Recently, one of my colleagues provided a rundown of the AP Itemization changes to hit live as of patch 5.13. While they are all good in their own rights, I believe that there is a lot to be done in order for AP Itemization to be close to as good as it could be.

One major unaddressed problem is the regenerative issue. Basically, every AP caster uses mana and casts abilities (Katarina and Rumble being exceptions). What those mages need, is AP to increase their damage. Should they desire to be more frequent with their damage output, they need CDR. However, casting more abilities costs more mana, which is why they require more mana regen. Athene's Unholy Grail and Morellonomicon both give these three stats, without much of a drawback – granted that Athene's gives less ability power on its own. What baffles me, is that Riot has been fine with this abomination, seeing as how they go on and on about 'strategic diversity'. There's very little strategy involved when you buy an item, simply because it provides more ability power when it fills literally every hole a mage could have when casting abilities (e.g. Lack of damage, lack of uptime and lack of resources).

I have no problems with making a strategic decision between Grievous Wounds or Mana Font, but when the decision comes down to “Do I value 20AP > Mana Font” the strategy is kind of lost. If the Morellonomicon would be adapted to Fiendish Codex (820g) + Fiendish Codex (820g) + 660g = Morellonomicon (2300g), you wouldn't lose out on CDR when getting the ingredients, but would lose out on the mana regen which really makes no sense on this item anyway. Additionally, changing Athene's recipe to Chalice of Harmony (900g) + Needlessly Large Rod (1250g) + 750g = Athene's Unholy Grail(2900g) would drop the CDR from the recipe, but would also remove the AP discrepancy between the two, basically forcing a decision between “CDR and Grievous Wounds” on one side, and “Mad Mana Regen and MR” on the other.

Something to keep in mind, is that both Rod of Ages and Archangel’s Staff have gotten significant changes. The combination of the two gives 40 more ability power from the get-go, and while it takes 10 minutes to fully stack that RoA and possibly even longer to stack your Archangel’s, the added ability power might make the combination of the two an attractive selling point, up to where people might consider two time-dependant stacking items with more AP a better buy than inferior flat stats with CDR.

A second point of interest is the holy trinity of mage itemization. In AD items, there's three items that basically every marksman gets, and that's Infinity Edge, The Bloodthirster and Last Whisper. Very rarely do you see someone opt to get a BoRK instead of Bloodthirster, even the combination of the two is more common. In mage itemization, this isn't much different. A mage generally has only one slot left to 'fill' his needs, because Zhonya's Hourglass, Void Staff and Rabadon's Deathcap take up 3 slots, one is taken by one of the regenerative items touched upon earlier, and one more by boots. Lowering the number of items a mage needs to get allows for much more adaptive itemization, rather than a decision of 'when to get Deathcap'.

The two main problems with these three items, are Rabadon's Deathcap and Zhonya's Hourglass. There's really nothing wrong with Void Staff as it's an item which can be purchased or neglected depending on the amount of magic resist your enemies have. Zhonya's is the main problem here, because it just has an insane identity crisis. Typically, you get Zhonya's to dodge out on a major damage source or to drop aggro when engaging. Additionally, versus champions other than Zed, the item is pretty much not countering physical damage assassins at all. A lot of them have a really easy time biding their time and don't have their kill potential buried deep within a 3 second time frame, nor do they have a problem with 50 armor. They get way more flat armor penetration from both runes and items, and AD is a doubly offensive stat in that it helps in both auto attacks and abilities, which makes armor a lot less good than MR. Secondly, the statis, as stated before, is generally used to dodge out on high amounts of incoming damage. Think things like Requiem, Unleashed Power or an entire post-Chum the Waters Fizz rotation. See the similarity between the three? They're all magic damage sources. Armor does not work on magic damage. Changing the item to incorporate a Negatron Cloak and making the stasis briefer but on a lower cooldown allows the user to make plays if so desired, but significantly less good when you get caught. Additionally, with how little counterplay physical damage dealers have when countering mages through the abomination that is Hexdrinker, a less skill-deprived item that counters physical damage dealers is in order if Zhonya's is to be changed. Something that, on activation, absorbs some physical damage based, up to a cap based on your ability power. That would put some counterplay against physical damage assassins like Talon, Shaco or Rengar, as would it fill the gap created by the changes to Zhonya's, as mages then only have access to Iceborn Gauntlet, which is... eh.

Something else that's missing is a good addition to the MPen lineup. While the changes to Liandry's are insanely good and push champions like Vel'Koz and Brand just a tad closer to viability, mages still have a lot of trouble burning through high-MR high-AP opponents. While The Black Cleaver has been around for a long time, basically doing the same thing ever since (which is shredding %Armor when dealing physical damage), the same has been absent from AP items. There's two flat shreds (namely Wit's End on-hit, and Abyssal Scepter's 20 aura reduction), but no % shred, which really hurts mages in the long run as tanks take insane amounts of time to kill like that. A good addition would be to have something along the lines of a TBC for AP items, which just does the same thing. It doesn't seem original at all, but it is a necessity if the enemy team is one with three beefy tanks that just won't let you get to the backline.

When champ select is up, you have a number of choices on which you can base your pick. Be it your favorite champion, what the team needs, or just something you're good at, any champion is up for grabs (unless you play draft pick). But sometimes, you pick a champion for their lockdown potential. Champions like Lissandra, Annie and Twisted Fate come to mind. What's troubling against them, is the amount of time you will be unable to move or cast spells if you don't buy Mercury's Treads. A perfect way to get rid of pesky crowd control effects like those, is to buy a Quicksilver Sash, but what a shame: Quicksilver Sash's build paths only end up into one item, namely the Mercurial Scimitar, which is an AD item. If there would be an item that, just like the Scimitar, built out of the strongest AP item and just gave those stats + the Quicksilver active, us mages would be set. It would allow for a good one-slot counter against lockdown or getting caught out of position.

Which leads perfectly into my next point, which is the Abyssal Scepter. Just like Zhonya's Hourglass, it's a decent item in its own right but doesn't leave much room for use when used outside of its niche. Abyssal Scepter has always been the one and only counter against magic damage, but other than that, it's a confused and confusing item. It gives AP, which mages like to get; it gives MR, which I want when faced with the likes of LeBlanc and Syndra; and then there's the passive, which increases my close quarter magic damage by reducing the MR of nearby targets... eh? As a defensive item, it would make sense for an item to help me stay at range of said threats, rather than encourage me to get up close and personal with them. Something along the lines of Odyn's Veil would come to mind, with an AoE targeted release mechanism, since a point blank burst of damage à la Righteous Glory is pretty useless on a ranged champion.

Lastly, considering I mentioned many activatable items, it is about time mages some worthwhile activatable items. Deathfire Grasp was removed for making “bursty characters more bursty” – which is what they do, last I checked – and the only surrogate we have for it is a hybrid damage item only good on Akali (and questionable on Ezreal and Jax). AD items have far more activated items than AP caster items - I am aware that there's a lot of activated AP items, but those are generally targeted at supports - and this gap needs to close, because it makes for a poor balance point. This because mages have to be balanced around their abilities, whereas AD casters (and marksmen) have a lot more items that create windows in which they increase their damage output even more, which makes it hard to appropriately balance them. Items that come to mind are Ravenous Hydra, Youmuu's Ghostblade and Blade of the Ruined King. Some offensive activated items for mages could be items that increase movement speed for a short duration, so as to choose whether to pick Ghost or get said item; an item that just flatout increases your damage on activation (similar to the new Zeke's Herald that's on PBE currently), or perhaps an item that briefly gives % Magic Penetration so as to be able to battle your way through a zoning tank (a task which AD carries have rather little issues with, considering their 1k crits).

These are just my two cents. I tried to make a suitable replacement for DFG once and I got scolded hard because I worded it like an idiot, so take exact wording with a grain of salt if needed. Wording aside, I do believe these are some changes Riot has to consider to make mages a bit more diverse. Coballz out.

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