Basic itemization needs an overhaul to be more uniform across the board

Currently, itemization suffers from two fundamental problems. First, there is too much inconsistency within stat types. Second, too many items have become the default choices just on their handy combinations of stats, leading to far too many generic builds and not enough strategic decision making.

I would propose to Riot (possibly for Season 6) a major overhaul of the basic items (not the support or jungler item trees) into a three-tiered systems

Tier 1 items are very similar to the current itemization. They are either very efficient items with no upgrades (Dorans items) or gold inefficient stat items. The only change I would make is to ensure that all stats are represented. Add lifesteal, Spellvamp, and CDR as small basic items.

Tier 2 items are where the major changes take place. In the proposed system, the tier 2 items will be the more stat-efficient items, as compared to tier 3. Each one will build out of two tier 1 items, and will represent either a combination of the two stats or more of a single stat. The big change would be getting rid of "big investment" items like Giants Belt and BF that require a very inflexible build path and allow people to build stats piecemeal, but provide more benefits to the combined item.

These items will be what people load up on for heavy stat sticks, but they will provide very few actives or Passives (with the exception of certain support focused items and things like Tear).

Tier 3 items are intended to be heavily situational. The only major sources of stats are the hyper scaling items: the equivalent of Rabadons, Infinity Edge and a %HP booster for tanks who want to build heavily into health. These items will provide the bulk of their benefit over the tier 2 items with their higher impact actives and Passives, and choosing one over an opponent building multiple tier 2s will get you less in terms of raw stats. Tier 3s upgrade out of two or three tier 2s, but will be less expensive to upgrade to than they are presently.

In general, Tier 1 items will cost 400-500g, Tier 2 1200-2000g, and Tier 3 2500-3500. Rather than the current system of players tending to build one T3, then another, then another until full build, players would most commonly build stats until midgame then start to upgrade to their T3s to adapt to the matchup overall.

Riot needs to translate their "why should I pick X?" Champion philosophy to items. Players should be looking at their builds game by game, taking a looks at who's fed on the enemy team, how they are performing and choose a group of Passives and actives that most benefit them.

The Mage worried about burst might rush a Zhonyas against an assassin, but should then have much less power if the assassin decided to just invest in AP T2 stat sticks. The carry who invests into a last whisper to shred a tank should lose significant amounts of damage vs the squishy members of the enemy team.