To keep this simple, my argument is that basic regeneration items should be consolidated by removing both Faerie Charm and Rejuvenation Bead from the game and replacing them with Meki and Regrowth Pendants in their respective recipes. As well, both Pendant items should have their gold costs reduced alongside stats by proportion.

Why?

- To make regenerative items more viable and common as starting, early and mid game purchases for champions and roles of all types.
- To afford players greater flexibility and adaptability in their item builds.
- To clean up unnecessary clutter in the item shop.
- And finally, to increase incentives for purchasing less common upgrades of these items.

Here is what I had in mind:

[Change from current in brackets]

Meki Pendant
325 gold [-65g]
+6 mana regeneration [-1 mana regeneration]

UPGRADE PATHS (2 NEW)
-------------------------------------
Chalice of Harmony
Fiendish Codex
Mana Manipulator (NEW)
Philosopher Stone (NEW)
Tear of the Goddess

At the cost of 1 mana regeneration, the reduced price of Meki Pendant affords buyers more flexibility as a starting purchase. Here are some of the pairings available with starting (475) gold:

2 wards
1 ward & 2 health potions
4 health potions
3 health potions & a mana potion

As well the extra 40g of the Wealth mastery in the Utility Tree affords support the double ward set up with an additional health potion. This flexibility in pairings and consolidation of upgrade paths strengthens mana regeneration as a starting purchase for both solo lanes and support, and increases the likelihood of upgrading into less commonly seen items such as Chalice of Harmony, Fiendish Codex and Mana Manipulator, while not significantly impacting the ability of support to have mana regeneration and warding utility early in the lane phase relative the standard Faerie Charm + multiple ward set up currently in play.

Regrowth Pendant
350g [-85g]
+12 health regeneration [-3 health regeneration]

UPGRADE PATHS (3 NEW)
-------------------------------------
Emblem of Valor (NEW)
Force of Nature
Philosopher Stone
Tiamat (NEW)
Wardens Mail (NEW)
Warmog's Armor

Junglers and solo lanes might be upset at the loss of 3 health regeneration, but the ability to afford 2 extra health potions or a ward granting more early game security easily compensates for the loss of 36 health a minute. And the added upgrade paths, again, increase the allure of purchasing the item throughout early to mid game. Meanwhile with the reduced price support champions now have more flexibility with wards & potions, and the consolidated upgrade paths have several enticing options. All together this makes this new Regrowth Pendant a more attractive starting item for support than either of the current health regeneration items.

How?

How would consolidation affect the cost and attributes of the upgraded items listed above? With the exception of two items which I'll cover below, TOTAL attributes and TOTAL costs would not need to change. The only change would be in the recipe(upgrade) cost. Here are the specifics:

Chalice of Harmony (890g) = Meki Pendant (325g) + Null-Magic Mantle (400g) +165g [+65g upgrade cost]
Force of Nature (2610g) = Negatron Cloak (740g) + Regrowth Pendant (350g) + Regrowth Pendant (350g) +1170g [+170g upgrade cost]
Fiendish Codex (1125g) = Amplifying Tome (435g) + Meki Pendant (325g) +365g [+65g upgrade cost]
Mana Manipulator (475g) = Meki Pendant (325g) + 150g [+35g upgrade cost]
Philosopher Stone (800g) = Meki Pendant (325g) + Regrowth Pendant (350 gold) +125g [-60g upgrade cost]
Tear of the Goddess (995g) = Meki Pendant (325g) + Sapphire Crystal (400g) +270g [+65g upgrade cost]
Wardens Mail (1350g) = Chain Vest (700g) + Regrowth Pendant (350 gold) +300g [-100g upgrade cost]
Warmog's Armor (3000g) = Giant's Belt (1110g) + Regrowth Pendant (350g) + Ruby Crystal (475g) +1065g [+85g upgrade cost]

The two exceptions are Emblem of Valor and Tiamat. Both items have less regeneration than the redesigned Pendants, and replacing Faerie Charm and Rejuvenation Bead with Meki and Regrowth Pendants in the recipe of Tiamat would result in a 5g upgrade cost which is highly unusual for an upgrade price.

My solutions are as follows,

Emblem of Valor (900g) = Cloth Armor (300g) + Regrowth Pendant (350g) + Recipe (250g)
+20 armor
Unique Aura: Nearby allied champions gain +12 health regeneration.

What's changed:
+2 health regeneration per nearby allied champion.
-5 Armor
-100g upgrade cost

The total item cost would remain the same, and given the items ability to affect multiple allies, 2 extra health regeneration in exchange for 5 armor is more than fair.

Tiamat (2070g) = Pickaxe (975g) + Long Sword (415g) + Regrowth Pendant (350 gold) + Recipe (330g)
+50 attack damage
+20 health regeneration
Passive: Your basic attacks splash, dealing 50% physical damage around the target (35% for ranged attacks).

What's changed:
-5 mana regeneration.
+5 health regeneration.
+80g upgrade cost

Again the total cost of the item would not change. The added health regeneration and removal of mana regeneration increases the viability of the item for attack champions that do not use mana, however small that may amount to. Eg. Lee Sin, Renekton, Riven, Shyvana, and Tryndamere (among others). As an additional plus this reduces the number of components that build into Tiamat as currently it has the dubious distinction of being the only item in the game with four non-upgradeable components. Given how unfavorably it compares to other items of its type this is absurd.

Summary!
The consolidation of regenerative items and their upgrade paths affords players greater flexibility and adaptability of builds while reducing clutter in the item shop. With this taken into account along with their reduced cost, these items become more viable purchases at all points during the game yet this does not significantly impact the ability of supports to start with regeneration and warding utility, or junglers early sustain. Lastly the change to Tiamat would improve it's usefulness and subsequently the likelihood of it being purchased, even if in a rather small way, particularly on champions that do not utilize mana.

I hope everyone will take the time to consider my arguments carefully, and thanks for reading!

bump

I realize regeneration items are not very sexy but I believe their inflexibility as starting items while lacking the potency of alternatives like Dorans/Boots AND the division of upgrade paths is largely the reason why.

If you like adaptability in your item paths, a clean item shop interface, and more early to mid game item options, please support this cause.

Warden's Mail is much more convenient/balanced with Rejuv Bead than with Regrowth Pendent, so I'm going to veto this. Emblem of Valor is sort of the same way.

If you want to remove the Rejuv Beads from Tiamat, I'm all for it, but Rejuv Bead should stay in the game.

Faerie Charm shouldn't be touched either, the items it builds into aren't really crappy.

Also, supports need these cheap items. They don't farm and need money for wards, so there's little money left over to be able to buy these items and help them rush the GP5.

Two previous posters are confused as to what exactly I am proposing. Allow me to clarify.

NONE of the upgrades will have their total prices changed, and aside from the two exceptions I covered - Emblem of Valor & Tiamat - the stats will not change either. Warden's Mail, Philosopher Stone, Mana Manipulator, etc. will all have the exact same overall price and the exact same stats as they are currently in game.

The only thing that will change is the components that build into them and the recipe price to maintain the same overall cost. Since the stats and total price don't not change, how is the balance changing ?

As for Rejuvenation Bead being more convenient, I disagree. Having all upgrade paths branch off one item rather than two is more convenient. More options to to adapt item builds on the fly is more convenient. For example if you bought a Rejuvenation Bead with plans to build a Wardens Mail and later changed your mind, currently your only options are to sell it or build into a Tiamat / Emblem of Valor. But if all these items built out of a Regrowth Pendant, you could still choose to do that OR Warmogs, Force of Nature and Philosopher Stone. Options are good, especially when they are unique.

To the other poster: Supports that start with a newly price reduced Meki will not be delayed in upgrading to a Philosopher stone, in fact it's the exact opposite since more gold is invested in the item, meaning less is necessary to upgrade later on. Yes this does mean there is less to spend on wards and potions initially, but supports will still be able to buy 2 regular wards and a health potion with the price and stats adjustment I have proposed. Again to clarify, the overall stats and price of Philosopher Stone will not change from what is currently in game.

As for Faerie Charm, I agree! The items it builds into are not crappy. Faerie Charm itself is crappy. More importantly, the issue is that half the mana regeneration items build out of Faerie Charm and the other half build out of Meki Pendant. Why not have them all build out of one (a price reduced Meki Pendant)? That way players have more options, it becomes a more attractive item for all champions and lanes, AND cleans up the item shop.

win-win-win.

Supports need the cheap items, and removing them would make the more expensive ones less viable on roles other than support.

saw this the other day and decided i would think it over before putting my two cents in. Overall i think this could be a positive change. It might screw with some people's initial purchase, as Ive seen supports go with faerie charm plus some wards etc but I think people could work around it. This change just makes regen a little simpler, and I know Ive accidentally bought the wrong regen item in-game before and been kind of pissed, lol. I dont think supports are going to be negatively affected by this since they are rushing the staple philo stone anyways, and pre-philo stone playing is pretty short. I highly doubt +3 mana regen or -3 health regen will make a difference for your ability to get first blood.. if anything, this allows supports to get a little extra mana before they buy their philo stone. Sure it costs a little extra but thats not necessarily bad.

The point I want to make is, I dont finish items linearly.. I build several at a time, and often will have low end items in my inventory for a while before it becomes fully built. However, I don't often have regen items in my inventory alone, I usually will build them into tear of the goddess, wardens mail, philo stone, etc etc as fast as i can since the regen becomes much larger for very little cost. My only concern is for Force of Nature, which has a huge combine cost and (especially on gold-starved tanks) can take me a while to build. Other than that, I see no real problems with having slightly lower stats on regrowth and meki. So because i almost always combine my base regen items asap, this change doesnt have any really negative consequences.

If this change actually happened, I think I would be completely ok with it since it just reduces the annoyance of having multiple regen items, despite that the only negative to having multiple regen items for the same stat is that you might buy the wrong one... basically it just makes things a little less complicated, and Im ok with that.