One of the items that should have been addressed in the recent AP item pass

Doran's Ring. The current state of Doran's Ring is an enormous crutch that pidgeon holes mages early purchases and gameplay. Why?

Because D-Ring is the most gold efficient item in the game.

Dorans Ring is 183% gold efficient just from its stats, not its passive. It allows for a double pot start and has a mana sustain passive.

Dorans Blade is 133% gold efficient from its stats. It has no passives and allows for a one potion start.

And in the truest fashion of defensive items, Dorans shield is only 52% gold efficient from stats alone. It allows for a one pot start and has 2 sustain passives + a passive to help you to farm (presumably under tower).

The issue is that most mages HAVE to start dorans because without it they go OOM too quickly and dont have the early AP for poke/farm and the health for safety. It is a must buy at the start of the game.

Most mages should have their stats rebalanced so that they are less reliant on D-Ring at the start of a game, and have their auto-animations cleaned up to an extent. In https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/WwRrtFkM-let-dorans-ring-have-that-5-bonus-damage-on-minions-like-dorans-shield-does?comment=001d Riot Repertoir toys with the notion of buffing some mages base AD and AD growth in order to help them CS early game since Riot is going to remove their "5 damage on auto to creep passive" that they ninja'd into the game when runes reforged came out. This would be a great start, but reducing D-Rings usefulness and making mages less reliant on it early would also be nice.