I'm in no way saying I know all the insane number of champs in this game, but so far as the majority of champs I see, it goes like this..

-AD melee = gap closer or insane speed
-AD range = gap closer or exception range and/or speed
-AP melee = gap closer
-AP range = sh*t outta luck because apparently the slows and short hard CC's are supposed to be enough. They just aren't. Their spell range is within gap closer range of most champs that have it .

The crazy number of gap closers also contributes to making flash a requirement.

Alot of them make up for it. Orianna has alot of range to stay safe and tons of cc. Ryze and Morde is tanky enough to handle melee, and has sustain. Some casters do have gap closers, like Ahri and Katarina.

You are right about alot of casters being out of luck. Ziggs, Viktor and Brand share this fate.

well heres the thing, ap ranged does a ****ton of damage, has the highest burst, and a lot of times its all aoe. plus that short cc you talk about effects multiple people sometimes. do you realize how much damage a ziggs or a brand can do to your whole team with just 1 rotation of their spells? it would be retarded to give them that kind of damage AND as hard to kill as a bruiser. therefore they balance it out by making them squishy and easy to kill.


the trick to ap ranged is to have good positioning and know when to go in. it doesn;t matter if you are squishy if there is a malphite standing between you and whoever wants to kill you.

They make up for it by doing ****tons of damage to all enemies in a teamfight and having the ability to pick people off with burst damage. Its all about positioning

The big advantage to the casters is that they have very good range, plus the ability to dump all their damage in 1 big chunk, then scurry off to the back.

This is very helpful in attacking turrets and weakening many enemies so their bruisers can finish off the AD carry (who does more damage and keeps attacking, but doesnt have near the burst)

A lot of long range mages have very poor mobility and/or escape mechanisms as a penalty in exchange for their spell range. If you notice folks like Cassiopeia, Brand, and Lux, they don't have any effective escapes. This is the main reason why most of them will have to bring Flash as their Summoner's Spell. Ziggs have some sort of escape skill, but it's really hard to use. This is the main reason why gap-closer melee assassins like Diana, Fizz, Akali, Katarina, and Talon can counter long range mages like Lux, Brand, and Ziggs very hard with lots of patience and proper items. Although being said, the melee assassins have terrible farming pontential since they are pushed into their own tower hard by the long range champions in exchange of the ability to kill enemy champions easily (and thus, the long range mage champions are MORE vulnerable to being ganked by junglers for pushing into the enemy melee assassin champion into the enemy tower hard).

Now SHORT-range mages like Annie, Kennen, and Ryze can counter the gap closer melee assassins really well (but they're meant to be built tanky as well as strong AP, so yea).

ori is actually really short range
morde just has no initiate, and as long as you're away from your minions you kite him to hell and back
ryze is legit op right now, but his snare is short enough to just be lag for all any1 cares
kat and ahri have to REALLY think about using their mobility skills to escape, because then they're a magnitude less useful until their cds come back.
T.T viktor and ziggs because slow zones are worthless now, but i didn't know about brand but ill believe you.