Reign of Gaming

Which Items with Actives Will Matter in Season 3?

Activated items are making themselves a big presence in Season 3's item selection, but will they have a big impact?

Fun facts. There are 12 activation-items in Season 2. 2 of these, Morello's Evil Tome (now Morellonomicon) and Executioner's Calling, have had their actives changed to passive. The other ten are returning with the functionally same actives, though many of them have had their numbers tweaked and the Randuin's active lost the attack speed debuff. There are 23 activation-based items in Season 3 (counting sightstone and its upgrade as one item). 

Here's a chart for you showing the difference. I also say what kind of activate. Keep in mind if an item can be used to bait, I'll still call it defensive (i.e., Zhonya's). Offensive means used to kill, defensive means to save a life, and yes, that means items like Shurelya's are both.

In Season 2: 5 Offensive, 3 Defensive, 3 Both, 1 Noncombat. In Season 3: 9 Offensive, 6 Defensive, 5 Both, 3 Noncombat.

The most commonly taken activated items in Season 2 were Shurelya's and Randuin's, followed by Deathgrasp (depending on it's current state, it switched around) and Zhonya's (which not every mage gets). Two items that can both save or kill, followed by 2 burst items for mages. AD champions had to take items that supports take.

Philosopher's Stone and Shurelya's have been nerfed to encourage supports to take Shurelya's, bot not everyone else. Some junglers and tops will still want it, but I'm not sure it's a guarantee.

Note also that there were no good actives for anyone dealing physical damage in Season 2. It was all either utility, defense, or magic-based. The only physical stuff is from Ghostblade or Cutlass, and Cutlass only built into Gunblade, a hybrid item. Only hybrids had an AD offensive item.

But now, we have Cutlass, which is an option because it doesn't only have a hybrid end; it's AD end, Blade of the Ruined King; Muramana; Tiamat and it's upgrade, Hydra; and Sword of the Divine. All variants of burst. 

There are other new active AP items, too like Shard of True Ice, Banner of Command, Mikael's Crucible, Twin Shadows, and Seraph's Embrace. With the exception of the latter, they seem to be for supports or jungle, because a mid is going to want DFG or Zhonya's or items with better AP scaling over these, and the abilities aren't offensive, with one exception.

Winners and Losers

So how do these items fare? Let's take a look. 

Losers: Locket of the Iron Solari, Randuin's Omen, Youmuu's Ghostblade, Muramana, Ohm Wrecker

Muramana is underwhelming. It drains your mana fast for a minimal damage increase. The only people who should get it are the people who would've gotten Manamune anyway. Randuin's got nerfed hard. Ghostblade was never taken before--now it is nerfed for carries and slightly buffed for melees. Yet, Black Cleaver, Blade of the Ruined King, and many other damage items outclass it. Few will want it. Locket is barely different, was bad then, and is bad now, and now we have Barrier. Ohm Wrecker is a noob trap--it looks fun but anyone diving shouldn't need this, and it provides mediocre stats. 

Winners: Bilgewater Cutlass, Deathfire Grasp, Hextech Gunblade, Zhonya's Hourglass, Quicksilver Sash, Shard of True Ice, Mikael's Crucible, Blade of the Ruined King, Mercurial Scimitar, Twin Shadows, Sight Stone, Sword of the Divine, Shurelya's Reverie, Wriggle's Lantern.

Cutlass builds into the awesome Blade of the Ruined King, which is know is good from seeing it on Twisted Treeline. It's a great 1v1 item and a great item to chip down fatties. The ones that are used here from before are still good. Shard of True Ice let's you chase after groups of people and it keeps the GP/10 after it finishes, which is crazy. Mikael's Crucible let's any support save a life by throwing a cleanse and heal on someone. Mercurial Scimitar is damage tacked onto a Quicksilver Sash, which carries were already getting. Sight Stone is a nobrainer. Sword of the Divine is crazy burst on an AD, the physical damage champion's DFG. It isn't for everyone but it is very strong. Twin Shadows I'd like to talk about in depth. Shurelya's gives worse stats and Philosopher's Stone is much weaker, but it's the same active. Lantern is a little weaker and now really only for junglers, but still inexpensive and free wards. 

Reservations:  Banner of Command, Tiamat, Ravenous Hydra, Seraph's Embrace.

Seraph's Embrace, while better than Muramana, should only be purchased on people that would get a Tear anyway, like Ryze or Karthus. It takes a long time to get it working and if you need the shield, you should be buying something else instead (like MR). Tiamat and Hydra give some melee champs the ability to wave clear that had problems doing so before, making them farm better. The active stops them and makes them poorer at chasing. It is competing with Black Cleaver and most notably Blade of the Ruined King. There are few reasons or champions even that should get it. Hopefully it will be smoothed out. It's nice in teamfights, but it's not really enough. Yes, I know about Gangplank. Banner of Command is weird stats that doesn't build of GP10's to get a promote and...extra minion damage? Perhaps in Ranked 5's you could make a team strat with two of you grabbing it, but overall it's a noob bait item, like Ohm Wrecker. Yeah, you're hoping you can BD as Yi using Ohm Wrecker, you're hoping you can push by yourself with this thing...it's poor form. Bad and uncoordinated teams lose to that crap, not good and coordinated ones.

Special Note on Twin Shadows: Twin Shadows. One item I want to really really highlight is Twin Shadows (formerly Wraith Collar). This item is very, very good.

Item Cost: 1900
Recipe Cost: 735
+50 Ability Power +30 Magic Resistance +5% Movement Speed
UNIQUE Active - Hunt: Summons 2 invulnerable ghosts for 6 seconds to seek the two nearest enemy champions. If they touch an enemy champion, they slow his Movement Speed by 40% and reveal him for 2.5 seconds - 120 second cooldown. Builds out of Kage's Lucky Pick and Null-Magic Mantle.

First, it's efficient. It builds out of Pick and after you pay 735, you get another 200 gold's worth of MR (mantle gives 20 MR now), and another 215 gold's worth of AP. The last 320 gold gives you the recipe, the active and FIVE PERCENT MOVESPEED. That's as much as is on Lich Bane, Zeal, or Phantom Dancer. Supports, junglers, and even mids can get this, though it faces stiff competition from Abyssal and Athene's for an MR/AP slot. The range these ghosts goes is pretty far, and they go straight into the brush to find other champions.

Big implications:

• Facecheck a bush (or two)
• Figure out if someone is in a generic area
• Chase or escape, Randuin's Style, but from range
• Win bush control wars at bottom
• Add a real, non-Rylai's-based slow to a mid champ
• Win or escape jungle fights
• Gives at least 15 more movespeed (from 5%) in addition to a great slow

The crazy thing is that the three classes most likely to use it will also be able to take advantage of the utility mastery that reduces the cooldown on active items, Artificer. It's only the second line down in Utility. For only 6 points (with the first 4 being 3 mp5 and flash cooldown) in utility, you can have 15% reduced cooldowns on the items. That'd be 18 seconds on this item. Or Zhonya's...etc. 7.5% per point.

 Points to Remember

A Summary:

• Season 3 has almost twice as many items with actives as Season 2 did
• Physical damage champions have real damage-based activates to use now, and they only had a hybrid one before
• There's a utility mastery that reduces the cooldown for actives on items called Artificer. It's on the 2nd line, 2 points possible, each one giving 7.5% cooldown on actives.
• Supports got awesome activates
• Shurelya's and especially Philosopher's Stone are weaker now but still viable; same with Lantern
• Twin Shadows and Shard of Ice are the only new items that can be used both defensively and offensively 
• Twin Shadows in its current form is a viable item on not just supports, but junglers and perhaps even mids
• The increased number and variety of choices (especially for top and support) means actives will become a larger part of the the game
• Some of the new items, of course are bad, including Ohm Wrecker and the two tear-based items

Prepare to use your 1-4 keys a lot more. 

Best,

Old Man Eyebrows

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