Nearly anyone who goes Athene's, really.

Eve can get by without because of her passive, especially if she's being judicial with her Q.

I agree though that any mid can live without it (though it's much more difficult if the enemy mid has buff and yours doesn't). But the one I'd say really should get an early one if at all possible is Diana. She needs to be able to run her combos once she hits 6 and they drain her.

None of them NEED blue buff. Many just benefit from it more than others.

The mid lane champion that benefits from it least is Katarina. Vlad can actually use it to great effect for cooldowns, since his cooldowns are quite high early game.

Kennen is the least reliant blue of all the AP mids. Simply because his energy regen is so fast, that he doesn't need it in lane(team fights is a different story mainly late game). He also doesn't want too much CDR either, it doesn't do him much good if he burns all his energy too fast.

The only mid laners who don't need blue buff are mid laners who don't use mana. There are no exceptions to this rule, currently; if you use mana and you are in the mid lane, you need blue buff or you won't be able to compete with your mana using mid lane opponent who has blue buff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mhm916 Kennen is the least reliant blue of all the AP mids. Simply because his energy regen is so fast, that he doesn't need it in lane(team fights is a different story mainly late game). He also doesn't want too much CDR either, it doesn't do him much good if he burns all his energy too fast.

i have had success as annie without blue

Katarina
A smart Eve player can also do pretty well without blue buff, especially if she has a philo.
To be honest most characters don't require blue, they just benefit from it heavily. The point is not to run into lane and fire off spells until you're oom, but take opportunities to harass and then eventually kill.
Annie can function very well mid without blue due to her Q's passive, too.

If no one has said it already, a Kassadin mid really dosn't need blue buff

Most dont NEED it its just nice. Swain and veigar have great mana regen passives and dont NEED blue but it helps if you want to spam skills. Any energy or no mana champs are good without it but a number of mids still work fine if its stolen or down. Malz, swain, ori, zyra, elise, fizz, veigar, and some others as a start.