The AP Rework: Some thoughts and ideas.

So as I'm sure many, many, MANY of us have heard, Riot's reworking the AP reliant champions colloquially known as 'mages'. I've thought about it a lot, and I feel like the current contents of this update are much less thorough than the update that the ADCs and Tanks/Juggernauts have recieved. So here's a few of my thoughts. First, with the removal of reliable mana sustain, some of the older champions that have rather extreme mana consumption ( springs readily to mind) are going to go from being niche picks to nigh unplayable. Instead of just outright removing anything resembling mana regen on decent AP items, look at the champions that infinite mana becomes extremely unhealthy on, like , and compare it to why older champions aren't in a strict feast/famine situation. Second: Item Diversity. You gave ADCs a whole slew of new toys to expand their options to work under specific situations and benefit specific champions. You gave tanks Armor items for literally miles to help balance against those new toys, and tweaked build paths and stats on both to make most items situational, rather than 'always' buys.

And then you get to APCs and their toys, and rather than going out of your way to really increase options and versatility, you mostly just fiddle with the most popular buys, and remove the stat you've always hated. (Adding in the Hextech items is a slight start, but the Starburst is going to be a huge issue no matter how you slice it.)

Instead of just generalizing most of the worst offenders, how about also increasing diversity in other ways. Change in the same way you changed the Last Whisper; make it a Tier 2 Item that builds into several better items. ++G= Sacrificial Knife: AP/CDR/ Magic Pen. + Lost Chapter+G= Tome of Lore: AP/Mana/ Magic Pen.
++G= Hextech Incendiary Staff= AP/ Magic Pen/ Active: Deal DoT in small targeted area. (Oh, hey. It's a Hextech Fire based item that isn't going to be a huge issue to balance forever)

And that's just an example. This is simple stuff. Mid Lane build diversity is hurting, not just because some items are inherently much better, but because there's a very small pool of build paths available.

Looking to rework items to make a fancy combo or similar might look good on paper, but remember that this is a game literally played around the world, and not just by pros on sponsored teams. A major rework that doesn't actually introduce real, healthy changes is going to cause a lot of issues.