Assassins vs Mages; Midlane Itemization

Hi all, I'm a Gold 5 scrub who loves thinking about and planning item sets for every situation, and for every champion. Anwyay, about a week ago I posted on a thread (http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/Ed8macXs-i-may-be-an-ass-for-thinking-this?comment=001b) where I got some pretty positive feedback and someone suggested I make my own topic. So here it is, a lot of the information is copypasted from that previous response, but I will try to add in some more info and make things clearer.

First of all, why do people buy items? My theory is that there are 3 main reasons for buying any item:

1. Helping your champion overcome an inherent weakness, (like a Juggernaut buying dead man's plate to help overcome their slow movement speed/lack of a gap closer, a Marksman buying lifesteal or GA to overcome their general squishiness, or a Mage buying CDR to overcome their inherently long cooldowns)
2. Accentuating a champion's strength, or the strength of other items you've built (this would be like a Marksman buying attack speed items after buying an Infinity Edge, a Mage buying Rabadon's for that extra AP boost, or just generally building AD/AP on your AD/AP champion.)
3. Building to oppose your opponent's strength (Building armor against an AD lane, or MR versus a Magic User)

Just knowing these three rules can really help you if you're having trouble deciding what to buy. You just have to think "what are my goals for this game?" As a Marksman, even if you're something off-meta like Twisted Fate ADC, you know you'll need an Infinity Edge to boost your auto attack damage and crit chance, a Zeal item to increase the number of auto attacks you get per second, and some sort of defensive item to mitigate your squishiness. Notice how all of these items in this scenario share one or two of the "Big 3" reasons to buy an item? This is what I consider healthy gameplay, the Marksman must make a choice to have either more damage per attack, more attacks per second, or living for more than 5 seconds.

PROBLEM ITEMS: Sometimes there exists items that do their job too well. These items will have all three of the Big 3 wrapped up into one nice affordable package. Some of these items are/were: in a mage vs mage lane. Abyssal Scepter grants CDR(#1), AP(#2), MR(#3), and passively lowers nearby enemies' MR(#2 again). This debuff also applies to minions, making it easier to farm.

in a Melee AD Assassin vs Mage lane. Maw is another one of these items, granting the user MR(#3), AD (#2), Armor Pen (#2). The passive is where things get out of hand on this item, granting a shield that absorbs magic damage (#3) and grants spell vamp and life steal until out-of-combat. (#1) The sheer amount of things this item offers is absurd in my opinion.

in a Melee AD Assassin vs Mage lane. This item is actually rarely built on assassins, but when it is, it's a great purchase. Granting health (#1 arguably #2), AD (#2), granting a movement speed boost (#1), and shredding armor (arguably #1, #2, or #3)

There are other items like these as well, but I think you get the gist of what I'm trying to say.

My main issue is regarding the items Mages can choose from in a matchup against an AD assassin. I think the main root of this problem is actually that mages have too many stats they need to care about. A Mage in this matchup needs a bit of HP, AP, CDR, Mana, Magic Pen, movement speed, and armor to do their job effectively, ie: killing squishies from a distance without putting themselves in harm's way (read: not getting murdinated by the assassin before accomplishing their task), and having good waveclear for their team. An Assassin needs AD, Armor Pen., MR, and movement speed to do their job effectively, which is kind of the same: killing squishies in one rotation and being able to escape. The problem then, is that many of the aforementioned AD items have everything an assassin could want in surviving a mage lane, and still getting their job done. On the flip side, a mage needs at least two finished items before being able to compete against an assassin lane.

eventually gives AP (#2), health and mana (#1) which is great, but does not offer any CDR to help mitigate long CD's, or Armor to help pad that health. You'll need a second item with CDR to be able to waveclear effectively. gives AP (#2), armor (#3), CDR (#1), and a nice active (#1), a great purchase in most situations, but it has no mana or mana regen so that CDR doesn't quite help until you get a second item with mana on it. gives CDR(#1) and Mana,(#1) with a mana regen passive if you kill a champion (#2). But without health, MR, or armor, the mage can still be easily killed by an all-in.

As an example, let's pretend we are playing vs .If Zed first buys or , he becomes very hard for a to kill as all his weaknesses have been covered, and his strengths have been accentuated. Meanwhile the has to choose between surviving Zed's all-in , being able to farm effectively . Zed can easily choose what he wants to do then, based on his opponent's build. If , he can just push the wave and roam, knowing the mage can't effectively push back without risking running out of mana. If the mage builds or similar, Zed can just continue to poke until he has an all-in opportunity. No matter what choice Lux makes, it's the wrong choice. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to make interesting and meaningful item choices, and the current AD Assassin itemization prevents that.

TL;DR Mage circlejerk with too many words I guess.