Board Thread:General discussion/@comment-5419934-20121223143249/@comment-20434720-20140417045015

Emptylord wrote: Low mobility, single-target nukers — such as Malzahar, Veigar and Syndra — generally fall off late game because the ability to kill a single target becomes less important. But all mages fall off eventually. Mages are suppose to create pressure in mid-game skirmishes to allow the marksman to find his feet - because the marksman is public-enemy-number-one, but mid-game the mage actually does more damage. The thing is that all of them, despite excelling at single-target nuking, also have at least some AOE capabilities. All of syndra's basic abilities are AOE, Veigar's stun and huge-ratio W is AOE (and you're more likely to hit someone without them standing still in a teamfight than in a 1v1 anyway), and Malzahar's high-damage AOE longest-silence-in-the-game Q is also AOE, and his bull-crap-lategame-damage W is also AOE (i'm just imagining the malzahar jarvan combo... it would be brutal. Late-game malzahar exceeds 70% max health AOE with his W.

Their ability to kill a single target is less important, yes. But they all contribute substantial presence to teamfights as well, especially in the mid-game skirmishes you mention.