Mage items are really bad.

Almost every mage builds the same items ( ). They have too little flexibility compared to other classes. Their other items are really bad and too situational.

's active has a really high cooldown and you usually die as soon as the active ends anyway. It can counter , etc. But Zhonya's give no mana which mages MUST build first and armor is the most unnoticeable stat in the game. They can still one shot you with their regular abilities.

's cooldown should be decreased at later levels because ability cooldowns also decreases and it's really annoying that the shield pops because of a single effect.

was a really strong item after the AP item changes. But an AP item shouldn't be strong so it immediately got nerfed. Mage's mana pools(which it scales) are also got nerfed and illogically they have the worst mana pool at max level in the game now.

is only good if the enemy team has high HP because it gives no flat magic pen now.

is bad and rarely built because mages usually don't want to scale into late game because their damage is halved by a single MR item and mages don't stand a chance against a tank.

is a nice counter to champions with sustain and it's flat magic is useful against squishies. But you have to fully build the item to get the grievous wounds.

is mostly a support item. It used to be a great item but now it gives really bad stats and since gives no mana regen it's even worse and useless. Supports can make use of it because of their mana regen items but why would they build it when they have better choices? And they have to damage the enemy champions to use passive.

is a bad item for mages and auto attack range is dangerous for them because they are squishy and immobile and mages usually have bad auto attack animation. I sometimes see and build it and they usually fail because they can't use the passive at all or die while trying to use it.

gives good AP for it's cost IF you have 25 stacks but you lose 10 stacks when you die and it's really easy to kill mages because of their immobility and squishiness.

has a nice active but it gives only 60 AP.

's slow is too weak after the nerf so only damage over time mages build it now like or .

's build path is bad and is too expensive.

's active could be better and is superior to it.

's active gives a really weak boost and it's too hard to gain 100 stacks so no one builds it.

I remind ALL mages are immobile and squishy with some exceptions:

, and have dash/blink abilities in their kit but they are not reliable as real mobility abilites and clunky to use.

's ult has an insane cooldown despite not being a game changing ult so she's mostly immobile.

is also immobile because when she uses her ult she blinks back to her cast location after 1 second.

can be tanky because of his passive.