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Mage Item Reworks and Shield Overloading Ideas (Patch 6.2 Proposals)

GAME lS A JOKE·1/14/2016, 5:27:19 PM·10 votes·1,775 views

Over the past few patches I have noticed many AD items become significantly cheaper (for example Zeal and BF Sword both being only 1300g each). I feel like Zeal offers way too much stats compared so an AP item of equivalent power. While it is true Needlessly Large Rod is now 1250g 60AP as compared to its original price of 1600g for 80AP, a lot of the other AP Items have been WAY too expensive for the stat comparison to AD Item equivalence.

Let's look at Exhibit A1: Last Whisper.

Last Whisper: -Now offers 30% Armor Penetration for only 1300G -Builds into 2 Items for even MORE Percentage Penetration and bonus stats: -Mortal Reminder: -2700g -45% Armor Penetration AND -Grievous Wounds regardless of where the Enemies Current Health is at. -Lord Dominik's Regards:
-45% Armor Penetration AND
-GIANT SLAYER: Grants up to +15% bonus physical damage against enemy champions with greater maximum health than you (+1.5% damage per 50 health difference, maxing at 500 health difference).

Conclusion: For 2700 gold you can get 45% Armor Penetration and either Anti-Heal or Anti-Tank.

Now let's look at Exhibit A2: Void Staff.

Void Staff: -2650g -Offers 35% Magic Penetration (not for 1300g like Last Whisper, but at 2650g FULL price) -Does NOT build into Anti-Tank or Anti-Heal items offering 45% Magic Penetration.

Conclusion: For 2650g you get 10% Less Magic Penetration and NO Anti-Tank or Anti-Heal.

We now move onto Exhibit B1: Executioner's Calling.

Executioner's Calling: -800g -15 AD -Physical damage inflicts Grievous Wounds icon Grievous Wounds on enemy champions for 3 seconds. -Builds into Mortal Reminder which is also extremely cost effective.

Conclusion: For only 800g you can counter a whole Heal-Based Team Composition. This is extremely cost effective for price.

Exhibit B2: Morellonomicon.

Morellonomicon: -2550g -80ap -100% Base Mana Regeneration -UNIQUE: Dealing magic damage to an enemy champion below 40% health inflicts Grievous Wounds icon Grievous Wounds to them for 4 seconds.

Conclusion: While this item DOES have extremely cost effective stats for price, this also unfortunately is the ONLY Anti-Heal equivalent to AD Anti-Heal. It also doesn't apply from any Enemy Current Health like the 800g AD Item: Executioner's Calling.

**So a lot of times when champions like Vladimir get super tanky with a high base health, healing, and tons of damage, the opposing Mage is only limited to Ignite and Morellonomicon to attempt to counter Vladimir from healing during fights. In higher elo gameplay usually Ignite can easily be cleansed by Crucible or by Summoner Spell: Cleanse. This means getting Vladimir under 40% health for Morellonomicons Grievous Wound effect becomes even more difficult in comparison to the 800g Executioner's Calling.

Suggestions for Mage Grievous Wounds: -Remove Grievous Wounds from Morellonomicon (It's already cost effective for the base stats per price) -Create a Mage equivalent of Executioner's Calling (800g) and make it build into perhaps a newer improved Void Staff or even a new Mage Item. -Make Void Staff in general a bit more versatile, similar to how Last Whisper was reworked for AD champions.

Overall Thoughts:

While it is fantastic AD Champions are getting fancy reworks, Item Cost reductions, and High Percentage Armor Penetration Versatility, I do still think the Mages deserve a rework in some items like Void Staff and Morellonomicon. Personally Morellonomicon is already cost effective without the Grievous wounds at 40% or below. I think it should have the Grievous Wounds removed and a new Item should be buildable into a full Grievous Wounds effect.

Bonus: Exhibit C: Shield Overloads. I've been playing a lot of other MMO's and RTS games and I've come to enjoy a new mechanic with shields. (Idea from playing Wildstar)

The game I initially played was Wildstar and they had this Spell called Shield Overload: Temporarily Disables opponents Shields for 5 seconds (I used this a lot on my DPS Stalker Assassin in PvP).

I was wondering due to the many shield Items, Barrier, and champions with shielding power, maybe we could either have:

-Have a new champion with Shield Overloading ability -A neutral Item (usable by pretty much all roles) that can Shield Overload: Temporarily Disable Shielding.

Reason: This will give new gameplay mechanics and will offer a new window of opportunity against the shield stackers like Shen, Lulu, Riven, Tahm Kench, and a few others. It would be absolutely phenominal to watch in LCS by pro players using it. Personally I enjoy watching people die in LCS and not really much tanking and a slow victory. Shield Overloading would allow more aggressive gameplay I think and people would enjoy it more.

23 Comments

Posui Gart1/14/2016, 5:45:09 PM9 votes

A: LW has %BONUS ARMOR PENETRATION, as well as Dominik and Reminder. Void Staff has %TOTAL MRES PENETRATION. Void staff also has 80 AP so you dont lose much when building it instead of usual 100 AP item. On the other hand Dominik/Reminder got 40 damage while non-penetrating items have 65-75 so if you are building armorpen-you are losing damage against non-armored enemies

B: Morellonomicon is, as you said, a great item itself even if enemies have no heals, Executioner is 800 gold for 15 AD and thats when we have pickaxe for 875 gold that has 25 damage. And applying Morello debuff is easier as spells are usually AOE and longranged while Executioner requires autoattacks and autoattacking that Mundo/Volibear as ADC puts you into danger

C: There are not that much shields in the game now, so champion with such ability would be quite situational. Item would probably be fine, but if it is introduced-shield users should be buffed as compensation, and i dont think its really that needed.

A FAT BOI DIK1/14/2016, 5:32:44 PM4 votes

I like this idea of temporary shield disables. This really should be part of the game. Also for AP Reworks portion, Morello is fine the way it is. I do agree though the AD Penetration being 45% is way too much. They should increase the Magic Pen if they want to give AD champions that much closer to True Damage.

Penguin Eclipse1/14/2016, 6:10:15 PM4 votes

I don't think you should be able to disable shields. Shields are inferior to heals in most ways, with the major exception being their reliability. Making them able to be reduced or disabled makes shields inferior all around and defeats the main purpose of having them which is protection.

There are some champions with overbearing shields. Those champions should be tuned accordingly. Most shields in the game are not overbearing.

Penns1/14/2016, 6:03:30 PM3 votes

Since many champs in League are "balanced" around having their shield no matter what, I think just adding an item like that is nearly impossible. Just 1 champion with an ability like that could be possible tho (kinda like Poppy denying dashes now).

Also, it seems like you dont know that all Last Whisper items only give bonus armor pen now, which makes them almost unusable. Itemization is a pretty big topic, especially AD vs AP, so its probably a bad idea to compare 1-3 items of both sides and call one of them superior. For example, there is no AD/ armor item or an AD Zhonyas either.

Psi211/14/2016, 5:40:02 PM3 votes

I say the real problem is that Morellonomicon needs to be removed and its affect given to Void staff. Morello senseless buffed the Morellonomicon out of jealousy over Athene's and AP penetration building early into the void staff like the last whisper would be helpful.

I am more disappointed in the state of HP on bruisers and tank items. It shouldn't be as high as it is.

The Hextech blade and upgrade should also be removed.

MR and cooldown and hp regen shouldn't look as good as it does on the Spirit Visage.

Lastly absorb shields are out of control. And they really should be determined with base MR and AR not the additional MR and AR received from items. Absorb shield abilities shouldm't gain the MR and AR defensiveness from items. Tanks and some bruisers are abusing this.

dunkeroni1/14/2016, 8:07:38 PM3 votes

I don't see any issues with Magic Penetration as it is:

My current Veigar build, with runes and masteries included, nets me 47|40% Magic Penetration mid-late game, not including the optional Abyssal Scepter magic reduction. You bring up a comparison to Armor Penetration but you don't seem to acknowledge the fact that the Armor Pen items only apply to Bonus Armor.

In practice, if you are a squishy who has not built armor (even in runes), then you will still always have physical damaged reduced from the base armor that you do own. If you are a squishy that I play veigar against with this build (including abyssal) then I will be dealing True Damage to you so long as you have 98 or less Magic Resist, and very close to True Damage unless you have built significantly more than that.

More to the point, Magic Penetration is easily abused in this way while Armor Pen is not. There are even flat Magic Pen boots where no AD counterpart exists. The only thing I would like to see changed is to remove the cap on the % Magic Penetration, as it currently stops at 40% (7% from masteries, 35% from Void Staff gives 40% total).

As for Grievous Wounds from Morellonomicon; the 40% health requirement is there to balance out the burst factor inherent in mages. Executioner's Calling is necessary for ADCs to be able to basic attack sustain tanks from higher health down to low. A Typical mage's burst should be over after 1-2 seconds, and reducing the enemy's healing is only a benefit for you to buy time on your cooldowns.

Attempting to compare the AD itemization to the AP items completely ignores the fact that they are different damage types and they are intended to be delivered in different ways. If Mages, Bruisers, AD Assassins, and ADCs all had access to the same benefits on different scaling items, it would remove the unique qualities of how burst mages interact with DoT and AA champs. Even if the passive stats on AP items don't look at strong at face value, remember that AP scaling on most abilities vastly outscales AD, and AP kits are designed to reflect and complement the lack of powerful on-hit effects that AD champs get.

All that said and done, I will be giving your post a +1 because I think topics like this should be discussed to create a healthy itemization in the long run. Some numbers could do with being tweaked, but the changes should in no way be copies of those from the marksmen update.

MunchCrunchLunch1/14/2016, 7:50:05 PM2 votes

mages need an AP item that has a passive like hexdrinker/maw.

ZT Xperimentor1/14/2016, 8:15:00 PM2 votes

I'd say both for the vote

Dancing Eel1/14/2016, 5:36:34 PM1 votes

This would actually give me a reason to come back to league lol...a LOT more flexibility with itemization and mechanics.