Champions that need base damage increases to justify S5 Mana regeneration
Mana regeneration in season 4 was nearly unlimited with chalice. This certainly wasn't a good thing because it led to unlimited waveclear and game stalling with champions like
. However, the damage of these champions was unfortunately balanced around their (near) infinite mana from chalice, and now that they don't have access to the ability to spam, they're left in a very weak position. I think base damage values for the following champions should be looked into, which may be a nice way to 'nerf' the assassin meta (see: Zed) without actually nerfing the champions themselves. If landing a QW with orianna had a meaningful impact in lane, it may justify harassing back rather than just shielding and dodging Zed Qs for 30 minutes while you try to get to 3 items.
These are the 3 that jump out at me the most. There may be others. But right now it's difficult to actually get any meaningful harassment early-midgame with these champions due to excessive mana costs. As the game goes on they scale into pretty good damage, but their mana costs scale to absurdity as well. These high mana costs are offset by the fact that a couple of spells from these champions can be devastating, but until level 14+ they don't really have the mana regeneration to back that up. Compare this to a champion like Xerath who can keep his mana topped off with his passive to compensate for his lower early-game damage.
Something I've noticed with Orianna is that when I dump all my mana into harassing with QW, even if I land nearly every single spell, an enemy with 2 biscuits or 3 health potions can heal through almost all of it until I run out of mana. So even if I poke them really low, I have no way to force them out of lane because I'm completely out of mana by the time they're low enough to threaten. It's an issue when you're gated this severely with no midgame powerspike to compensate.
and
early.