Is Rylies too strong or are the other ap items too weak?

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Based on a discussion I had, it's that AP items in general are too weak and Rylai's offers a lot.

A lot of AP items got their AP cut in the mage update, so mages don't really lose anything from the 100 AP Rylai's. It's just the best option stat wise with the slows being the icing on top.

"slows being the icing on the top"

After said slows got massive buffs, I'd say they're a good part of the damn cake! Refer to patch 5.13

That being said, yea, the MYMU brought about this rylais shit. But I think if people realized just how damn good rylais was after it's buffs in 5.13, it'd have a wee bit more popularity even before the relative gutting of the mage items.

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basically rylais offers high end damage and surviability, its just raw combat stats, everything you need.

ludens on the other hand is wildly inefficient and doesn't deal enough damage, where its more potent to land an addition skill shot (which rylais enables) than proc ludens once. while still technically offering more in terms of damage, its not as effective as DFG (the replacement to dfg).

archangels, the other needlessly large item.... is great for people who build tear and want to sit on 4000 mana..... and not so great for everyone else who isn't a late game scaler.

leaving just rylais as the go to item for raw ap power.

the only other items which give that much ap or more are

looky looky.... we have your standard mage build.....

TLDR - Rylais has high ap, what mages want. you litterally cant buy anything other than rylais at the moment.

just no viable options.

where other items like just dont do enough in terms of damage.

is actually better for damage on anyone with a slow already in their kit. You also need to account for the magic pen it gives as well which makes it a better item automatically than fighting anybody with MR. gives a tradeoff of damage for Mana/Active which isn't a bad deal for Mages who want a little bit of everything without the wait of RoA. gives you an initiate burst active so there naturally has to be tradeoffs for that kind of utility. Champions who build those items aren't going to sub them out for Rylais anyway. is extremely niche though so it's definitely a candidate for a 20 AP buff.