would shut down enemy mages really hard. That item is balanced around giving burst immunity, but no protection against magical DPS.

#The Summary

Sightstone diversity isn't the only problem supports have - and possibly even not the biggest one at that. The one-way GP10 builds are just as limiting - but that's a separate issue.

Allowing for supports to explore new options in the vision game and put their hands on statistics they'd want to utilize could be the first step in broadening the strategical choices in the support role. We probably don't need 5 Sightstones, but 3 or 4 would still be better than 1.