For some reason, people ignore or bash on players that build hybrid, I don't know why to be honest. What I do know is that having a closed mind when it comes to hybridization is gimping yourself. Riot made this game so that most of the champions could be played as either a mage or dps, and people insist on playing one or the other! Master Yi is your generic dps, but wait, he has great ability power ratios and has two abilities that give him great dps without items. Kassadin has 50 flat armor pen, and at 18, the highest base dps in the game. Most of the newer champs can be played as hybrids, though people tend to choose mage if possible, but wont go hybrid if they can do both dps and mage efficiently.
A mage is like this artillery unit, it does great damage, but has a slow reload. So after it releases its barrage, it's defenseless until it reloads.
Why, you may ask, do people insist on going straight mage or dps? It's because going hybrid is like jumping into a lake at night, it's likely you will be safe, but there's that small possibility you'll hit a rock and die a painful death. There are several champions that do best as hybrids, like Kassadin, but you don't see many Kassadin hybrids because people are set in their ways and will do the thing that has been proved to be effective. Though in the current metagame, we have so many heavy champions that bursting them isn't likely to happen, they will still build as a mage just because they are sticking to what they know has been effective. Hybrids are effective because of the fact they can't be countered by stacking just armor or magic resist, your damage is both physical and magic. It allows you to poke, kill towers and clear creep waves with ease. So don't worry, nobody ever plays hybrid, so it obviously sucks...
dps champions are more like this machine gun, compared to the artillery piece, it doesn't deal as much damage per shot, but unlike that same artillery piece, it has a high rate of fire. This allows dps champions to constantly deal damage to the enemies and can allow them to deal as much or more damage than the mages did in the time before they can recast their spells.
The current metagame supports hybrids for the fact that most games revolve around heavy champions and sunfire capes. A hybrid can do some burst, not enough to kill, but some, and then auto-attack until his spells come back up. A mage, on the other hand, has to run for their lives while cool downs are up because they don't have the auto attack damage to deal continues damage and mages don't have the necessary amount of damage to burst through all the health that most characters are getting now, even the carries at times. You can also go a magical dps build, which is a less thought of hybrid build, this build uses items like Madred's Bloodrazors, Wit's End, and Sword of the Divine. With a magic dps, you will probably use a ranged dps champion, if you add a Void Staff and Last Whisper to your arsenal you are likely to deal a nice amount of damage, though it will mainly be magic.
People also need to realize that hybrids can't be built as glass cannons, they won't have the defenses to stay alive long enough to deal damage. The problem is that the only hybrid item that gives some health is Trinity Force, which only gives 300. Kassadin, for example, can have 13 from flat magic resist glyphs, 6 from masteries, 4% damage reduction from Tenacity, and 57 from a Banshee's veil, and 25 from Mercury's Treads, which adds up to be 19% reduction in magic damage with 154 magic resist. This allows you to gain large amounts of attack speed from your passive without dying, the highest I've seen is a 200% attack speed increase, without him dying, though it requires damage over time spells to happen. Other hybrids don't have the luxury of 15% reduction from spells, so they really need an item to survive, a Banshee's Veil usually suffices, though sometimes you may have to give up some of your damage to survive long enough to deal your damage. Don't forget about Wit's End, you aren't getting it for the passive that rapes a carries mana pool, you are getting it for an item that boosts your survivability and dps.
This is what you get when you build a hybrid properly. Just like this AC-130U "Spooky", you can launch a barrage of high damage artillery rounds, or you can turn the 25-mm gatling gun on and deal sustained damage. The best part is the fact that you can do both of these options at once as a hybrid.
Now it is true that some champions can't be built as hybrids. Warwick, for example, only has 1 ability that has an ability power ratio, but it also deals the higher amount of 275 + 1 per ability power, or 20% of their maximum health. It's very likely that the 20% will be higher unless you have 200+ ability power. You will also find most mages to have difficulty building hybrid, since they will tend to have lower base stats and abilities that aren't suited for helping them deal physical damage. The only mage that I can think of off the top of my head that can hybrid is Janna, though with her buffs, she is probably more efficient as a mage now. However, a hybrid needs a few characteristics to be effective. These traits include abilities that scale with attack damage, champions that have good dps and good ability power ratios, and/or passives that encourage hybridization.
This is what happens when people try to go hybrid and fail. It looks awesome and appears to be able to do what ever you will need, but it doesn't flow together well enough to work properly.
So, remember, hybrids are good for the environment!
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