I find it a little surprising that people are voting for the Mastery option. Maybe because that's how we've been discussing it? Maybe because it "feels" like a Mastery?

something like this should be available from lvl 1 for duo lane partners, for the same reason they gave supports a gp10 mastery and runes.

so as a mastery or a starting item in the price range of 400 gold, it would probably be the best solution.

i like the item option more, since it would be more available for everyone. it wouldnt deny anyone the option of going offensive or tank with 9/21/0 or 21/9/0 in duo laning (and miss out at that one point to get more hp or armor/magic pen) or interfere with jungle mastery builds in case of duo jungling.

Why not just go basic mechanic?

How about all of these ideas are stupid and people need to stop suggesting fixes to a "problem" that doesn't exist? The game shouldn't even have 4 sources of gold, it should just be 3. Deciding where and how to allocate gold is an interesting and important part of the game. Also these ideas only reinforce the meta.

I swear, most of the players in this game don't seem to understand that making players make decisions and tradeoffs is a good thing.

Actually there would be a way to make AP a support-y stat too.

By making the CC part of abilities like Janna's Zephyr scale with AP.

By making the damaging part of support abilities scale badly, and the support-y part of those abilities get better with AP (for example, the AP you've got the longer Janna's Zephyr slow could last), we can make support able to choose between AP and CDR and Mana, and not have to create another class of items reserved for support.

Just my two cents.

I posted this a while back: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/....php?t=1956929

But can't find where I simplified it... Maybe in a GD thread?

Ahh... Right here! http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...7#post22669107

Haha, don't be intimidated by the badge. Honestly, if I could hide it I would, since my opinion is in no way validated or more important because of it.

Anyway, as to my counterpoints to that argument:

Auras are strong, but are problematic in a sense as a general fun factor (this isn't support specific). Auras factor in the the total stats applied to the team in their cost. While they are still gold efficient, the purchaser doesn't feel like they've gotten a significant upgrade, since a lot of the value of stats they've purchased go to other players. In addition, the players receiving the aura often have a hard time feeling an noticable stat increase (not to argue that they aren't extremely powerful, but just moreso that they aren't fun items to purchase). If the goal of introducing synergy is to increase how strong supports feel in a given game (since they are already quite powerful), this is rather counter-productive. A support with boots, reverie, locket, and 2 auras (still gonna need a slot for wards) isn't going to feel much stronger than the current support setup despite the fact that they have significantly more gold.

DFG, while being a powerful item, goes back to my earlier point that it's not a supporty item. As I said, your idea works rather excellently for (re?)introducing ideas such as support Pirate, support Ashe, support LB, etc., but it doesn't address the fact that supports have limited scaling they can get from the item shop already. The only reason a support would choose DFG over any other CDR item is for additional damage. It's still something I'd buy on certain champs (I could see Archangel's + DFG Sona being pretty beastly), but it would be when I was playing a pseudo-mage, and not a farmed support. It's nitpicky, but something I still feel is relevant.

Survivability is kind of the same thing. This setup is more or less just adding an additional tank to the team, as this is the role they play (disrupting while soaking damage). Just to reiterate, I don't want to sound like these items aren't things that could be bought or that your idea is not good. Synergy allows for teams to basically have a flex spot instead of a dedicated support spot for their 5th champ, but I want to make sure that said spot can be filled by a support in addition to the other 4 roles (Sorry for being repetitive, but I feel like if I explain it differently over and over, someone who isn't quite understand can get what I'm saying). For example, Janna probably won't get much out of building tank, since she shouldn't really be touched anyway in a given fight.

As for CDR, like I said, it's already fairly easy for supports to cap on that in a given game anyway (Reverie + boots + runes/masteries) should they want to. If you hand them an extra 30% (random number - not necessarily the value) gold in a game, that money isn't going to be going to CDR, it's going to be going to other stuff.

EDIT:
Yep, this is another valid option, but one that isn't currently in the game. Riot could choose to implement this instead of introducing new items, but it would be a pretty big rework. If CC abilities AND damage scaled with AP on a champion's kit, they would have so much AP scaling that it might become a problem with how powerful the champion becomes. You'd have to not only look at items, but AP ratios on tons of champs across the board as well. Plus, I just prefer adding a few new items since buying items and having variable builds is always fun.

Another random idea for items could be introducing unique passives that supports want. I know Riot has a tendency to avoid this types of items (because they feel like they are tailored to specific champions and do extremely variable things from champ to champ), but something with a passive like, "Increases the duration of all buffs and debuffs applied by 20%," would be pretty cool for a lot of support champs (Nunu, Sona, etc.).

Actually, the Synergy mechanic would actually offer more decision-making and more trade-off than the rather stale decision to have someone starve.

There isn't much interesting decision-making in noticing 5 - 4 = 1 aka 1 person has to go without a gold stream.

And you are wrong in thinking a Synergy mechanic would reinforce the meta, on the opposite it would be one of the most liberating thing ever as it would make something as crazy as trio-laning possible (maybe not viable but at least possible), you could go anywhere as long as you are okay with getting a little less gold (way better than starving), this would truly open a lot strategies.

Sorry for the double post, but it feels like the two subjects are different enough that they shouldn't be fused in the previous post.

I feel like the problem with just focusing on items is that it doesn't address the lack of identity the Support is suffering from right, problem that also make it one of the less desired role in the game. ADC get to revel in the damage they do, Tanks on the fact that they can't be killed, but Support as it is is only defined on its ability to starve well and ward.

Giving them some items with a bunch of actives and bad stats would not give them a defining feature. It would be another case of 'I can have the worst (instead of starving) and still be viable'. Also if someone wanted the active badly enough, they could take it and suddenly become a support too.

I do believe Supports should care about stats like everyone else, and everyone else should have access to interesting actives. I would be ok if Animal Transfiguration Device was picked by an AP because the active is what he needs right now. Supports should just be defined by there ability to sustain and actively enhancing their team.

Anyway, I agree it would need some work to make AP scale with support CCs and it could get ugly fast if the ratios are wrong (even though it could be mitigated by making sure Support don't have much damaging capabilities). Yet I do feel like reworking the couple (like maybe 12-15) support abilities that have a controlling component wouldn't be that much of a task. They would also just have to make sure the AP ratios for the damaging parts of the abilities scale really really badly.

I also agree that more items is always fun , however I think a higher priority right now is to give Support an identity and something to be proud of other than warding and zoning (which can be done by anyone else).

--- On Topic ---

Personally I would prefer Synergy being a Mastery in the middle of the Utility tree. As a mastery, it does a good job setting up what you plan to be/do on the battlefield, and it also differentiate Utility as the tree that define a support, someone who can profit from other succeeding, who has multiple tools at its disposal to affect the game in subtle ways (aka not through direct damage), that value movement speed, gold, CDR and overall utility, and someone who doesn't need or can't farm.

It would also give a reason for Tanks, AD or AP to get in the utility tree.

Another quick thing I just recalled,

The Passive from http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/....php?t=2070533. And a way to "free up" Gold going to Wards.