Pretty much every control mage these days rushes it and while I think its a great item, its just boring to see every mage buying one. It used to be Athene's but its a support item now. I want to see something else that gives mana/mana regen, ap, and 20% cdr.
L Psy Kongroo3 votes
is supposed to be the "other" option, but Morello also gives CDR, the anti-healing passive, and is far less backloaded in how much AP it gives. With games being so much shorter these days, it's very rare that you'll end up getting a fully stacked Tear before the game is over. The components are also cheaper than the 
build path, making it better for when you're behind. The only champions that get Tear these days are Karthus, Anivia, and maybe Cass.
has its own niche, which it fills quite well IMO for tanky "fighter-mages" like Swain, Gragas, and Cho.
Oblivious Denial1 votesIt's basically the IE for mages.
I Lil Axiom I1 votesBut now ADCs have other options like botrk or essence reaver into a zeal item. Mages just have morello first then something else.
Oblivious Denial1 votesIE is still bought on nearly every single AD that builds a zeal item. It's either Runaan's > IE > Zeal or ER > zeal > IE or BC > Bork > Zeal > IE (Lucian).
The only marksman that don't build it are Ez, Kog, Kindred, Graves, Urgot, Kalista, and Teemo. I could also say MF, but some MF builds are crit centric.
I Lil Axiom I1 votesSo your saying IE is a bigger problem?
Oblivious Denial1 votesNeither items are problems. Stop trying to say they are.
LoL will never get to the itemization levels of Dota 2. Stop trying to act like that would ever be possible.
I Lil Axiom I1 votesI think something like this would be cool:
+ 
+ 
100 ap 20% cdr x% mana regen
Can't think of a unique passive or active, any ideas?
Erockandroll1 votes[{quoted}](name=I Lil kNiGhT I,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=oI5EL5Ku,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2017-05-08T02:37:01.355+0000)
I think something like this would be cool:
100 ap 20% cdr x% mana regen
Can't think of a unique passive or active, any ideas?
Not sure why your tied to mana regen. But since MYMU, Riot pretty much said that regen was going to be reserved for supports, while AP Heavy mages, needed to rely on Maximum mana.
That's why Tear and RoA have been promoted as the primary alternative.
All of this in mind, I don't really think mana itemization is where mage want their build variety. Simply put it, their isn't anything particularly wrong with Morello's being the bread and butter. The one thing I will mention though, is if you adjusted itemization (and champions) so they needed to rely on more than one mana item. That would create variety simply by experimenting with which items to combined.
Though if I had to create a new item for the sake of it, it would probably be similar to Morrello's only with a different passive. (Something that could be situationally be better than grevious wounds.) That would give more options to mages early on, without still serving as their bread and butter.
ZT Xperimentor1 votesMaybe if they didn't nerf every other mage item, we'd see more variety. I agree though, I want some reliable mana regeneration back.