Why Ability Power Itemization Is Poor in League of Legends

I've been meaning to touch on this subject for quite some time. I lay awake at night, thinking about what Riot could do to improve the AP itemization in League of Legends. And their latest solution... was to remove one of the main items that defined the current meta. It disappointed me, but in all fairness, it was too strong an item. But as of yet, we haven't gotten anything in return. It got me thinking. What's wrong with AP Itemization, and what can be done to fix it?

I've been looking at AP Itemization all the wrong way, it seems. Before, I would look at it as a giant pile of items that were in one way or another inferior to AD Itemization. And while I still believe that AP itemization is inferior, I have since shifted the attention from "AD is overpowering and excessively available" to "AP is underwhelming and poorly assigned". This coming from a few statements I'd like to address.

1) AP itemzation is too split up and requires two items in every core. This because a build isn't complete without either Rabadon's Deathcap and/or Void Staff, whereas AD itemization only really needs Last Whisper to be successful. Any complementary AD is pretty much overkill. My solution to the problem would be to simply remove Rabadon's Deathcap and increase the base stat points for Ability Power. 80AD is the top cap for AD items, and without the 30% increase in AP, I believe the upper cap for AP Itemization should be 150AP. Make the stat-abundant and support-centered items have 60AP (Athene's, for example), the lower tier items 90AP (Morellonomicon and Void Staff), mid tier 120AP (Rylai's and Abyssal), and top tier damage-focused items 150AP (things like the current Zhonya's).

2) AP itemization is filled to the brim with needed statistics that are to readily available. If we take a look back at season 3 and a bit of season 4, before the Morellonomicon gave way more mana regen than the Athene's Unholy Grail gave you, it was basically either an AD Assassin or an Athene's Mage. Athene's made everyone stronger, and with 3 item slots being filled already (Zhonya's, Rabadon's and Void), there was little room left for exclusive itemization. If you needed damage, you would get a Deathfire Grasp, and if you needed defense against magic damage, you'd get either Abyssal Scepter or Banshee's Veil. It's really stale how mages have very little room to create their own builds. Solving this is making items have a niche. Mana regen and CDR goes to Athene's, AP and mana regen goes to Morellonomicon, etcetera. Don't have more than one item be good at giving stats that most mages need anyways.

3) AP itemization has discrepancies in available activated abilities. Allow me to elaborate. AD Itemization gets an upgraded path from the Quicksilver Sash, they get Youmuu's and Ravenous, they get a Blade of the Ruined King and they get easy access to incredibly strong passive abilities; I bring you Maw of Malmortius and The Bloodthirster. While I agree that Zhonya's Hourglass is exceptionally strong, that's about where it ends as far as good items goes. While the Hextech Gunblade has a good active, it provides AD making it a two-champion niche item, and anything that grants Magic Pen. is limited to one because it's a named unique passive. AP itemization lacks good stats available from different sources (5 items that grant flat Armor Pen like The Brutalizer vs 1 "Eyes of Pain" passive).

4) The way Spellvamp works. AD items have critical strikes, 100% AtkSpd means 50% CDR on autoattack damage, and with 1k+ damage crits not being uncommon, 20% lifesteal is a ridiculous amount of regenerative stats: a single ward can easily net you about 300HP - coming from something with 5HP. All the while spellvamp is limited to two items of 20% with the drawback that multiple target spells (and AoE abilities) suffer from a 33% drawback. While I understand that regenerating 20% out of 6 creeps taking 900 damage (meaning 1080 healed) would be insane, I don't think it should be drawn back so far as to say mages can't heal in quick bursts like AD carries and AD assassins can. Lowering the base amount by half but allowing 100% passthrough instead of the 67% mitigation means mages can sustain just as easily as AD itemized characters, but at the cost of other combat statistics and, obviously, mana and cooldowns.

There's a long way ahead of us when we attempt to fix something as wonky and incomplete as AP itemization. Gaping holes in stat-enfused items, powerhouse items, ways to counter certain effects or crowd controls... all of those are things AP itemization can use and should have. But until then, we'll be stuck with a mana-based midlane that only leaves 1 item to the imagination or free will. The others are as close to predetermined as it can get. Coballz out.