Shaco doesn't have a single ability that could be labelled "support" :x He's got CC, but generally "CC" is not considered a champion role, and characters with lots of CC are categorized by their other traits, so e.g Rammus is a tank and Janna is a support. "Support" specifically refers to buffs, heals, and debuffs that don't lock down a target, like resist reductions - Shaco's got none.
Aside: Personally I consider move speed buffs to be a form of CC, but I may be in the minority.
I finally found a use for Ionic Spark: provided you have sufficient armor otherwise, It's marginally better on Shen than Sunfire Cape. It provides just about the same farming, and doesn't actually provide less tanking than sunfire cape, because +50% attack speed with his new passive = more ki strikes giving bonus energy for tank powers. Other nice bonuses include costing 300 less and having a component that can be bought at game start; I consider rushing his farm item critical, so my traditional shen would start the game with no items whatsoever, since I can't afford either piece of Sunfire at game start.
I'm also interested in trying a Spark on Skarner.
I've got a couple ideas for Zeke's Herald, but I haven't tested any yet. I'm still working on uses for Locket of the Iron Solari and the new Ninja Tabi. I'm not nearly as optimistic about those. Any time you want to counter autoattacks the best strat is to get a thornmail and then avoid all other armor as much as possible, putting all further defense into max HP; this maximizes the amount of damage the enemy recieves from Thornmail. Having an item that specifically reduces thornmail damage without adding any kind of scalability potential is just dumb. If it were all armor with no passive, then it could be good on people who scale with armor like Malphite, but as-is it seems counter-productive to the only possible use it has. Locket of the Iron Solari has a lot more potential, but really the only way to scale the passive is to buff resists, so now we need to find someone who
- needs max HP
- needs HP regen
- needs armor
- buffs resists on others (if it's on self only, a 200 HP shield does provide a little "clutch" potential to bait people, but you could probably do better)
Let's look at everyone with a resist buff or damage reduction that can be used on others:
- Galio: He doesn't need HP regen, and if you want to go the taunt+thornmail route, you don't want the armor. He's loaded with CC to protect people anyway, none of the stats directly feed into his synergy, and max HP is a non-synergy to flat healing, which he gets from the shield.
- Maokai: He likes the tankiness, even the HP regen in the early game since he's either jungling or has trouble meleeing enemies without being harassed a ton.
- Mordekaiser: He needs HP regen a lot more than most champions, and you're likely to have a force of nature anyway, so the more HP the better.
- Orianna: She's always trying to stay way out at the edge of her range, and played properly will rarely be in a good spot to activate.
- Sona: Her heal always targets herself, so she doesn't need HP regen, but it could come in handy, despite max HP being a non-synergy to healing.
- Soraka: She doesn't need the stats at all, except maybe armor, but meh. Max HP is a non-synergy to flat healing.
- Taric: He doesn't need any of the stats provided. Max HP is a non-synergy to flat healing.
(For anyone wondering what I mean by non-synergy: When you heal for 100 HP, adding max HP doesn't do anything. If you spent the same amount of money on resists, it makes 100 points of healing worth more. The best build for a character with a strong capacity for self-heals will involve lots of resists and relatively little max HP.)
So that leaves Maokai, Mordekaiser, and Sona as the only 3 potential hypothetical users in some possible build. Frankly, I just don't see room in a Sona build for it, since she responds so well to AP and CD that all kinds of items work great on her and take priority. With only 5 slots + boots, I just don't think there's room for a 2k gold "5 second 200 hp shield on everyone" item.
Mordekaiser's resist bonus is only on one target, which limits the usefulness.
So Maokai is the only person I would ever consider using it on. He can have a synergized shield on multiple targets, he likes the stats (especially HP), and his build tends to be a little more flexible than most. I don't think it'll actually be a good idea, but it's important to try things to see if you're wrong; I guess I'll give it a shot on Maokai. Having an item that's only potentially useful on 3 characters is pretty derp though.
