So support is my main role and I've done it for a lot these past month and while I understand why supports tend to stick to Aura items and wards, What about Aura based AP items? I've looked at a few threads about this that was dated months ago and the reasons why people said no to it was "AP items to expensive" and "Items like Aegis and Locket etc are more beneficial to teams"

So I thought about it and what if you base your entire Runes/Masteries to getting money and buying a lot of ap items that help the team? So let's say...

Runes:
Gold/sec Quints
Maybe Magic Pen Marks?
Flat armor seals
Magic Resist Glyphs

Masteries: 0/9/21
Making sure you get all the gold based masteries, especially Pickpocket

Start:
Flask, +2 Wards
Or
Boots +2 Health potions, +1 Ward

First items to get:
Boots (if you have not started with it)
Sightstone
Kage's Lucky Pick

Then get Tier 2 Boots (Tabi/Treads/Ionian/Sorcerer Depending on the support champ)
Upgrade Lucky pick to Will of the ancients
Buy another Lucky pick
Upgrade that to Shard of true ice

So Mid game you'd have:
Flask
Sightstone
Will of the ancients
Shard of the true ice
Tier 2 Boots

Get Abyssal Scepter, and then sell your flask
Finish off with a Rylai's Crystal Scepter

So your final item setup would be:
Sightstone (Which if you feel you wont need it, can be sold for any other AP item)
Will of the Ancients
Shard of true ice
Tier 2 Boots
Abyssal Scepter
Rylai's Crystal Scepter

So now you'll have 275 AP, 20% Spell Vamp, A active that gives an ally a blizzard that slows nearby enemies, Nearby enemies lose magic resistance and your skills slows the target. Not to mention your will of the anicents also gives allies spell vamp to, and since you have sightstone you have all the wards you'll need. So with all of that, plus your skills doing more damage and your heals will give more, I personally think this is a better choice then getting a few active items that only work 1 time per (60+ seconds) and some minor defense and regen.

I get that it's still expensive to get all of that, roughly 11.4k gold but if your getting decent amount of assist, plus with your gp/10 runes and items and with the pickpocket mastery it shouldn't be to hard and it's possible to get this set-up as a support if the match reaches 30+ mins.

I know that this really depends on what support champion this is on. Since some champions have little use of AP (like Sona since ap only helps her damage and her 1 heal skill) But at the same time there's some supports that due very well with AP like Soraka with all her heals + damage, or Janna with her Shield + her CC skills (which actually have a decent AP ratio as it is)

I haven't really tried to get this set-up but I wanted to for a bit and now that I had a time to think about it as I was writing this out, I believe more people should start doing this. If your going with a support that has extremely low AP ratios, or really only good for certain buffs that uneffective with ap (like sona's armor/mr/movement buffs) then sure stick to the usual defensive aura items. But I think when your using a support champion that scales with AP pretty well, or has good damaging CC or good heals then I'd suggest looking into this build.

Please let me know what you all think and if I missed a nice addition to an AP aura based support build that you think I should add.

there is no right or wrong way to play a support player. if that fits your playstyle and you still do good with it then by all means play that way. If you dont do as good with that build then go back to a cookie cutter build. Its all about trial and error. You have to adjust your build to your play style imo

Usually I go:
Quints - GP
Blue - scaling MR
yellow - GP
Armor - Reds
mastery page is 1/21/8

Start:
wards x3, pots x2, Fairy Charm or Rejuvenation Bead

First back rush a philo and more wards then boots, pick and sightstone. I do this on most supports even tanky ones.

I don't take the pickpocket mastery I don't think it gives enough money to warrent taking points out of the defensive tree and since I'm not running armor yellows I feel like I really need the 21 points in def.

The items you are suggesting work ok for a ranged support but if you are a tanky support who's going to be in melee range like ali, taric or leona or something you need to build more hp/armor so I would really advise Aegis/Locket on them.

About your items:
Will of the Ancients - I would only build this if we have a double AP set up and neither of them is building it. You aren't going to be able to use it very well even with the build you suggest.

Shard of true ice - I build this all the time if there are 2 or more melee champs, it's a great support item.

Abyssal Scepter - Usually somebody else will get one (they don't stack) but if not it can be a legit support item. But again it's really only worth getting it in a double AP set up and also the range isn't really that great so you need to be closer than you'd expect.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter - Good if you have a spell you can spam to keep them slowed like soraka or sona. It's kind of expensive for a support but it's useful.


A couple other items you might consider:
Twin Shadows - gives MR, AP and builds from a gp5, and since when is more cc ever bad

Morellonomicon - cause only my team should be allowed to heal.

Liandry's - usually somebody else will get one (they don't stack) but if not, hey, why not.

It depends on the champion, the team, etc. I honestly think the main benefit of WotA atm isn't when you have AP heavy teams, it's when you have AD casters (Garen/etc) that don't want to build the vamp due to it being on AP items, but would love to have it...

It also depends on what your team needs. Sure the slow from the Shard is nice, but if you need initiation more, Shurelya's is likekly to be more useful. Abyssal's aura isn't all that useful on a ranged support; you're typically not close enough to the enemy. That isn't to say it isn't a strong item, but you can't rely on being in range of the aura with that build.

It really depends on what you want to get out of your support. For instance, Aegis vs AP for Soraka. You're giving your team resistances so that you don't need to heal them as often, and to help them survive burst. (Your heals don't do a lot against burst unless you time it perfectly.) Keep in mind the 'effective' healing value of your heals when it takes the enemy longer to tick through your allies' health. Sure you're not healing as much, but...

I feel like I'm rambling a bit, so I'm going to just call it here, let me know if you have trouble reading this or any specific questions I can poke at.