User blog comment:Deshiba/Stacking Items/@comment-6301771-20140101065624/@comment-4022742-20140101194250

Making like  is ridiculous, but having RoA as an item that has delayed stats is totally logically design wise? And why is "on-level" inherently bad design? Because they force you to get an item before a certain point in the game to be fully effective? In that case, you agree with me, since "over time" scaling suffers from exactly that problem.

"needing" mana is not the issue here. Having that mana there did server a purpose, it scaled with and  so you'd have a Magic Resistance item that still increased your damage if you had a champion with a good mana pool. Increasing your mana pool is not the same thing as increasing your mana regeneration.