User blog comment:Rowtuh/Monarch, the Inexorable Duke/@comment-4948122-20120328113411/@comment-1618239-20120328165450

I'm pretty sure I've come to agree with you on increasing the range per stack. Having a range of 500 is extremely limiting when you're not Sivir or Kog'Maw.

However, I'm not sure that I want to make the stacks last for a full 6 seconds - for comparison, remember that Graves' passive lasts for 3 seconds, as does Vayne's Silver Bolts. Additionally, approximately 6.33 minions (3 melee, 3 ranged, 0.33 cannon) appear per creep wave, which spawns every 30 seconds - meaning that you're expected to attack a minion just under once per 5 seconds.

Given those timeframes, in my head, it seems improper to increase the length of time which stacks last. The design of the champion in early game is focused on promoting sustained lane aggression. If you want to keep your stacks up, keep trading. I chose that design since it's something that Riot seems to want in their game right now. Stacks staying for 6 seconds seems like it might be too easy to keep up, but maybe that should just be tested in-game.

Anyway, Steadfast dealing bonus magic damage rather than directly increasing AD is intended to keep the character's 4 steroids from multiplying too far out of control lategame, a limitation and design similar to parts of Vayne's design. He still has armour penetration, an auto reset, and a good attack speed boost (though not as powerful as some other carries' basic abilities that grant attack speed).