Why AD Casters are Superior to Artillery Mages

AD casters get their auto attacks effectiveness increased with their item purchases and therefore are useful even if they miss their skillshots since they'll still have noticeable damage through auto attacks

AD casters have access to more penetration items

AD casters items give more utility and/or tankiness

AD casters naturally function better against tanks compared to AP champions

AD casters get access to lifesteal through items ( heal up while poking with abilities and be tankier) while mages can only get get 2% spellvamp from masteries and 6% if they want to blow ip on useless runes. Their only other option is and I find it unlikely they'll be building that any time soon.

AD casters get more use out of hybrid runes/masteries

AD casters get just as much, if not more effectiveness out of mage keystones

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gives them movespeed and an active to get them out of sticky situations or even to engage

gives them tankiness and a spellshield that we all know is horse shit to play against

gives them health, damage, team utility, even more effectiveness from their lethality, more effectiveness against tanks, and movespeed on auto attacks

is only really bought if the enemy team actually tries to waste their gold trying to buy armor against you. Also, heads up: Last Whisper is about to give 45% bonus armor pen without needing to upgrade very soon. Nullify the enemies armor purchases against you with this. Also is superior to morellos since its grievous wounds effect works at any health percent :^ )

Artillery mages get uhh... ... like every other mage in the game... but you actually need that just to function

is good for casters... kinda... it doesn't scale well at all and it's been nerfed into the ground

is nice but with the reduced overall ability power mages have gotten over time its effectiveness has been dwindling.

is actually nice since it penetrates all magic resist and not just bonus mr although it has absolutely no utility or tankiness like the kind found on AD caster items

... the item with the biggest identity crisis in the entire game. 15 magic pen is good against squishies but the % health damage is not. Percent health damage is good against tanks but the 15 pen is laughed off by them (also gives more magic resist than armor found on armor/health items).

Mages again, in general, can't deal with health stacking as well as marksmen or ad casters since the ad champions will have reliable dps and sustain (obviously exceptions do apply)

The real kicker is Riot knew they never did anything to cater to artillery mages during the mage update and they have still yet to get cater to them since

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So why pick over ?

Varus can cs more easily early game Varus can deal more damage to champions with Q Varus doesn't slow himeslf nearly as much while charging his Q Varus' Q does not have a cast animation before firing or an area indicator for where it will hit Varus and Xerath both have a slow but Varus' persists and has a natural grievous wounds effect Varus' cc ability actually has more range and can affect the entire enemy team. It also stacks his W and roots for the full 2 seconds at any range. Varus has max % health damage Varus has legitimate healing options Varus has better engage/disengage Varus has significant dps through auto attacks Varus will deal more damage with deathfire touch. Varus will deal more damage with thunderlords decree. He also double dips again with the lethality/magic pen keystone Varus can get a freaking spell shield every 30 seconds with while also getting magic resist, ad, and armor pen. Xerath can get which has a measly 70 ap and a 2 minute cooldown on the active. Yes, Zhonya's is potentially a better active but you're a sitting duck after while Edge of the Night's active is legitimately difficult to not get a lot of effect out of and you can still move. At least Zhonyas has 10% cdr right?

Xerath has more straight-up burst (Varus' damage is likely similar or even surpassing Xerath's if varus has a stack or two of blighted quiver from his ult and weaves an auto between his q or w for another proc) Xerath's cc is a stun rather than a snare Xerath's Q has no travel time and therefore does not deal less damage when hitting multiple targets Xerath's Q has more range when charged and doesn't need to be fully charged to deal full damage Xerath's ult allows him to snipe targets from great range but you are extremely vulnerable during this and holy balls is it hard to hit (also the animation is really lack luster for an ultimate and yes that matters he just shoots a couple little plops at them ffs) Xerath has 10 more movespeed (still slows himself down way more during Q charge)

Pick Xerath over Varus if you want a little more range with Q and some sniping potential with your ult at the cost of poke damage, dps, utility, engage/disengage, sustain, and effectiveness against tanky champions