About the Mage item update...

Just a few things that I think people have overlooked big time:

1. Hasn't even reached PBE yet, meaning they are MASSIVELY subject to change, with Riot even noting they plan to add some AP back in to the items.

2. Overall changes to Mages have not been revealed, so base stats post update are unknown. Mages could get higher base mana regen, or higher ability ratios, or higher base armor, or even natural ap. It's Riot, you never know.

3. In regards to the "No extra AP/Armor item RIP" folks out there, you have new options for some items with HP/AP which will be effectively against all kinds of damage. In addition, Zhonya's still has the same armor value with a cheaper total cost. Meaning you get it sooner, will get the same defensive qualities, just less of a "buy this for damage" item.

4. While spellvamp is being removed from items, it was rarely if ever actually used. The only champion I ever saw consistently use spellvamp, and not Omnivamp, was and he's being adjusted for this. Otherwise, the popularity of the item on all other champions is about 1%, so 1 in every 100 games will someone actually purchase . And even with the removal of spellvamp, a new way of health sustain was added for mages as a replacement in the new , just or using an ability, rather than actually landing it. So if you have blue buff, just spam your low cooldown abilities and you'll be healing up just fine.

5. Tear may become a must buy for late-game mages: With the addition of so much extra mana in items, Tear, and therefore Archangel's staff, may become the go to item with Deathcaps for scaling damage. I wouldn't be surprised if at full build ended up giving you an extra 100 AP just from its passive. Think of a build like such Hextech-GLP07A, for plenty of mana, good AP, strong CC, good amount of HP, and tiny bit of pen.

6. No one on the boards has been able to actually try things out yet, so we can't say for sure how this will turn out.