Mage vs Mobility - A few thoughts to bring mages back

Since I started playing league (I believe about November 2009), I have loved mages. I loved the risk/reward of managing placement to pump out a perfect combo. When mobile assassins (with early damage potential) came to the league, mages began to phase out. Some mages could function okay in the support role, though most have dwindled outside the meta.

Here is the problem: the higher the skill cap, the more mobility champions shine. Given two players of comparable skill, a mobile yasuo in my opinion will trump a brand every time in middle, especially with a well timed gank.

I was thinking about possible solutions, but until recently have continued to run into the same problem: mobility has slightly broken the game, and without directly nerfing the damage of high mobility champions, I initially felt there was little that could be done..

Here's a very rough solution: create an item that gives mages a fighting chance against high mobility champions. In my opinion, a new low tier item that gives mages breathing room during laning phase.

New Item: Blankety's Blank Blank (the format of a few league items).

 Cost:  Something appropriate.

 Gives mild AP, possibly some armor.

 Replaces blasting wand (or adjusts seeker's armguard) in Zhonya's hourglass build. 

 Unique Active: Slithy's Breather (or whatever): Marks target enemy champion.  For the next x seconds target champion's damage and user's damage are reduced by total distance traveled by target (insert some slick percentage calculation here) against *each other*.  x second cooldown.  x charges (i was thinking 2, so that wrap around ganks would have to change strategies, though perhaps multiple charges would break the item).  This active would be replaced with Zhonya's active, and could not be used in conjunction with it.

Criteria:

Skill based: the issue is that high skill cap champions outshine low skill cap champions, so the solution must require a knowledge of the game and good timing.

Must target damage: The hidden strength of assassin mobility isn't the positioning, it's the damage output once he/she gets there.

Balanced: A change should not place mages in a more powerful position, but help give them an option to counter. This is why mage's damage vs target is reduced as well, this should not be used before a flash initiate.

Designed for appropriate phase: In late game, team fighting and team positioning can cover a mage, it's in the laning pase that the real problem shows up.

Cost: Should be priced appropriately to discourage use in improper situations, yet reasonably enough for early use in lane.

Itemization: Should build into a mage item, so that support use is limited. (reasoning: certain junglers, like warwick ) could be severly impacted by an easy to use mobility counter.

Not easily exploitable: should only benefit user, so that a support could not protect an adc, and so that a mage could not use on a nocturne , who ults across screen to another teammate.

Possibly more: I haven't fully analyzed this yet (and do so much better through discussion anyway), so there could of course be unforeseen flaws in this idea.

The reason the distance traveled matters: Zhonya's active requires some, but little skill, whereas timing is incredibly important for this new active to function appropriately. If used too late, it will do nothing. Though used in anticipation of a gank or attack, it could keep the user alive if timed while the opponent is far enough away.

It should be a direct target ability (like brand's e - unsure of proper terminology), because skillshots are too easily dodged by high mobility champions, and a well positioned brush attack should be rewarded. The enemy should be able to see the mark, which will provide a meaningful choice. He or she can calculate quickly whether the resulting damage is enough to make the gank worthwhile.

Clarification: The user's damage would not be reduced vs any other enemy champion. This helps balance when the mage is ganked. Only the user and the target are effected.

One disadvantage to this solution is the complicated math it would take to guesstimate the damage output. However, this item is designed to balance highly skilled players. The innate knowledge of items is stronger with these individuals.

Other possible problems: Fizz . against another assassin, this may give Fizz too much room to grow in lane. He does, however, need to be close to be effective, so use would remain defensive.

Also, there is the possibility that a mage drops a combo, then pops this item to negate a counter attack. I'm not sure this use is improper, because a mobility champ can easily jump in before or during the combo.

Just some morning thoughts I've been mulling over with fellow summoner shipples. Please tell me what you think!

Lastly, please forgive any logic or grammatical errors <cough> <cough>...