User blog:Lukeatlook/Pyro's Item Overhaul 11 - The Mage Project


 * What is "Pyro's Item Overhaul"?

It's a set of custom patch notes that are meant to enhance and/or fix the problems with itemization in LoL. Previous episodes were a hit or miss, sometimes correctly predicting items implemented by Riot, sometimes being far off (...almost everything else).


 * What is the scope of the overhaul?

Pretty much everything. The idea is to increase diversity in item builds by rebalancing the current items, possibly introducing few new ones when necessary. Keep in mind while assessing this part of the project that more or less all item categories will be affected, so this is far from over.


 * Why?

TL;DR here would be: To have more than top 3-5 champion picks for every role in LCS with cookie-cutter builds. Item builds should be more reactive, not predefined for a whole class of champions.


 * Episodes


 * The Tank Project
 * The Support Project
 * The Carry Project
 * The Fighter Project
 * The Mage Project (you are here)
 * The Jungle Followup and The Peripheral Maps (upcoming)
 * The Roundup

We're halfway through! :)

The Mage Project
I might be a little bit biased about this, but I'm a fan of the "oldschool" class of mages. Toplane mages ruin the fun for the "usual" toplaners, midlane assassins are flashy but overall opressive with no counter ("fight fire with fire", you send assasin against assassin), and whenever a mage sees play in the support role, it usually means a round of nerfs is incoming.

In the midlane itself, the everlasting war of and  is just a cover for a bigger problem: champions who are gated by mana need to rush a mana item to farm, and then the only viable route on most of them in competitive play is  into, which invalidates any MR purchased before it can even happen. This is anything but healthy.

This project consists of two main elements:
 * Mana Scatter - spreading mana and CDR through AP items
 * Mana regeneration and CDR is now found in other items.
 * Variety in laning items is broadened by introducing new ways to upgrade and.
 * Penetration Rework - changes mirroring the ones in Fighter Project
 * Flat magic penetration becomes unique between and . This is important only for HG users, as  the item itself changes a bit.
 * now penetrates 50% of bonus magic damage instead of 35% of total. That means it's less effective under 100 MR for squishies (30 base) and about 100-160 MR for tanks (30-50 base). From there on it's more effective than the old VS.
 * becomes an alternative to Void Staff, reducing MR by 25% instead of flat 20. This means it's slightly worse against squishy targets and it lessens the effectiveness of VS. Overall a mage bruiser item, not an assassin item.

Components

 * +30 ability power, +25% base mana regeneration (new)
 * +5% movement speed
 * A straightout buff to the item, albeit rather a small one. The MS passive now doesn't stack now with other items. Possible component for new midlane items.


 * +20 ability power (-5), +200 health
 * +20 magic penetration (+5)
 * Now doesn't stack with, allowing you to buy other boots (for example while not losing that much on magic penetration.


 * +25 ability power, +200 mana
 * On cast, for 10 seconds, your next basic attack critically strikes. 1.5 second cooldown. (reworked)
 * Critical Strike, as mentioned in the Carry Project, deals 100% base AD bonus physical damage (instead of 100% of total AD).
 * The functionality is basically the same, but the interaction with builds including crit items and changes a lot.

Burst
The "typical" burst items, both for assassins and many mages.


 * +120 ability power, +10% cooldown reduction
 * Amplifies all magic damage that champion takes by 20% for 4 seconds, then deals 10% of target champion's maximum health in magic damage. 90 second cooldown (750 range). (reworked)
 * Moved the damage component till the end of the Doom debuff, giving the victim some time to retaliate. However, the damage scales now with Ability Power.


 * +80 ability power, +200 mana (-50), +50% mana regeneration (new)
 * +5% movement speed
 * After using an ability, your next attack will critically strike. 1.5 seconds cooldown. (reworked)
 * Your critical strikes deal bonus magic damage. (new)
 * Only one Critical Damage modifier will apply. Does not stack with or.
 * Spellblade is functionally more or less the same. Mana regeneration is inherited from the revamped Aether Wisp. Movement speed is now unique between the Wisp upgrades. Some crit-AP builds should be possible on champions like .


 * Unchanged.


 * +60 ability power (-10)
 * Your magic damage ignores 50% of target's bonus magic resistance.
 * Still shreds tanks. Doesn't do as much against targets with low MR now, though. Does more above about 100-150 MR, depending on champion's base MR. A neat calculation would be: This item grants you 1305g worth of AP, so you need to penetrate through 795g worth of MR to make it gold efficient. This means the item is gold efficient when the target has 80 bonus MR.

DPS
Items oriented around dealing damage over time.


 * +40 ability power (-10), +200 health (-100), +50% mana regeneration (new), +10% cooldown reduction (new)
 * +20 magic penetration (+5)
 * Dealing spell damage applies a damage-over-time effect that deals bonus magic damage equal to per second for 3 seconds. This bonus damage is doubled against movement-impaired units and capped at 100 damage per second vs. monsters.
 * Less raw AP, more magic penetration (doesn't stack with, though) and a mana component. Champions like or  should love this.


 * +60 ability power, +50% attack speed, +10% cooldown reduction (-10)
 * Basic attacks deal 15 bonus magic damage on hit.
 * 400g cheaper (!), but loses the CDR. On Kayle, you're encouraged to opt for instead of  if you want CDR. The  component, already mentioned in the Fighter Project, has 20% AS and 15 on-hit magic damage.


 * (new item)
 * Recipe: +  + 750g (total cost: 3300 gold)
 * +120 ability power, +50% base mana regeneration
 * +5% movement speed
 * Create a zone for 15 seconds that reduces magic resistance of all enemies within by 5% per second, stacking up to 6 times. (900 range, 1000 radius) 90 second cooldown.
 * The fourth NLL upgrade, dedicated for immobile AoE DPS mages. Just like in the Carry Project doesn't stack with Last Whisper, this item is rather an alternative to  than a counterpart. Unless the enemy has absurdly heavy MR, then maybe using both could be a good idea.

Durability
Items with defensive stats - armor, MR and health.

AP+MR

 * +80 ability power (+20), +30 magic resistance (+5), +50% base mana regeneration, +10% cooldown reduction (-10)
 * Restores 2% of missing mana every 5 seconds.
 * Restores 15% of your max mana on kill or assist.
 * Grail loses 300g worth of CDR and gains 400g worth of AP - and is 100g cheaper. CDR is now found in other - new and old - items. Grail becomes centered around its AP, MR and mana regen.


 * +60 ability power (-10), +50 magic resistance
 * Reduces the magic resistance of nearby enemies by 25%. (700 range) (rebalanced)
 * Redefined as a mage bruiser item, with less AP and more anti-MR approach (instead of squishy-stomping one). The debuff is weaker than the old one until about 90 MR (keep in mind flat reduction comes before % penetration). Just like with, it's an alternative to and doesn't work that well with it. If MR reduction becomes too problematic, it can share the debuff name with , making sure the two reductions don't stack.

AP+Armor

 * (new item)
 * Recipe: +  + 730g (total cost: 2500g)
 * +60 ability power, +50 armor, +300 mana, +20% CDR
 * Nearby enemy spell casts restore 5% of your missing mana. (1100 range)
 * Alternative: 40 AP, Gain 0.4 ability power per 1% of missing health.
 * For midlaners, this should be an alternative to Zhonya's Hourglass as their anti-AD core. Also allows to keep up with manaless champions spamming their spells. Possible option for AP bruisers or supports.


 * Unchanged.

AP+Health
Items with less than 400 health in other sections: (DPS),  (Utility)


 * (new item)
 * Recipe: +  + 615g (total cost: 2700 gold)
 * +40 ability power, +400 health, +100% health regeneration
 * +20 magic penetration
 * Copy all temporary buffs from nearby enemies and put them on yourself for 20 seconds or until they run out. 90 second cooldown. (700 range)
 * For the buff to be considered "temporary", it needs to be timed or disappearing when out of combat. See Buff.
 * Magic penetration from this item doesn't stack with or . This one is suited for tanks and can bring some absurdly fun results.


 * +60 ability power, +400 health (-50), +400 mana (-50)
 * On leveling up, restores 150 health and 200 mana over 8 seconds.
 * This item gains 10 health, 10 mana and 2 ability power every minute, up to 10 times.
 * A small yet impactful change - cost reduced, base stats slightly lowered. Can be now picked up a tiny bit earlier.


 * (new item)
 * Recipe: +  + 730g (total cost: 2500g)
 * +400 health, +60 ability power, +20% CDR
 * Gain 50% of missing mana at the cost of 50% of your current health. 60 second cooldown.
 * Best way to describe it would be "Emergency mana". When in dire need, you can use it to cast a few spells. Quite a few. The active is useless for manaless champions, but they should find the base stats very appealing anyway.

Spellvamp
The following changes are made mostly for the champions that don't currently build spellvamp. Those who do are either due for a rework (, or borderline broken ).


 * +60 ability power (-5), +50 attack damage (+5), +15% lifesteal (+3)
 * +15% spellvamp (-5)
 * Your basic attacks and single target spells against champions reduce the cooldown of this item by 3 seconds.
 * Deals 150 magic damage and slows the target champion's movement speed by 40% for 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown. (700 range)
 * Lower AP/spellvamp and reduced price to make this a good agressive item, but not so slot efficient one. It should still be good lategame, just not as oppressive on Akali. Higher AD and lifesteal are meant to slightly shift this item towards "hybrid" characteristic.


 * +80 ability power, +50% base mana regeneration (new), +10% cooldown reduction
 * +20% spellvamp
 * Mages now can build it for mana regen first. Manaless mages can't sit on Fiendish Codex, though, so that's a nerf for them - so the item's price gets 100g lower to compensate.

Utiliy
Buffs, debuffs and slows. Support items, but not only.


 * Unchanged.


 * +60 ability power (+20), +100% base mana regeneration, +10% cooldown reduction
 * +5% movement speed (-3)
 * Your heals and shields on another unit grant them 25% attack speed for 6 seconds. This does not include regeneration effects or effects on yourself.
 * In sheer stats, this becomes comparable to Chalice/Morellonomicon. If you're playing Karma, Morgana or Lulu in the middle lane, it might actually become worthwhile. Otherwise, it's still great on them in the support role.


 * +80 AP, +75% base mana regeneration (-25), +20% cooldown reduction
 * Alternative nerf to the one shipping in patch 5.1 (which increases the price to 2300g).


 * +80 ability power (-20), +200 health (-200), +300 mana (new), +50% health regeneration (new)
 * Dealing spell damage slows the target's movement speed by 35% for 1.5 seconds (15% for multi-target and damage-over-time spells).
 * Part of the "Mana Scatter" project. Mages looking for health should consider some of the new items.


 * (new item)
 * Recipe: +  + 150g (total cost: 1600g)
 * +200 health, +100% base mana regeneration, +20% CDR
 * Increase experience earned by 10%.
 * It's meant to be picked up early for the accelerated leveling, so the item is cheap, but not really slot efficient.


 * +80 ability power, +50% base mana regeneration (new), +10% cooldown reduction
 * +10% movement speed (+4)
 * Summons 2 invulnerable ghosts for 6 seconds to seek the two nearest enemy champions. If they touch an enemy champion, they slow their movement speed by 40% and reveal them for 2.5 seconds. Ghosts that fail to find a target return to the wielder, reducing the item's cooldown by 40 seconds each. 120 second cooldown.
 * Basically a mage Zephyr. Situational, not as outright efficient source of DPS as Morellonomicon or Athene's, but in right situation a viable pickup. Price goes up by 200g.

Polls
This part is very important, as it helps moving the project forward and making corrections :)

Thanks for keeping up with the series, and see you guys next time! The overhaul is about to wrap up quite soon.