You aren't changing Zeke's Herald. In fact, the only similarity is Zeke in the name. You making a complete new item here.
You guys should just change it to say Harbinger and keep the original Zeke's Herald. The new item is nice, but majority of supports would rather Zeke's Herald. So, why not have both?
"Majority of Supports would rather take Zekes"
lol these forums crack me up
The new item is nice, but majority of supports would rather Zeke's Herald.
This made me lol. Tried looking up the build rate for the item, couldn't find a site that gave it above a 0% build rate...
I've never seen someone build Zeke's Herald. It's very niche.
Zeke's Herald is problematic in that the stats it gives on its own aren't enough to justify buying it. Supports can't make good use of the AD or the lifesteal and the CDR often goes to waste due to the high amount of CDR support items. Other roles have far better appealing items that they can buy. The item is a waste of a slot on the champions that could make good use of the aura and completely terrible on any champion that isn't AD. It's bad on supports because the stats and build path are terrible. It's bad on damage dealers because it doesn't give that much damage. For a support it'd be like if your Irelia top built Abyssal so that your all magic damage team could do more damage.
The only time Zeke's is worth buying is if you have 3+ physical damage dealers on your team who would heavily benefit from it. Even then, though, it's usually still not worth building over other items. It's a weird situation where the only time the item is really effective is when the other four members of your team are all AD. The problem with this is that your team will all be dealing the same type of damage, so the enemy team will just itemize accordingly and hard counter your team. Making full use of Zeke's usually means you have a terrible teamcomp.
Neither the aura nor the stats have leeway to be buffed. The item is already gold efficient on its own. If you nerf the stats to buff the aura, you only further drive it into its niche. If you nerf the aura to buff the stats, then there really becomes no reason to take it over other items that give the same stats with better utility. If you just buff it, then everybody will start taking it because of its gold efficiency. It could be made better for supports by switching some of the cooldown reduction to more health, but this doesn't change any of its core problems.
The new Zeke's is a far better step in the right direction for multiple reasons.
First: It still retains the "damage boost" that the previous aura gave albeit as a charging method instead of a constant aura. It only loses out on the lifesteal.
Second: Because it's a charging method instead of a constant aura, it has room for counterplay. You can engage when the charges are low and disengage when the charges are high to avoid the damage boost. It also partially negates the "invisible power" provided by the aura (hopefully there will be a visual indicator for the passive).
Third: The item's stats make it a good pickup for multiple roles. Mages, supports, and tanks could make good use of the mixed stats it provides.
Fourth: It has a better build path. This goes hand in hand with reason #3.
Fifth: The passive is useful on pretty much every role. Tanks and supports could use it to boost the damage of a team member. Every other role would like the extra crit/ap.
In fact, I'd guess that the new item is a little bit too strong. It gives a ridiculous amount of stats for only 2300 gold, and the passive looks monstrous. I guess it'd all depend on how fast the charges accumulate and what the stats for the item are when it actually goes live though.
The new item is nice, but majority of supports would rather Zeke's Herald. So, why not have both?
pfft, nobody builds Zeke's herald; I know this because I'm one of the people that actually tries building it every now and then. It's only good if you've got a bunch of AD damage dealers- and then you have to wonder how well you're going to do anyways once they buy armor.
The AD is wasted for a Support as you'll either be tanky (Alistar, Taric, Blitz, Leona), or utility (Raka, Lulu, Nami); neither of these benefit from buying Zeke's as you would almost anything else.
I can understand the "Why not just have both" mentality- but don't try to justify it by saying people use Zeke's Herald. They do not.
majority of supports would rather Zeke's Herald.
Uhn? Objection? I've never seem anybody ever build a Zeke's Herald. Ever.
majority of supports would rather Zeke's Herald.
Since when? LOLOLOL
I just want to point out how gold efficient the item is:
y = gold efficiency x = bonus AP
THESE ARE WIKIA VALUES Gold value per AP = 21.75g Value per Armor = 20g Value per Mana = 2g Value per CDR = 31.67g Value per Crit Chance = 50g
Item stats and Value AP 50 = 1087.5g Armor 35 = 700g Mana 250 = 500g CDR 10% = 316.7g Before passive =2604.2g or 113.2% Gold Efficient
Passive: Crit 100% = 5000g AP 20% each = varies
After Crit added = 7605.2g or 330.6% Gold Efficient
Equations (note: I haven't done any mathematics in 3 years so correct me if I am wrong)
Gold Efficiency[Y] = 100( ( 2604.2[No Crit value] + 21.75*X[bonus AP] ) / 2300[Item cost] )
OR
Y=100((2604.2+21.75*X)/2300)
With Crit
Gold Efficiency[Y] = 100( ( 7604.2[With Crit value] + 21.75*X[bonus AP] ) / 2300[Item cost] )
OR
Y=100((7604.2+21.75*X)/2300)
So with 2 APCs being affected by its passive both at 300AP (before bonus ap) the item would give them each 60 AP, 120 total.
So ignoring the crit we get 226.7% Efficient, Add in the crit and its 444.1% Efficient.
Here is the new zeke's gold efficiency. Also note that the item is able to be proc'd in around double the time it takes to fill shiv's passive, so its passive is up quite often.
For reference Full stacked 
is 313.6% gold efficient, and a full 
is 325.7% gold efficient.
The current design for Zeke's Herald is not worth keeping. It really isn't.
All the (archetype) supports don't use AD efficiently, and by extension, don't use Lifesteal efficiently either. They can use the health and CDR, but pretty much every good support item has CDR, and the health on it is basically what they get out of Sightstone.
The only (role) supports that use Zeke's well are actually bruisers.
On top of that, Zeke's is a remnant from an older time, when stacking auras for a bunch of team fight power was normal. It was common to see people double-stack auras, because the item itself has great stats, and then you'd get double the effect of the aura due to how they stack.
Now, the only remaining real aura items are Aegis/Locket, which has been watered down to the point where I'm surprised it's still an aura, and Zeke's Herald, which has a very low-effect niche. The new Zeke's is not actually worth complaint when you consider that it works on a much larger pool of champions.
Welcome to the League of Retcons, where everything gets a retcon. Even item diversity.
what? zeke's herald is a trash tier item????
I think the only reason they keep the name "Zeke" is because that item is from referral or something like that... if not they will removed it altogether like "Deathfire Grasp"
Zeke's Herald was total crap; what 'majority of supports' are buying that useless piece of $ ?
Supports don't deserve AD... apparently...
I was going to complain, but then I realized it actually made GP support even better, so I just ate oranges and was K.
It's a poor item overall with too strong of a niche.
They probably were on the verge of just putting it with Atma's.
But I'd like to see it stay on ARAM.
The only time I built Zeke's Herald was when I played support Kalista.
But maybe it's because I don't really play any supports that would really benefit it that much.
Just because it's not used though, doesn't mean they should remove it.
Ohh. Just shut up about it, they are turning an item that never gets picked into something that will get picked, and all that is complained about is whether both can exist, why would we keep trash items around.
I only ever build zeke's if I'm playing as Yorick, the damage boost affects the gouls
