Hey guys. Continuing from my initial discussion of preseason itemization changes, which you can read here, I wanted to talk about new alternatives to items that are getting removed as part of the overall rework.
As you know we have a lot of old items that exist in a weird twilight space between useful and confusing, and its traditionally been very hard to find a place for these items to exist and be satisfying to use in the current environment. In a lot of cases, weve decide to remove items that were either identified as having pretty negative consequences for the game or warped freedom of itemization around themselves. While making these items better or more satisfying to use might have been an option, if the core purpose of the item seemed flawed it was targeted for removal.
Ill walk through some of the more sweeping changes and try to explain our thoughts behind them as well as what replacements achieve a similar functionality.
Meki Pendant & Rejuvenation Bead Removed
These items have been removed because they were mostly superfluous item paths that constrained early game purchases and mid-game upgrades. Everything that builds out of Meki Pendant and Rejuvenation Bead has been modified to build out of Regrowth Pendant and Faerie Charm.
Alternative: Regrowth Pendant and Faerie Charm
These items will sit at a much smaller price-point but build into many more items overall, allowing players to have much greater flexibility when building items out of regeneration items.
Madreds Bloodrazor - Removed
Madreds Bloodrazor has traditionally been a weak pick overall. On the surface, it appears to counter high health targets. However, its odd build path and the fact that it does magical damage make the Bloodrazor awkward in many situations. It doesnt do as much damage as other alternatives to high hit point targets, nor is the build path something lenient enough to let you quickly build it to counter high health targets. As a jungle control item it is surpassed by Wriggles Lantern in many ways, especially for sustains, invades and jungle vision.
Alternative: Blade of the Ruined King
This item first debuted in Twisted Treeline, and was meant to be the high health counter for ranged attackers. Against moderate DPS / high health targets, Blade of the Ruined King attacks these characters where it hurts the most the fact that their DPS is consistent over time. By draining a percentage of their current health on every strike, Blade of the Ruined King seeks to burn down high health targets by both outlasting and kiting them.
Blade of the Ruined King also works well for on-hit ranged attackers, providing them a form of combat sustain that is independent of the amount of damage done by their main attack. On-hit Teemo or On-hit Kogmaws have traditionally fared poorly in being able to output sustained damage in a fight because life steal was so anti-synergistic with their builds. Blade of the Ruined King not only fits the % damage profile that Madreds Bloodrazor once occupied but also supplies life steal for these character builds.
Force of Nature - Removed
Force of Nature has been the go-to high MR item for tanks who want to counter magic damage. The item, however, is kind of confusing. Is it a movement speed option for fighters and tanks? Or is it meant to be a regeneration item in sieges? Force of Natures odd stat combination made it particularly difficult to make it feel like a quality purchase. One of its attributes was probably redundant or unnecessary on your character.
Alternative: Spirit Visage
Spirit Visage is getting a slight touch up for the preseason. It will now build out of Negatron Cloak instead of Null Magic Mantle, and Spirit Visages passive is getting a bump in power. Additionally, there are a lot more Tier 2.5 items that offer Magic Resistance, allowing you to more easily spec into Magic Resistance without wasting slot efficiency.
Ionic Spark Removed
Ionic Spark is a bit of a confusing item right now. Ionic Spark only fully synergizes with one or two champions (Shen, Gangplank), but its good to have an effective wave clearing option for characters that lack an innate ability to quickly deal with waves of minions. For a proc-build, Ionic Spark is awkward because it grants a very inconsistent proc that does some damage but is inferior to Wits End in a lot of cases.
Alternative: Statikk Shiv, Tiamat, Wits End
Tiamat has been vastly upgraded as a passive wave clearing item, while Wits End has always been the traditionally stronger option for Attack Speed / On-hit builds.
Elixir of Agility Removed
Right now Elixir of Agility serves a single purpose in the game to make the winning hyper-carry exponentially more powerful than the losing one. This has some general negative effects: Due to the multiplicative factor of attack speed and critical strike, the raw DPS increase is always better for the winner than the loser in this case. It also strongly pigeonholes viable end-game carry builds to take advantage of critical strike, as it is the cheapest and most powerful form of DPS boost.
Alternative: None
We dont want an item in the game whose sole purpose is to pigeonhole end-game carry builds and provide exponential damage increase to a single class. While there should be purchasable buffs that help close out the game, a 250 Gold item that typically only benefits a single player on the winning team seemed a bit superfluous.
Heart of Gold Removed
Heart of Gold is a deeply conflicted item. Gold over Time items are designed to be a tradeoff of early game power versus reliable scaling further on in the game. However, Heart of Gold is a Health item, a statistic that is primarily dominant early game rather than late game. It helps create a lot to passivity, but worst of all it contributes to passive snowballing. While the intent of the item was to help out gold-starved characters that were traditionally weak, there are much better ways to solve this than an item that also makes their direct competitors stronger.
Alternative: The other Gold per 10 items
We dont want to see an item in the game that lets you passively win your lane and close off options for your opponent. The other 3 Gold per 10 items have all been upgraded with either much more flexible build paths in terms of what they can build into or additional ways to generate real and imagined incomes. From Gold per 10 upgrades that let you keep the Gold per 10 when fully upgraded to alternate gold gain passives, the other 3 Gold per 10 items have become much more flexible in their final builds.
Sightstone (650 Gold)
+125 Health
Unique Passive - Refresh (Ward) : Starts with 4 charges and refills each time you stop by your shop.
Unique Active - Ghost Ward: Consumes a charge to place an invisible ward that reveals the surrounding area for 3 minutes. You may have a maximum of 2 wards from this item at once.
Holy ****ing passive play Batman, especially if it upgrades in to anything remotely worth a slot.
Here's the core difference - Sightstone doesn't net you advantage if you are passive. Having wards provides safety - but Heart of Gold actually nets you advantage by passive play due to your passive GP/10 will override the value of active play.
You're not going to win the lane any harder by being safe - whereas HoG causes you to win the lane harder by being hard to burst.
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So you've put out to dry EVERY single non mana champ in the game from having a gp/5 item if they dont use ap.....
Well, to be fair, resource-less champions get a huge advantage in the fact that.. they're resourceless to begin with. Your early itemization starts can be far more aggressive due to this fact.
Soo, Xyph, we gonna see any gp5 for manaless ad supports, like Lee Sin?
Manaless supports aren't something I'm sure is a good idea to support. There's a weird flow to manaless supports where if they *can* support effectively - then the only option left is to burst because sustaining / harassing are effectively free for them.
You can't burn down the mana bar of something that has no mana, essentially. It's a very dangerous concept in general.
Xypherous I appreciate the thought you put into this, but by removing items you're just removing options in a seeming attempt to close champions to one build.
Case in point. You are expressing your opinion, and holding us to it.
In general, the removals have focused on ones that warp gameplay around itself to the point where no other items can exist or ones that prevents the creation of items that would encourage flexibility in builds.
For example - There is no item that can compete with Heart of Gold. It fits into any build that doesn't run raw damage and is never a bad idea. There is no reason for any other tier 1 item to exist when Heart of Gold does.
In the case of FoN - You can't create many additional MS% or MR options when FoN exists - because the stacked potential would excessively strong. MR and MS% destroy mages when they're readily available as a mage's main safety is range and burst.
Any additional MR/MS% options added to the game would have to also necessitate nerfing FoN as well the items would've had to be balanced to the stacked case - rather than the individual case.
Having 2 wards protecting every easy gank path lets you play extremely aggressively and overextended in lane. This is hugely important for pushing your advantage and only doable with proper ward coverage.
Luckily, in lane, there are 3 main gank paths.
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It's a STUPID amount of gold effectiveness if they're even remotely near Sight/Vision wards.
12 minutes of ward coverage = 300 Gold.
Sightstone = 650 Gold.
There's a starting cost that makes this balanced - as the alternative to Sight Stone is to just buy wards with Gold.
Cost-efficiency is luckily one of the easiest statistics to tune - by raising the cost of the item (especially on small items like this) - you warp the efficiency of the item quite a bit.
or this, it all comes down to sightstone's upgrade path, even then tho, sightstone will still be a set item, that you MUST get, EVERY game.
Indeed - I thought about this pretty hard - and came out the other side with - what is the alternative? What is the set item that you must get every game?
A stack of wards that continuously consume gold every minute of the game.
You see the problem of pigeonholing supports is an odd one - mostly because supports are pigeonholed into getting zero items at the moment - due to the high price of consumables.
Are you saying a new item will drain gold? Oh lordy lordy.
No - just that the current set item for supports is basically wards that they have to purchase every single time they go back to lane. While the optimal number of wards on a map is roughly around 5 depending on which objectives are up - the current optimal number of wards you should buy on a given trip back is as many as you can and afford anything else.
This item basically non-linearizes the cost of wards for supports. There is a gold efficiency curve for wards to gold spent.
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i'll hold off judgement on it until i see the upgrade path, as it stands i still see no reason not to buy sightstone for laning phase, then once you get out of laning, you need the stack of additional wards for more coverage (granted your team should help support ward but how often does that REALLY happen)
Yes, that's the theme of the upgrade.
However, we do want "overwarding" to actually have a significant cost - which comes in the form of inventory slot premiums like you're talking about here.
Are you saying a new item will drain gold? Oh lordy lordy.
No - just that the current set item for supports is basically wards that they have to purchase every single time they go back to lane. While the optimal number of wards on a map is roughly around 5 depending on which objectives are up - the current optimal number of wards you should buy on a given trip back is as many as you can and afford anything else.
This item basically non-linearizes the cost of wards for supports. There is a gold efficiency curve for wards to gold spent.
Quote:
i'll hold off judgement on it until i see the upgrade path, as it stands i still see no reason not to buy sightstone for laning phase, then once you get out of laning, you need the stack of additional wards for more coverage (granted your team should help support ward but how often does that REALLY happen)
Yes, that's the theme of the upgrade.
However, we do want "overwarding" to actually have a significant cost - which comes in the form of inventory slot premiums like you're talking about here.
Item Preview Dust Sweeping
As you know we have a lot of old items that exist in a weird twilight space between useful and confusing, and its traditionally been very hard to find a place for these items to exist and be satisfying to use in the current environment. In a lot of cases, weve decide to remove items that were either identified as having pretty negative consequences for the game or warped freedom of itemization around themselves. While making these items better or more satisfying to use might have been an option, if the core purpose of the item seemed flawed it was targeted for removal.
Ill walk through some of the more sweeping changes and try to explain our thoughts behind them as well as what replacements achieve a similar functionality.
Meki Pendant & Rejuvenation Bead Removed
These items have been removed because they were mostly superfluous item paths that constrained early game purchases and mid-game upgrades. Everything that builds out of Meki Pendant and Rejuvenation Bead has been modified to build out of Regrowth Pendant and Faerie Charm.
Alternative: Regrowth Pendant and Faerie Charm
These items will sit at a much smaller price-point but build into many more items overall, allowing players to have much greater flexibility when building items out of regeneration items.
Madreds Bloodrazor - Removed
Madreds Bloodrazor has traditionally been a weak pick overall. On the surface, it appears to counter high health targets. However, its odd build path and the fact that it does magical damage make the Bloodrazor awkward in many situations. It doesnt do as much damage as other alternatives to high hit point targets, nor is the build path something lenient enough to let you quickly build it to counter high health targets. As a jungle control item it is surpassed by Wriggles Lantern in many ways, especially for sustains, invades and jungle vision.
Alternative: Blade of the Ruined King
This item first debuted in Twisted Treeline, and was meant to be the high health counter for ranged attackers. Against moderate DPS / high health targets, Blade of the Ruined King attacks these characters where it hurts the most the fact that their DPS is consistent over time. By draining a percentage of their current health on every strike, Blade of the Ruined King seeks to burn down high health targets by both outlasting and kiting them.
Blade of the Ruined King also works well for on-hit ranged attackers, providing them a form of combat sustain that is independent of the amount of damage done by their main attack. On-hit Teemo or On-hit Kogmaws have traditionally fared poorly in being able to output sustained damage in a fight because life steal was so anti-synergistic with their builds. Blade of the Ruined King not only fits the % damage profile that Madreds Bloodrazor once occupied but also supplies life steal for these character builds.
Force of Nature - Removed
Force of Nature has been the go-to high MR item for tanks who want to counter magic damage. The item, however, is kind of confusing. Is it a movement speed option for fighters and tanks? Or is it meant to be a regeneration item in sieges? Force of Natures odd stat combination made it particularly difficult to make it feel like a quality purchase. One of its attributes was probably redundant or unnecessary on your character.
Alternative: Spirit Visage
Spirit Visage is getting a slight touch up for the preseason. It will now build out of Negatron Cloak instead of Null Magic Mantle, and Spirit Visages passive is getting a bump in power. Additionally, there are a lot more Tier 2.5 items that offer Magic Resistance, allowing you to more easily spec into Magic Resistance without wasting slot efficiency.
Ionic Spark Removed
Ionic Spark is a bit of a confusing item right now. Ionic Spark only fully synergizes with one or two champions (Shen, Gangplank), but its good to have an effective wave clearing option for characters that lack an innate ability to quickly deal with waves of minions. For a proc-build, Ionic Spark is awkward because it grants a very inconsistent proc that does some damage but is inferior to Wits End in a lot of cases.
Alternative: Statikk Shiv, Tiamat, Wits End
Tiamat has been vastly upgraded as a passive wave clearing item, while Wits End has always been the traditionally stronger option for Attack Speed / On-hit builds.
Elixir of Agility Removed
Right now Elixir of Agility serves a single purpose in the game to make the winning hyper-carry exponentially more powerful than the losing one. This has some general negative effects: Due to the multiplicative factor of attack speed and critical strike, the raw DPS increase is always better for the winner than the loser in this case. It also strongly pigeonholes viable end-game carry builds to take advantage of critical strike, as it is the cheapest and most powerful form of DPS boost.
Alternative: None
We dont want an item in the game whose sole purpose is to pigeonhole end-game carry builds and provide exponential damage increase to a single class. While there should be purchasable buffs that help close out the game, a 250 Gold item that typically only benefits a single player on the winning team seemed a bit superfluous.
Heart of Gold Removed
Heart of Gold is a deeply conflicted item. Gold over Time items are designed to be a tradeoff of early game power versus reliable scaling further on in the game. However, Heart of Gold is a Health item, a statistic that is primarily dominant early game rather than late game. It helps create a lot to passivity, but worst of all it contributes to passive snowballing. While the intent of the item was to help out gold-starved characters that were traditionally weak, there are much better ways to solve this than an item that also makes their direct competitors stronger.
Alternative: The other Gold per 10 items
We dont want to see an item in the game that lets you passively win your lane and close off options for your opponent. The other 3 Gold per 10 items have all been upgraded with either much more flexible build paths in terms of what they can build into or additional ways to generate real and imagined incomes. From Gold per 10 upgrades that let you keep the Gold per 10 when fully upgraded to alternate gold gain passives, the other 3 Gold per 10 items have become much more flexible in their final builds.
-Xypherous
Sightstone (650 Gold)
+125 Health
Unique Passive - Refresh (Ward) : Starts with 4 charges and refills each time you stop by your shop.
Unique Active - Ghost Ward: Consumes a charge to place an invisible ward that reveals the surrounding area for 3 minutes. You may have a maximum of 2 wards from this item at once.
Upgrades to...
*is dragged away by internal Riot teams*
You're not going to win the lane any harder by being safe - whereas HoG causes you to win the lane harder by being hard to burst.
You can't burn down the mana bar of something that has no mana, essentially. It's a very dangerous concept in general.
Case in point. You are expressing your opinion, and holding us to it.
For example - There is no item that can compete with Heart of Gold. It fits into any build that doesn't run raw damage and is never a bad idea. There is no reason for any other tier 1 item to exist when Heart of Gold does.
In the case of FoN - You can't create many additional MS% or MR options when FoN exists - because the stacked potential would excessively strong. MR and MS% destroy mages when they're readily available as a mage's main safety is range and burst.
Any additional MR/MS% options added to the game would have to also necessitate nerfing FoN as well the items would've had to be balanced to the stacked case - rather than the individual case.
Having 2 wards protecting every easy gank path lets you play extremely aggressively and overextended in lane. This is hugely important for pushing your advantage and only doable with proper ward coverage.
Sightstone = 650 Gold.
There's a starting cost that makes this balanced - as the alternative to Sight Stone is to just buy wards with Gold.
Cost-efficiency is luckily one of the easiest statistics to tune - by raising the cost of the item (especially on small items like this) - you warp the efficiency of the item quite a bit.
A stack of wards that continuously consume gold every minute of the game.
You see the problem of pigeonholing supports is an odd one - mostly because supports are pigeonholed into getting zero items at the moment - due to the high price of consumables.
This item basically non-linearizes the cost of wards for supports. There is a gold efficiency curve for wards to gold spent.
However, we do want "overwarding" to actually have a significant cost - which comes in the form of inventory slot premiums like you're talking about here.
This item basically non-linearizes the cost of wards for supports. There is a gold efficiency curve for wards to gold spent.
However, we do want "overwarding" to actually have a significant cost - which comes in the form of inventory slot premiums like you're talking about here.