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Age of the mage is dying

Núrse MeÐúsÂ·8/8/2017, 7:15:02 PM·10 votes·1,383 views

I have played over 400 ranked games this season have been playing league since season one. I acknowledge how meta changes and how Riot balances but I am curious on the motivations by Riot currently. Most of every game I have played in flex has consisted of all AD teams. Before and after the duskblade buff there is ADs dominating my games. Riot and the community both follow top players and some of which are picking AD middle and top. I understand that people are going to follow these trends and Riot in turn will sometimes mold the meta as a result through patches. I do not understand what the motive is for Riot currently however.

My average game has one of the following champions mid/top and even jungle

Coupled with Recent promotions for Yas Kayn and Riven Missions Yas/riven already being popular champs in bronze-gold(majority of the player base) Kayn and soon to be Ornn's release hype Ornns' upgrades only has one AP item out of 8 items 7.16s patch nerfs to AP midlaner "top picks"

I am very confused why a ADs are receiving so much attention and APs are not. A pattern I have seen is a team with a tank in lower elo will dominate because they will stack armor. Rammus is a sleeper for sure but I generally do not receive a team who will want to pick a tank over talon jungle. The bans consist of mostly ADs already; the already named champs with a few more. I do not remember a time when multiple mages dominated the meta out of my years of playing. Sure I remember when one would get out of control but comparitvley and historically ADs have been the problem and if one AP gets out of control is that not why assassins, game tactics to target carries and team comps that include tanks even exist? Even the atmas era and post tank meta was anti mage. Even has converted to AD top from AP top! It is ridiculous!

32 Comments

PrinceOfStorms8/9/2017, 8:39:46 AM7 votes

There was never an "age of the mage" - ever since Season 1 it's always been "Age of the ADC" because guess what, ADCs are the only class of champion that's never fallen out of the meta.

Darkdemon6538/8/2017, 9:49:26 PM3 votes

Mages died during season 2.

chipndip18/8/2017, 7:44:10 PM3 votes

Mages are fine.

To be fair: Some more than others.

Sohleks8/8/2017, 7:23:39 PM2 votes

Mages are just facing healthy competition mid lane with assassins.

But neither of them can hold a candle to the tank menace so there's not much room top lane.

Also they nerfed AD Kennen with AP ratio buffs so he's better AP again. He's "best" mid lane actually now as an assassin counterpick where his lacking waveclear matters less than his great poke/laning. Being AP Kennen = hard mode game for enemy assassins.

SwiftKitten888/10/2017, 6:37:51 PM2 votes

i dont understand why everyone is like AD needs to have the same number of viable mid laners as AP.

no.. they dont.. there are about thirty ap mid laners and about THREE AD mid laner. so there are like 10x as make ap mid laner

this means if everything was BALANCED you would get AD mid lanes in only about 1/5th of the games. (for those who cant math.. there are two mid laners per game)

ori and syndra have been balance for AGES. the REASON why theyare good in this meta is BECUASE they have the burst and CC to avoid getting one shot and trade in return in an AD dominated meta. but even more over and becuase they are some of the few champions the nonexistent variety of AP items are actually decent on..

Sohleks8/12/2017, 9:27:39 PM2 votes

Remember when item 3165 costed 2550g no 2400g no 2300g, actually 2100g one preseason even though it was weaker but most of the cool AP items felt better?

Man, why aren't item 3100 or item 3027 hardly used anymore baring like Fizz or... ASol? :thinking: They're not even really underpowered just overshadowed if they only have a place on select champs

That's like tuning item 3031 to only be good on Yasuo (not that it would exactly work like that)

I would take AP Fizz (and Ekko)(and Kassadin) nerfs a bit to make item 3100 more generally appreciate-able. Gotta keep an eye on that Lulu though.

Like item 3100 doesn't feel like a core item it feels like a optimization tweak for limited champions

Then there's lichbane's other cousin outcast item 3285 . The movement speed is nice and I've used it for like roaming + pushing builds but even then other than the movespeed it hardly pops out for anything to be worth its slot. That if the game I'm in is well contested the item hardly makes it out to be worth time saving for it + a full slot with its lacking contribution to sustain or durability or cdr which would be ok if the extra burst or poke it provided was actually meaningful to use a slot for. It's not. It also erks me kind of it's faster than lichbane. Shouldn't it be a heavier hitter..? Atm the item is only good for a 10% movespeed boost which is nothing to scoff at. But odd for a full AP item meant for... what?

Also a tad more ap or less cost to deathcap would be good. This would indirectly help dft and lichbane slightly and encourage riskier builds. Power can come from both morellos and void staff.

Wretched Eggg8/18/2017, 3:18:41 PM1 votes

Just having the exact same idea a lot of months ago and I came across this discussion by accident.

Close gapping ADs leave no place to mages like Lux, Ziggs, Brand, Morganna, Vel Koz etc. Even worse close gapping click to win ulties like Yasuo's and Zed's have made mid the click to win lane. And you will say look at the devastating Lux's laser or the apocalytic Bomb from Ziggs that make TONS of AOE dmg. Although those ultis needs some.....though, team awareness, TIMING! and most of all not a yasuo or a ZED nearby to R->click you.

Luckily you may get an opportunity, do that huge ammount of damage and leave your target with 30-50 HP. Can you catch yasuo dashing, Zed's "ghost teleporting" or this %$#@ Talon "Mountain jump" that doesn't even affect his maximum speed afterwards?

Lethality was the final, or better say lethal, hit for the mages class. Please dont mix AP tanks like Maokai, Shen,Sejuani etc. They dont build AP to do DMG, the damage over time spells, passives, items kills you and you are fool trying to kill them alone.

All of you that you have the answer.... Zhonya's Hourglass

I want to have fun and try some items.....1st item Zhonya's Hourglass has become SO boring. Even following a cooking recipe was not so strict.
Zhonya's cooldown and Ult from these assasins powerhouses are far from close. I can become untargetable once, they can kill me thrice in that time.

I hope Riot will come with a solution for this problem, but I fear that they are converting the game to a more "arcade" aproach than before. I will not be suprised when the AD and AP variables will be joined to one called Power and all itams from now on will provide "POW". This move will clear ALL of these items that stay in shop's catalog and noone buys them (except of course the ones that want to experiment or troll).

Meep Man8/8/2017, 9:48:57 PM1 votes

Kennen still builds AD?

LordGeovanni8/9/2017, 6:28:55 PM1 votes

aps gone from 10% avg cdr to 45% avg cdr without giving up damage they did lose ap but the item costs went down and magic resist and health that counter ap damage also went down. but they got more cdr. so bad right