I believe how I build Vel'koz perfectly explains the CDR problem.

I play Vel'koz mid, and (at least in lower elos) you might be surprised to see just how strong he is. Strong enough, in fact, that Lolalytics currently has him listed as the second strongest mid laner in NA Silver, right under Galio (he drops to 6th strongest in Gold, and actually 5th strongest in Plat+).

My first 3 items usually consist of: (with a thrown in of course). Obviously, I rush Luden's Echo, making sure I get it as fast as possible.

Then, my runes consist of:

Sorcery

• Arcane Comet

• Manaflow Band

• Transcendence

• Scorch

Inspiration

• Future's Market

• Cosmic Insight

Passive Stat Runes

• CDR

• Adaptive Damage

• Health

This is, for the most part, your general "run-of-the-mill" artillery mage rune set up. However, with all of this, I am guaranteed 45% CDR by lvl 18, even if I don't buy any more.

Just Luden's Echo alone gives 20% CDR (10% that can be stacked, another 10% that cannot). The CDR Rune slowly gives me a little more CDR every level, and Transcendence gives 10% CDR right off the back at level 10. Throw in the extra 5% from Cosmic insight, and there you have it.

Then, to make matters a little more worse, Transcendence converts any extra CDR I have into AP, thus increasing my damage, if I am to buy anymore (which, on Vel, doesn't happen until his 5th or 6th item.....on another mage, though). The thing is, though, that mages are not the only ones who have access to such easy CDR.

Assassin's, tanks, and even some fighters have such an easy access to a TON of CDR. Hell, even marksman who invest into Lethality (i.e. MF and Jhin) can get it just as easily. This is because Transcendence converts any CDR into adaptive damage, so, literally anyone can take this rune.

Now, I am not saying we should gut CDR across the board. That would have really big implications that no one would want to deal with. So, in order to solve this problem just slightly, here are some suggestions.

##Transcendence Simply remove the CDR it gives at lvl 10, and move that to the passive stat CDR rune (but make it scale to where it hits 10% CDR at lvl 10). The conversion effect is actually quite unique and should stay, since it does help supports who have WAY too much CDR to know what to do with.

##Haste Haste is the Unique Passive that Luden's Echo (also GLP-300 and Archangel's Staff) has that keeps mages from getting 40% CDR with just 2 items. They have to invest into a third item in order to reach that cap (if they didn't get any from runes). I believe this passive should passed on to other items as well, especially Lethality items, and some tank items (Black Cleaver and Triforce also feel like they would be good candidates for this).

Just these 2 changes alone force those who invest into CDR to invest just a little more in order to reach that cap. Not much, since they'll likely just need one more item to do so (with my Vel build, all I'll need is Zhonya's), but it does force people to make decisions. Granted, Transcendence might become nearly useless to quite a few champs, and they'll just move to Absolute Focus, but for those that know that they'll hit that cap, they may still consider it.

Just my 2 cents on the matter.