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I would like to talk to you about the discrepancy in Ability Haste(AH) itemisation between Attack Damage(AD) and Ability Power(AP) champions and how that gap can be filled.
Please consider the following.
Items that give both AD and AH:
Mythics - 6
- Duskbalde of Draktharr - 20 AH
- Prowler's Claw - 10 AH
- Goredrinker - 20 AH + 5 AH per Legendary Item
- Stridebreaker - 10 AH
- Divine Sunderer - 20 AH
- Trinity Force - 10 AH
Legendary - 10
- Manamune - 15 AH
- Chempunk Chainsword - 15 AH
- Umral Glave - 20 AH
- Essence Reaver - 20 AH
- Maw of Malmortius - 15 AH
- Death's Dance - 15 AH
- Ravenouse Hydra - 20 AH
- Black Cleaver - 25 AH
- Novori Quickblades - 30 AH
- Serylda's Grudge - 20 AH
Total - 16
Max Ability Haste item build:
- Goredrinker - 40 AH (20+20)
- Black Cleaver - 25
- Novori Quickblades - 30
- Ravenouse Hydra - 20
- Essence Reaver - 20
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity - 15 AH
Total AH = 20+20(4x5)+25+30+20+20 = 150 Ability Haste (60% CDR)
Items that give both AP and AH:
Mythic - 8 (2 Supp items 6 mage items)
- Imperial Mandate - 20 AH
- Moonstone Renewer - 20 AH + 5 AH per Legendary Item
- Hextech Rocketbelt - 15 AH
- Riftmaker - 15 AH
- Night Harvester - 15 AH + 5 AH per Legendary Item
- Liandry's Anguish - 20 AH + 5 AH per Legendary Item
- Luden's Tempest - 10 AH
- Everfrost - 10 AH
Legendary - 4
- Chempunk Putrifier - 15 AH
- Zhonya's Hourglass - 10 AH
- Banshee's Veil - 10 AH
- Cosmic Drive - 30 AH
Total - 12
Max Ability Haste item build:
- Liandry's Anguish - 40 AH (20+20)
- Chempunk Putrifier - 15 AH
- Zhonya's Hourglass - 10 AH
- Banshee's Veil - 10 AH
- Cosmic Drive - 30 AH
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity - 15 AH
Total AH = 40+15+10+10+30+15 = 120 AH (55% CDR)
If we exclude the suboptimal Chempunk Chainsword and Chempunk Putrifier which are aimed at supports there are 9 Legendary AD items that give AH and ONLY 3 AP Legendary items. This means that there are 3 times more Legendary AD items that give AH than there are Legendary AP items that give AH. Surely there needs to be more variety in the items that mages can build to acquire AH. Not only is there less diversity in the item choices but also AP champions can't reach the same amount of AH/CDR as AD champions.
Why do AD champions potentially get access to more spell casts than AP champions which can rely only on their spells to deal damage? The fact that AD champs get the additional benefit of their autoattacks becoming stronger with AD is another reason why AP champs don't feel good now. Currently AD champs have the opportunity to get more spell casts off and even if they do miss their skillshots they can still deal damage through autos unlike mages.
Of course the builds mentioned above are an exaggeration and are hardly viable but they do help illustrate how much less item choices AP champions have for AH. Mages have to basically build every single item that gives AH (including the suboptimal Chempunk Putrifier) in order to reach 100 AH where as AD champs have a lot more different build paths they can use. It is noteworthy that the AP build is A FULL MAX AH item worth(30 AH) of AH behind the AD build. Additionally if it so happens that your champ doesn't benefit from Liandry's Anguish but still needs AH and Mana your next Mythic item choice will give you at minimum -20 from Liandry's Mythic passive and potentially -10AH further limiting the total amount of AH you can build.
Furthermore there is no Legendary AP item that gives 20 AH whereas there are 4 AD items (+1 item that gives 25). These AD 20 AH items can help AD champ get much higher AH even when the chosen AD Mythic doesn't have the +5 AH passive.
Zhonya's and Banshee's do provide utility and it is understandable why these items would give less AH. Adding AH to more AP items and adjusting their stats could smooth out the rotations and build paths of a lot of mages.
At the moment AP champions are suffering on two fronts - Mana and AH. There is only one Legendary item that gives Mana and AP - Archangel's Staff/Seraph's Embrace. There was a definite need for Riot to address the spammability of spells and the never ending manapools of champions. Which they did with the nerf to PoM and Seraph. However what was the reason for the removal of AH/CDR from this item? Isn't the point of Mana items to allow their users to cast more spells, more frequently?
At the moment the only item that gives Mana but no AH in the store is .... you guess it - Archangel's Staff/Seraph's Embrace. Additionally what was the point of removing the CDR/AH from Archangel's but then going around and giving Manamune/Muramana AH? This is the one item change this season that really baffles me.
The significant nerf to Archangel's Staff and Seraph's Embrace has been a major factor in the lack of AH itemisation for mages. At it's current state the item is just a stat stick for Mana and AP providing absolutely 0 utility. I believe that a partial revert could help item variety. Currently there is one AD item that gives 25 AH and no AP items that give that amount. Let Archangel's Staff give 10 AH and when fully stacked Seraph's Embrace could give 25 AH and fill that hole in the AH mage itemisation. Some tuning of the AP/Mana the item gives will be in order.
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