always struck me as odd how most AD casters have such low mana costs, or don't need to buy a resource item. Lucian has 0 on his E after it's maxed.
given that there is a Tear upgrade for AD champions and a crit item that returns mana for people who use crit, why are costs so low?
Ralanr1 votesThat probably was more of a problem before Riot compensated everyone with the loss of mana pots.
Big Lincoln4 votesprobably
still seems iffy to me, though, that many AD champs don't need to build any mana items but can become just as spammy as mages. jayce wasn't really an issue until he was buffed and didn't need to rush Tear anymore.
Ralanr3 votesHonestly if they did then i think it'd horribly skew the power curve of those champions. Being forced to build mana early on an AD champion usually makes them take too long to hit their spike.
Erockandroll1 votesHonestly if they did then i think it'd horribly skew the power curve of those champions. Being forced to build mana early on an AD champion usually makes them take too long to hit their spike.
It's true that AD doesn't really have the same benefit of mana itemization that AP does. Where AP can have their mana problems solved with one item purchase. (Namely Morello's) Manamune has the problem of, the tear pick offering little in the way of combat stats in the early game. And the completed item, does Okay in the way of stats, but again, nothing particularly good early. (compared to an early lethality item.)
Essence reaver had the problem of "fixes an Early game problem at a mid game price." (more applicable to the older version of the item) It cost's more than Morello's, and none of it's components gave you any mana benefit at all.
But for all the complaints about Mana itemization for AD casters, they do have a significant advantage over their AP counterparts, and that's simply their auto attacks. Someone building AD isn't going to be nearly as spell reliant, (even if he's effectively a caster) when it comes to wave control. Combined that with the fact that a) mid lane AD will have easy access to Blue buff. and b) not every AD even uses mana, and it becomes difficult to justify balancing ADs around mana costs, except in a few clutch cases.
Last thing, The other issue I have with Manamune is the lack of other mana itemization. With AP you can combined seraph's with RoA, Morello's, Lichbane, etc. But you don't have many options for bolstering Manamune, unless you were playing blue build Ez. However, since AD isn't even that mana reliant, that's really just me being nitpicky.
ZT Xperimentor1 votesI've mentioned a while back that essence reaver was redundant for this reason. They have low costs &/or high mana regeneration.
DuskDaUmbreon1 votesTheir mana costs are low because they typically don't buy mana. With only 
(or maybe 
) to give mana, and 
to restore some on crits, they really can't buy much. So they have low costs.
fuffychan1 votesRiot loves their AD melees
mages and supports are the only classes in the game that have to itemize for mana (and Jayce) while AD champs spam all day, a lot of them literally for free 
Why do so many AD champs have zero costs for anything? While the rest of them have costs so low you dont even notice they are there.
I love how ADs can straight up rush items that give them both AD and defense while mages have to buy MANA as a first item...the balance is real
Ralanr1 votesBecause buying Morellicon is such a hindrance...