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Keystones are terrible for AP mids.

Ionian·11/11/2015, 2:05:18 PM·343 votes·11,449 views

Let's check the ferocity tree. Heal on crit? Uh no. Bonus damage on autoattacks? Good for Teemo and Cho, I guess? Abilities cause a DoT that scales with AP? Nice! Oh wait, only 20% AP scaling. And less effective for AoE spells, which is what mages have.

How about the resolve tree? A heal after 4s in combat? How would a mage ever be in combat for 4s? And the heal scales with max health, the most health an AP mid would build is ... Bonus health from killing siege minions? That won't really matter and it will take a very long time to get the 300 hp. Redirecting damage to yourself? We're squishy, we want to avoid taking damage. This is for the main tank.

So, the cunning tree now. Heals and shields? We're not supports. And half of the effect is wasted because it's a solo lane. Bonus AoE damage? Huge cooldown for the terrible base damage and AP scaling it has. And it requires hitting a full combo to proc.

There is only 1 decent keystone for AP Mids - stormraider. Good synergy with burst, helps kiting, dodging skillshots, almost guaranteed to proc if you hit a combo on a squishy, which is who you will be targeting.

For a mastery system that promised to offer tons of choices, it really failed to deliver when it comes to mages.

212 Comments

ModAcademy Kayn11/11/2015, 4:36:52 PM62 votes

Whhyyyyyyyy would a mage go for the Resolve Tree?

Edit: 3500 Health Build Malzahar will rise again! DISREGARD WHAT I SAID

13743411/11/2015, 3:32:57 PM32 votes

I really think you are underselling Deathfire Touch. Yes it is only 20%AP scaling...but that is an additional DoT over the damage (and scaling) that the spell already has.

Victurn Up11/11/2015, 7:28:13 PM19 votes

LOL? Tell me something that is NOT terrible for AP mages in this patch.

Zorae4211/11/2015, 3:24:19 PM10 votes

I've heard the DoT keystone in ferocity is great on DoT mages since it re-applies with every tick.

Thunderlord's doesn't seem that bad. If you're a burst/combo mage then you want all the extra damage on target you can get.

Minarde11/11/2015, 3:45:21 PM10 votes

Check the devblog on masteries.

So then after taking a look at the tree some of you may be thinking, “WTF MAN I PLAY AP JINX AND CLEARLY THE ONLY THING WORTH TAKING FOR ME HERE IS MASTERY X. MASTERIES DON’T MATTER! WHERE ARE MY MEANINGFUL CHOICES!?” Well... to be honest, that’s not the primary goal here. What we want is for every champion to feel like there’s a mastery path for them. More specifically, we’re hoping to draw out and amplify some of the cool things your champion’s kit does, instead of just loading on general power. As an example, while Janna may appreciate +10% AP, she’s going to feel much more excited about a +10% amp to shields and heals. One of these stats is for almost everyone, but the other speaks to a number of specific supports. Choice in the system is a secondary goal that, while nice to have, is not as important. There’s 126 champions out there and limited space in the tree, so we’d prefer a world where Soraka and Brand both have 1 path that speaks to them, instead of Brand getting 2 and Soraka crying in the corner. That said, giving players meaningful choices is still an important goal, so we’re trying to add it into the trees where we can. We just may not be able to do it for EVERY champion. Also looking at it in other places this preseason, like the item system.

tl;dr: Riot didn't promise tons of choices in masteries. They'd like multiple options, but think having at least one keystone for everyone is more important.

Lucifer11/11/2015, 6:06:59 PM9 votes

This is in addition to the nerfs to AP across the board (especially on Zhonya's), the loss of a lot of AP we had from old masteries, and the loss of mana posts. We also now have to choose between having CDR or Pen. It seems like there's a heavy skew in favor of AD atm. I'm not sure if AD needs to be nerfed, or if AP needs a buff. It's going to be even worse when the minion changes go up. This will snowball games even faster before mages can get a build rolling.

Asayake 5150glow11/11/2015, 2:29:46 PM7 votes

I'd like your opinion of the Cunning tree. This (example) is for an assassin.

Would you rather have 5% increased CDR and increased CDR cap, or flat penetration?

It's a hard decision...

MrWasjig11/11/2015, 7:12:34 PM6 votes

Great, like AP Mids needed another shafting.

Duelpower11/11/2015, 3:35:18 PM6 votes

I'm not a fan of not being able to spread out more points into the non keystone masteries. It only lets you pick one side or the other and not both.

Skia Asteri11/11/2015, 4:02:37 PM5 votes

Let's check the ferocity tree. Heal on crit? Uh no.

Depends. Some mages have abilities that can crit without crit chance. Karthus