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The magical AP item changes with the Unicorns of Love

Riot·7/19/2015, 4:59:56 PM·2 votes·51,534 views

Patch 5.13 has hit Summoner's Rift, and the world of magic has changed. AP items have seen huge shifts across the board, with everything from Liandry's Torment to Rabadon's Deathcap seeing huge reworks. With stats swapping around, new powerful passives, and intriguing build paths, it can all be a bit overwhelming.

Thankfully, we've got a pair of experts in the way of magic to help us out: Unicorns of Love top laner Tamas "Vizicsacsi" Kiss and mid laner Tristan "PowerOfEvil" Schrage.

Keeping current

To understand the power of the polished up AP items, it's helpful to take a look at champions that are already powerful in the meta and what they'll gain from the patch.

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When asked about just that, PowerOfEvil wasted no time in talking about one of his favorite mid lane champions. "Kog'Maw is getting a huge buff from the new Liandry's [Torment]. It has more AP, which is really a passive buff for him. Most of the time, you were building it anyway. And more damage is always good," he laughs.

But the biggest buff comes from Rylai's Crystal Scepter. According to POE, it turns Kog'Maw from an immobile artillery champion to a mobile artillery champion that can also make picks happen. "Rylai's giving him more slows on his ultimate is really strong. With all that slow, you hit one ultimate, and you can consistently ultimate targets. You can slow them for your team, or even kill them alone."

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Vizicsacsi however pointed towards a certain Rogue Mage as his favorite buff recipient. "The Luden's change that gives more movement speed but less AP, is pretty good when you want to kite around. Let's say I'm playing Ryze top lane. I just want to kite [the enemy team] around. New Luden's is perfect for that."

Going more general about the AP changes, he says "The Rabadon's buff just buffs AP champions in general. I think it benefits mostly for top lane champions like Rumble or Ryze, maybe Lulu... Vladimir, even."

Under control

But what about new champions coming into the meta? Vizicsacsi believes that the biggest benefactors of 5.13 will be control mages, like Orianna. "In the next two to three weeks, I can imagine that it will change from poke mages to more control mages," he says.

As if to prove his teammate's point, PowerOfEvil pulled out the Lady of Clockwork during UoL's Week 8 match against Gambit Gaming. The power of the new Liandry's and Nashor's Tooth, combined with the strength of Runeglaive, provided him with enough damage and slows to dance around Gambit on his way to a pentakill and a victory.

If there's one item combination that UOL (and everyone else) seems to be talking about though, it's Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Liandry's Torment. With just the Liandry's under a champion's belt, any damage-over-time effects deal their normal damage plus 2% of a target's current health per second. But when that target is under a movement-impairing effect, that damage is doubled. Can you guess what grants all area of effect spells the ability to impair movement? That's right, Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

The combination of the two is downright brutal on just about any mage with big AOE spells that happen to apply a DoT. Vizicsacsi expects that the pair of items will cause us to see some old school mages the to make their appearances, like Brand or Anivia. Fire or ice -- make your choice.

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With a slight nervous laugh, he tacks on one last champion, as if he's unsure that he wants to let the cat out of the bag. "I would consider maybe a Swain," says Vizicsacsi. "I haven't tried it yet, but I will definitely look towards it. The champion, if you build a Rylai's on him, can stand in the middle of the enemy team and slow everyone insanely well. In theory, it sounds really good."

New paths to victory

The Unicorns were careful to point out that you can't boil down the entirety of the patch to a just the power levels of a few items -- it's much bigger than that.

"The biggest change isn't one item specifically," clarifies PowerOfEvil. "It's that you can nearly build everything [with smaller items] and have a lot of diversity with build paths."

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Referring back to Kog'maw, he says, "A big weakness for him is if he got behind in the early game, it was really hard to get to the 1600 gold for a Needlessly Large Rod, which is a really important item for Luden's Echo. Now, you can base earlier and get it for 1250 gold."

With the price cuts for Needlessly Large Rod and Blasting Wand, combined with the reworked build paths of the vast majority of items, there are simply more options for AP players to build their basic items into. It makes adapting on the fly and getting their build exactly right much easier to accomplish.

Overall, Vizicsacsi is a huge fan of Patch 5.13. As our conversation drew to a close, he stated, "Whichever angle I look at it, it seems really strong right now."

What sort of impact will the new AP items have on the meta as Patch 5.13 takes hold? Keep your eye on Lolesports to find out.

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122 Comments

jumpjumpman7/20/2015, 8:17:15 PM94 votes

S.H.U.R.F. = Super Hexakill Ultra Rapid Fire

Głacıes7/19/2015, 8:27:32 PM5 votes

Runeglaive Orianna- "Prepare your solo q for that one," lol.

RottedApples7/20/2015, 3:06:50 AM4 votes

i half-expect brand to show up. he is the epitome of rylais/liandries mages.

also swain is fun, tear+roa is nice since they got a ton of extra damage, but you aren't ryze so you don't get damage from mana and may not get away with no damage for that long. still a fun champ though and i think he should go top lane imo.

xSeanofsmegx7/19/2015, 5:46:12 PM3 votes

Mid lane should be more fun!! Mass slow/tank swain... hmmm.... I like this idea lol!

USC Optimal7/21/2015, 3:43:01 AM3 votes

Brand does more damage with a Rabadon's build than a Liandry's/Rylai's build.

Raise The Gnar7/21/2015, 11:35:32 PM2 votes

This is a long post about Devourer Elise and why she's so strong. This is only possible due to the changes Riot made to her in 5.12 and the Devourer, and AP Item changes they made in 5.13.

If you haven't seen it yet, item 3931 Elise is pretty damn strong. You go item 3931>item 3020>item 3115>item 3089>item 3157>item 3285/item 3135/item 3116 and you basically destroy everyone if they dont burn the majority of their hard CC on you.

The reason this works is because of the changes to Elise's E, in Spider Form, and Passive in 5.12. Let's start with her Passive, Spider Queen. So basically they took the healing from her W and smacked it onto her passive, healing her for 4/6/8/10 (+10% of AP) on each basic attack. Alongside that her passive also deals 10/20/30/40 (+30% of AP) on each basic attack. You might think, "Those numbers are so low tho, how can it possibly do meaningful damage."

Well that's where her E, Rappel, comes in. When you cast it on an enemy, i.e. you cast it on them rather than on the ground, then after you descend your Passive Damage and Healing will gain a 40/55/70/85/100% for 5 seconds. But remember that's only when you cast it on an enemy. (Minion, Monster, or Champion)

So let's say you have you're level 16 with 100 AP, just an example, then your passive will deal 70 bonus damage on-hit and heal for 20 hp on each AA. With item 3931 that is all doubled to 140 bonus damage and 40 hp healing.

Basically with Sated Devourer it makes you scale exponentially well as an AP jungler.

Now after a whole bunch of math you guys probably don't want to see, I've calculated with my Runes and Masteries and with this build, I have around 670-800 AP depending on my last item. With 800 AP, my Damage output is insane. I have my passive on-hit damage (280), Nashor's tooth damage (135), sated devourer damage (60), and when I add that all up, it's 475 bonus magic damage on hit and a 90 hp heal, before the Devourer proc AND before the bonus from Rappel.

After Rappel, it buffs my Passive damage to 560 and the healing to 180, re-calculate it and its 755 damage on each AA, which means with Devourer you do 1510 magic damage every other AA and heal for 360 every other AA.

To boost that her W still gives you 140% Attack Speed meaning you can get even more AA's off if you W immediately after coming down from Rappel.

Bottom Line is at full build you do about 2300 damage in 2 AA and heal for 540. :D

Don't forget, you do a lot of damage but you are squishy, so let your team engage from the front while you try to flank. As long as you don't get hit by any SUPER-HARD CC, you should be fine. The healing from your passive will be enough to help you sustain through the fight.

Happy Web-Weaving :D

Also on top your own damage you have your Spider-lings who do damage of their own and when you have 5 of them they do 200 damage by themselves :D

One Extra Step7/21/2015, 9:02:46 PM2 votes

it's hard for an adc who's behind to get 1550 gold for a BF sword too. Lower the price for it too?

furoxis7/19/2015, 7:23:09 PM2 votes

maybe i'm wrong, but if AP champ are buffs, they could kill tanks easier than before. Tank get a lot of item for armor, but what about mr? 55 is the max rm for one item, so i think riot could create new rm item. (Force of Nature come back pls!... ok maybe a little too OP :P ) Or, adjust the rm on the others items (I think 65-70 is good) Pls give me your opinion :)

MegaRedGyarados7/20/2015, 9:49:50 PM2 votes

New meta = Build 4 item 1052

It works if you go item 3165 or item 3174 then item 3089 then item 3135 cookie cutter ap spec

Gives you a good gradual ap boost. 4 item 1052 = (Old 80 ap) item 1058

costs roughly 1800 for them but i find its worth just for the fact they all build into the 1st 3 items.

also gives you plenty of room to buy t1 boots and wards and pots and even a item 1058 if you have the gold for it as you lvl.

Radish Earrings7/21/2015, 10:19:17 PM1 votes

yeah this will be really fun

Bloodffang7/22/2015, 4:54:48 AM1 votes

T.V.T.U.R.F. Twenty versus twenty ultra rapid fire. some sort of game mode with tons of people

Zahde7/22/2015, 1:25:30 AM1 votes

um hello has anyone seen how op item 3931 Fizz is!!!! rush devourer and then go for item 3115 and item 3091 then just build ap. with his w urchin strike its insane