Remember when mages counterplay is being gated by mana?

Remember when utility skills weren't given to manaless champions?

Remember when manaless champions actually got weaker kits in exchange for being able to spam them nonstop?

Good times.

Remember when almost anyone was gated by mana (except manaless champs) =?

Good times

When AD champions needed items to deal damage because their damage is all targeted and without a cost?

Good times.

mana has rarely been an issue on most champions, unless you just like spamming abilities for no real reason

I mean, to be fair, you know some champions are still gated by mana because they're crippling their builds with ridiculous mana items:

builds . builds and either or . builds .

It's a matter of what champions does Riot prefer and what champions they hate.

Many still are, i think. From champions i play: : Heavy manacosts. Passive can keep you up on mana, but if zoned from AA-range, he will go OOM extremely quickly (we talking under 3 spell rotations). NEED Mana-item. : Has plenty mana for waveclear. Will go OOM if he tries to harrass a lot. Also NEED Mana-item : Can spam quite a lot - i can understand if ppl are frustrated when playing vs her. Still need mana item though. : As midlaner ("AD-Mage") he is extremely mana gated. I go tear on him, but if you dont, and is zoned away from hammer AA'ing creeps, 1½ rotation puts you OOM

Plus a bunch other champs go Tear/ROA, because they need mana. If Morello was nerfed so it gave less AP, almost all mages would still need it or go OOM. I can only think of few who doesn't need it, like Annie for example - and she has been like this forever

tfw immobile melee has to worry about mana more than long range "utility mages" do

lel

Mana was never a big deal even back in S1. What are you talking about?

The low mana costs was one of the biggest differences between LoL and the competition (HoN/DotA).