Personally I think Mages need more defensive options, and a whole item updated. But I was looking at some old items, and one came to interest.
The Rose's Pride X Ap X Armor Unique Active: Shields your champion, absorbing the next X damage (+X % of your Ability Power); lasts up to 4 seconds. 45 second cooldown
Builds out of an Amplifying Tome + Cloth Armor + X gold
But thinking about it, this item would make Seeker's Armguard useless.
MrFawknSunshine3 votesi know this is very very unpopular but if you want DEFENSE you should lose some OFFENSIVE POWER
cant have both. and this isnt just for mages, all champs /items
if you want a lot of OFFENSIVE POWER you should lose some DEFENSE/SURVIVE-ABILITY
so if we go with seekers for 1100g it gives AP and ARMOR and it stacks to increase the ap and armor compared to hexdrinker for 1300g it gives AD and MR and the shield passive
but hex is 200g MORE seekers gives 35ap and 45 armor when stacked while hex only gives 20ad and 35mr but dont stack so base on raw stats seekers gives 15 more damage and 10 more defensive stats while being cheaper and can be rushed just as hex can be rushed vs mages
also if you are facing a full ad team you should maybe consider other defensive items even though you dont get to get all damage, we see this alot in Pro Play where they get defensive boots and will build a defensive item 2nd or 3rd to have survive ability cuz the longer you can survive the more damage you can do
Xavanic1 votesi know this is very very unpopular but if you want DEFENSE you should lose some OFFENSIVE POWER
cant have both. and this isnt just for mages, all champs /items
if you want a lot of OFFENSIVE POWER you should lose some DEFENSE/SURVIVE-ABILITY
so if we go with seekers for 1100g it gives AP and ARMOR and it stacks to increase the ap and armor compared to hexdrinker for 1300g it gives AD and MR and the shield passive
but hex is 200g MORE seekers gives 35ap and 45 armor when stacked while hex only gives 20ad and 35mr but dont stack so base on raw stats seekers gives 15 more damage and 10 more defensive stats while being cheaper and can be rushed just as hex can be rushed vs mages
also if you are facing a full ad team you should maybe consider other defensive items even though you dont get to get all damage, we see this alot in Pro Play where they get defensive boots and will build a defensive item 2nd or 3rd to have survive ability cuz the longer you can survive the more damage you can do
too bad this rule doesn't apply to marksman
MrFawknSunshine1 votestoo bad this rule doesn't apply to marksman
what defensive item do marksmen get that still gives them damage ?
Pokemonred2001 votesthe examples I can think of are 
(only works on one target at a time and requires them to hit that target, making it only truly shine in duels), 
(essentially just a BF Sword + Chain Vest in one slot whenever the revive passive is down; generally a bad rush item), 
(The best 'example', though the stat distribution makes it pretty similar to Zohnya's imo; it can still be a setback in damage, but the life steal and MR makes up for it), and maybe 
(For on-hit marksmen; though iirc it's not actually a common purchase at all)
Except for Phantom Dancer (which gives more attack speed and equal crit change to the other Zeal Items), you lose offensive power when building any of these items. And even in PD's case, you lose out on AOE damage from Runaan's, Burst from Stattik Shiv, or siege power/better poke damage from RFC, as all PD does is give raw stats if you ignore its passives and movespeed bonus.
Xavanic1 votesthe examples I can think of are
Except for Phantom Dancer (which gives more attack speed and equal crit change to the other Zeal Items), you lose offensive power when building any of these items. And even in PD's case, you lose out on AOE damage from Runaan's, Burst from Stattik Shiv, or siege power/better poke damage from RFC, as all PD does is give raw stats if you ignore its passives and movespeed bonus.
No you dont, if you want defense, you should have to build a defensive item, period, this is the fucking problem with this game, theres too many of these items that give you a dash of defense and a dash of offense and people brush it off like, oh their losing offense, and whenever i see ppl say this i wanna slap them, maw gives you 50 magic resistance AND 50 AD, PLUS, if you drop below 30% (i think) it gives you another 20 ad, thats 70 fucking AD on an item that has 50 magic resistance
MrFawknSunshine1 votesmages get zhonya's it gives CDR AP ARMOR and the ACTIVE that negates any damage
and its built in nearly every mage build path for the game
Pokemonred2002 votesMaw is not a Marksman item. It was a bruiser item before season 6, became an assassin item for all of Season 6, and then became a Bruiser item again Season 7 onward.
PD's defensive purposes are only ever useful against one person, and even then, you have to hit them first. Not gonna do much to save you when three people jump you from the bush, nor is it going to do much in a teamfight.
Mercurial is pretty inefficient as far as a damage item goes, and the MR it gives is actually kind of pathetic.
GA is a defensive item that gives damage sure, but it's basically combining two item slots into one when the passive is down, because all you get from upgrading the Chain Vest + BF Sword is... 5 AD. It's a really, really bad item to rush.
Xavanic1 votesMaw is not a Marksman item. It was a bruiser item before season 6, became an assassin item for all of Season 6, and then became a Bruiser item again Season 7 onward.
PD's defensive purposes are only ever useful against one person, and even then, you have to hit them first. Not gonna do much to save you when three people jump you from the bush, nor is it going to do much in a teamfight.
Mercurial is pretty inefficient as far as a damage item goes, and the MR it gives is actually kind of pathetic.
GA is a defensive item that gives damage sure, but it's basically combining two item slots into one when the passive is down, because all you get from upgrading the Chain Vest + BF Sword is... 5 AD. It's a really, really bad item to rush.
you people keep bringing up efficiency, what good is efficiency when your dead because no one peeled? The pros get away with glass cannon builds because they can peel for their adc, in solo que, your lucky if even one person on your team peels
MrFawknSunshine1 votesRight PD is situational at best. and its best if you are going to have to duel alot as an "marksmen" but you do give up some offensive power for the def passive of it when compared to other ZEAL items.
Mercurial is usually finished last they sit on the QSS and get the item for the QSS active, its not built for the OFFENSIVE stats. witts end only kog/kaisa are typically bulding and its more for the on hit and mr reduction to target not for the MR itself.
they only item "marksmen" build regularly is GA
Xavanic1 voteswhat defensive item do marksmen get that still gives them damage ?
they have all these options for defense that still give them damage
MrFawknSunshine2 votes
ok nearly no one other then LUCIAN gets a BC and its not a defensive item. what marksmen gets frozen mallet? dont know many marks men who get DEATHS DANCE , other then maybe 
no one is getting witts end
now most adcs arent going to finish hex into maw, or mercurial unless its the last item. most likely they will just sit on hex or QSS
where as MAGES nearly always get hourglass 1st or 2nd
the most common DEF ITEM MARKSMEN get is GA
MrFawknSunshine1 votesok nearly no one other then LUCIAN gets a BC and its not a defensive item. what marksmen gets frozen mallet? dont know many marks men who get DEATHS DANCE , other then maybe
now most adcs arent going to finish hex into maw, or mercurial unless its the last item. most likely they will just sit on hex or QSS
where as MAGES nearly always get hourglass 1st or 2nd
the most common DEF ITEM MARKSMEN get is GA
Xavanic1 votesKalista builds , ive seen kog build it, ive seen mf build it, hell, ive even seen xayah build it, when you need to live, it makes a really good item, which is the problem because it gives you 700 hp (the only item that gives more is warmogs) 30 AD, not too bad but its def not the best, BUT, heres the best part, you now have a free movement speed slow, meaning you can do more dmg to ppl before they can flee,
isn't always the best option, but for lucian, MF and possibly corki is core (maybe others, cant remember) plus it now makes kiting easier
was not considered an ADC item, but recently, ive been seeing it alot on marksman like lucian, xayah, mf, etc. mostly because its honestly kinda op, also draven and graves almost always built it
the point im trying to make is adc's HAVE ALOT OF OPTIONS, which is the problem....they are outputting more dmg then most the other classes in the game and getting away with not having to build a real defensive item
Pokemonred2001 votesDraven and Kai'sa both got Death's Dance for a while, but Kai'Sa's interaction with it got gutted and Draven started to prefer Bloodthirster.
Pokemonred2002 votesOut of those items, only are actually marksman items.
The rest of them are bruiser items (or an on-hit item in Wit's End's case) that you may occassionally see on a Marksman (usually Lucian or Miss Fortune building Cleaver) if an item from the PD/GA/Mercurial trio isn't enough to save them from being nuked.
Zeyphel1 votesI would like a new AP defensive item, but even if AP users get it, It won't solve the problem. Also, It is true that I want an AP item, but not as busted as the one you proposed. Thanks for your suggestion but an item like this would be too much for a defensive item. You give either Armor or Shield passive, not both because you are also giving AP, too much resources for one item.
