So, we are in midseason, roughly, and Riot decided to make ARAM an official gamemode a while now. Most recently, we witnessed the release of an item (interesting and much needed, imo), Orb of Winter. It responds to a need for play against extreme classic pokers, such as Nidalee, Lux, Ziggs and Janna. However it takes Jayce to a higher place, since this basterd deals physical damage.

Nevermind what I said above, it is a simple introduction. What I bring you today is my opinion on Riot's gameplay on it's players, meaning I shall bring you exhibit A:

I belive the similarities are obvious. A basic difference (and small one as well) is that orb has less 6Mres. What I mean to bring up to the table is that Riot scratched a reasonably good item (on par in resistance status with Thornmail or Frozen Heart) at the beggining of S3 to reinstate a replacement with similar mechanics and stats. The cost however is different and is roughly accounted as 96% of the difference between 2 Rejuvenation Beads and 2 Regrowth Pendants, meaning that 7% movement speed is worth nothing.
This item, Force of Nature, was to be replaced by a "new" Spirit Visage that saw it's stats greatly increased. Basically a niche item became mandatory for heavy-duty tanking and it fails to correspond as such for champions that relied on FoN, such as Galio and Rammus (bear with me), while Dr. Mundo couldn't care less (kind of). They are not played as much for other reasons as well, some mention with the next exhibit.

Now refering to exhibit B:

Removing Heart of Gold was a shock to many, albeit, to me, the change in Randuin's Omen was equally shocking. This was made to adress toplane farmers, more importantly, toplane bullies. Irelias and Olafs loved it. However this change hurt them slightly, being worse for laners like Nasus and balsy supports like Leona. As a support, Leona is all about providing kills or an overwhelming lane presence. The thing I can tell you for sure is that it allowed her to dive more easily and then provide a very good item to complement her engage. Regarding Nasus, he is really dependant on farm. Not only for his Siphoning Strike but also because his kit demands tankiness and this is rarely obtained without farm.
My point being: Riot decided to simply cut income in the game. Starting by taking 5gold per creep farmed, ending up on the removal of Heart of Gold and tweaks in other GP10 items. As we can see in competitive play this has forced teams for objectives very early with very lane dominant champions. Nasus has been relegated to the jungle with unimpressive results, imo, since all he can do or is made for is his Wither. Laning champions that have a rather easy and safe method of farming are preferred, since it became a lower reward source. Examples are Jayce and Zed (there are other reasons). Late game champions are now rare, especially the ones that take an important role, and I regard those to be mainly ADC's like Tristana and Vayne because they can deal a lot of damage at a range.
The coice for champions in S3 is now narrower than in S2 due to these changes to income.

For now I will pause on this issue to let you absorb what you just read. I am hoping to prove either that 1. Riot will try to keep releasing champions with high early damage output, preferably with assassin traits such as gapclosers and burst or self-sustain or 2. Riot has no idea on what kind of meta it wants for the game and is permanently balancing and releasing shortsightedly.

Stay tuned.