The PBE Zeke's Herald represents a greater problem with LoL's itemization options.

One thing that I've always loved about League is that Riot have painstakingly applied their six core design tenets across the majority of their game, from the UI to champion skills.

Unfortunately, I feel that itemization gets completely missed by the tenets of Mastery and Meaningful Choices.

Most of the items in LoL are simply stat sticks. With a few exceptions, there aren't items you can use "better" than other players...little room to separate a good active use from a bad active use. When it comes to what you choose to buy, you want to by the sticks that give you the most stats you want (part of why we've got a massive AP item overhaul in the current PBE cycle...)

But even when you get into active items, there is rarely any nuance to how to use the active items which you've purchased.

• Hourglass: Use when you've blown your engage/spell load or when you are almostnotquitedead and just want to survive for another rotation.
• Talisman/RG: Use when you want to engage or disengage.
• Ghostblade: Use when you start fighting for additional stat stick.
• Randuin's: Use when your other CCs have worn off / when you reach the enemy ADC.
• Old DFG: Use when you need more burst.

The new iteration of Zeke's Herald which is currently being tested on PBE is another example of an item that is simply just a stat stick. There is no nuance to when to use it, and very little with regards to who to use it on (50% crit or 20% AP, mid game that is always better on your AD). (Tangent: Also, a new Glacial Shroud build path that gives AP? I wonder if there's any currently-viewed-as-OP top laners that might want that... )

I really wish we could see more items in the game that carry the same level of nuance to their usage as the champions' skill design.

is my favorite item in the game currently -- it's a great way to deal with AP-heavy comps, but not that impressive versus AD comps. If an enemy team runs a double AP comp with a mixed-damage carry like Corki/Kog/Miss Fortune, however, you can elect to buy Banner of Command to force their ADC to respond to the minion (as their AP solo laners can't damage the magic-immune promoted minion) and use that pressure to create an advantage elsewhere on the map -- or the enemy team can elect to stay grouped and rely on the towers to take down the promoted minion instead, potentially losing a tower for the decision.

is an example of an item design I do not like -- it's a stat stick for simply using a heal or shield on an ally. I also dislike that the reworked version (which added some damage-on-hit to the item) forced it to no longer work on minions -- one of the item's best usecases was when a Soraka had Censer+Banner of Command and could keep the Banner of Command minion alive with her spammed heals for a long period of item.

is another example of an item design that I enjoy, although it does not get seen in competitive games -- I think people underestimate how good Raptor Cloak is currently with regards to the selfish movement speed buff it gives near towers. However, Zz'Rot Portal is an item that, like Banner of Command, can help create pressure at a tower.

Sticking with the Raptor Cloak builds... is another item I love the design of, despite the fact that it rarely gets built. I often build it in snowbally games where the enemy team has the wave clear potential to stall out the game. Although, this somewhat creates a Catch-22 since you want to build it when you're ahead, but by the time you're ahead enough to build it, there aren't enough towers left to make it worth buying.

is another fantastic item design -- and although I don't build it currently, during the Janna/Nami-heavy meta I built it constantly. It's a great item for highly mobile supports that synergizes well with Captain's Mobis and Elixir of Iron for rotational play, and a great item for solo queue / solo-roaming supports who need to get deep vision placed, as they can activate it to pre-emptively scout enemy positions to know if they are safe to ward (and this usage isn't punished, as the returning ghosts refund your cooldown.) It's an item that has a very specific, niche use case in which it works very well. I think Twin Shadows is a better , and somewhat wish FQC's passive was replaced by Twin Shadows (since it's rare mid laners will ever build Twin Shadows now that exists.)

But... in short... Instead of seeing more items that just give stats, or give other players stats... I would like to see more items that require some thought in their use-cases or at least purchase-cases.