@Meddler: What are your thoughts on a "restore allied mana" support item?
A few years back, we had Mana Manipulator as something to let supports give allies bonus mana regeneration. It was removed due to certain obnoxious bot-lane compositions, and now that Soraka doesn't have a mana restore anymore, support players have absolutely no means of giving mana-hungry teammates some spell-casting juice.
Well, with the S5 mana regeneration changes now stabilized, this seems like an ideal time to introduce a new support item for those niche "ally needs mana" scenarios. But to avoid any early cheesy compositions like when Mana Manipulator was around, said item should be in the form of a completed support item.
#"Why would you ever buy such an item?"
ADCs like Graves, Twitch, and Corki can frequently have mana problems, even in late-game, and don't typically build to counteract it (sans Corki, who gets Trinity Force). Other teammates like Sion could also benefit from having a teammate give them some extra mana (Sion still has burnouts even when he gets Frozen Heart).
#"Would this be an aura or an active effect?"
That's a very good question, and one I don't have a concrete answer for. An aura would certainly be more support-oriented in that it'd let you bolster allied mana regeneration just by proximity, but Riot has a dislike of auras since they involve no real gameplay. An active would certainly enable more power, but it'd have to be balanced carefully. Also, having ANOTHER support item with an active effect might be taxing on support players, who already have enough actives to worry about.
There's definitely arguments for auras and actives, so I'm not gonna say which is better. Each has their strengths, and it's ultimately up to Riot to decide which one is healthier.
So how about chiming in, Meddler?
