DFG and Item Diversity
While I don't mind the removal of DFG, I don't like the idea of a reduction in mage/ap-assassin damage items. I also worry that some of the 'DFG champions' will be lacking in early game item options (champions that are looking to build as much damage as reasonably possible to get rolling early).
Consider: DFG filled the niche of being one of the few nearly pure damaging AP items. DFG was one of the only '10% cdr' ap items (the notable others being WoA and twin shadows) Champions like Leblanc and Ahri often had build paths with DFG as a 1st or 2nd item, now there are even less options.
Next look at the primary AP items and identify which are gold efficient when only looking at offense. I denote an item as gold efficient to a mage that is looking to build only for damage as either a + or - AP,pen,cdr all attribute to damage. -Abyssal: spending gold on MR -Archangel's: spending gold on mana -Athenes: spending gold on MR and a lot of mana regen -Banner of Command: um.... -Liandry's: spending gold on health and the active doesn't work so well with many champions. -Lichbane: spending gold on mana and an active that might not always be viable for some champions and scenarios. +Mejai's: yay fun +Morello's: surprisingly useful as 'pseudo-pure' damage item, the cdr doesnt hurt and the regen isn't excessive -- overall enough to serve many purposes in most scenarios, if the active is seeing good use then that's even better -Nashor's: niche--very niche +death cap: pure damage, but kind of boring early since the spike is lower and isn't as directly noticeable when you benefit from it through other purchases throughout the game. -RoA: spending gold on health and mana -rylai's: spending gold on health ?Twin Shadows: Seems kind of expensive for what it offers, would need to really make use of the ghosts (set up deadly combos that would be hard to hit otherwise etc). No notable numerical power spike. +Void staff: usually a must-buy by late game (annoyingly so), but very lack-luster feeling earlier, especially if nobody built much MR -WoA: Spending a lot of gold on vamp zhonya's: spending gold on armor and an active that serves a primarily defensive purpose. -Sorc boots: randomly throwing it in since its kind of applicable... but still, it has money spent on movespeed (which is nice but not what we're looking for in this list)
Looking through the list, all we get that fit the criteria of "pure damage" are: Mejai's -- which I wouldn't really count... (i actually used to love getting this item before the change) Morello's -- only partially fits the criteria, but is good enough to be worth mentioning I think (since it's so cheap and does so much) death cap -- fits the criteria perfectly but scales better late void staff -- fits the criteria perfectly but scales better late
DFG served as the only 'pure damage' ap item that could function nearly as well early game as it did late. Now removing this 'niche' isn't exactly a bad thing, but the already small pool of 'pure damage' items is growing even smaller.
With the removal of the DFG I would like to see either a new item, or a change in an existing item such that the role it played as an ap item purely focused on damage is not lost.
