User blog comment:ZPPHR/Lyle/@comment-1330314-20140914083204/@comment-1330314-20140916053223

At the time I made the above post, Resonating Blast prolonged the duration of Power Burst's DoT by 1 second if the target was within under 500 units of Lyle, and 2 seconds if they were more than 500 units from him:

"'Resonating Blast prolongs the duration of on enemies hit by  /  seconds."''

This new true damage effect you added as a replacement would be good for providing additional damage, but also encourages Lyle to just spam everything at once (since you'd deal more true damage based on the larger remaining about of time). I think you can improve this combo to make it promote more interesting gameplay.

The problem with giving a mage mana expenditure that ignores mana building but have him depend on items to restore it is that it's a completely wrong way of treating both mana and itemization, something Riot has done in the past but is trying to remedy now (with Cassiopeia's gameplay update, for example): items are supposed to make your champion powerful, but also feel more powerful, and are not there simply to paper over a champion's weakness. That's why Ryze has mana scalings in the first place: not only does he get to spam spells at will, those spells become more powerful. You shouldn't cripple a champion if they don't pick an item (which also means they'll have a very hard time using their kit properly before they can affort that item), rather, you should make an item you want them to build feel like an awesome purchase. Moreover, forcing Lyle to itemize specifically for mana regeneration makes no sense: he's going to be stacking mana, which should normally be enough to ensure he can cast spells properly. Not only does mana regen not scale at all with his abilities, it falls off when he builds as he should (more mana -> greater Power Burst cost, which makes flat mana regen weaker by comparison). I really recommend you think this through one more time.

The problem you mention with Discharge is, to me, just another reason why spell crit is a bad idea. Additionally, it underlines another problem with your champion: even with you lowering his cooldowns, Lyle is still a burst champion. With full CDR, his full rotation still has a 6 second downtime, during which he's at the front line with little to do except use Q and walk around with his AoE. In contrast, Ryze can output non-stop damage, which is why he works as a tanky frontliner mage. You don't have to turn Lyle into Ryze v2, but you nonetheless structured him like a burst mage when he should have way more things to do while in combat.

While I really want to see more use of mana as a direct source of power, I disagree with your implementation of it. Mana isn't this one-use token you burn out completely in one single fight, it's a resource you manage and handle with more precision than any other resource. It's an enabler to awesome displays of power, but also punishes you for spending it without consideration. Your current implementation basically encourages the player to spend mana in the worst possible way, by using all of it up in one go and having nothing to do once your combo's over. The fact that Lyle's ultimate brings him low on mana (or out of mana, if you cast basic abilities) regardless of how much he builds, and therefore kills the main use for building mana in the first place, means that Lyle's only real use for mana at this point is just slightly bluer ability power. If you want Lyle to be the mana champion, beyond even Ryze, then you need to emphasize the characteristics of mana itself by making mana management a significant part of Lyle's gameplay: having Lyle decide when to spend mana and when to restore it would be far more interesting than just requiring Lyle to go in, blow all of his mana and have nothing else to do.

Also, increasing Lyle's mana cost just because they deal more power is not a good idea. Discharge is Lyle's ult, and using it should feel awesome, especially when he's deploying a mana storm. Not only is the ability itself super-weak unless Lyle's at full mana (which then means he has to blow 70% of his maximum mana just on his ult), but it can also deny him from using his own spells. The approach to this is completely backwards: while Lyle's surrounding himself in mana, he should be able to cast his spells at no additional cost, if not for free. You need to tune this ability so that it not only goes with whatever theme you had in mind, but so that it also feels fun to the player.