Topic of "Old School Mages" from Statikk's thread and thoughts on how to fix them

Hello there fellow summoners! Since I never got to post this in the Statikk Thread (I didn't get to it before it ended), I decided to post it here since this is the only other place I know that discusses it. I have thought of some ways to fix this problem of "mobility over AoE" in the mid lane meta discussed in Statikk's thread on balance, and think some might make it so that AoE teamfight mages like and have a chance in the meta where it is all based around who can get to dragon the quickest or gank bot lane the most times.

1. Have an alternate form of a defensive mage item for mid laners. Currently, the only defensive items on APs are Banshee's Veil , and Zhonya's Hourglass . Both are good, but no mage rushes Banshee's in mid lane, and Zhonya's is an item used as more of a self peel from AD assassins diving onto you before you can use your combos. So to fix this, there could be an item that is a Mercurial Scimitar for mages, but instead of a simple cleanse + movement speed, it could make it so you are immune to CC for a short duration (1.5 seconds or so), BUT only allowing you to cast abilities (so no auto attacking), so marksmen won't pick it up and become even bigger of a threat. This would allow champions with combos such as Brand or Malzahar to get their combo off since they don't have a support to guard them 24/7 like marksmans. They need some personal defensive items while they get their damage off, and something like this would be a great way to make them able to contribute to fights before getting killed. How it is now though is if someone does pick a champion like this, they are instantly focused out of fights in a matter of seconds with no chance of survival other than Zhonya's, which doesn't allow them to use their combos. It could also give some mana regen, which would fix another problem that these mages have currently, which is a severe mana problem. This item could possibly build out of Chalice & Quick Silver Sash.

2. Buffing Banner of Command to make it a more viable item. This item, if balanced around a more current mid lane item, could make it so that "old school mages" could cause mobile mid laners like Yasuo or Ahri to be punished for being mobile around the map by pressuring their lane hard. Currently this item just doesn't work at all in the meta, but if it were reworked, I feel like this item that is based around buffing your minions to allow sieges to be easier could be very good, even in late game for those final pushes onto the nexus turrets. I don't know exactly how to change it, but something maybe like increasing nearby minion's armor/ attack speed while giving mana regen and ap/ slight cdr (unlike now where it's just 20% cdr + 80 ap). Or possibly even having a new active where it gives nearby minions truesight, allowing old school mages to defend themselves better from stealth champions like Rengar or Evelynn . This is just a thought for the remake, and you can have a completely different idea for this item, but currently this item has a good concept, but not good execution.

3. Make Cleanse more viable. I haven't seen this summoner spell used in a long time, and I really enjoy its idea, but heal just outclasses it in every way (MS + total mitigation of the damage). If you were to make it so that it would give movement speed like heal, I think this spell would be a lot more viable to pick up. Another possible change would be removing the Initial CC clear on it, and making it just 1 second of CC immunity. This would make using it take much more skill, and could be used as a preemptive summoner spell used right before a champion uses a combo/ channeled ability like ultimate. This would also make some marksmen that also have a "combo" like Miss Fortune or Graves more viable aswell. This would also make for more diverse picking in summoner spells among heroes instead of champions having the exact 2 summoner spells every game (currently + on every carry). This would add a different playstyle based on your summoner spells, where is a much more defensive summoner spell, while would offer a slightly more aggressive play style but still acting as a defensive tool, and take some skill on timing to use but be much more useful if used in the right situations. The reason Cleanse isn't picked currently is due to it only removing CC on you. You still take the damage, and you have to be CC'd before you can use it, meaning you still got stopped temporarily. Yes, it does have the 65% tenacity, but you still are getting CC'd in it, meaning you still got slowed down in your attempt to escape, or your channeled ability is still interrupted. While just makes it so that if you do get stunned, all the damage you take is completely mitigated in lane, and you just run away with your increased movement speed and avoid the rest of their damage. Right now Carries just have 2 get out of jail free cards. BUT if the change where would prevent CC happening to you for 1 second, but not remove CC on you were to happen, timing of this skill would be crucial, and could get you out of situations where even the slightest stop in your movement means instant death. It would also double as an offensive skill, where you can pop it right as the enemy team shoots off their CC to pull back from the engage your team is about to make. With this change there would also be plenty of counterplay. Since the Initial CC removal from it would be gone, if someone with cleanse were to get CC'd by surprise, they wouldn't be able to get out of it, and could just get CC chained until they are dead. So now you may be wondering "how does this affect the old school mages"? Currently, the reason these mages don't work is because they aren't mobile enough to not get caught or to roam into other lanes like more popular mages, but the new cleanse would help them deal with the problem of their lack of mobility, and make it so 1 stun doesn't mean the end for you. I know this change might be a bit too powerful, but without ever trying it, you won't know if it is truly game breaking or not. If Riot thinks this idea is a little too farfetched and gamebreaking, then atleast give the movement speed does.

Thanks for reading, and hope any of this helps :)

EDIT: If 1. were to be added, these are some thoughts on making it a balanced item and not completely game changing.

• Make it share a cooldown with so people wouldn't just stack these two to be almost invulnerable.If this were not implemented, then make it have a long cooldown so using this would be a big deal, and not just something you use every single fight (120-180 ish).
• Make the final piece of it have a large cost, so people would have to think about whether to farm up one of these or to play it safe and go for a more defensive .