The state of Magic Resistance Itemization

Chaos Milk Tea··2 votes·472 views

I'm starting to see a problem with building MR on tanks lately. It isn't that there aren't good mr items, but let's look at a tank's options: item 3065 item 3102 item 3190

Now armor items: item 3742 item 3110 item 3025 item 3143 item 3068 item 3075

Oh, quite a few more. Twice as many, actually. That's PART of the problem, but we need to dig a bit deeper.

Let's take an example tank in top lane. Nautilus We have our friend nautilus and he's getting into a bit of trouble with his laner. In scenario 1, he's losing to a Quinn. In scenario 2, he's losing to a Swain. Let's examine his options. Quinn :item 3110 item 3068 item 3025 item 3742 Any of these items would help against quinn, either giving a strong combination of hp and armor or mana and cdr that nautilus enjoys. Deadman's plate and iceborn gauntlet could even possibly help bridge the mobility gap a bit. Very nice choices, with some being more optimal than others. In another AD matchup the optimal choice change.

Swain :item 3065 Only this. Nothing else is going to give as much HP, Regen, and oh wow cdr too. Nevermind that spirit visage has a special healing based passive that hardly affects nautilus, we'll just look at it as bonus health regen. Locket wishes it had these stats and banshee's doesn't give that sweet cdr. This is true in nearly all ap matchups, with banshee's veil being a situation item for avoiding death by 1 massive cc. If it turns out you need more MR, you will then finally have the choice of either personal protection in Banshee's veil or team protection in Iron Locket. Some ap tanks can go for Abyssal Sceptar to specifically counter their enemy laner.

In conclusion, MR itemization is uninteresting and shallow. As a tank I can choose armor items for chasing, extra cc, wave clear, cdr, etc. For mr it doesn't matter whether you have healing or not in your kit, you get spirit visage. There needs to be a NEW MAGIC RESIST ITEM that either counters different types of attack patters/damage, or that synergizes with different types of champions than spirit visage.

13 Comments

Skia Asteri3 votes

item 3065 is more than gold efficient even leaving out the 150% base hp regen and the passive. item 3102 item 3143 item 3068 item 3742 are not. So if its stats give better survivability than other items, there is not reason to feel bad about buying it. Magic resists items are also more slot efficient based on stats alone than armor if the other team's damage is roughly 50/50 physical/magical since they have more magic resist than their counterparts give armor while still having the same HP.

item 3065 item 3102 item 3111 = 165 magic resist item 3068 item 3742 item 3143 = 160 armor

Stop whining and collect your freelo when the other team has more magic damage than physical.

Chaos Milk Tea2 votes

The concern isn't a lack of power on the part of tanks who have to build mr, but a lack of depth in the game that causes tanks, juggernauts and bruisers to build spirit visage over any other magic resist item. This is different from the usual "X is OP/UP Rito plz fix so I can feel good." This is a design flaw that makes the game less interesting.

WalkingInACircle1 votes

Why complain about lack of options when one size fits all? Spirit Visage is stupid good at what it does.

Chaos Milk Tea1 votes

Would you prefer that Frozen Heart and Iceborn gauntlet were simplified into one item, or that Randuin's Omen and Sunfire Cape were merged? I'm sure there's a happy place between Morelonomicon and Athene's Unholy grail to make mage builds simpler.

Diversity in champion balance is a common complaint since it is a much more obvious when one champion is flat out better than the others. That champion will be picked over others and it suddenly feels as though the roster has been cut from 100+ to about 30.

It's the same issue, but on a smaller scale. Item building is an important skill in the game that can distinguish skilled players who can make smart purchases from those who build only what they see on Mobafire or Champion.gg. At the moment there are no choices when it comes to buying magic resistance when 90% of the time a spirit visage and Mercury treads will cover most problems.

LostFr0st2 votes

What about item 3512 ?
On Thursday it'll be back and Nautilus will have double the MR options.

Yumifries1 votes

I think the only other MR item is Guardian Angel, but yeah. Some new options would be nice, instead of building Spirit on a champ that doesn't even benefit from health regen during teamfights or such.

Veraska1 votes

Agreed I would love to see more MR itemization and o wish lockets stats didn't have yo be so low to compensate for its aura, I feel like I'm throwing away gold and survivability to offer my team an aura which is lame.

Dominion had that one item it acted kinda like maokai ult where it would absorb magic damage up to a point and then the active would deal damage in an aoe based on the amount of magic damage absorbed, that item was so cool and I would totally use it in SR

Chaos Milk Tea1 votes

Iron locket is primarily a low cost utility purchase for supports who have low budgets but need to support their team as much as possible.

Miraweave1 votes

Lol what?

Mr itemization is absolutely amazing right now.

EcchiOtakuTM1 votes

They just need to add 10% cdr to banshee. However MR options aside from that are amazing currently.

Chaos Milk Tea1 votes

Personally, I would increase the MR on Banshee's veil to set it apart from Spirit visage as the "anti burst" mr item while Spirit Visage's high regen is more suited to "anti poke."

EcchiOtakuTM1 votes

Meh the CDR is invaluable too but I see where you're coming from.

Yordle Xayah1 votes

Yeah, sure. Something needs to be changed... make it so that buying Tank doesn't mean you also get to deal 2K damage on a single combo. This by the way, isn't hyperbole. Some champions on over 4K HP can deal over 2K in a quick burst of 1 to 2 seconds.

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