Mana Pools at Level 18: Kassadin's 1879 Tops the Chart, Aurelion Sol's Record Base Falls to 35th

I ran the numbers on base mana and mana growth for all 145 mana champions. At level 18, Kassadin sits alone at the top with 1879, a full 289 more than second-place Sylas (1590). Meanwhile Aurelion Sol has the single highest base mana pool in the game at 530, but his growth is just 40 per level, so he caps out at 1210 by level 18 and drops all the way to 35th.

What base mana and mana growth actually mean

A champion's final mana pool is just the level-1 base value plus the per-level growth, compounded across 17 level-ups. A previous piece here covered mana regen (MP5), a different stat entirely, that one is about speed, this one is about the size of the tank itself. Of the 173 champions in the game, 145 run on mana, the rest use energy or a unique resource (also covered before).

Level 18 leader: Kassadin, despite a merely average base

Mana pool at level 18	Value
Kassadin	1879
Sylas	1590
Ezreal	1565
Volibear	1540
Ryze	1490

Kassadin's base mana is 400, good for a middling 34th out of 145. What pushes him to the top is his growth rate, 87 per level, the fastest in the game, compounded over 17 level-ups. By level 18 that's 1879, 1.7x the field average of 1097. Not something you'd guess from where he starts.

Aurelion Sol has the biggest base pool in the game, and still falls to 35th

Base mana (level 1)	Value
Aurelion Sol	530
Fiddlesticks	500
Anivia	495
Vex	490
Veigar	490

Aurelion Sol tops the base mana chart outright. But his growth, 40 per level, is roughly average, so the rest of the field catches up over the course of a game. Starting rich doesn't guarantee finishing rich.

Growth rate tells a completely different story

Growth multiplier (level 18 ÷ base)	Value
Ekko	5.25x
Locke	5.25x
Ryze	4.97x
Cho'Gath	4.78x
Darius	4.75x

The top of this list mixes late-game assassins like Ekko and Locke with bruisers and tanks like Cho'Gath and Darius who barely lean on mana at all. Role doesn't explain the pattern.

At the bottom, Brand and Vel'Koz tie for the lowest multiplier at 1.76x, followed by Ziggs (1.83x), Heimerdinger (1.88x), Veigar (1.9x), Lux (1.91x) and Xerath (1.94x). Every one of them is an artillery mage built to spam abilities constantly, and yet the low end of this ranking is basically an artillery mage roll call. The champions who need to cast the most end up with the least room to grow.

Takeaway

Final mana pool isn't decided by base value or growth rate alone, and almost nobody holds their level-1 rank all the way to level 18. The most interesting part is that the champions built to spam skills nonstop are exactly the ones whose pools grow the least, kit design and tank size don't line up the way you'd expect. Most recaps stop at listing the raw numbers, but the real story is in where base, growth, and final value disagree.

Brand and Xerath having some of the worst mana growth in the game explains a lot about why spam mages run dry late