Support Items are a big mistake.

Honestly I've never been this displeased with pre-season changes before. To start off, I'm a support main, infact I've mained soraka since beta (she was broken as hell back then, good times..) But these changes all feel designed to push the champions who were made to be supports out of the support position.

Allright, lets start with the gold income, locking off the spoils passive on full upgrade is just nasty, its outright telling us we arn't aloud to have as much gold as the other players, why? there are some expensive items that do synergise VERY well with supports (like item line on soraka, letting her heal back her own health on casts to compensate for the health cost of her heals. Which one I pick is situational on the game.)

Secondly, the utility effects. coin gave mana sustain, gave bonus poke damage and gave a small heal. These were very useful, it let tanks endure pokes better, and it let the passive enchanters replenish their mana so they didn't need to constantly back off to base. The supports I used mostly took so I'm more familiar with that. But losing that bonus damage is really going to hurt my trades as soraka, especially when I'll likely be up against support Ashe spamming volly. And I'm sure there are plenty of relic shield users ready to complain about the loss of the heal.

Finally, the stats.. oh boy, this may be the worst part. the stats are now awefull. No regen, no mana, no cooldown reduction. And no HP/Armour choice for the likes of and the pay off is that we get a little bit more AP, let me remind you that most supports have good base values and low AP scaling.. which was intentional to give them a strong lane presence but prevent them snowballing into carries (Again, back to beta soraka with her 1 for 1 ap ratio on infuse..)

All in all, every change here is just bad, and it favours none support champs taking the position while pushing actual supports out of the lane. And don't get me wrong, I'm all for unconventinal supports, infact I often play as a support, fantastic poke, self susain on mana, global vision and outright the best stun in the game, he has all the tools for the job, and these items are a buff to him, more ap and I can instantly start going for his core build the second I leave the nexus. but he shouldn't be better as a support than the likes of Soraka who will be pushed out of the meta compleatly with these cahnges, and THAT is my issue.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the Cs penalty, oh boy again.. so if my ADC disconnects I can't even push the wave back or I get punished, or if my team is focusing objective I can't defend base? really??? atleast let that part fall off after final upgrade, come on...