Okay here is a scenario. You play mid go 1/1/0 ok cs. You group up and the fed yorick shows up and you cant even hurt him. What items besides liandries can a mage buy to counter these tanky champs? I mean at least ad champs have lord doms.
Asayake 5150glow2 votes
BluePolarizer1 votesPositioning. Ryze is one of the best tank shredding mages, but 99% of people cannot play him at his true potential, which is why he is one of the best mids in competitive while one of the worst in solo queue.
MagicFlyingLlama1 votes 
TL;DR the more mPen you have, the better it is to get enough more mPen.
Percentile: 42% from void staff and piercing thoughts. Flat: 7.83 mPen from marks + 4.8 (at 6) from Precision + 15 from sorcs = 27.67 (+3.6 at 18)
That strips 111.67 MR off a tank with 200. Meaning you do 53% damage to them instead of 33%. Pretty big increase.
Someone with 40 MR takes a way bigger hit, leaving them at -4.47 MR (yes, this is possible, also why you do so much bonus magic damage to minions). They then take slightly increased magic damage instead of 71%.
Toss 
(only efficient if you can make good use of the passive) on there for another +15 pen and try it at lv18.. -42% and -46.27 flat
200 MR now becomes 69.73, or 58% damage dealt to them.
That dumb ADC that never built a sash is now in deep negative MR and taking silly damage.
