The 6.9 Mage Early Game
If you want a mana item as a mage after 6.9, you can buy: 
, a 
item, or 
.
: Now geared very heavily towards supports. You'll be paying for a stat you literally never use without an ally-targeted heal if you buy this.
: Now for scrappers! If you don't intend to take damage, you may not have good synergy with this item.
: This will be a go-to for a lot of mages because items like 
lost a hefty chunk of AP, and this will make up for it.
Champions that used to build could build a 
for 1000 gold, have +25 mr and gain some good mana regen. Now, if you're stuck on the path, you can get a large mana pool and some mana refund and a +25 mr 
for 1200.
Before, mages who built could pick up a 
for 800 and get +25 ap and 10% cdr, or another 
for 435 and get +20 ap, while on their way to their first item. Now, on the path, you have to buy a 
, which gives you a great +60 ap. However, it takes a while to get that kind of money. Furthermore, because 
is more efficient at stacking than , you're rewarded for finishing it asap penalized for deviating from the build path before it's complete, much like 
. This is assuming, of course, that your champion can even efficiently stack a . Even-further-more, the best defense a lot of waveclear-based champions had was to push. This is a lot harder early with the mana changes.
So early, it's harder to build resistances, shove the wave, and acquire meaningful AP. Meanwhile 
picked up +20 ap and is now geared towards bloodthirsty AP assassins, and AD assassins are going to be just as successful as they were before (if not more thanks to the reduced waveclearing of mana-based mids).
What do we do?
