Twisted Treeline Itemization Update Suggestion

Illâoi Evê Siôn·Mar 14, 2018·33 votes·1,598 views

#Goal

Twisted Treeline has been crumbling ever since Riot decided to Arkangel it for themselves in 7.1 (or whenever it was internally). Currently, win rates vary from 30 to 65% with only about half the champions in League being viable at all, which means the other half doesn't even have win rates because nobody plays them. It's also plagued by overpowered hand-me-downs from Summoner's Rift (Timeworn Items), Bugs (Smite Cooldown at the start of the game) and a general lack of players (probably because of all of the above).

So the goal of these suggestions is to:

Deepen Twisted Treeline's fantasy
Offer a separate experience from Summoner's Rift
Improve Gameplay
Increase Champion variety

In order to do that, I would like to separate many of its items from Summoner's Rift with their own identities inside of Twisted Treeline (like how Wooglet's Witchcap exists). That way, they won't be affected by every little balance change in SR.

#Changes

##General

Charon: Gold has been renamed to Silver.
Undead: Healing and Shielding on other allied champions is reduced by ~25% on Twisted Treeline.
Sycophants: When an allied champion kills a nearby enemy minion, gain 3 Silver.

Silver reminds people of the underworld and the undead, and it makes you feel like you're in a different place and era than Summoner's Rift. Maybe the people of the ancient Blessed Isles used silver coins as their currency? Maybe the undead collect it out of a subconscious desire to purify themselves? Who knows? Bard, probably.

The healing and shielding reduction on others makes a lot of sense thematically, but more importantly, it lets us put a lot of power into Enchanter and Mage Support items so we can include them with a new fantasy. In this case, my suggestion would be to give them access to more Health and damage from itemization so they become better generalists. In Summoner's Rift this wouldn't be a good thing, but in Twisted Treeline Supports are too dependent on Marksmen and too squishy to survive the intense 3v3 match-ups.

Lastly, the removal of Bandit and GP10 in Support Items is the reason for the ARAM-esque Favor passive. Non-Hyper Carry comps benefit from this a small amount, too.

##Removed Items

Ancient Coin and its upgrades would be removed.

There's just no place for them in Twisted Treeline, unless you wanted to replace the above Favor suggestion with the current Favor coin system.

##Updated Items

Relic Shield, Spellthief's Edge, and their upgrades.
Knight's Vow, Twin Shadows, Chalice of Harmony, Athene's Unholy Grail, Ardent Censer, Shurelya's Reverie, Lord Van Damm's Pillager, and Righteous Glory.

These all would be replaced with spoookier options, which you can see below:

Twisted Mog (replaces Targon's Brace)

Cost: 750 Silver
250 Health
5% Cooldown Reduction
UNIQUE Active - Pledge: Designate an allied champion as your Liege (90 second cooldown). Gain the following effects if they are nearby.
UNIQUE Passive - Offering: Melee basic attacks consume a charge to execute enemy minions below [210 -- 380 based on level] Health and grant both you and your Liege the kill Silver. Recharges every 30 seconds. Max 3 charges.

"What's a 'mog' anyway?" - Taric, the Shield of Valoran

Twisted Mog would replace Targon's Brace as a cursed shield made from the roots and bark of a treant.

It is the Tier 1 item of its line, with its high cost meant to prevent Hyper Carries from buying it as a starting item. Without two Spoils of War passives, the amount of time Support and Carry have to spend in lane will increase, so that they may interact with their opponents. The item also loses its passive healing and Health Regen in exchange for some Cooldown Reduction, a little more Health and lowered cost. The Support can buy two Health Potions at the start of the game, but damage received will stick eventually. That allows enemies to interact and pressure you, instead of twiddling their thumbs because it's pointless.

Overall, these changes lessens the Hyper Carry comp's pressure in the first stage of the game and allows for enemies to try and make plays. The intended benefits of the Hyper Carry comp would be its mid game power spike, its late-game scaling and the funneling of gold and experience into one champion. Plus, the Support would act as a bodyguard for champions with a weak early game and a steroid for the Carry.

The Pledge active is a gating tool, but it also has a neat fantasy within the Shadow Isles. If the Support strays to help their other teammate, they will be weaker. And if you catch either in a bad position, you'll have a better chance of taking them down.

https://media.giphy.com/media/ZNBkU63dEf6GK3KQM8/giphy.gif

Nature's Torment
(replaces Face of the Mountain and Knight's Vow)

Cost: 2200 Silver
Recipe: Twisted Mog + Chain Vest + 650 Silver
300 Health
45 Armor
10% Cooldown Reduction
UNIQUE Active - Eternal Pledge: Designate an allied champion as your Liege. Gain the following effects if they are nearby. Recast to grant both you and your Liege a shield equal to 15% of your maximum Health for 3 seconds. After 4 seconds, the shield explodes to slow nearby enemies by 40% for 2 seconds (90 second cooldown).
UNIQUE Passive - Offering: Melee basic attacks consume a charge to execute minions below [340 -- 680 based on level] Health, and grant both you and your Liege the kill Silver as well as restoring 4% of your missing Health. Recharges every 30 seconds. Max 4 charges.
UNIQUE Passive: While your Liege is below 70% Health, redirect 10% of the damage they take as true damage to you.

Instead of an overpowered quest and too much gold, this is the Supports mid game power spike: an amalgamation of Knight's Vow and Face of the Mountain. It has a little bit of both, but it's not as good as both combined (effect-wise). By doing this, we can give Tank Supports their power spike and increase how well they scale into the late game (they gain one more item slot). They lose early pressure and sustain, but gain scaling strength. It's a trade-off.

I'm a little worried that Jungle Comps will just abuse this and Liege one of their lanes. The stats aren't gold efficient, but the active and passive might be. If that is the case, the quest function could be brought back with you only getting the second active and/or the second passive if you've collected enough gold.

Here is a table for comparing the old to the new.

https://i.imgur.com/kvyyBNu.png

Blade of Betrayal (replaces Frostfang)

Cost: 750 Silver
25 Ability Power
5% Cooldown Reduction
UNIQUE Active - Pledge: Designate an allied champion as your Liege (90 second cooldown). Gain the following effects if they are nearby.
UNIQUE Passive - Offering: When you or your Liege damage an enemy champion, you mark them for 4 seconds. If the other attacks a marked enemy with a basic attack, consumes the mark to steal Health and grant Silver to you and your Liege (20 second on-target cooldown).

When you mark an enemy or consume a mark, grants bonus Silver for yourself.

The Enchanter Support line forces both you and your Liege to interact with enemies if you want to earn gold. You can earn most of that on your own, but if your Liege helps out it will be more. Again, the intention here is to create interaction for the Hyper Carry comp. However, it isn't to lessen the amount of pressure Enchanters have, as they aren't currently viable as Supports anyway. The health steal on the passive is supposed to give them a little more sustain, but they're still easy-to-kill targets before they get some items because of their low Health in the early game.

Twin Vengeance (replaces Frost Queen's Claim and Twin Shadows)

Cost: 2200 Silver
Recipe: Blade of Betrayal + Corrupted Fruit + 350 Silver
200 Health
50 Ability Power
50% base Mana Regen
10% Cooldown Reduction
UNIQUE Passive - Bitter Taste: Heals and shield on allied champions grant you +10% base spell damage for 4 seconds.
UNIQUE Active - Eternal Pledge: Designate an allied champion as your Liege. Gain the following effects if they are nearby. Recast to summon forth two ghosts that hunt down their enemies, revealing and haunting them on contact. Haunted enemies are marked by Offering and slowed by 40% for up to 5 seconds based on distance traveled (90 second cooldown).
UNIQUE Passive - Offering: When you or your Liege damage an enemy champion, you mark them for 4 seconds. If the other attacks a marked enemy with a basic attack, consumes the mark to steal Health and grant Silver split among you (10 second on-target cooldown).

When you mark or consume a mark, grants bonus Silver for yourself.

This is the upgrade, with Health to help Enchanters survive and Bitter Taste to allow them to deal damage. Keep in mind that you can only use the active when near your liege.

Bitter Taste would come from a new item below.

https://i.imgur.com/54KT8f1.png

Corrupted Fruit (New)

Cost: 1100 Silver
Recipe: Ruby Crystal + Amplifying Tomb + 265 Silver
25 Ability Power
150 Health
UNIQUE Passive - Bitter Taste: Heals and shield on allied champions grant you +10% base spell damage for 4 seconds.

This is the source of Bitter Taste and would be the core item of Enchanters in 3v3. The healing and shielding debuff in Twisted Treeline would reduce their utility somewhat, while this item should make their damage noticeable. Mages without heals or shields in their kit would need to use Blade of Betrayal or Font of Life to get the effect. For the former, it only lasts for 4 seconds. If they do somehow abuse it though, the effect can simply be changed to heal and shields from spells.

I'm a little worried about Morgana building this, but she wouldn't be able to use Black Shield on herself without losing lots of damage if she did do it.

Rusted Chalice (replaces Chalice of Harmony)

Cost: 800 Silver
Recipe: Nullmagic Mantle + Faerie Charm + Faerie Charm + 100 Silver
30 Magic Resistance
50% base Mana Regen
UNIQUE Passive - Memory:
- Version A: If an allied champion takes a Health Shrine, restores Health over a few seconds. If you take a Health Shrine, grants that regeneration to the next allied champion you meet.
- Version B: Restores Health over a few seconds after your team conquers an altar.

Supports don't really need or want base Health Regen in Twisted Treeline. Since they lost their heal on Spoils of War, I thought Chalice of Harmony could be a nice option to get some sustain in the early game. Its two suggested passives are both Twisted Treeline specific, which helps make the experience on the map more unique, and they both promote teamplay. It also offers Magic Resistance and not Armor, so it and its upgrades shouldn't be the go-to second item in all cases.

Grail of the Fallen Queen (replaces Athene's Unholy Grail)

Cost: 2300 Silver
Recipe: Corrupted Fruit + Rusted Chalice + 400 Silver
200 Health
40 Ability Power
30 Magic Resistance
100% base Mana Regen
UNIQUE Passive: Gain 25% of the premitigation damage [...]
UNIQUE Passive - Bitter Taste: Heals and shield on allied champions grant you +10% base spell damage for 4 seconds. This amount is increased by +1% per 25% base Mana Regen from other sources. Disables Memory on other items.

Twisted Treeline's version of Athene's Unholy Grail would be a core item to many Enchanters, as it offers everything they could want or need. Instead of getting Ability Power from Disharmony, which would buff their heals and shields even more than its one passive already does, it would gain increased damage from Bitter Taste. The price is bumped up a little because of its strength.

Soul Censer (replaces Ardent Censer)

Cost: 2300 Silver
Recipe: Forbidden Idol + Aether Wisp + 650 Silver
40 Ability Power
10% Cooldown Reduction
50% base Mana Regen
UNIQUE Passive - Hope: +10% Shield and Heal Power
UNIQUE Passive: Whenever you heal or shield and ally, you and your ally gain 12% Attack Speed and either [9 -- 32 based on level] Ability Power or [5 -- 20 based on level] Attack Damage for 6 seconds, adaptive.

Ardent Censer is too geared towards auto-attackers and too important to Enchanters to be viable on Twisted Treeline (except for Taric). By giving it adaptive force, it allows the Supports to help a larger spectrum of Carries.

Its Heal and Shield Power would become a named passive, though, as we want to push Supports towards more of a Battle Mage role instead of a healer who stays in the back lines. You wouldn't be able to stack the passive with Redemption and Mikael's Crucible.

Ansturm (replaces Shurelya's Reverie) (icon would be a black, haunted horse saddle or a bunch of spectral horses rearing up)

Cost: 2500 Silver
Recipe: Catalyst of Eons + Glacial Shroud + 500 Silver
300 Health
600 Mana
30 Armor
10% Cooldown Reduction
UNIQUE Passive - Eternity: [...]
UNIQUE Active - Pillage: Grants you and nearby allies +40% Movement Speed for 3 seconds (90 second cooldown).

Champions like Blitzcrank aren't viable at all in Twisted Treeline. Giving them an item with Righteous Glory's stats, the Eternity passive, and Shurelya's Reverie's active might help change that by allowing them to better Support their team with their core items.

Ansturm is German and means onslaught. I thought it sounded metal. It's a shame it has so much Mana, though, or else Mordekaiser could have bought it. Righteous Glory would be changed into the next item, since there is no righteous glory in the Shadow Isles. That item Mordekaiser might be able to buy?

Lord Van Damm's Pillager (replaces Righteous Glory)

Cost: 3000 Silver
Recipe: Jaurim's Fist + Caulfield's Warhammer + 700 Silver
300 Health
50 Attack Damage
10% Cooldown Reduction
UNIQUE Active - Pillage: For 4 seconds, grants 75% Movement Speed when moving towards an enemy champion or enemy turret. Once near an enemy (or after 4 seconds) emits a shockwave that slows nearby enemy champion's Movement Speed by 40% for 2 seconds (150 second cooldown).

Movement Speed does not stack with other Pillage effects. Takedowns, Altar conquests and Structure decommissions reduce this item's cooldown by 30 seconds.

Lord Van Damm's Pillager is a weird item that people rarely buy, in part because they don't know it exists, in part because it's fickle, and in part because there are simply better items with the same stat line.

An active like Righteous Glory is good on many champions, though, especially Juggernauts and Fighters who love this stat line. The Altar interactions are retained in its cooldown refund.

#What's Missing?

Most Marksmen aren't viable in Twisted Treeline either, but I don't have suggestion on how to fix that through their itemization. Maybe the inclusion of Enchanters will draw them in, too? Maybe the mini update Riot has planned will help.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully, Riot will make Twisted Treeline spooky again.

Twisted Treeline Itemization Update Suggestion

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