... before inevitably gutting it in 6.8. Rip Fiora. In all seriousness, here's how:
Remove/nerf the spell vamp. Of the 3 passives that Maw has this one misses the mark conceptually. It's intended to encourage the user to keep DPSing but it's far too easy to kite back while spamming abilities. Granted, that's technically DPS but not the "haha, Lifeline proc'd, as long as I keep attacking with everything I have, you can't kill me (hopefully)!" DPS that Maw seems to represent.
Revali1 votespeople don't exactly buy it for the dps
they buy it for anti-burst from mages.
and with the cost efficiency mages cant really do anything until they get a few more items
Dengeden1 votesYes, but that part of the Lifeline passive evidently is intended for you to keep DPSing.
It's a strong item, there's no denying it turns you into a semifrontline vs AP damage once you complete it. Regardless, in that regard, Maw is a symptom of the actual problem: Buy MR (or even health) and you can withstand AP burst. Locket is in the same department.
I don't play AP mids to kill the enemy mid, so I don't really care if they buy Maw. Kassadin has gotten MR from buying AP for years, that's never bothered anybody (once he got nerfed).
colesy1 votesremove the flat armour pen
there's no need to basically make it a ghostblade alternative for ad champions.
Dengeden1 votesI don't want to nerf one of its core aspects, that comes later. When first looking at how to nerf something that's evidently overloaded, you should look at what its unnecessary or unintended strengths are.
Like Nid's W AA reset, which was either used to cheese in top lane or to increase her clear speed in the jungle 99% of the time.