My collection of lovely Mages

I love Mages. They go in, release their load, and come out -exactly my style. There are many types of mages: bursty, bulky, and supporty. Generally speaking, I usually call a champion "mage" if it meets all three criteria: 1) AP/mana powered skills 2) naturally built mage style (e.g. not AP Master Yi) 3) not a tank. 

Pros and Cons of Mages
Pros: Bursts hard; utility; AOE damage (usually); good gankers/assassins
Cons: Fragile; Mana/CD reliant; need good team support; usually harder to play than other classes


I have a collection of mages that I play with the most. Here I will introduce each of them, see if they suit your style. I only have a limited amount of time and money so I didn't buy all the mages (sorry Ryze). I will talk about the mages I didn't buy in another post.

Anivia 

My favorite Pokemon mage. I played and fell in love with her since I was level 13. Packing 2 AOE slows, 1 mini-AOE stun, a map hack, and a self-revive, she is an awesome burst and utility champion that can turn the tide of the game. If she is fed, might as well be GG for the other team. Being one of the highest burst-damage mage and best utility character in the game, she is not very popular due to her high skill-cap fail-hard ratio. Just when she almost became FoTM, Riot steps in to nerf her, quelling all QQs and put her back in the loner zone. Today, the Ice Phoenix remains untouched by noobs. (My guide available, check "guides" section)

Cassiopeia

If you read one of my earlier posts, you would know why I bought the dirtyyy snake lady. I cannot stand not having a mage rated higher difficulty than Anivia (before the rating change). I got what I asked for: a potentially #1 burst champion in game. Notice I said potentially, in reality her damage isn't nearly as scary as what the description says. This is because most of her damage is poison (DoTs) -not very practical. Combined with the fact that she virtually has no escape mechanisms and very little survivability, she is not a commonly used champion. Whether she is truly uber or not is left to players to discover -or Riot to buff.

Janna

I would say she is the best support character in the game. An AOE knock-up, a shield that gives as much damage as a BF sword, and an AOE knockback healing skill that can turn the tide of a battle, Janna is top tier material. In a coordinated team, she is as scary as an Amumu. In a pub team, she can still be deadly depending on how good the player is.

Karma

In my opinion, Karma is one of the best support mages in the game. She can AOE heal, shield, and speed boost all for a hefty amount when used right, making her very versatile. She can also be built AP damage, although that's not how I play her (bulky support). Karma requires a lot of skills and understand of how her abilities work in order to unveil her true potential. After a recent buff to her, Karma should be played more often. (Guide Available)

Karthus

Hands down the best pub stomper in the game. A nuking ultimate that hits all the enemies regardless of their location is the perfect skill to pick-off dying enemies, adding kills or assists to your ever-growing Mejai stacks (a fed Karthus' ult can nuke at least half of any non-tanky champions' health). Karthus is also a godly early game killer. AOE slow + spammable nukes when used right can destroy an enemy. However, Karthus dies very easily, and shouldn't be building a lot of survivability items instead of pure AP damage. But that's the beauty of it, Karthus can wipe a team even in death thanks to his passive. In summary, if you don't like dying TONS of time in exchange for TONS of kills, Karthus is not for you.

Leblanc

She was OP in her first week of release; Riot had to hotfix her immediately. LeBlanc is a mage killer/assassin. LeBlanc can dish out tons of damage with a double Sigil (Q). Combined with her other skills, she can chain silence the enemy while nuking the target to death. With her double ability ultimate, she can escape very easily from any ganks. Her passive is similar to Shaco's ult, again allowing her to escape certain-death. The damage and ultimate CD nerf really hurt her. But I would say she is still a solid mage and very fun to use.

Lux

A solid but underused champion. I bought her thinking she had the same amount of utility and power as Anivia (wrong!). Nonetheless, she has a good skillset, especially the LAZER BEAM. LAZER BEAM turns into a destroy-anything-it-touches beam if she is fed. The double snare is also pretty cool, while the shield is not so cool. Overall a very fun-to-use champion in relaxing pub games, but unless you really know how to use her and have a good team to back you up, I wouldn't recommend picking her up.

Vladimir

Vlad was widely consider OP until the nerf train ran him over. In fact, he was so frustrating to play against, the now clichéd phrase "U Vlad?" ("U Mad") was developed. There are no other champions in the game like Vlad that can nuke-drain your health constantly. In addition, Vlad doesn't use mana, and has a pool that can help him escape almost everything. Playing against the pre-nerf Vladimir in solo-lane is a pain for an average player; 100% assrape for an inexperienced player. The post-nerf Vladimir is still very strong in pub games when used right. In the competitive scene, however, Vlad is fading away.