Hi, this is my first post of the official League of Legends site, so forgive me for any mistakes. Season 3 started two days ago, and with it, popular AP items like Deathfire Grasp and Zhonya's Hourglass were buffed up another extra 20 AP to 120 ap + other benefits. This seems like the last straw for Mejai's, sadly, even at the tough-to-get 20 stacks it doesn't seem as efficient as others. Maybe it's low cost could be useful for some supports, as I've seen it used in such a way, but I main Veigar mid and just felt like Mejai's has been left behind. I really liked the unique gameplay options snowballing items like Mejai's offered, especially with it's raw AP and I was hoping that Riot could adjust Mejai's somehow to make it more viable for an AP carry, especially at a high amount of stacks. As I play AP carry too often, I don't know how other snowballing items are doing like sword of the occult, but I think it would be really awesome if you can keep snowball items as a possible, (and perhaps still pretty difficult as it was) item choice for players. Possible Ideas I'll throw out there for scaling items would be perhaps:
- More AP per stack
- More flat AP (?)
- More benefits at certain stages of stacks (ex. 5 stacks gives 3% cooldown reduction, 20 stacks gives a new active, etc.) especially the final stack
- More stacks
- Maybe AP isn't the only thing that scales with stacks (Ex. spell vamp, magic penetration, etc)

I'm sure you get the idea. As you can see, although stacks are difficult to get, scaling items like these can really add all sorts of gameplay options to League of Legends, and I would like to see more of them. So, the bottom line is:

I want Mejai's Soulstealer to be more beneficial and viable than it currently is. Or atleast scale down other items to it's level. Thanks for reading and listening ~ Replies, thoughts, opinions, anything is all appreciated ~

Mejai's is supposed to be a high risk high reward item. Giving it any more stats than it has now would make it OP and they'd nerf it.

never, ever, ever build a soulstealer. I see some luxes build it because its recommended. I really wish riot would take it out of recommended items.

As cool as granting benefits at 20 stacks is Mejai's doesn't need 20 stacks to be cost-effective, and you never really should get that many stacks. The benchmark goodies idea (similar to bonetooth necklace) might be interesting though. And on champions like LeBlanc, who carry exactly the same risk as Mejai's, it's not a bad buy.

Last time I checked Mejai's breaks even in cost effectiveness at around 6~7 stacks though, which is generally what you should keep it at if you manage to pick it up. With that, it's important to keep in mind most items give you free stats as a reward for completing them as well - so you need to maintain a bit more than that to keep it viable in most situations compared to other investments, so around 8~9 stacks. And Mejai's would need incentives around the 6-10 stacks range to see any buffs to it make it marginally viable in competitive play. The downside is a lot of high-ranked games can end with wards being the only exciting thing slain, preventing even solid plays from making the item cost-effective. With that, I'm not a fan of the more stacks idea. All that would accomplish is making "that guy" in co-op vs. AI games that much more irritating.

Mejai should be removed from the game. Only a handful of champs can use (read:abuse) it and get away with it. high risk only for champs that cannot abuse it. Lux, Kass and Nid are some champs that can abuse it. Long range poke allowing them to stay safe or very high mobility like Kass.

Then they snowball because they will get assist/kills and you start eating poke from 700+ AP.

The only one who should be using it are heavy gankers like lb or kass. Lux or Nid will problly be better off with a blasted wand.

I think the CDR should be distributed at earilier stage, instead of just at 20. Let's say 5% at 5 stack, 15% at 10, 20% at 15 and 25% at 20. It will allow the user to gank more, by having shorter cd on their ult while at the same time, promote high-risk-high-reward playstyle.

Or, it can be rework into 1% CDR, 8 AP and 1% AP but reduce HP by 1% each stack. Gonna get interesting :P

I suppose Mejai's is decent as it is considering cost-effectiveness and mid-game, but i guess my biggest concern is late game. It seems to me like if you can get money for other fully built items, they'd outdo Mejai's, even if Mejai's were at 20 stacks (trying to clarify a little better here). I'm imagining a theory here, but say someone has 20 stacks late game and it's very hard to achieve. It's really a comparison between 60 extra AP to Deathfire Grasp's active, or 70 armor + zhonya's active to Mejai's 60 more AP + 15% cooldown reduction. Right now i'm wondering should the tough-to-get 20 stacks really be comparable to these items late game like that, even with the extra cost? I suppose it may be fine as it is, but at this rate, Mejai's is an item, if used well under good/sensible conditions, seems like it's a buy that will eventually have to be tossed and replaced if the game goes on long enough, even if you do well with it. (and that's a big IF)

Mejai is broken when used on champs that can abuse (not die) it. Ever tried fighting late game a team with a lux that has 700-800 AP who can ult every ~30 seconds? It's ridiculous. There's no way you'll get to her and she can easily ult your whole team during team fights. Can destroy your baron attempts, etc...

Add any kind of hard CC and she'll burst someone down from a very safe distance allowing her team to clean up. I'm not even adding her very powerful shield on her whole team (700-800 AP remember?).