@Riot Mage Update Team: Mage Update And Communication

Hey! I was just wondering if we will be getting more information for the Mage Update than we did for the Marksmen Update. We got a lot of information for the Marksmen Update and it was super cool but I was hoping for the Mage Update we could be getting even more information and possibly sooner?

The Marksmen Update changed the entire meta and a ton of items were changed with them which effected multiple roles, there were a lot of issues that came with it which are still being dealt with. So I was wondering on what scale will you be changing Mage Items and what is the general focus for those items [for Marksmen it seemed Crit and AS was the focus].

Mage champion kits are super important, perhaps more so than the Marksmen because Mages are more diverse in what they do than Marksmen were [the Update really changed that, part of what I liked about it]. This Update is different since these Mages have very solid identities and their kits somewhat reflect that [with minor issues here and there], so their kits are far more important to us. For example, Graves was not all that unique and his weapon wasn't really reflected in his Kit, I don't think anyone really cared if his kit was changed, the Update definitely changed that and, game balance aside, he is a way more solid champion. Malzahar on the other hand has a kit that does reflect his Void theme and his lock down 1v1 mage duelist identity, its pretty much its entire focus. So we want to keep those aspects of Malz, but remove the inherent unhealthy nature of his kit of "overbearing when done right, useless when countered correctly".

So I feel it necessary to be more open about Malz and the other mages earlier on than any other rework/update. We want to see your train of thought early on so we can see where the update is going and get a better grasp of the champion rather than "Surprise! New Malz can do this and will never change!" because I, and many others, may not like new Malz at all and we will have another Cass on our hands [just look at how much time and effort it took to fix Morde, I honestly believe if you had been open with us sooner you would have saved some time]. I am not talking specifically Malz, im just using him as an example because he was my Main and still is my go to mid laner.

I know you guys have been very active in Mage Update threads, I've been reading them, and we appreciate this but I would like to be able to talk about the changes and give feedback before they are permanent. I really don't want to have to go through 10-15 patches to get them to a place where they are playable again.