Can we just do away with keystones?
Since we are starting off a new season I feel it most appropriate to put this forward before the ideas for next year are set in stone, I'd like to see keystones as a whole be done away with and have the game revolve around champions and their builds again.
The problem with keystones is during certain periods of time only a handful of them are useful sometimes to the point of being broken and can often give unnecessary power to a champion that doesn't need it. It seems like the addition of keystones succeeded in giving the game a more kill oriented playstyle but it also means that there is a lot less thought that goes into games, like recently I have been committing my free time to the arduous journey to platinum and as it just so happens I have an affitinity for playing tank/utility based champions so most often i'll be top/support/jungle. I have friends that I play with frequently that adore mid lane and as such always played the more mechanically intensive champs that the lane used to host, these champs who I hadn't taken a liking to ,, .
But I digress my go to is top you see and I noticed something this week during the climb from gold5 to gold2 I wasn't really thinking through many of my choices over the course of the game, now that can be accredited to many things like my playstyle which is more passive than most or my selection of characters, but there in lies the problem usually in years prior I was content to simply pace myself until team-fights but with change of pace in the game and the additive power masteries in conjunction runes give to champions makes fighting people virtually a brainless task. If you glanced at my match history you'll see a lot of this gal  I enjoyed poppy prior to her rework and her touch up left her with so much power that couldn't help but play her especially with the way she utilizes Courage of the colossus, Grasp of the undying, and even thunder lords if you are feeling cocky. My laning phase literally always consists of the same strategy last hit till level 2, sip  q enemy and get ready to engage as soon as I see the jungle somewhere on the other side of the map.
The thing is this sort of bullheadedness is rewarded, 9/10 times I will kill my lane opponent and it's not just with poppy either and bruiser or tank worth their salt is able to do the same thing all without taking damage because you guessed it they're running Courage. It got to the point where I started just using courage whenever I supported as thresh simply walk up to the enemy when you wish to engage press E and watch as you are granted a shield for half of your hp, that alone has allowed me to so shamefully end games before they start by just completely denying the enemy bot lane a chance to even play. The thing is I remember a time not to long ago where I wouldn't dream of putting myself in such a compromising position as thresh since he didn't have the armor of other champs early game thanks to how his passive works it would be a sizable risk, now I just act with impunity.
Even without indulging in mid I can see that it's little more than a who can burst who first competition with people losing 200-400 hp at level two from a simple 
combo + thunderlords and ignite which ends in your immediate death. I really don't think the extra power masteries are giving is healthy we already had an option to increase our kill potential in lane it's called 
, a movespeed bonus in the form of 
etc.. The thing about summoner spells however the majority of them are viable and have reasonably long cooldowns the same can't be said of keystones which are basically just their to bolster the damage of every champ that uses them.
Tldr: Key stones have made the gameplay overly simplistic, by adding extra damage and tankiness to champs who already had enough of it to begin with you create a problem which seems to be the root of a lot of the non-rework related balancing issues nowadays. I'd rather see them done away with and have the game emphasize champs and their **UNIQUE **strengths.
have you noticed that combo mages like her as of late have just been able to lazily cast one or two spells and immediately kill their opponents with the help of thunder lords. It is wholly unnecessary and removes depth from the game in favor of simplicity.