With all of the upcoming changes to Season 3, let's take a quick look at
what's in store for the changes to itemization and how we can expect
these changes to impact the Fields of Justice.
New Items
Banner of Command
Riot
is going to remove Promote as a summoner spell and putting it as an
active for the new item Banner of Command. The Banner also brings some
helpful auras, providing extra health regeneration to nearby allies and
extra damage to nearby minions. The active allows you to Promote a
nearby siege minion to a super minion. It gives you all the gold from
all the minions that it kills as well. The active has a 120 second
cooldown, which is less than Promote which had a 180 seconds cooldown.
Blade of the Ruined King
This
item first debuted on Twisted Treeline and is making its way onto
Summoner’s Rift. With the removal of Madred's Bloodrazor, summoners
lacked an item which countered champions with a high amount of health.
You now need look no further because Blade of the Ruined King is the
perfect replacement! Not only does it provide sustain, it also comes
with a handy active: draining your opponent’s health and movement speed
for a small duration. In other words, large, bulky bruisers and tanks
can now be simultaneously kited and mercilessly slain!
Frozen Fist
The
Frozen Fist will be the upgrade for Sheen. This item will come with
some defensive stats since it requires a Glacial Shroud to build. After
using an ability, your next attack deals 125% of your base attack damage
to surrounding enemies. The attack will leave an icy field that reduces
enemy movement speed.
Hunter's Machete
With
the upcoming jungle changes, a lot of the current champions will become
more viable. But to prevent every AD to rush Wriggle's Lantern, Riot
has implemented a new item designed specially for jungling. Meet the
Hunter's Machete. This item can be seen as a Doran's for junglers, but
instead of 475g it will only cost you 300g. A more than decent price for
a starting item as it allows you to buy health potions too. The
Hunter's Machete increases your damage dealt to jungle monsters by a
percentage and also adds bonus true damage to your basic attacks against
jungle monsters.
Kage's Last Breath
Kage's
Last Breath is going to be a supportive peel and initiation item that
will be an upgrade for Kage's Lucky Pick. It will keep the G/10 passive
and comes with a cool active. The active allows you to target an ally
giving it a 30% slow aura for three seconds. The cooldown is 60 seconds.
Liandry's Lament
Liandry's
Lament is the version of Blackfire Torch for Summoner's Rift. It is an
item for AP carries that builds out of a Haunting Guise and an
Amplifying Tome. Dealing spell damage will apply a DOT that burns
enemies for a percentage of their current health over three seconds.
This effect deals double damage if the target's movement is impaired.
Mercurial Scimitar
The
Mercurial Scimitar is going to be an high end magic resistance and
attack damage item. The item requires a Quicksilver Sash and a B.F.
Sword to build. The active allows you to cleanse all the debuffs on your
champion. Additionally, it grants a 100% movement speed buff for one
second if your champion is melee.
Mikael's Crucible
It's
horrible to see your allies get caught by an enemy stun while you're
unable to do anything for them. Not to worry anymore: with the
introduction of Mikael's Crucible you can make the difference. This high
tier support item comes with an amazing active that most supports never
even dreamt of. By using the active, it will remove any CC from an ally
and healing them for a percentage of their missing health. Mikael's
Crucible can be made with the Chalice of Harmony and a Sapphire Crystal.
Muramana
The
Muramana is a new item that can be obtained by having your Manamune
reach the maximum amount of stacks. The Muramana can be toggled on and
off, to deal a percentage of your current mana in magic damage on your
basic attacks and spells.
Ohmwrecker
Ever
wanted to turret-dive, but not sure if you'd survive it? With the
Ohmwrecker you won't have to be afraid of turrets any longer. This siege
item can be build with a Catalyst and a Chain vest and using its active
disables the most nearby enemy tower for 2.5 seconds, preventing them
from attacking!
Ravenous Hydra
The
Ravenous Hydra will be the life steal upgrade for Tiamat. While it
doesn't increase any of the damage output of Tiamat, it will have a
higher range on the splash damage (which decays the further out of the
radius an enemy is), and it does increase your sustain quite
considerably. Equipped with the Ravenous Hydra, the melee AD Carries
will have no fear charging headlong into the enemy front lines and
laying waste to multiple enemies at once. This item looks like a huge
step for some of our old favorites, such as Master Yi and Tryndamere,
but also for several AD Casters (Renekton, Gangplank and Riven spring to
mind).
Runaan's Hurricane
Runaan's
Hurricane will be the ranged item for wave clearing and teamfighting
AOE Presence. This item triggers each time you attack, firing minor
bolts at two nearby targets, each dealing (50% of your total Attack
Damage). The best part of this is that the item will also trigger on-hit
effects to each enemy hit. Ashe slowing three enemies at once? Yes
please! Now your AD carry is ready to take down multiple enemies. All at
the same time!
Seraph's Embrace
Riot
has finally introduced an item which cannot be obtained by simply
earning gold. To obtain this item, you must work for it! How? By using
your abilities. Your Archangel's Staff will automatically transform into
Seraph's Embrace when it has reached the maximum amount of stacks. What
to do with all of that mana, you might ask. Luckily for you, Summoner,
Seraph's Embrace comes with a very unique and interesting active. The
active drains 25% of your current mana to form a shield around yourself.
This shield will absorb damage equal to the amount of mana spent for
2.5 seconds.
Sightstone
Riot
has finally created a "pocket ward" which the community (especially
you, Support Mains!) has been craving! For a small amount of gold
(650g), you can buy the Sightstone. It is an item which comes with four
charges that refill every time you stop by the shop. You can place up to
two wards from the Sightstone simultaneously and building this item
will create new paths for a support player. It will allow them to focus
on building other important items with the scarce amount of gold they
are earning.
Statikk Shiv
A
part of the Ionic Spark will live on in this new item. The Statikk Shiv
is a high speed burst item, that can be made with a Zeal and a Avarice
Blade. By moving or attacking, the Statikk Shiv builds up stacks. At 100
stacks, your next attack will unleashes it's power to deal 100 magic
damage up to 4 targets. The best part is, that this effect actually
benefits from critical strikes!
Sword of the Divine
With
the removal of dodge, Riot felt that this item had no value anymore.
But no worries, the Sword of the Divine has been remade and is making
it's return to Summoners Rift! Like before, this item is made for rapid
burst and speed. Once activated you gain 100% attack speed and 100%
critical strike for 4 seconds or 3 critical strikes. The cooldown is 25
seconds, but can be halved by making kills or assists!
Wraith Collar
Riot
is introducing the first item that allows you to summon your own
minions! The Wraith Collar is a supportive scouting item that is made
out of a Kage's Lucky pick and a Null Magic Mantle. With its active, you
are able to summon two wraiths that stay for six seconds to seek the
nearest enemy champions. If they reach an enemy champion, they will slow
and reveal the target for 2.5 seconds.
Zephyr
With
the removal of some of the Tenacity items, Riot had to come up with
some alternatives. The Zephyr is an item that is all about speed and can
be build with a Stinged and a Long Sword. The item grants attack,
speed, movement speed, cooldown reduction and Tenacity.
Remade Items
Aegis of the Legion
Aegis
of the Legion is currently bought by most supports and junglers. But
that will change in the upcoming item changes. Aegis of the Legion is
going to lose the attack damage, but will gain health regeneration
instead. A Ruby Crystal that was required to make this item, will be
replaced by an Emblem of Valor. With the loss of the attack damage, it
has become less attractive for the typical bruiser champions that
currently dominate the jungle.
Archangel's Staff
Archangel's
Staff is getting some numbers tweaked. The mana and mana regen will be
reduced, and the ability power has been increased. But the most
interesting change is that the Archangel's Staff will transform into the
new item Seraph's Embrance when it reaches its maximum stacks of bonus
mana as mentioned above.
Archangel's Staff Changes
Black Cleaver
The
Black Cleaver will be undergoing a couple of changes. The build path
for this item will change and it will receive a new passive. Whenever
your champion deals physical damage, it will automatically reduces a
percentage of the target's armor.
Deathfire's Grasp
Deathfire's
Grasp has recently been nerfed. In the upcoming item changes, the item
will be remade. Deathfire's Grasp will now build out of a Needlessly
Large Rod and an Amplifying Tome. It grants a large amount of AP and CDR
and the active will be dealing 15% of the target's maximum health, and
amplifies magic damage done to the target by 20% for four seconds.
Eleisa's Miracle
Eleisa's
Miracle won't be removed as an item. Instead, Riot has removed the
Tenacity and has replaced it with a brand new passive. Eleisa's Miracle
will lower the cooldown of the summoner spells: Heal, Clairvoyance and
Revive by 20%. After gaining three levels with the item, it will give
you the passive and the stats permanently. The item will then disappear
from your inventory.
Guinsoo's Rageblade
Guinsoo's
Rageblade will be slightly reworked. It will now provide a huge boost
to your attack speed, spell vamp and life steal whenever you are low on
health. This will make it a tactical choice, giving champions that can
afford to be on low health a boost.
Hextech Gunblade
Our
favorite item for hybrid champions is going to slightly favor champions
with AP in the upcoming item changes. The Hextech Gunblade's active
will have its base damage reduced, but will have an AP ratio now.
Additionally, single target attacks and spells versus champions will
reduce the cooldown of the active by three seconds.
Lich Bane
Lich
Bane is going to get some tweaks. It will no longer grant magic
resistance and the passive is going to change. Lich Bane is now dealing
magic damage equal to a certain base damage plus a percentage of your AP
ratio, rather than your current AP.
Locket of the Iron Solari
The
Locket of the Iron Solari is getting slightly better. It will gain some
CDR and a lot more health at roughly the same cost. Also the Heart of
Gold and Emblem of Valor are no longer required to build this item.
Randuin's Omen
Randuin's
Omen will receive a couple of changes. The passive will no longer have a
random chance to proc, but the effects have been reduced. The base
duration on the active is increased from one to two seconds.
Spirit Visage
Spirit
Visage is also getting a buff. It will now build out of a Negatron
Cloak instead of Null Magic Mantle so its magic resistance is going up.
But that's not all: the passive is getting a buff as well. This was done
to compensate the removal of Force of Nature.
Tear of the Goddess
The
Tear of the Goddess is getting a couple of changes. The most important
one is the change on its passive. The Tear of the Goddess used to
trigger on spellcasts, now it triggers when you spend mana. Champions
who have a toggle abillity like Anivia and Karthus will now have
additional ways to trigger it while champions like Singed and Ashe have a
new item available for them that might be worth buying. However the
mana and bonus cap has been reduced.
Tear of the Goddess Changes
Tiamat
The
unpopular item Tiamat is finally getting some love during the item
overhaul. With the removal of Ionic Spark, the Tiamat is going to be the
one and only item made for wave clearing. Tiamat's passive will receive
a buff and there will become an upgrade available! However, the new
Tiamat is only going to work on melee champions. That means that it
won't be viable for champions like Kayle or Jayce when they switch over
to their ranged form.
Tiamat Changes
Warden's Mail
Warden's
Mail will be getting a huge remake. It will now build out of two Cloth
Armors and is going to build into a Frozen Heart. The passive is only
going to reduce the attack speed but will no longer have a random chance
to proc. The health regeneration has also been removed.
Youmuu's Ghostblade
The
unpopular item Youmuu's Ghostblade will receive a buff in favor of
melee champions in the upcoming item changes. The active stays the same
but its duration will be six seconds for melee, and four seconds for
ranged. Additionally, the cooldown has been reduced from 60 to 45
seconds.
Removed Items
Cloak and Dagger and Moonflair Spellblade
Even
though the alternative Tenacity items have been implemented in May
2011, they were still hardly being used. People preferred the Mercury
Threads instead because they did not want to waste an item slot on a
item that provided mediocre stats. The Cloak and Dagger and Moonflair
Spellblade couldn't compete with that and were therefore removed.
Elixir of Agility
The
Elixir of Agility was mostly bought by AD carries who reached their end
game items and had nothing left to spend their gold on. It basically
made the winning hyper-carry even more powerful than the opposing team's
who was typically further behind. Providing attack speed and critical
strike, this item was just overkill against the losing team and
therefore it is being removed.
Force of Nature
The
current state of Force of Nature has been a bit confusing. With the
high magic resistance it's surely an item for tanks. But what about the
movement speed and health regen? With the odd stat combination it wasn't
always worth buying. However, decreasing the magic resistance value
wouldn't have fixed the problem. The only option left was to remove the
item! Force of Nature is now combined into the new Spirit Visage.
Heart of Gold
Gold
over Time items are designed to trade off the early game power for a
source of reliable gold income which helps you further on in the game.
However, the Heart of Gold was helping the player stay safe with the
huge amount of health that it provided as well as the gold income and
that for a really low cost. A problem that could not be easily solved by
nerfing and thus the item had to be removed. The other three Gold over
Time items will stay and will receive more flexible build paths.
Ionic Spark
Losing
to Tiamat when wave clearing and to Wit's End when applying on-hit
damage, the Ionic Spark has been in a difficult spot. The item is not
very popular with a lot of champions and is not the best choice for the
niche which it was designed for. So Riot has decided to remove this item
and upgrade the two alternatives.
Leviathan
The
Leviathan has always been a problematic snowball item. It was said to
be a high risk, high reward item. But the reward was a total of 820
health at maximum stacks. No one wanted to have such an unreliable item
in their inventory, so it's being removed. The alternative will be the
Warmog's Armor that provides quite a huge amount of health.
Madred's Bloodrazor
Madred's
Bloodrazor is an item that was typically built for countering high
health targets. As the common buildpath with most tanks being focused
around armor and magic resistance instead of health, and the other lanes
not reaching the amount of health required for this item to be useful,
the Madred's Bloodrazor became an useless item considering its high gold
cost. The item has now been replaced with the much more qualified
counter-part: The Blade of the Ruined King.
Meki Pendant and Rejuvenation Bead
The
reason why these two items still exist is because they are in the build
path of another bigger item. This will change now. Everything that
builds out of Meki Pendant and Rejuvenation Bead has been changed to
build out of Faerie Charm and Regrowth Pendant.
Make sure to head over to the official Riot post for the full list of item changes!