@Riot Sweet: A good way to attract conversation from our teams and from the community is to make discussions that have points and counter-points. Especially when it comes to difficult topics such as balance, story, and art. Gameplay and Balance as a Board can open up the door more easily to conversation with this ideology. It's more difficult than it sounds but it provides the best kinds of discussions.

For example let's take Ahri. PBE buffs or nerfs? Let's set the stage for a second with a hypothetical point, counterpoint:

Point: Ahri's current PBE changes make her feel less in-line with her previous play style. She feels less meaningful and more point-and-click [provide supporting data and samples here]

Counter-point: That being said, her changes power spike her in a way that does compensate for the lack of burst lost from her charm. The power was shifted and not lost. [provide supporting data and samples here]

The latter are kinds of discussions that our Gameplay and Balance guys would likely really enjoy having. It'll also open the floor up to both sides of the table.

That said:

IN MY OPINION, playing against energy/resourceless champions isn't fun both in top and mid lane.

Why? They have often low CDs, a random example would be or , so they can:

1. Harass -> you can't respond because harassing will drain your mana very quickly
2. Push the lane -> you need to use your spells to farm under tower otherwise you'll lose all the wave -> this will drain your mana quickly
3. Some champions restore energy comboing (like ): ----- 3.1 This is something unique of energy champions ----- 3.2 Few champions who has mana as resource have similar mechanics, like (he needs it because his mana costs are insane), (well he's Karthus), (she got nerfed because could spam her Twin Fangs against an enemy champion a restore her mana shortly after [al least, I guess so, I don't know. Cassio mains, don't hate me. I'm uninformed.], , ...)

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A little reflection about S4

In S4, champions like and was very popular, especially in competitive scene. They had a lot of sthrenghs and weaknesses, but I guess they were a preferred choice because they had some of these characteristics:

1. Low mana costs
2. Low CDs
3. Good zoning
4. Safe
5. Utility and/or burst

After they builded , they could spam their abilities for free and become hard to play against at that point.

Then, there were other underplayed but definetevely viable champions. I'm speaking about very strong champions who were gated by their high mana costs and CDs. They built too (sure, there were exceptions) and were OK.

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** About S5 **

The mana changes in S5 was a problem for all mages. Although people didn't approve that, I think that changes were needed because somehow mana stopped being a resource. The champions played in competitive scene remained the same, but one or two champions threw in, especially these champions who have innate sustain in their kit, for example . Lissandra always had mana problem before S5. I guess that this was one of the reason she wasn't played. However, I find her passive pretty good, although not so exciting. However, the champions who was gated by high mana costs and CDs suffered more than others because of the S5 changes, for example and ? Brand is one of my favorite champions. He's very strong and rewarding, despite his clear weaknesses. Going back to the main problem, I think one of the best solution to mages' mana problem is . I love this item because it gives mana and HP sustain, even if expensive. The problem is: if these champions solved somehow their mana problems, now they are gated by their high CDs. Sure, they could buy , but champions who are 40%-CDR-dependent like , , (well the majority of Malzahar players rarely oft for CDR items, so...) and so on lose their mid game spike without enough AP and no magic penetration (excluding runes and masteries).

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What isn't the solution?

Well, we have champions gated by their mana costs and CDR because very strong: what about if we tried to lower their mana costs/CDs? No, thanks. I guess that there's a reason why they have high mana costs/high CDs, for example I can't imagine or not giving a shit about his mana/CDs and spamming his Pillar/Call of the Void endlessly, It would be broken.

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What's the solution? IMO, there's no enough items like for mages, maybe less expensive and with lower stats. At the moment, with we can build only and , so the majority of mages have only one build path: . IMO, Morello should be a situational item because it already counter underplayed champions like . Besides, there are so few items for mages which gives CDR: and . What our underplayed champions need are items who gives 20% CDR and lots of AP/Magic penetration. I would be so glad to build something like: ( cheap item built ) + + (item which gives magic pen and 20% CDR) on because he has a good power spike in mid game. I feel like there could be more items built by: + + .

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** BUT (my counter-points) ** In a ideal world, maybe It could work, but I can imagine the repercussions which these items could have on champion like and ...

Warning: if you're oversensitive to other people's opinions, skip to the end.

I think that there are a lot of problematic (not OP) champions both manaless and with mana:

: very safe, utility, a teamfight beast if you can time her ultimate and : Go to read the "Gameplay & Balance" section. : above the avarage damage in early-mid game and good utility while building full tank. : Well he's ok IMO, but he can be a bully in lane against melee champions while remaining a teamfight monster (unlike , who is the most useless champion in this game :] ). Someone said me yesterday that lane bullies shouldn't scale well into late game unless fed. I guess somehow he's right.

In general, I would balance energy champions to not being so oppressive with their pushing power/harass.

Then, there are champions who are problematic for other reasons: , , (RIP DFG), (RIP DFG)...

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Well, I don't pretend I'll solve the problems of viability of LoL with this discussion, but I hope this will be good starting point to patch it. I know that a lot of people won't agree with what I wrote here. When I wrote this wall of text, I was consciousness I would probably get downvoted to the oblivion for expressing my opinion, but, hey, my intention wasn't writing a troll post. I would like to know what you guys think about how to (not) fix the problems I raised here.

Thanks for reading.

Greetings,

Giovarco

P.S.: My english is a little bad, sorry for that. And sorry for the bad formatting. **A note for Riot Sweet, if he read this post: **let me know if I well structured this thread. TLDR: My english is bad. We need 20%-CDR + AP/Magic penetration items for champions who are gated by both CDs and mana costs.