Season 6 Item Pass

This is basically a review of the Season 6 changes to items. Unless you're a nitpicking game systems freak like me, this might not be in your interests.

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#Starting items

Cull Not the sharpest tool in the shed. Nonexistent at the beginning of the season, after a buff it found some use as the first-trip-back item in several niche cases, especially when used with Runaan's Hurricane (so: Kalista, Kog) or in competitive play, where safe farming lasts a lot longer. Verdict: No change. There could be some, but it's no priority.

Refillable Potion A very questionable purchase. For a starting item, it restores only half of what three Health potions would, so it takes two trips back for it to go ahead of the standard potion start - and you get less sustain per trip. And the Corrupting Potion is simply not enough of a reward to go for this start. It works only for jungle starts. Verdict: Consider adding the option to refill it in the river (speed shrines). That would add some extra level of map control.

Corrupting Potion An interesting choice for some melee toplaners, since it's most effective in prolonged trades. For ranged champions, especially ones without DoT efffects, it's not good enough. Verdict: No change. It's nothing impressive, but it works. Champions who can't utilize this potion would require another option entirely.

Hunter's Potion It works mostly in the case of unexpected trips back on tanky, slower junglers. But it works. Verdict: No change.

The Dark Seal Just like the Cull, it's not an actual starting item, but a situational purchase on the first trip back. It certainly helped Mejai's become less feast-or-famine. Still helluva questionable option, but this is how it should be. Verdict: No change.

#Marksman items

Essence Reaver Unimaginable a year ago, this item has not only been made viable, but it actually became interesting. Slightly overtuned at first, it is now an interesting alternative to Infinity Edge, playing along with its user's power curve. Verdict: No change. I'd rather see other items get in line with this one. After the nerf it's very much okay.

Zeal Upgrades Instead of trying to diversify item builds, Riot has embraced the ancient order of IE-PD and just made some differen variants of it. However while IE and ER differ in their stats, all Zeal upgrades are essentially Zeal 2.0, with some extra effects on top. You're always building Zeal + Dagger, you just pick one of the 4 different passives.

Kircheis Shard One of the best ideas for component items ever implemented. Simple, but effective. Really fun to use.

Statikk Shiv Good old Shiv. Even more fun to use now that it isn't the only AoE waveclear item ADCs can purchase.

Rapid Firecannon It's basically the bursty part of Shiv for champions who don't need or don't care for the AoE part. It even has the same recipe, cost and stats (off by 5% AS). To be honest it irks me and I'd rather have this one become a toggle-able alternative form of Shiv, or something with slightly different recipe. But I guess I'm one of the 0.01% of players who even care about items having unique recipes. Verdict: Make it a toggled form of Shiv or change the recipe to Cloak of Agility + Kircheis Shard, perhaps upping the crit stat to compensate for the loss of MS (or giving some MS buff after the charged attack).

Runaan's Hurricane Turns out giving it crit was all it needed to become a viable item, as AS alone isn't enough for the carries. Now it's something worth picking on not just Kalista, but also many other champions. Verdict: No change. It works and that's nice.

Phantom Dancer THE dueling item, especially effective on short-ranged carries like Lucian, Vayne and Graves. Verdict: No change. If anything it could use a second building component.

Last Whisper Here's where a needed change brought us some unforseen side effects. Good change: LW is no longer the go-to third ADC item, making any armor purchases ineffective before they can even happen. Bad change: LW is often not being built at all, making the Sunfire+Gauntlet builds scarily effective. Verdict: Give it more armor penetration. +35% would be appropriate. The dominance of armor stacking builds in the toplane is a byproduct of Hexdrinker phasing out AP picks from the mid lane, but LW is still an underwhelming tool to combat pure armor stacking.

Lord Dominik's Regards One of the problems with new LW is that its upgrades are kinda garbage. An easy solution to this anti-health item is to simply stack armor over health, and nobody is ever buying Warmogs anyway. The era of Catalyst tanks is over as well. Not to mention nobody ever buys Cinderhulk. Verdict: Work with stats and components. Consider changing Giant Slayer to grant crit.

Mortal Reminder Same thing. The item is balanced around being an expensive big LW with some situational passive effect. And since survi these times is done with Sterak and Hexdrinker rather than lifesteal drain tanking, this is a pretty situational item. Verdict: Just like with LDR, changing Executioner's Calling to grant crit (maybe build out of Brawler's Gloves?) might make the item a bit more satisfying.

LW mustn't always be a third item. But it should sometimes be able to be third or even the second one, when really needed. Giving its upgrades crit chance would enable some interesting ER+LW rush builds from specific carries such as Jhin and Varus if the enemy team armors up to their teeth.

Mercurial Scimitar Adding lifesteal to this item was a simple yet brilliant idea to get it on par with other high-AD options. 10% is not enough to dethrone Bloodthirster - though BotRK sees way less play now. If anything, it could receive B.F. Sword as a component in place of Pickaxe. Verdict: No change.

#Fighter items

Hexdrinker I'm starting with this one because it's most controversial. Hexdrinker itself is not a problem. If anything, it's the lack of AP-armor counterpart that makes this one stand out. Verdict: No change. It's strong, but not the problem in the AD-AP midlane matchup.

Maw of Malmortius NOW we're talking. Maw is an obscenely strong stat stick that gives AP midlaners nightmares. It has EVERYTHING you need to beat an AP champion - AD, CDR, MR, an anti-magic shield, a strong sustain buff that makes you edge out any near-death scenarios, and armor penetration, which all the squishy mages are quite helpless against. Verdict: The first nerf is already coming - removal of AS from the shield buff - but AP champions simply lack the tools to deal with this item.

The Brutalizer Part A/part B Nice and straightforward way to fix the Brutalizer. The only thing I'd change is the number of Longswords in each one, e.g. giving Warhammer three of those. I'm probably one of the very few players that even care about this thing but it would be really nice if an item was defined by its recipe.

Youmuu's Ghostblade When in doubt, stack longswords. A pretty neat fighter item that also works on some ADCs. The active never becomes too overbearing - it just gives you some speed, not actual burst power. The only issue, which will be covered later, si the potential to stack arpen over three different dirk upgrades. Verdict: No change. It's really nice. The flat armor penetration is a bit much though, not sure if 10-15 wouldn't have been more adequate.

Death's Dance When it was revealed, people feared it's gonna become OP in the hands of all the Riven players. Months later, Riven has faded into obscurity, and it's Graves who keeps abusing this one. On standard ADCs, the item often loses the competition with Bloodthirster, as 15% damage delay with no resists whatsoever is not all that strong, making the BT shield edge out in most cases. Verdict: No change. If anything, it could share some kind of common component with Phantom Dancer ("12% damage from last champion hit is delayed" - upgrades to outright reduction in PD and to 15% delay from all sources in DD).

Duskblade of Draktharr The most metal item name there is. Pretty decent for what it's supposed to do. Just about the only problem it creates is high armor penetration stacking - with all three Serrated Dirk upgrades completed, you can get to 40 flat arpen. Which is a lot. Verdict: No change, it doesn't create any problems that couldn't have been dealt with anyway.

#Bruiser items

Jaurim's Fist Basically Phage with a different passive. Before the Sterak's nerf, all its upgrades built out of yet another Ruby Crystal. I think this one could get adjusted, though the main problem is with Sterak. Verdict: Try out changing the build to longsword + 2 ruby crystals. Move 300-400g of cost from its ugprades to this item (remove ruby crystal from Titanic Hydra and Frozen Mallet).

Sterak's Gage Why are ranged champions allowed to build this item is beyond my understanding. Maw of Malmortius is already strong enough, but paired with Sterak it counters all AP burst casters painfully hard. This item needs to favour champions that stay in a fight for a long time, not carries. Verdict: Increase the proc threshhold. Force people to build HP before this item, not have it as their sole source of it. Currently it's 400-1800, and I think increasing it to 1000-2000 or at least 600-2000 would be in place. If that makes the item too weak, up the health to 450.

Tiamat and its upgrades After the latest change it should be alright. The problem was mostly with Sated Devourer. Also by having the AoE effect back on Tiamat, many champions like Trundle with lacking waveclear might return to the top lane.

Guinsoo's Rageblade Absurdly strong on a snowballing fighter, but the problem lies mostly with Sated Devourer, not the item itself. If IRelia got to build Triforce plus this, you done fucked up. Verdict: No change. Yet.

Wit's End Just a reminder that this item didn't receive a single change that would make it viable. It could work as Hexdrinker upgrade, QSS upgrade, just about anything - but it didn't even get a Negatron Cloak in the recipe. Just rework it already. Right now Guinsoo is a better on-hit item than this.

#Tank items

Frostfire Metagolem As I've said earlier, I consider the dominance of this build to be rather the fault of Maw of Malmortius (phasing AP carries away from mid lane) and weak Last Whisper (removing the chance to respond to obscene armor stacking). Verdict: No change until we fix Maw/LW.

Righteous Glory HELLO THERE. Funny how this item faded into obscurity in season 6. Same goes for Talisman of Ascension, actually. I guess part of the problem is the dominance of disengage supports (Janna, Thresh, Braum, Lulu) and prevalence of other builds (armor/MR stacking). Verdict: Change the Crystaline Bracer to Kindlegem. With CDR this item's lategame slot efficiency would make it way more satisfying.

Ohmwrecker From what I've heard, inside Riot's balance department this item is nearing Dominion levels of "stuff we'd like to fix if only we knew how to". Right now towers are weakest they've ever been and Ohmwrecker is, lightly speaking, useless. It simply cannto compare to other health+armor options such as Sunfire, Randuin or Dead Man's Plate. Verdict: Just buff it already. Consider giving it back the dual-use active (making the nearest allied tower immune).

Zz'Rot Portal Balance aside, this item is just so much fun. I'm really glad it caught on. Verdict: Don't build it when you're against Nasus.

#Support items

Eyestones Good idea, decent change. Definitely refreshed the support builds a little bit. Verdict: OK.

The Shurimian line I have no idea whose idea it was to remove MS from Talisman. This is what defined this item line and right now it's pretty much nonexistent in competitive play. Seriously, scaling regen is just stupidly underwhelming when compared with Frostfang. Verdict: Give it back flat MS.

Zeke's Harbinger Great idea, OP for a while, but supports don't really have that much gold to spare. So it's always one support item dominating the others depending on meta - right now it's rather Locket. Verdict: Consider changing the Amp Tomes to Aether Wisp or Fiendish Codex. Maybe ti could become an interesting midlane pick.

#Jungle items

Smitems A really commendable point of balance. All three items are situationally useful.

Enchantments Aaand here's the problem. Cinderhulk is simply not viable, even tanks are going Runic Echoes. Devourer is problematic in casual games, even though it's not all that popular in competitive outside of the Kindred case.

I'd consider merging some of the enchantments. Good candidates are Warrior/Devourer. Example merge would be just Warrior with lower base AD (40?) and 40% AS while in the jungle. Stacking Devourer would grant the AS permanently, and Phantom Hit could get removed.

As for Cinderhulk, the problem is that it's a lategame item, while jungle tanks suffer the most int he early game. I think the issue at hand is Bami's Cinder, which takes a long time to assemble. An AD/AS/AP jungler can buy a Longsword/Dagger/Amp Tome and have their clear sped up already. Meanwhile, a single Ruby Cryatsl does not all that much for tanks with their clear (we had a time when the Gromp buff was way stronger, and that time is gone).

I'd consider lowering the price of Bami's Cinder to 600g (ofc lowering the health to 150). PErhaps a different build - building out of a single Rejuvenation Bead - could work.

#Mage items

Abyssal Scepter I'm going to repeat this every time this topic comes up: Abyssal Scepter is the cancer of AP items that warps the entire meta. Whenever two or more AP champions are picked on the same team, it's a mandatory build for both sides. And that narrows down the list of viable AP champions, as only the ones who can get in range will utilize the debuff. The ones who get screwed over the most are long-range, immobile burst casters, as AP assassins can utilize this item very well against them. Verdict: Make it a proper tank item. Lower the AP to 40-50, introduce a third component if necessary (Kindlegem?). Change the passive. That pulsating aura that appeared briefly on PBE would have been really decent.

Seeker's Armguard I know that Zhonya's Horuglass is a very powerful item, but the Armguard is simply not standing up to the task. Building this item screws over your entire mana management, while your enemy midlaner will have no trouble outtrading and outliving you with his Hexdrinker, especially if it's some cancerous manaless mobile twat like Yasuo or Zed. Sure, it's strong on mages with other sources of mana (think Lissandra), but for most mages who wouldn't normally go for Zhonya in their core build, Armguard is a huge setback that only allows them to survive the lane. Verdict: Consider a new passive. "Whenever you drop below 40% health" (could also be activated) "block next 3 basic attacks". Zed can still work around it (he should have a chance, since once Zhonya's is completed, his windows is gone), but the likes of Yasuo and Talon would have some trouble with it.

20% CDR Yeah, so... Having to build one of those doesn't feel rewarding. It feels, especially on low elo like mine, like you're simply fueling up for what you're supposed to do anyway. And don't even get me started ont he fact that Essence Reaver grants 30% CDR, allowing ADCs to get 40% easily, while mages simply cannot get 20% without giving up AP. Verdict: We need some more inteactive ways to regain mana. Some sort of minigame. Even lasthitting creeps to get Doran's Ring passive is more interesting than what these two items provide.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter You know what Rylai, the Crystal Maiden from DotA, does, aside from providing shipload of slows? She has an ability that recovers mana to her allies. I think many mages would be happy if RCS provided mana regen instead of health. Tanks already have their Iceborn Gauntlet. Give this item back to mages. Verdict: Something like NLR + Forbidden Idol + Bracer recipe would be really neat.

Lich Bane It's not quite in the competiive meta, but I'm just reporting that Fizz with this thing (now that it gained free 10% CDR) is even more rage-inducing than ever. Verdict: Just bring up the other mage items to speed with this one.

Liandry's Torment As a Brand main, I love this item, but its design is kinda silly. Why does a supposedly anti-tank item have flat magic penetration? It doesn't work to its fullest unless the target is stacking only health and no MR whatsoever. It's time to make it the counterpart to Lord Dominik's Ragards, which brings us to the point:

Void Staff Recipe: Blasting Wand + 650g = 1500g 40 AP, 25% magic penetration

Then, make Liandry's build out of VS and HG, adjusting the HG properties accordingly (flat mpen removal heavily recommended)

Void Staff's alternative upgrade could apply a debuff just like Mortal Reminder does. Something to help your team finish the target off. Even an armor debuff could work.

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All in all, the season 6 item changes solved more problems than they created, which is good... and sorta rare in this season (looking at you, Dynamic Queue and "we want people to watch LCS so we're not releasing URF on April 1st"). Keep up the good work, Riot.

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Thanks for getting through this wall of text.