Let's Talk Summoner Spells Vol. 1

I've noticed over time that several summoner spells are (and some always have been) in a pretty terrible place. And I mean universally so, not just in regard to their use. Today, my target is Cleanse

Let's face it - this is nothing more than QSS Lite. For sacrificing a summoner slot, you get a pale imitation of an item effect that costs, after the value of it's accompanying MR is removed, a whopping 650 gold. But here's the problem:

1. Cleanse has 2.3 TIMES the cooldown of QSS

2. It can't be used for as many types of crowd control - Cleanse can't be activated while suppressed (but QSS can)

3. It can't drop a Chum the Waters to the ground (but, again, QSS does)

4. The semi-recently added CC reduction is basically useless in the niche that Cleanse's inferiorities to Quicksilver Sash have forced it into

Let's elaborate on #4 here: Cleanse is almost exclusively for Mid-lane AP mages - particularly sustained DPS ones such as , and . They're relatively immobile and rely heavily on freedom to prevent being bursted. Even a 0.75-second stun is a death sentence to champions like these. Because of this, it's additional CC reduction doesn't mean anything: a shorter stun is still a stun, a shorter slow is still a slow and both mean you're still dead. This has become even more apparent now that some professionals are buying QSS on mages like Viktor and Cass over taking Cleanse. There's no reason not to do it against CC-heavy comps (especially since most heavy cc comes from magic-dealing sources).

Proposed Solution: Cleanse will never really be good alongside a better item effect with under half the cooldown, so its effect needs to be unique. I suggest specializing it as a niche spell for mages by adding the effect of a cc-preventing bubble if used before a crowd control effect strikes - including displacements and suppression - when used ONLY before the effect. If timed to a flash by or , it provides counterplay to the I-Push-One-Button-For-Kill mechanic, but can be outplayed by being faster than, baiting out or waiting out the bubble. This improvement would be great on mages in particular because it would also allow them a chance to preserve their channeled abilities.

Besides, you KNOW you wanna see Cleanse/TP top laners to prevent jerk Lulu tops from stopping their TP channels by squirrelification...