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AD Itemization

Galetraxyn··1 votes·368 views

So, I don't hit the forums often. I try not to honestly because as bad as our community can be in game chat or on the post-game chat room, the forums are the real cesspool of "RITO plz" and naysayers who just come to troll.

But after this round of updates, and the patch. We see that Zeke's Herald, one of the only support-themed AD items, is now an AP item. I get that this is because a lot of supports are AP champs, but this is getting ridiculous. AP items keep getting cranked out or upgraded, and itemization for any AP champ is now filled with variety. And AD champs are just boring now. Building is always the same, items never change unless they're nerfed or changed into a point where they're not worth it anymore.

What happened to keeping this stuff fair, and fun for everyone? AD players need some item love, some variety to avoid the stagnation that the item pool is becoming for them. It's been too long since we've gotten anything really new or unique to use as a marksman or bruiser outside of tank items that are almost as stale.

We need help, Riot. Come on.

3 Comments

masterdragon4811 votes

First of all, this patch has no mention of zeke's herald. Its possible you are confusing this with the pbe, but either way ill address the concerns.

To begin, Zeke's Herald was almost never built on any support regardless of whether they were an ad comp or not; there were and are ALWAYS better items. Aura items in general have nearly completely died out (the only one still existing in Aegis/Banner of command, and even they are shells of what they used to be) because of their extreme difficulty in balancing. Changing this item so it is actually a contender can only be a good thing, and this is the direction it is taking. Its being given tanky stats to help a support stay in a fight, where they need to be to help either an AP ally OR an AD one.

That being said, the reason AP items get more attention is because they don't invest their gold into amplifying their incredibly low cooldown auto attack. This is an incredibly complicated topic and there is a LOT to be considered on both sides (ad or ap) including but not limited to cool down of attacks, cost of attacks, dps over time, burst damage, cost of increasing damage, etc. As a general rule, however, straight buffing AD itemization effectively shuts out AP champions because the ad champions simply reach a high enough dps before the AP champs have the burst to answer.

As a result, AD items don't really change because they are just amplifying auto attacks, which provide burst damage, sustained dps, sustain, and objective control (ie damage to towers/inhibs). Abilities, on the other hand, don't cover nearly as many bases and have to have their utility shine through. That is why there are more AP items that amplify or change the way abilities behave; as a way to make it fair for mages.

Rebonack1 votes

I wouldn't mind seeing a straight-up AD Support/Gold item designed for kill-lane supports like Xin or Jman. Make it grant them a bunch of bonus gold on assists or something. Third upgrade combines with Brutalizer and gives the old Stark's armor shred aura.

That said, there are plenty of holes in AD itemization.

Crit/Lifesteal item? BF/Brutalizer item? BF/Recurve item? BF/Zeal item? Catalyst/AD item?

And so on and so forth.

GinoSoldier1 votes

To be honest i quite agree with you, however i'm inclined to think that AD items will be the core of the season 6 preseason changes. Just my hunch.

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