I feel like Riot didnt take Mages into account when they redid AD items.
I get that they were focusing on a class update for Marksmen, so considering Mages (or other roles like Tanks or Assassins and how the changes effect them) would've taken a backseat. But I still feel like Riot didnt think about the other classes the way they should have.
Remember when the new Mastery system came out, the Keystones? The community looked and saw that "Oh, there's a crit one - time to pull out Yasuo/Tryndamere and abuse the freelo", due to their intense synergy with crit. That instance feels like something at least one person at Riot should have noticed and done something about before the Keystones hit live, or even PBE.
It feels like the same thing is happening here, specifically with 
.
I am a Mage/Tank main, so I willingly admit to being possibly inherently biased against Assassins. Part of item builds is using multiple items to cover multiple weaknesses, especially in Mage/Tank builds.
As a Mage, I get 
for anti-AD, 
for anti-AP, 
for mana sustain, 
for penetration.
for pure damage, and 
for the utility and pseudo-tankiness the item offers, with various unique instances such as 
or
.
As a Tank, I need a hearty mix of AR, MR and Health in order to do my job properly. I might get a 
or
if I'm doing well and want to translate some of that HP into damage, but otherwise my build has to accommodate multiple different items to make up for the enemy damage types.
Enter Assassins, who by design don't need mana regen like Mages since their design is based around a single-rotation-kill (also since a good number of them don't use mana anyway: 
), and unlike Tanks are purely focused on offensive stats; the difference being that Assassins only need stack AD or AP, while Tank need AR and MR. As a tradeoff, Assassins are squishy and if you manage to grab one, you can expect to kill them.
This is fine, since it's part of their design.
What isnt fine is when with one item grants an Assassin excellent defensive stats and excellent offensive stats, seen above: .
If we make the comparison to , it's not remotely fair. Hourglass doesn't start being useful the way you want it until you get Hourglass, whereas you've already invalidated a lot of Mages burst with just a Hexdrinker.
Oh, what's that I hear? They can still move around and attack while the shield from Maw/Hexdrinker protects them from that nasty Mages burst, while Mages have to sit where ever they are and hope to hell that your enemies arent repositioning themselves to destroy you the moment you come out of stasis. Not to mention the AS/LS/SV passive you have to deal with when you pop the shield.
And it gives Armour Pen?
Besides, the AD Hourglass is better considered to be 
, since while Zhonyas stasis is anti-damage, Mercurial's is anti-cc.
If Maw only bolstered damage while giving mediocre/subpar MR stats, I'd be fine. If Maw barely bolstered damage while giving good MR stats, I'd be fine. Not both.
I don't want the solution for this to be in five months when Mages get their items redone to the same ludicrous extent that AD items are, that just tips the imbalance in the opposite direction.
Take off the ArPen, lower the MR, reduce the shield value, whatever. I feel like the item needs nerfs, and it's not like AD Assassins are wanting for damage sources, especially with the new and totally necessary 
.
TL;DR - Nerf Maw, AD Assassins will be fine with it weaker (especially now that they have Duskblade), if they want anti-AP then build Mercurial's Scimitar.
