In the Mid Lane, you'll see AP Casters, Mages, or Assassins. For the most part, these champions can deal high amounts of damage in a short time, called bursts. Many mages use all of their abilities in this big burst to do the most damage, and as a result, are left vulnerable due to cooldowns. Mid Laners have a weak auto attack, so they must use their abilities wisely. In the past, mid laners were almost always ranged. However, there has been an increase in seeing melee mid laners to the point that melee and ranged are equally played now. There are differences between the two and it's important to know the benefit of one over the other. The Ranged AP champion tends to be extremely squishy and easily killed. On the flipside, they usually have shorter cooldowns and do more damage. The Melee AP tends to have a little more health and defence, but they have longer cooldowns (usually) and have less burst potential. And then you have the Assassins. Oh, the assassins. It's possible for this character to go mid, top, or jungle, but you see a lot of them in mid lane. They champions have A LOT of mobility and their spells are usually single target.