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Why AP itemization is lacking

Durfain·9/13/2017, 10:09:29 AM·1 votes·365 views

  1. No boot choice. Mages are heavily reliant on magic penetration and, thus, item 3020 . A disproportionate damage loss is incurred by going for a defensive boot option compared to AD champions who have relative freedom in this area. Fix? Add another magic penetration item!

  2. Bad build paths Many AP items have terrible build paths which require an inordinate amount of gold to complete or too many components are required too late into the game. The primary offenders are:

  • item 3135 Fix? 2x item 1026!

  • item 3116 Fix? Add 5 AP and make it build out of item 1058 item 1052 item 1028.

  • item 3089 Fix? Create a new intermediate item which builds into item 3089 or 2x item 1058.

  • item 3285 Fix? Significantly reduce the price.

Not all is bad here though! item 3165 and item 3151 are two examples of AP items with great build paths.

  1. Lack of items and unused intermediate items The lack of current usable AP items is at al all time low roughly comparable to the state that AD itemization was in before the rework of a few seasons ago. There are many AP "intermediate items" of a high quality that only build into one item: item 3136 item 3191 spring to mind. Both of these items could be used to create a new AP + magic penetration and new AP + armor item respectively. By contrast, AD champions get item 3077 item 3134 item 3044 item 3086 item 3035 item 3052 all of which build into more than one item!

  2. Lack of AP on existing items There has been a huge decrease in the amount of AP available on existing items over the last few years, It is not uncommon to be sat on only 200-300 AP around 30 minutes into the game! Fix? Increase AP on all AP items across the board and, if necessary, decrease the cost and % ratio on item 3089 to compensate.

  3. Overvalued passives and actives A lot of AP items have passives or actives with crazy valuations:

  • item 3285 passive is valued at 630 gold. No idea who thought this passive was worth so much gold.

  • item 3157 800 gold to upgrade for a total amount of 5 AP plus the active makes this item feel really terrible to complete. Part of the problem here is that the extra stats you get from item 3191 just seem to kind of vanish into the ether. There is a possible new fix to this in the new rune system due out in preseason but it feels kind of unfair for AP champions to need to take a rune slot just in order to make this item not feel bad to build.

  • item 3089 Has a passive valued at roughly 1200 gold. Its passive is valuable but not worth anywhere near that much. It's not particularly surprising when combined with the horrible build path that nobody builds this.

Most AP items tend to have only one active/passive which you have to pay significantly for. AD items usually get multiple passives for cheap (or even free): item 3071 item 3147 item 3078 item 3156 to name a few.

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