So with Meddler talking about AP Item's recently i think it's time i share some thoughts.

The item's i listed there are rarely bought, you only buy Zhonya's because it's the only AP+Armor item in the game. So when your against an AD opponent, you always build it, despite the fact the active is actually pretty lack luster. It sounds amazing on paper 2.5 second of invulnerability but you have to remember you can't do anything either and you have to rely on your team to save/protect you during the duration. It's useful, but how many times have you been playing a mage and died because you used zhonya's, to me it's a lot more than it's actually saved me. I may not know how to use the item correctly sure but this is just my experience with it.

Deathcap and Luden's are both Noob Traps, they offer a lot of AP but that's pretty much it, Luden's has the classic Runic Echo's proc but it's nowhere near as good as Stattic shiv, the issue though is if you want a lot of AP you HAVE to build them both and sometimes if your super fed on a champ like Katarina you go both but other than that both of these items are nothing compared to another item that gives 100 AP

The only really "Amazing" ap item in the game, you build it on basically anyone who's mid that needs AP/Mana. It gives Greivous wounds(though nowhere near as good as Executioner's) and it gives mana, compared to Ludens and Deathcap this thing is monsterous and i'v seen it be the topic of many complaint threads on Gameplay.

So what does all of this tell us? Well, the number of "Good" AP items is pretty low compared to the number of good AD items, if your an AP Assassin, Battle Mage or Burst Mage you usually only have 1 or 2 items that are different from the other classes and this is a problem because each class needs different things. Assassins need things to catch target's, Battle Mage's need survivability and burst mages kind of already have all they need covered, it's just they share their builds with everyone else.

The issue i have with AP item's is that there isn't any variety, some items are poor buys on a lot of champions and the AP itemization area lacks a lot of Survivability that AD champions get. AD champs get lifesteal,sheilds, spellsheilds and MR but the AP line has 1 Spellsheild item that get's popped easily, 1 MR item(on the spellsheild), 1 armor item that gives 2.5 immunity but makes it so you can't move and has 1 spellvamp item. I understand that AP's have utility with stuff like GLP and Protobelt but GLP is rarely bought on anyone and Protobelt is a nice addition for champs that want that nice engage. What i propose is that items like Deathcap and Luden's get reworked to be better buys in general(maybe actually giving them good actives?) and that we have 1 more armor item that's not lackluster, that's all really, maybe push some AP items towards a higher number of champs, Nashor's Tooth for example is bought on maybe 3 champs out of 142? Haunting Guise could use an alternative path too and that would definitely be nice.