League of Legends (LoL) Question: Feeling difficult to deal damage to mages who build RoA, what should I do?

It's totally reliant on what champions you're playing, for example a high kill potential champion like LeBlanc will need less mana regen and more on kill mana (like Morrell) then say a Anivia who will need a high base mana pool via Tear.

1. Generally Mana Regen Marks are not worthwhile unless they are scaling and that's main good for champion like Anivia who use a tremendous amount of mana to zone, so on that question I'd say generally Magic Pen is better.

2. Well this is dependant on your champion, if you have good early game magic survival (like Kassadin) then you may just want Scaling Magic Resist or Magic Penetration so as to give a more powerful mid to late game, if you struggle in lane against magic poke then you may want flat MR, again if you struggle in skirmishes then you could need CDR to be effective, finally if you don't do enough damage then flat AP could be useful (again it naturally depends on your champ as low AP ratios would prefer magic penetration.)

3. ROA is extremely good if you have enough damage and just need to scale more effectively, this is especially the case if you are intending on buying a different hextech item later on, like Hextech Protobelt-01 / Gunblade. If you need the extra burst from GLP-800 to be effective in lane and don't intend on getting another hextech item then you should take that over Rod. Again though without the champion info it's hard to say, Annie for example dominates with a Protobelt and would be a lot less reliable with GLP-800 in it's place.

4. Doran's Ring is really good for early dominance but should only be taken if mana is a big issue and you can't afford anything key to sustain it (like in this case Catalyst). On Malzahar you are supposed to get 2-3 Dorans rings as it compliments your E and allows for immense mana regen, but on say Anivia you need your mana sustain early and thus should work towards that instead to more effectively poke. Only get more doran's rings if you intend to either farm a lot and play passively or poke a ton early on to force a lead (which won't scale as efficiently due to the item path unless you were to make it worthwhile by roaming for kills and winning other lanes.)

5. If you can't effectively poke down your opponent then you could try to push the wave any chance you get and roam a lot, this way you don't need to worry about your lane as much since you'll be winning other lanes also, additionally you could try % damage champions like Brand, Ekko & Fizz as they thrive on HP stacking thanks to their % hp abilities, some other nice champs are those that have build True Damage as they are always useful, these are say Ahri & Vel'koz. Finally there are champions that don't rely on mana and can poke freely once experienced like Akali, Zed, Yasuo & Kennen. Other tips could be: Try different builds, just because it's not normal doesn't mean it won't work, try out Tear on Lux, Gunblade on Kassadin, Nashor's Tooth on Oriana, just remember to play smart and utilize your advantages in every way possible.

Additionally if mana is really a problem, grab an early Tear and you'll likely not have to worry about it anymore, it gives high base mana, restores 4 mana / case (kinda), and effectively reduces the mana cost of abilities by 15% by restoring that mana after every cast. You could just buy this and not worry about it for most of the game, when paired with Morrell you will have crazy mana sustain with decent damage, naturally it'd be hard to fight someone with RoA still since they get basically the same and more but thanks to the CDR you'll win some skirmishes as long as you play it right.

All this info is from my opinion, and since I don't play that much mid I'd recommend taking it all with a grain of salt. Don't always expect to kill your opponent, I see that too much and it often ends up poorly, some lanes aren't meant to be won, a Good Vladamir will destroy a Good Fizz, but that's fine, understand you got counter picked and take advantage of things you can do rather then attempting things you likely can't do, you're lane might already be lost of the champ select screen and that's fine, because other lanes can still be won which in the end can make your lane atleast a catalyst for other lanes.

Good luck!

Rylai's Crystal Scepter + Liandry's Torment

You don't need to counter-build a RoA, so you should build whatever is optimal for your champion.

Standard AP setup is Mpen marks, HP/lvl seals, CDR/lvl or AP/lvl glyphs (get enough CDR to hit 40% with your full build) and AP quints.

What might be happening is that you fall behind in item curve. RoA builders honestly don't get a lot of effective stats in the early game since it takes 10 minutes for the RoA to reach its full potential. If you're building a different item, like Morellonomicon, you should have the edge.

Make sure your last-hitting and recall timers are solid, since you'll need to keep even or ahead in gold if you want to bully someone who's building defensively. If you fall behind in gold, it might seem like your abilities can't scratch a RoA user, when in reality you just don't have the amount of AP that you should have at that stage.

I just get liandry