Hey Riot, Mana itemization could be more interesting.

Mana (and mana regen) itemization is very boring and archaic. It honestly hasn't changed much since 2009 if you look at the mechanics on the items. I think this leads to Riot's champion designers feeling that mana as a resource is boring, and this is why they keep making manaless champions. An alternate resource such as fury might be more intriguing for the champion designers because they feel more free to add unique gameplay mechanics involving the resource.

However, there are some champion designs that have unique gameplay involving mana and I think that is a very solid point of design. For example, Kassadin can sustain mana by going into melee. Honestly I much prefer his pre-rework mana mechanics but that's beside the point. Other good examples are Karthus and Swain because they get mana for doing a specific action. I believe there's potential for more interesting and engaging mechanics here but it hasn't really been explored as most mana using champions just have mana, mana costs, and the player is expected to rely on itemization to manage it. The problem is the itemization isn't interesting.

Mana can appear to be a bad/problematic resource because of a single bad design choice. For example, I think Ryze and Singed both have poor choices in their design when it comes to mana. They are both champions that convert mana directly into other stats, but they don't actually need more mana than most mana users (Ryze doesn't need it more than mages who go Athene's), nor do they have gameplay that makes mana interesting. They just stack it because their kit arbitrarily says they should.

Anyway... If a champion can have mana tied into their gameplay in a fun and interesting way, why can't items do that for every mana user? If mana itemization were a lot more interesting, every mana using champion would be too.

I seriously think a massive mana item rework would be worthwhile. It would breathe new life into the majority of champions.

@Meddler @Morello @Xypherous