dude, i'm being OT but do you realize you spent 600$ for a free to play game.. that's impressive.. idk if in a good way tho
Unplayable? Far from it. It just means you have to use mana more wisely. Mana used to be much less available than it is now on the PBE, even after the changes. In the past, compared to the PBE, mages had roughly only half the current amount of mana available to them in the early to mid game.
Mage changes are fine, and I say that as someone who's second main is Ahri, and she's pretty mana hungry.
Been here since season 3 and have spent easily 2 grand on league. Part of it was because when i quit smoking I bought a skin once a week instead of a pack of smokes every day. I have not spent money on league since the last WCS skins. I buy the WCS and the championship skin every year. That is about it.
I actually pledged to not spend money until riot nerfed mages so once that patch drops i got 2 skins to buy