Simple Nerf for Ionic Spark

Since 9.14b, it's started to feel like I'm not playing against teams so much as against items. In my tier (gold), at least, people are winning hard with a comp that can best be described as "tanks with curses." The actual champions don't do much damage, but they stack two or three ionic sparks (IDK where they are getting that many cloaks and rods) and basically let the enemy kill themselves. It's frustrating, and since Spark does true damage, it's basically uncounterable.

Yes, you could build a comp entirely of champs that don't use mana, but there aren't enough for a full team, and they have no synergy. Glacial doesn't help, attack speed makes it even worse, and even teams of high-level tanks can only tie most of the time because they don't deal enough damage to finish off the other team. It often seems like the first person to roll a couple of negatron cloaks and NLRs is automatically going to win the game, regardless of what anyone else builds and what items they have.

I have a suggestion for a really simple fix. Change the damage type for IS to spell damage instead of true. This would allow both Dragon's Claw and Dragon synergy -- both significantly out-of-meta since the nerf to dragon comps last patch -- to re-enter the meta as a viable counterplay.

Most people (again, maybe just in gold tier, but I've seen it discussed on streams as well) don't bother with Aurelion Sol because he's so late-game and so expensive (in terms of both gold and a slot on the field, when there are likely other champs that would complete a more beneficial synergy). And I've seen the first four picks in the shared draft completely bypass a fully-built Dragon's Claw on the carousel in favor of recurve bows and NLRs.

In conclusion, changing Ionic Spark to deal spell damage instead of true damage would both reduce the dominance of that item in mid-level play, and bring dragons and Dragon Claw back into relevance after the recent nerf to their synergy. It seems like a very straightforward change that could result in a significantly more balanced endgame with the focus on unit synergies, positioning, and team composition, and less reliance on items and random luck.

Thanks for reading.

-- SheNeverDid

PS. I found out that Spark was slated for a nerf in 9.15 about an hour after posting this. I still think that changing the damage type is better than just straight up reverting its damage total. Making it possible to mitigate the damage with effort and planning adds some nuance to counterplay.