AP Itemization: What Should Be Done vs. What is Being Done

So Riot is finally adressing the fact that AP itemization blows. Currently, Morello is so overpowered that every mage takes it unless they literally can't use mana. Liandry's is basically essential so you can abuse the low MR stats everyone has now. And pretty much all the other items are either situationally decent, or they just outright suck. ROA is never taken because Abyssal Mask is just better, Tear is only taken on Karthus and Anivia, neither of which are popular, and Luden's is only good if you're already snowballing. The Hextech items are okay, but very few champs can effectively use them at all. Lich Bane is ass. Rabadon's is far too expensive and has a really shit build path, and Zhonya's is essentially obsolete since anyone can get the effect now for only 600 gold.

AP itemization being bad combined with the new runes allowing for basically unlimited mana has lead mid to become a snooze fest of just waveclearing until late game, maybe getting a roam here or there if you're Aurelion or Taliyah.

So how should this stale meta be fixed exactly?

• Nerf Manaflow Band and Morellonomion. The two of these being used in tandem allows any mage to spam out their spells with no fear of running out of mana. This leads to easy waveclear that only stops if one of them is forced to back by a gank or a bad trade. Making mana costs actually mean something again will make mages have to think more about just throwing spells into a wave to evaporate it.

• Nerf CDR across the board. This sort of goes back to Morello being overpowered, but it also has to do with Riot's recent trend of just throwing CDR on every item they can. It is laughably easy to cap CDR, all it takes is a Morello and some boots if you take Transcendence (which you should). Mages having easy access to so much CDR makes it extremely difficult to effectively trade in lane, as your opponents key spells come up far too quickly. This problem also leaks into top lane especially, but as I'm not a top laner, I'll just talk about mid. With so much CDR, there simply aren't the trade windows there used to be. Ryze just dumped all his spells to quickly shove the wave? Too bad, they're up again by the time you get close. So there's no real point in looking for trades, which again contributes to snooze fests of Malz vs Ryze waveclearing until 20 minutes.

• Dramatically increase total AP. With the loss of CDR, mages will lose a lot of damage. To compensate, give AP items more AP. This way the spells you do cast have a far bigger impact, rather that haphazardly throwing relatively weak spells around at a higher rate. This also helps burst mages, who don't really care as much about CDR as they do raw damage. Annie would much rather add another 200 damage to her combo than be able to throw an extra Q a couple seconds after her burst is already over. With shields being so absurd right now, burst mages have fallen far out of meta, so they can definitely use the help.

So now let's look at Riot's solution to the terrible AP itemization.

http://www.surrenderat20.net/2018/02/red-post-collection-resistance-illaoi.html

As you can see, it's the exact opposite of what should be happening.

Let's start with the new item, Spellbound Orb. It has replaced Luden's Echo as the "greed" option for mages, as it gives basically just damage. At least, that's what the post says. In actuality, this item gives far more utility than it should. Remember when Ghost gave all of its movement speed at once, and every mid laner was taking it? It made mid extremely stale, because the second you were in trouble, you just Flash out and pop Ghost to run away. Keep in mind, Ghost is a summoner spell with a 3 minute cooldown that gives up to 45% movespeed for 10 seconds after the 2 second charge up. The new active, spellburst, gives 50% MOVESPEED FOR 8 SECONDS. INSTANTLY. ON A 60 SECOND COOLDOWN. "Oh, but it decays over the duration, no big deal". Sure, it decays, but that doesn't really matter. You see your opponent start walking at you, the enemy jungler pops out of the brush, nah bitch, I'm out. Usain Bolt back to tower and go back to waveclearing until it's back up. The one good thing about this item is that it is a potent offensive tool as well, but the safety that active provides is just absurd. Make it only grant movespeed towards enemy champions, and it'll be a solid new item.

Next in line, the new Lost Chapter. My opinion is mixed on this, because increasing the price of it is good, because it was just way too good for 900 gold, but you could have left it at that. A straight nerf is absolutely justified for Lost Chapter. Instead, it now grants an additional 10% CDR, making it even more the ultimate laning item. Riot, stop. Lost Chapter is definitely good enough to be 1100 gold with its live stats. STOP PUTTING CDR ON EVERYTHING.

Next up, the changes to the "core items", these being Archangel's Staff, the new Luden's Echo, and Hextech GLP-800, for some reason. All three of these items have been changed, so we'll start with the least different one.

Archangel's Staff has a new build path, and an objectively better one at that. Instead of the cumbersome and expensive Needlessly Large Rod, it now builds out of Lost Chapter, Tear of the Goddess, and an Amplifying Tome. I really do like this change, as Rod is purely stats with nothing building into it, so you need the full 1250 gold to pick one up, and it gives no fancy effects. To adjust to having a different build path, Archangel's Staff has had a stat shift, losing 30 AP, gaining 400 mana, and also 20% total CDR; 10% of that being unique. Losing AP is not ideal, but on Archangel's it's not that bad. The extra mana is converted into AP anyways due to the passive Awe. CDR inflation is a massive negative in the game, but if one item has to have 20% CDR, Archangel's makes the most sense. Gotta stack that Tear somehow after all. Overall:7/10, I like the new build path, but less AP and more mana is a step in the wrong direction.

Hextech GLP-800 confuses me. I don't really understand why this item was chosen for changes over Lich Bane or Zhonya's, which need far more help. GLP isn't popular by any means, basically only Sol builds it, but it already had a niche, and it's good at what it does. So of course Riot had to change it into a generic AP+Mana+CDR item to match the other two. The Catalyst that used to build into GLP has been replaced with a Lost Chapter, and as a result it has lost all 300 of the HP it gave, in exchange for 100 more mana and 20% CDR. This change actually baffles me. Not only is it doing two of the three things that are the main problems with mid lane, but it still has the same flaws it has always had. The raw stats are the exact same as the new Luden's Echo, so the only difference is the effects. Which effect has more widespread appeal: more damage to any ability to land, from any distance, with a small splash effect; or an active with an extremely short range that requires you to be practically on top of your opponent to get any use out of. Obviously Luden's, any mage can benefit from that effect. There aren't a lot of in your face mages, and two of them, Cass and Ryze, will build Tear instead. It's still just gonna be an Aurelion exclusive item. Overall:3/10, this change is pointless and doesn't do anything to address the problem of the item, which is it being extremely niche. Having a slightly better statline for most mages means nothing when it has to compete with Luden's for the slot in your inventory.

Luden's Echo is getting by far the most dramatic change of the three, being effectively replaced by Spellbound Orb. Gone is the 100 AP and 10% movement speed, and in its place is 80 AP, 500 mana, and 20% CDR from Lost Chapter. This is obviously a buff to Luden's, but not the one it needed. All Luden's needed was either a stronger passive, or more AP. The problem with the current Luden's is that it gives damage, but not enough of it. The Echo effect is extremely weak, only dealing 100 magic damage to up to 4 targets, with a pitiful 10% AP ratio. In comparison, Statikk Shiv's Lightning effect deals 60-160 magic damage to up to 5 targets, scaling with level. Those might seem extremely similar, until you factor in that you need 600 AP to match Statikk Shiv at level 18. And that doesn't even count that Lightning does bonus damage to minions and can crit for potentially 400 magic damage when paired with Infinity Edge. The fact that a far cheaper item has a stronger version of Echo is honestly disgusting, and that isn't addressed at all with the changes. Overall:1/10, this is technically a buff in that you get more stats, but it's completely the wrong direction the item should be taking. We don't need more CDR, we need more damage.

Liandry's is finally getting its identity crisis resolved. The item has always seemed a bit self-contradicting, giving both flat pen and %HP damage. It was always strange, because flat pen is best against enemies that are squishy and don't have much MR, while %HP damage is obviously best used against tanks. Riot has effectively solved this by siding with the %HP damage, removing the flat pen and in its place giving a brand new effect. UNIQUE Passive- Essence Drain: While damaging champions, increase the damage you deal by 10% (max 2% per second). I absolutely love this change, it helps ease the loss of DFT, it synergizes well with itself, and it gives a solid niche option for DoT mages. Overall:10/10, if there is one change that absolutely must make it into live, this is it.

Another big finally comes in the form of everyone's friend Morellonomicon. On top of a spiffy new icon and even a name change (it's Morello's Cursed Tome now), Morello has gotten a dramatic change to everything else too. As stated above, current Morello is extremely overpowered. It gives every stat a mage wants, it has an incredible passive mana restore, and it even has Grievous Wounds, for some reason. The mana and CDR coupled with the passive has almost single-handedly caused the waveclear meta. The item is simply too good for its price, and probably too good for any price. Unlimited mana is far too powerful of an effect to have in the game. Thankfully, its gone, along with everything else about the item, except for its most unassuming effect. Grievous Wounds always felt a bit out of place on Morello, and it wasn't even a good version of it, only applying if the target is below 35% HP. New Morello has traded out its mana and CDR for 300 HP and 15 flat pen, along with a much more consistent GW effect, now being applied from any source of magic damage for 3 seconds. To accommodate the new statline, and to replace Haunting Guise, which lost its pen, we now have Orb of Shadow, which gives 25 AP, 200 HP, and 15 flat pen for 1500 gold. It's Haunting Guise with a new name. Pretty neat. Overall:8/10, I like the new direction, I like having actual GW available for mages, and I'm glad the flat pen Liandry's lost has found a new home. Good job on this one Riot. Needs more AP though, along with everything else.

Then there's the smaller changes, which I'll only briefly touch on. Void staff is losing 10 AP. Why? Take 5% off the pen instead. Rylai's is gaining 10 AP. Good, maybe people will build it more now. Deathcap is getting an additional 5% added to its passive. This is dumb, the problem with Dcap isn't that it's too weak, it's that its build path sucks and it costs too much. Make it 3500 and add a secondary item to build into it. 2000 gold, 60 AP and 20% total AP, built from the Amp Tome and Blasting wand. That wouldn't feel like shit to sit on while waiting for the complete Cap to come in. Also, remove Large Rod and replace it with another Blasting Wand, so it isn't just a 250 combine cost. Also, Twin Shadows is back, so that's cool I guess.

All in all, this update really doesn't solve anything. Morello is gone, but the new trio of items do basically the same shit, but just a little less ridiculously. Total AP has gone down instead of up, which is a massive mistake. The new item will only make passive gameplay more rewarding than it already is. Liandry's is definitely a good change, and so is the new Morello, but they aren't enough. Zhonya's and Lich Bane are still gutter-tier, and Abyssal still makes RoA irrelevant. Definitely some good to be found in this update, but the bad far outweighs it. Mage mains have been begging for more AP and less CDR for years now, and you give us the exact opposite. Especially now, when everyone already thinks you don't care about the player base, this is a bad move. Do yourselves a favor here, Riot. Go back to the drawing board on this. Give us back our windows of power before cooldowns were made obsolete. Make us have to effectively manage mana again, instead of mindlessly clearing waves while essentially being resourceless. Let our spells have some oomph behind them, reward us for managing mana and cooldowns with more damage. Let mages be true AP carries again, and you will definitely be praised for it.

TL;DR: This new batch of updates address little of what mage players are asking for, and some parts will actually make the waveclear until 20 meta worse. Increase total AP, reduce CDR.