Tank, Mage, and Support metas were the healthiest
#Because none of those metas were centered around damage
Tanks were about CC and zoning Mages were about utility and zoning Supports were about zoning and protecting
Yes, there were broken things in all of those metas- far less broken things than the recent states where champ X leaps across map, deletes your hp, and then teleports away while untargetable/stealthed. Going as far back as Malph/Alistar/Mumu being the 3 (and only 3) perm bans in season 2/3, to Sej/Mao in Season 5, to Orianna and the age of Crystal Scepter, and age of Braums Thresh's Tahms and Namis.
Honestly could flip the whole meta upside down by simply deleting all runes that give straight damage without having to change anything else. Like, what the fuck is a Glacial Augment? We'll never know because why would you not be taking Press the Attack/Conq/Electrocute/Commet?
Unpopular opinion, I liked old locket. Small range, big impact if timed the 2 second shield correctly, account for all teammates in range, long cooldown, reduced overall damage with the armor/mr aura. Now we have braindead Redemption we just plop as soon as a fight starts that deals even more damage in addition to permanent health healing.
tldr. Less damage, more utility and zone control.
that turn into scaling meat shield for late team fights.
No thank you and mage meta ?
Mage meta mean more burst you legit talking about 
etc damage which mean more aoe burst damage more death while assassin deal with 1 or 2 person at most.
