Can someone tell me what a mage is?

Jng Account·2/20/2020, 12:02:39 PM·1 votes·4,926 views

I'm trying to wrap my head around what it is, for me, its one big class of champs who build ap items with many subclasses, like battle mage(like Vlad), burst mage(like Syndra), control mage(like Ori), artillery mage(like Xerath), ap assassins(like Fizz), then some weird fusions of pseudobruiser/diver/skirmisher/assasin(Ekko, Diana). I'm not really good at classification.

I just want to know that Im not crazy for not believing into the claim in the picture that ap scaling = mage(name changed so Im not shaming anyone).

https://imgur.com/szMeJ4b

42 Comments

Thefrostyviking2/20/2020, 12:35:30 PM9 votes

For me a mage is a ranged ability based damage dealer.

Anyone who says something else has been watching Hashinshin too much or buying into everything he says too much........i personally think he has his moments where he does hit the nails on their heads pointing out various issue´s but he is also hotheaded and rather biased so one has to take it all with a few grams of salt.

Mordekaiser for instance is not a mage even if he builds AP, he is a juggernaut, an AP one and yet Hashinshin himself and maybe like the guy in the image you have up there OP switches around between calling him a mage or a juggernaut as fits their current ongoing narrative.

Wanting to say that juggernauts are overpowered? Mordekaiser is a juggernaut, a towering slow giant who crushes anything in range.

Wanting to push the idea that mages are overpowered? Mordekaiser is a mage because he does AP damage.

.......

OP you should just not care about such people, your head will just end up hurting trying to understand what they are on about because there is no real common thread x)

ZaFishbone2/20/2020, 1:47:57 PM2 votes

I think mages are supposed to embody the concept of someone sitting back and launching spells without being able to tank hits or needing to get in close to deal damage, or needing to focus someone with AAs, like ADCs. For example, I'd always say that Vlad is an AP bruiser, not a mage. And I don't see why anyone would disagree with me.

SamBunnzly2/20/2020, 1:51:48 PM2 votes

For me, a mage is an AP ranged champion that focuses on using abilities to deal damage. But thats a pretty vague term. Ahri is a mage, but I'd also classify her as an assassin, because of her burst damage and mobility. Veigar is also a mage, but in a more literal sense.

The difference in mages and other classes is AP-focused ranged ability damage.

AIQ2/20/2020, 7:15:08 PM2 votes

Old post ,but still accurate. https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/3A5uuBw7-champion-subclass-list

The link he uses is broken due to age but it was copied and pasted on a Wiki of Riots official stance.

They make it clear that when it comes to categories, not everyone does or will agree, but it's what they settled on.

As far as "Mage" goes here is the following.

Mages are champions who typically possess great reach, ability-based area of effect damage and crowd control, and who use all of these strengths in tandem with each other to trap and destroy enemies from a distance. Specializing in magic damage, often burst damage, and therefore investing heavily in items that allow them to cast stronger and faster spells, mages excel at chaining their abilities together in powerful combos in order to win fights, though their abilities also tend to be difficult to land and can be mitigated, if not avoided completely, by their targets if they react in time. Though mages tend to focus on killing prime targets in combat, they can also fall back to their innate crowd control and utility to manipulate key opponents, protecting their team from them or setting them up for a takedown, and in the right circumstances can damage and control multiple enemies at a time. In spite of the influence they exert, mages tend to be innately fragile, and fall quickly to direct strikes.

In general, mages are capable of dealing well with marksmen, as their burst can kill them before they can return the same amount of damage, and fighters, as their crowd control tends to make them excellent kiters. However, they are easily shut down by assassins who can often bypass their reach and spells completely, and tanks, who can lock them down and soak up their abilities better than other classes. Sub-classes of Mages are burst, battle, and artillery Mages.

The sub class for Soraka and Janna and those others you spoke of that feel they fall under that category are "Controllers" class not "Mage" and sub class Enchanter or Catcher.

Darkdemon6532/20/2020, 12:35:52 PM2 votes

By Riot's definition, it's a champion that scales with AP, deals magic damage, has low mobility, and has low durability. Given the low mobility and durability, being ranged is probably always going to be an attribute they inherently need to have as well. Vel is the only one listed in that picture that is a mage. Maokai is a tank, Soraka is a support, Vlad is a bruiser (I think Riot officially calls AP bruisers "battlemages", but that might just be what the playerbase often calls them), LB is an assassin, and Fizz is an assassin.

2gudaiya2/20/2020, 2:39:38 PM1 votes

you have been told what a mage is, grasp it already, more champions than you assume are legitimately mages, sorry not sorry. rather than be here downvoting people because you can't actually grasp how the mage class functions in this game, since beta even.

Zero Skill Tank2/20/2020, 6:05:25 PM1 votes

Mage is a ranged champion with limited mobility that focuses on dealing damage through abilities.

ZackTheWaffleMan2/20/2020, 6:29:06 PM1 votes

Let's look through all of the non-enchanter AP champions, shall we?

foreword: Malphite Galio Gragas and other tanks that build AP don't really fit into mage/assassin categorizations, so let's ignore them

Ahri - mage/assassin (burst mage, but mobile) Akali - definitely an assassin Anivia - control mage (lots of CC and area control) Annie - burst mage (deals damage very quickly at a short range) AurelionSol - control mage? (not sure about this guy after what Riot did to him) Azir - control mage/specialist (lots of area control, but via threat of damage rather than CC) - definitely just a mage. he delivers his combo very quickly, but the damage is somewhat delayed Cassiopeia - battlemage (fairly short-ranged, plenty of MS, sustained damage and survivability, low-to-moderate CC) Chogath - WAIT, DON'T LEAVE (this guy can very easily become a burst mage with electrocute item 3152 item 3285 ) Diana - diver/assassin Ekko Elise Evelynn - assassins Fiddlesticks - he's a "specialist," which just means Riot was on drugs when they made him Fizz - assassin Heimerdinger - control mage (high CC, very high zone control) Karthus - i'm not sure how to classify this guy (too short-ranged for artillery, too squishy for battlemage, too delayed for burst) Kassadin Katarina - assassins Kayle - don't know if kayle belongs on this list (not sure about her meta build), but she's def not a mage Kennen - see fiddle Leblanc - assassin (the epitome of AP assassin design (imo), at least when her numbers aren't busted) Lissandra - control/battlemage (tons of CC, some of which can be sacrificed for survivability) Lux - artillery mage (long-ranged but telegraphed CC --> burst) Malzahar - Riot says he's a battlemage Mordekaiser - juggernaut (melee battlemage without mobility) Neeko Nidalee - assassins (different reasons for both) Orianna - control mage/enchanter (her ball is very threatening, but ardent is a great rush on her) Rumble Rumble - battlemages Singed - see fiddle Swain - battlemage (some CC, lots of survivability) Sylas - assassin Syndra - burst mage (one of the burstiest in the game) Taliyah - Riot says she's a battlemage Teemo - see fiddle TwistedFate - this guy's a bit weird (he can burst, but he can also DPS) Veigar - the sole reason Syndra isn't the burstiest champion in the game Velkoz - artillery mage Viktor - battlemage? this used to be unquestioned because of his massive Q shield, but I'm uncertain Vladimir - cancermage Xerath - quintessential artillery mage Ziggs - also a quintessential artillery mage Zoe - cancermage Zyra - brand with more cc and less burst

Cdore2/20/2020, 7:00:47 PM1 votes

Mages don't matter to Riot. It use to in the early days, but these days, mages just mean AP champs.

RyzeRework2/20/2020, 7:40:31 PM1 votes

I think the general term of a mage your thinking of is apc

Worst JG Wins2/20/2020, 8:21:52 PM1 votes

Ranged AP champ that does damage primarily through spell casting.

All the obvious ones A few Marksman can be played as mages Ezreal Kaisa ect A few Enchanters can be played as mages also Karma ect

Shiroyashayami2/20/2020, 8:22:35 PM1 votes

Well. For sure Xerath is a mage. Vlad. Syndra. Orianna. Maybe Ekko. Diana is an assassin. Fizz the same. I don't believe something like assassin/mage can exist. I mean, Riot doesn't know what a mage is as well so w/e. They don't even know what a jungler is apparently.

Valeria Marini2/20/2020, 10:47:29 PM1 votes

The difference between true mages and assassins is their principal focus, btw.

Mages focus more on AoE, range and CC, Assassins focus more on single target and mobility. True Hybrids are Ahri and Leblanc in my opinion (even if the first leans more to a mage and the last more to an assassin). A burst mage is not an assassin, and an assassin with bits of AoE or CCs is not a mage. And btw, Miss Fortune is more of a burst mage than an assassin at this point.

And for f**** sake ignore Riot classifications, they are dumb. Is Urgot a Marksman to you? lmao

Lauchmelder2/21/2020, 11:44:39 AM1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Jng Account,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=pl02aFRE,comment-id=,timestamp=2020-02-20T12:02:39.041+0000)

I'm not really good at classification.

Neither am I but let's be serious. If that is a problem in a discussion then the person making it a problem isn't worth talking to. If I'm saying that Azir is a mage somewhere as a side note and someone comes around saying "nO, aZiR iS a BaTtLe mAgE!" then we're not talking about the point I'm trying to make, but rather about how the other part doesn't care about the discussion and just wants to derail it.

Posui Gart2/20/2020, 12:18:33 PM1 votes

I personally define "mage" as "damage dealer that builds AP and does damage from range using spells" Damage dealer=>enchanter supports are usually not counted as mages, unless they build and play like one(Q-E poke AP Soraka for example) Builds AP=>Jayce/AD Ezreal/poke Varus are not mages, they are AD casters Does damage from range=>assassins are not mages Use spells to deal damage=>AP+onhit Teemo and the likes are not mages If a champion is not usually a mage, you can still build him like one and play like one

Pika Fox2/21/2020, 12:31:06 PM1 votes

There is no real objective term for mage, or really anything in this game. The easiest way to describe a mage is probably someone who primarily uses champion abilities to interact with the game. Ezreal can probably be pretty accurately described as a mage, thats kinda always been his thing to be the spellcaster ADC.

A secondary characteristic could possibly be that they can interact with their abilities without their ultimate for the most part, unless their ultimate is an extremely low CD like Zoe's or something like karma's. Malphite doesnt really fit the definition of mage well, even though he primarily interacts with his abilities, largely because his entire play pattern is "do thing, afk wait for ult to come off CD in 2-3 minutes, repeat".

Jaspers2/20/2020, 12:31:17 PM1 votes

Mages use abilities to deal damage, not autos. It just happens that how the game is designed, basically all mages use AP.

It's hard to create an AD Mage as the AD just adds to their autos also so they also gain benefit from them, which is why the term AD caster exists.

2gudaiya2/20/2020, 12:44:40 PM1 votes

a mage is a champion that has AP scalngs and uses their abilities to primarily deal damage. i am not trolling you when i say certain tanks are mages, that's because they are mages, it is a subclass of theirs. amumu, holy hand grenade amumu, that's a mage. sej, when riot decide to be frisky and unlock her AP scalings again, will be a mage, literally no clue which idiot there decided to make her base scaling off of AD but whatever. maokai, that's a mage, only casts abilities, auto only works when empowered by passive. but i digress, not like the game has worked this way since it's inception, nahhh, you just want to try being right for a change while knowing little to nothing of what you're talking about when it comes to classes. the AD casters are not mages because they are AD casters, set to build lethality or some other flavor item, and set to deal most of their AD scaling dmg from abilities. an AD who casts spells. why is it not a mage? because it's not magic you ninny. qiyana isn't throwing magic at you, she throws the elements at you. inb4 some loon thinks the elements are magic, yes the lightning and win and fire and the stone your own house is made out of is magic. heck even me believing in god cannot take it that far, but ya'll set to do that, rito running circles around your low brain plasticity with their long time thematic underpinings and design directions. but hey, don't listen to me, the guy who actually paid attention from season 2 to now. listen to someone else who can't even grasp how classes work in this game.

2gudaiya2/20/2020, 12:50:13 PM1 votes

"I'll make this look like magic." -Akali

isn't listed as a mage. you know at some point it's gonna click for you, and i don't want anyone telling me they're sorry or what have you, i don't have time for that. rito have you covered everywhere, thematically, historically, conceptually, on this classes thing. especially with the advent of the specialist class.

Nyarlathοtep2/20/2020, 1:53:04 PM1 votes

Simple. A mage is a character that deals exclusively magic dmg, has cc (both hard and soft, excluding vlad ofc) and is ranged. Furthermore they are squishy. Even vlad and swain. Yes compared to ziggs they are very durable. However compared to the likes of darius they are squishy.