Adding more items to League won't fix problems.

Before we begin, we have to put the real problem items have out in the open:

#A majority of them are stat sticks.

Even "unique" items like are still just items with uncontrollable effects/stats. You can't really use these in a strategic way in most cases. They're just another passive effect added to your pool.

Now, people have been talking about adding more items to League to diversify the set and make more things. While a noble aspiration, Riot has to fix the problem they have currently with items mostly being just incremental upgrades with occasional effects. It's especially bad for tank items (which is why I'm thankful that tanks are next up for a class-sized rework) but we need to go further.

#Old Design Philosophy

League's old design was about "efficiency" over all else. Riot's old team figured that if you bought an upgraded/better item, it should be more slot-efficient and better overall. Now, comparing the closest league counterpart (DOTA2), that's not the case. In DOTA2, items aren't automatic upgrades. Some items are worse or sometimes even lose stats on upgrading. However, what they don't bring in efficiency they instead make up for in ability/additional effect that often accompanies them.

This also means a lead is slightly easier to come back from, as item actives aren't necessarily insta-wins. You can use an active poorly or blow the cooldown and put the playing field at a more even advantage. In league, that's not the case. A riven walking back with an edge of night is going to tear your ass wide open.

#Why Adding More Items Won't Solve the Issue

So, there are two possible situations considering the efficiency model a lot of old items still use. You have a pretty bad case of two paths, both with negative effects:

A.) The item is so stat efficient or the active is SO powerful, it crowds out old items. ( )

B.) The item doesn't bring enough to the efficiency table to justify taking it, making it scrapped. (Release )

If you want new items to truly work, Riot has to do an item pass on every item set in the game. Tanks, thankfully, are the last big bastion of "old" efficiency. Regardless of how you feel about ADC or mage builds, tanks/tank items are the worst when it comes to hidden power, pure stat efficiency and cost-effectiveness in terms of item base value vs. item base value + active/passive power.

#TL;DR: While wanting more items is ok, Riot needs to fix the old items first. So long as items are gauged on how efficient they are, it's not worth adding more items that will just be either too powerful or flat-out garbage.