I have to admit, riot's solution is a little funny

So assassins used to have to go in, kill their target(s) and likely die, committed or be chased out.

So riot added "juggernaut" items that not only gave assassins their stats, but also tank items to turn them into bruisers. The other ad champions including adcs found that a maw/steraks let you tank thousands more in a good fight, while still doing good dps with a ton of ad.

Juggernauts also... bruisers were not steamrolling hard enough, so they gave darius sustain since lifesteal wasn't as good, fiora true damage, and... well... those are the best examples, but it's part of the trend.

Crowding out all mages compared to ad (don't let idiots argue otherwise, a fed zed could poke more, harder, and safer than ANY mage except lux maybe).... so riot added a bunch of mage sustain, tankiness, and "meta" items.

The trend? Riot decides the "healthy" meta. You MUST build the core ap items to be viable or you handicap yourselves, ad champions practically HAVE to get the "juggernaut" items to be more effective (unless their team are gods at peel and they never get touched.... or enemy assassins suck ass)

I think it's hilarious, i played when ap yi was a thing, and while cancerous, it was off-meta, fun, and interesting.

Now with the items shoved so far ahead of the pack and the game of "play the strongest champions"... it's silly.

In a way, I like it though. Riot has absolutely REFUSED to hurt the feelings of ad champions to work on their scaling itemization, and instead made mages just as if not worse with 6.9.... So in a way. It's fair! I actually like that.

tldr; I genuinely like (don't flame me) riot buffing mages to be on par with others rather than nerfing the shit out of ad champions/items. Still miss the old days though... yes, even kassawin...