Full Itemization Overhaul Suggestions

I've played the game for 4 years now, I've seen most build variations on pretty much every champion in the game (AP Master Yi being one of the funny ones that worked back in the day), and I can say as a fact that items need redone, mainly in offense which is what this post will be about, however defensive items need re-done also at some point but not to this extent. The current balance of items is damaging the game each and every time something gets nerfed or buffed because it ends up affecting most champions of that damage/defense type. I'm not saying delete every item in the game and start over, I'm saying the game needs to re-evaluate them and make more range specific ones that can only be bought for champions of that range.

My proposition for offence overhaul : Instead of a class-update next pre-season which has started to become a trend, focus the majority of it on all offensive items instead. This includes AD, AP, Ranged, Melee, and Neutral-Type. What do these 5 categories mean? Well they're very simple, AD - All Attack Damage items AP - All Ability Power Items Ranged - Items that can only be bought and used by Ranged champions Melee - Items that can only be bought and used by Melee champions Neutral- Type - Items that can be bought by both Ranged AND Melee champions

By splitting damage up by range, it opens more itemization options in the future to be added and allows for easier damage control of classes based on their ranges (such as item nerfs/buffs focused on assassin style champions using melee not damaging/breaking marksmen and reversed situation of ranged item nerf/buffs not affecting assassin or brawler playstyles). As stated though, 3 ranges are required for this to work. There needs to be items for Ranged (Runaan's Hurricane), Melee (Hydra items), and Neutral-Type (Trinity Force). This will end up as a massive undertaking because you not only need to make the items range specific, but also make items for both AD and AP among those ranges. Due to this, there will need to obviously be more of a bias in the Ranged and Melee items being restricted mainly to AD items because AP range offensive items aren't really needed, however adding some items for both in the Ranged/Melee categories for APs could also change up builds for certain AP champions to allow for more diverse item options among them (such as champions like Diana/Kat [melee AP Assassins] having items for their playstyles that champions such as LeBlanc/Ahri [Ranged AP Assassins] wouldn't have access to and reversed).

One thing that might cause concern to those reading this, range changing champion (Jayce, Kayle, Nidalee, Elise, etc future champions). The solution for that is simple though, lock them to only buy items for their spawn-in range and Neutral-Type items (Such as Jayce/Kayle only being able to buy Melee/Neutral type items while Nidalee/Elise can only buy Ranged/Neutral-Type items).

How many items would be available for each range type? Well obviously there would need to be more Neutral-Type items than Ranged/Melee items, but shouldn't be by to much to keep appeal and the point of the categorization system. (Note : the upcoming example numbers are focused on completed items [Infinity Edge, Deathcap, Trinity Force, etc] and not item parts [Long Sword, Hextech Revolver, etc] with Summoner's Rift in mind as the main map the game is balanced around, changes in totals for other maps is obviously going to happen) Numbers might need to be around ; AD : 6 / 5 / 8 (Melee/Ranged/Neutral-Type) [19 total] AP : 2 / 2 / 11 (Melee/Ranged/Neutral-Type) [15 total] The reason for more total AD items and more Neutral-Type AP items is due to the champions in the game. AD has both melee and ranged champion issues while for the most part range for AP champions doesn't really matter nearly as much for them. As such there needs to be a bigger divide between ranges on the AD front while AP has a lot easier time coexisting between their range and melee champions due to spells mainly being their primary source of damage output.

What about Critical Strike and Attack Speed items? Those are special case items that would need careful looking at because there needs to be melee-only crit/attack speed items and there needs to be ranged-only crit/attack speed items. So there should be far less Neutral-Type ones, that way there isn't a major balance break when champions like Tryndamere and Yasuo need nerfs/buffs that won't really kill/break ADCs that build crit.

TL;DR : Offensive items need to be Pre-Season 8's primary focus instead of a class-update to split them between Ranged/Melee/Neutral-Type items to make game balacing easier to achieve between the different classes without overtuning/gutting each other.

Thank you to everyone who has read this, and sorry for the giant wall. It took awhile to type and explain all of this. Suggestions for defense will be a future post, but for now damage seems like the more important thing and has the most problems.