Change to item building!!
So I was thinking about it and, at least for as well as I can remember, every tier one item that you buy that builds into something always has its stats or effects carried over in some way.
You buy a tier one item that's going to give you AD and you know the tier two item it builds into is also going to give you AD.
I was thinking, what if there were a few tier two and tier three items that didn't carry over stats from a previous lower tier item, but instead replaced the stat with some other stat.
this way a player might be able to buy stats they need in a panic while allowing them to upgrade those stats into something different if the current game now calls for it.