Mage Itemization and Tradeoffs

I completely agree that mages should have to pick and choose between their various stats. You need mana, AP, CDR, and you need to pick and choose which ones are relevant to you and which unique effects that you want to pick up in the meantime. It makes itemization more interesting and more fun when you have to make these decisions, instead of just picking which stat sticks have the highest numbers. It's a good idea, and I support it.

But the problem is that mages (and, to a lesser extent, supports) are the only people that need to make these trade offs, at least if the proposed PBE changes go through.

Most AD champs in the mid lane don't have to build mana; some of them, like Talon, have to make sure not to spam their abilities like a mage because they can't afford to, given they can't really build mana/mp5 and they need their spells in order to do much of anything, but the two most popular ones, Zed and Yasuo, don't need to worry about this at all. Only a bad Zed runs out of energy in lane, and Yasuo doesn't have a resource to bother with in the first place. As such, mages fighting these champs are on the back foot from the beginning; mages have to build mana or risk becoming useless, while Zed and Yasuo can just go straight into damage.

ADCs are the closest to having tradeoffs; like mages, they also have a few stats to juggle; AD, crit chance, attack speed, and CDR. But the problem is that ADC itemization is far nicer to ADCs. Essence Reaver is a big chunk of AD, some crit chance, and almost all the CDR you can want, in a single item. It also has a bunch of mana sustain, for a class that needs mana the least to function. A lot of the 'defensive' ADC itemization still has a bunch of damage on it; PD gives crit and attack speed, BT gives a bunch of AD, Maw gives a bunch of AD and some armor pen, Merc has a bunch of AD. The only 'defensive' itemization that mages have are getting nerfed; Athene's is no longer a thing, Abyssal is getting some of it's mr shred taken off, Zhonya's is getting nerfed into the ground, etc.

So, yes, I completely agree with Riot that having an itemization system that focuses on tradeoffs is much more healthy for the game, and more interesting in the long run. But this is a change that you make at the pre-season, and you change all of the items, not just a particular class. All the mage items just seem kinda weak at the moment. Now, yes, to be fair, these items haven't even gone on the PBE yet, so I could be completely off base. Maybe getting mana back when you take damage is more useful than I think it'll be. But right now, I'm mostly worried.

**Teal deer: ** Tradeoff based itemization is good, make it apply to everyone and not just mages.