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"Strategic Diversity" items like Ohmwrecker are just as useless as expected

Pyro··146 votes·33,249 views

Here are all the least used items that appear in less than 1% of games. Source: datamining sites such as LoLKing and LoLDB; percentage according to ranked soloq on Feb 20th. Items added or reworked in season 5 are in bold.

  1. item 3056 Ohmwrecker (0.06%)
  2. item 3124 Guinsoo's Rageblade (0.08%)
  3. item 3060 Banner of Command (0.17%)
  4. item 3050 Zeke's Herald (0.18%)
  5. item 3141 Sword of the Occult (0.21%)
  6. item 3512 Zz'Rot Portal (0.28%)
  7. item 3711 Poacher's Knife (counting enchantments) (0.29%)
  8. item 3504 Ardent Censer (0.58%)
  9. item 3023 Twin Shadows (0.60%)
  10. item 3172 Zephyr (0.73%)
  11. item 3091 Wit's End (0.74%)
  12. item 3508 Essence Reaver (0.91%)

That's right. Ohmwrecker is the least popular item in the game, and Zz'Rot Portal is behind the godawful Poacher's Knife. Why is that?

Well, I think it's a sum of defects of particular items themselves, and the fact that their existence changes nothing about how the game is played or what champions are picked. Nobody is going to pick their champion with Ohmwrecker or Zz'Rot Portal in mind. These items, even if not meant to be rushed, are simply underwhelming and unimpactful.

#I. Raptor's Cloak is a bad laning item

item 2053 Raptor's Cloak costs 1000 gold and grants 30 armor and +100% base health regeneration. These stats are worth 960 gold. However, at level 6, most toplane champions have 10-12 base health regeneration, so it takes 2 minutes for the +% regen to equate a single health potion.

This, of course, is not taking into account the unique passive, which builds up movement speed under turrets, but even disregarding what this item builds into, it's just bad when compared to other armor/regen items in this price range. Ninja Tabi, Glacial Shroud, Warden's Mail, Catalyst the Protector - they all do something tangible and useful, and the items they build into are worth rushing.

Past laning phase the passive becomes even less useful, as many fights occur around Dragon and the number of towers still standing diminishes. Therefore, I believe the following needs to happen:

  • Raptor Cloak needs a discount to 900 gold, and/or
  • Its upgrades need to be attractive enough to be worth rushing.

http://i.imgur.com/gt7w5f9.png

Basically the problem here lies with the whole Point Runner family - it's not good in lane, it's not even that good later on.

#II. Ohmwrecker is inferior to similar items | Item | Armor | Health | CDR | Passive | Active | Cost | Raw Stat Value |-|-|-|-|-|-|- | item 3056 Ohmwrecker | 50 | 300 | 10% | Point Runner | Turret disable | 2600g | 2117g (81%) | item 3068 Sunfire Cape | 45 | 450 | - | 26-43 AoE DPS | - | 2600g | 2100 (80%) | item 3143 Randuin's Omen | 70 | 500 | - | Cold Steel | AoE Slow | 2850g | 2730g (96%)

For an item that might be useful in one specific situation, the unique effect of Ohmwrecker is too expensive. Alternative armor+health items not only have a higher health threshhold, but their unique effects are way more powerful not only in open fights. And frankly, under towers as well. In the current state, Ohmwrecker could even disable base gates and it would still be useless.

What could possible fix Ohmwrecker is:

  • Lower price (2400g), or
  • More health (400), and/or
  • Active lasting longer (4-5 seconds?)
  • Active stealing armor from tower and granting it to the user, and/or
  • Active making an allied tower immune to damage (like the good old Fortify summoner spell).

Before any of these changes happen, the item will remain as useless as it is now - the current state is "why invest into this item, when you can just armor up and tank the damn turret".

#III. Zz'Rot Portal is overpriced

Zz'Rot Portal is set at the very same price as Guardian Angel (2800g) with the same stats (50 armor, 50 MR), while granting a much less powerful effect than the extra life. I would attribute its low popularity to another problem - it's supposed to help tanks push lanes, but building full tank in LoL makes you useless in lategame, and this item changes nothing about that. Last Whisper, Void Staff and BotRK make the carries shred full tanks just as fast as bruisers. So what works in this game are AP tanks like Maokai, with Rod of Ages/Abyssal Scepter and generally some decent amount of AoE and AP that allows them to push lanes anyway, and "offtanks", who are AD champions and therefore will get towers with 1 damage item like BotRK.

There are two simple solutions that I would consider here:

  • Lower the price to 2500-2600g, or
  • Remove the health loss after 4 seconds on Voidspawn, and make it a damage loss instead. This would allow to use this item to splitpush more reliably, similar to Banner of Command, without making it too abusive.

#IV. Banner of Command is actually okay

It's not perfect, but it's in an acceptable spot. It has a very clearly defined niche and helps in a very commonly found situation in competitive play, which is siegeing inhibitor turrets, especially with baron buff. The low popularity of this item is caused by Locket of the Iron Solari being that much better and versatile. Generally if you get to the siegeing situation, you're in a better spot already, and Locket gives you an edge in even fights.

If any changes were to happen to this item, I'd consider:

  • Bringing back the pet buff (Zyra, Elise, Heimerdinger), and/or
  • Allowing the item to be used on pets (Annie, Malzahar)

#V. Sword of the Occult is unfixable

Stacking items aren't as much about getting kills as about not dieing (this is why Leviathan was skewed). Top users of Mejai's Soulstealer are Janna and Lux, who can play very safely and get out alive from fights while racking up tons of assists from their utility spells.

Sword of the Occult is one of the least used items for a few reasons: its users are the AD assassins/casters (Rengar, Talon and Riven) who can be focused and shut down in teamfights, and the buff on 20 stacks is a bit underwhelming (+20% attack speed, compared to +15% CDR on Soulstealer). Gold value of both effects is comparable, but AS is not a stat that bursty AD casters are looking for.

Should anything be done about this item? I don't think so. At least it shouldn't have any sort of priority.

#VI. Poacher's Knife (lol)

Rioters have already said they're thinking what to do with this item, and Jungle is a whole other issue.

#VII. About other underused items

item 3124 Guinsoo's Rageblade is garbage and could be straight out deleted or remade from scratch. It could work if all abilities in LoL scaled with ability power. AD scalings on fighters is what made this item obsolete. One niche that would work currently, instead of AD+AP, would be hybrid armor/magic penetration for champions like Ezreal, Jax and Shyvana. Phage upgrade?

item 3050 Zeke's Herald is very gold efficient on AD-heavy teams, but feels very unrewarding for supports. You're essentially wasting gold on stats you don't want in order to grant them to your teammates. And given the CDR overload (you're not getting full value off 20% CDR from that item), the amount of gold "wasted" is nearing 2000. Perhaps this item could function with an Aegis-like 1800g component without CDR, building out of Vampiric Scepter + Crystalline Bracer. Component would have only lifesteal in aura, finished Zeke's could be an activable item, granting AD in a more conditional situation. Overall if the item could become attractive for AD bruisers, it could actually become satisfying.

item 3504 Ardent Censer is overshadowed by Mikael's Crucible. Mikaels is the best support item, and after you get it, CDR and mana regen from Censer feels like a waste, and you have better items to aim for. The only solution here is either an AP buff to 60, or a nerf to Mikael's Crucible. Otherwise these two items are competeing in a very similar niche.

item 3023 Twin Shadows are inferior to Morellonomicon in the middle lane and a very luxury item for supports. Perhaps giving it 20% CDR, or more MS, or making the ghosts reveal stealthed champions would put it in a right place.

item 3172 Zephyr is alright as a boots replacement for AD champions, but its components do not grant the stats that people buy it for (MS and Tenacity). Tweaking Stinger or replacing it with Zeal could be one way to go.

item 3091 Wit's End is overshadowed by other, similar items: Devourer and BotRK are better as one-item wonders, and Hexdrinker/Malmortius feel like a better DPS-MR item. As a "rushable" item, it deserves a mid-tier component with AS on-hit damage (Rioters have mentioned that a Dagger upgrade building into Wit's End, Nashor's Tooth, Devourer, and BotRK was tested, but scrapped). The anti-magic component could be stronger as well - building from Hexdrinker or QSS would make it quite strong.

item 3508 Essence Reaver is just "meh". By the time it's assembled, you have mana from Triforce, Tear or Muramana. Building from The Brutalizer would make it better, but potentially abusive on Pantheon, so it's probably doomed to be bad.

#VIII. Elixirs

Even though the new elixirs are way more interesting than the old ones, they are very rarely used, and according to Solcrushed's AMA on Inven, it's something Riot is disappointed with. With high price and low combat power, they're now the last priority, after trinket upgrades and boot enchantments.

Perhaps the way to bring elixirs as a powerup possibility even before getting 6 items could be bringing their prices down to 300-350 gold, or prolonging their duration to 5-6 minutes.

#IX. The One Item That Could

item 3800 Righteous Glory sits at 1.50% pick rate and is even seen in some competitve games. Against preseason predictions, though, which prophesized the return of toplane Olaf, it's mostly a support item: luxury snowball item in solo queue, desparate comeback item in competitive scene. Its winrate on Maokai and Annie in LCS is much lower than when these champions get to build their power items like Rod of Ages or Rylai's Crystal Scepter, though.

The item, arguably, fulfills its purpose - providing engage option for teams that lack hard engage abilities - but the fact that it isn't that gold efficient on its own and feels unsatisfying in top lane dumps the responsibility to buy it onto the supports.

It could possibly feel more satisfying with Kindlegem instead of Crystalline Bracer. Another indirect buff would be a way for tanks to utilize their mana pool (mana scaling on a new/existing tank item, perhaps even this one?).

#X. Summary

In the world of skillshots and mobility, strategy becomes a secondary subject in general, and forget about having a diversity in strategical approaches to the game. Season 5 was meant to provide tools to execute various strategies, but these tools are so rarely used it's hard to say if they're fullfilling their purpose at all.

Personally my biggest problem with lack of strategical diversity is how every single team has to have a ranged AD Carry, and it's impossible to have a melee one instead. Every other class - mage, assassin, tank, fighter, support - can be left out, but ranged ADCs are irreplaceable.

To a lesser extent, similar problems emerge in competitve play in all roles, which leads to every lane having a very limited set of "top picks" since it's much more about individual champion performance than their interactions with teammates.

Back to the track, though - Ohmwrecker and Zz'Rot Portal are extremely underused and that might be a call to shake things up.

156 Comments

RiotRiot Reinboom42 votes

Hey! Thanks for this (pretty detailed) run down. Without going into details I agree with a lot of individual points.

For the first portion of preseason we were very very careful with the output of these items (and a lot of changes) because we didn't precisely know what the outcome would be. Even if we hit a balanced point of them the output of each of them would take a bit for everyone to learn and accept. We might of been too careful and I believe even then that grace period is over.

So... we're going to try buffing a few of them.

DrCyanide3 votes

That's great news.

On a side note, am I crazy, or does something being OP for a patch help get it's player base up, even after it gets nerfed back to balanced levels? It doesn't seem to matter if it's an item or a champion, if they're OP for a while, they gain a lot of fans. Would it be worth making Ohmwrecker/Poachers Knife OP for a patch, then bringing them back to balanced, to see what people do with them when they actually think about these items?

RiotRiot Reinboom19 votes

{quoted}

That's great news.

On a side note, am I crazy, or does something being OP for a patch help get it's player base up, even after it gets nerfed back to balanced levels? It doesn't seem to matter if it's an item or a champion, if they're OP for a while, they gain a lot of fans. Would it be worth making Ohmwrecker/Poachers Knife OP for a patch, then bringing them back to balanced, to see what people do with them when they actually think about these items?

Yes. There's the other side of that risk however: The "The Black Cleaver" effect. (Everyone fills their inventory with it)

We actually saw this a bit with Zz'Rot Portal in the patch it came out (at some MMRs). A lot of the changes to it in the patch following were meant to address that 5x Zz'Rot Portals as the choice is probably not ideal (much weaker to mass wave clear). With that "out of the way" though we can pretty safely power it up otherwise. Like... making the statline feel worth it (and upping its actual effect even).

39041022DEL13 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Reinboom,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=YAYUikEO,comment-id=003c,timestamp=2015-02-23T21:51:09.790+0000)

Hey! Thanks for this (pretty detailed) run down. Without going into details I agree with a lot of individual points.

For the first portion of preseason we were very very careful with the output of these items (and a lot of changes) because we didn't precisely know what the outcome would be. Even if we hit a balanced point of them the output of each of them would take a bit for everyone to learn and accept. We might of been too careful and I believe even then that grace period is over.

So... we're going to try buffing a few of them.

Is it just me or does Riot people just Agree with shit and not take Action in like every forum. Like where do these people come from.

RiotRiot Reinboom3 votes

{quoted}

Is it just me or does Riot people just Agree with shit and not take Action in like every forum. Like where do these people come from.

For Raptor Cloak line of items (and Righteous) changes should now be on the PBE today, IIRC.

TheI3igDaddy34 votes

The reason nobody buys Ohmwrecker isn't necessarily because its stats are outclassed, it's because the passive is not needed.

Turrets right now are pitiful. And of course, all they need to ignore you is one little minion that comes waltzing up to it. Mid-late game, heavy-duty tanks can just absorb all the damage as their team pushes, and by the time that the inhibitor turrets are exposed, they lack the armor / defense to survive a siege since the ADC is generally able to shred it.

Ohmwrecker will most likely see more play if Riot buffs turrets. I'm talking like increased attack speed based on how many enemy champions are near, or maybe just a full durability buff in general. Hell, they could even change the nexus turrets to fire AOE shots; I'd think that would be pretty interesting.

Pyro4 votes

{quoted}

The reason nobody buys Ohmwrecker isn't necessarily because its stats are outclassed, it's because the passive is not needed.

By comparing it to other armor-HP items, I wanted to point out that Ohmwrecker's active is valued (priced) too highly compared to Sunfire's and Randuin's. The item could possibly work with the same stats and active, but lower price. Or higher stats/more powerful active and same price.

An item can become popular if the unique effect is situational, but the base stats are strong (see: Morellonomicon).

And there is already one neat interaction about turrets, and that is the slow on the base turrets (the beam ones). Using Ohmwrecker breaks the beam and removes the slow. So there is at least some potential usage here.

SmokingPuffin12 votes

Really good post. Well done.

In general, I think Riot is very concerned about releasing an OP strategic item, and they've ended up being too conservative on item value as a result.

mjack339 votes

Righteous glory loses out due to a combination of warmog's and poor marketing.

For pure Health, Righteous Glory loses out to Warmog's. The other things that make up the item aren't really worth it, and I guarantee you it suffers from them trying to jam it in as an "offensive" item in recommended build paths.

Essence Reaver loses out to the bloodthirster on a lot of AD champs, since there isn't really a niche where you want CDR and mana over flat more life steal and overhealing.

Wit's End is actually a stupidly good item. It's just that nobody plays champs like Skarner and the words "direct counter to Thornmail with the potential to have as much MR as Banshee's at max stacks on an offensive item" are not as appealing as one would think. Wit's End is really good..... it just counters champs people don't play enough while also only being really good on champs people don't play enough.

Elixirs cost 400G. That's a build item. They are also temporary and can't be used once you have full build, when you would actually have the gold to spend on such a thing. You also have little to no reason to buy one before going into lane, which is the real reason we even see health potions seeing use.

Zephyr is another really good item. It's just that the things that build into it sucks, so it's been relegated to a situational LUXURY. Whenever you have a really good situational item that you really can't build on a whim, it's going to have a low use rate.

Not a single person wants Twin Shadows in their full build. That's why it rarely gets picked.

Ardent Censor is like Wit's End. It's a really good item, but people don't play the champs that would use it enough. It also puts too much value in things where your teammates won't really know what the buff does (like they won't know what Yorick's Ult does), so they are going to play suboptimally. Thus, I take this on Janna and Sona sometimes but other than that.......

I'm going to provide you with a running theme here. Items that give ALMOST NO PERSONAL STATS THAT ARE WORTH 2500 GOLD, while also relying on your teammates to play KNOWING they have some buff from that item, are almost always bad picks before platinum level. Zeke's Herald gives you minimal stats for 2500 gold because the aura is so good. But the aura only works if your teammates aren't ****. Knowing the average skill level at bronze and silver...... no. No one takes this for very obvious reasons, but it has the potential to be broken and I have used it to stupidly good effect in the past.

Guinsoo's Rageblade is another item like Wit's End. There are some niches where it's really good, but a combination of things mean those don't come up often enough. It also suffers due to the presence of Hextech Gunblade.

Poacher's Knife is not the kind of smite people are looking for...... It's a very good item for counterjunglers who don't plan to engage other champs. But to be blunt, all counter-junglers tend to go over there planning to get more value out of red or blue smite than gray smite.

Both Sword of the Occult.... if you can get 20 assists without dying, you didn't need this item anyways.

Banner of Command, like Twin Shadows, is just an item absolutely no one sees themselves wanting in their final build. It gives you a weird amalglam of things you would rather get from Abyssal Scepter, Morell, and Rylai's while reaping the other benefits of those items.

ZZ Rot Portal is one of the best items in the game. ... It just has the problem of being the offensive equivalent of Guardian Angel. Do you know why there are problems with being the offensive equivalent of Guardian Angel? The op seems to know, although he draws the wrong conclusions from it. ... This is a very good item on kiteable tanks, it's just that it's a lot more risk for a variable amount of reward. It's in a fine spot though.

The problem with Ohmwrecker is that it's a strictly inferior version of Zz Rot Portal, giving up the MR and the portals for the ability to tower dive at a point in the game where no one is actually stupid enough to tower dive for ONLY 3 seconds.

CKirk7 votes

Just a point, you can in fact use Elixirs when you're at full build. Try buying one next time you get there

mjack331 votes

Would you look at that. "Elixirs are automatically applied when purchased if you already have 6 items". Also "cannot be purchased until level 9".

Okay... Well then Elixirs have almost no reasonable use until you have full build, at which point they are like Trinkets. The vast majority of players won't even remember it's an option.

Why in heck would they even put these in the game is something I don't understand....... it literally seems like an item to "top off" your build when you have nothing left to spend things on.

Kijinx3 votes

they've always been "I have 3000 gold and full build what do I do?" items, except for oracles (rip). Idk why Riot thought giving them some fancy particle effects and adding two new ones would change that. The only way elixirs would see use before full build is if they gave a buff strong enough to completely turn around a 1v1. Like how the old red elixir was used as an instant health pot.

ProfDrDeath2 votes

item 3091 :

What this item really suffers from is the fact that all its power basically only comes with the final item.

Wit's is build up from a defensive item, item 1033 , and two AS items, item 1043 and item 1042 , and costs 2600 gold in total. AS on its own is a trap stat - attack speed is essentially a multiplying factor. And, as every multiplying factor, it is rather useless if there's nothing it can multiply. However, with Wit's End, these things to multiply, the on-hit damage and on-hit MR steal, are only accessed when the full item is completed, leaving you in a power dump relative to your opponent.

Back in S2, when Wit's was frequently build, there were two things that gave it more power: For one, the completed item was 600 gold cheaper, but did not feature the stealing of MR. Secondly, it was often build in combination with Madred's Razors/Wriggle's Lantern, which back then had an on-hit effect that gave you a 15% chance for massive damage to target monster OR LANE MINION, in addition to 18% Lifesteal on Wriggle's (ah, good times - Shyvana with the Wriggle's/Wit's rush).

Doctor Tam2 votes

The biggest problem that Wits End (and Youmuu's) suffer from is Blade of the Ruined King. This item single handedly does everything a bruiser ever wants, with a good intermediate item in its path. Even after repeated nerfs it still stands as the bar that all bruiser items need to match.

However, if you are playing champs like Shen/Shyvana who have poor AD ratios and who love Sunfire cape, then Wits can work, but its a small niche for already niche champs.

insaiyanbacca6 votes

i still agree with the guy who said ohmwrecker needed to disable an enemy base gate for a short amount of time as an option

KaisadiIIa4 votes

I think the problem is that the idea of items being "cheap and weaker" or "expensive and stronger" (I mean, for example, Ohmwrecker is a quick-ly rushable item while Randuin isn't) no longer works on the current League.

In games like DotA this is an important part of strategy since powerful items are built from base items with 2,000 or even 3,000 cost, while other items build from base items with 500 value. That, combined with the fact that you'll lose gold if you die, gives you various options: —Should you keep your 1,000 gold without expending it (and thus not benefiting from having more gold) so you'll be able to build a powerful item later? —Or should you expend your 1,000 gold in a cheaper item (and then get immediate benefit from your gold) but having a weaker item later? Also, —Are you safe enough right now to save 1,000 gold without the enemy team trying to kill you? —Or will you die soon so you have to expend your gold as fast as possible?

Even without losing gold upon dying, LoL had some "strategy" there by the fact that you had to save 1,000 gold to build some base items (giant's belt, negatron cloak) but now, they changed items so high-prized base items build off low-prized ones. So, we have only one option: change some items to be paired with the standard, high-prized ones.

About Raptor cloak items, they are just too bad, their passive/active is too underpowered and they do not grant meaningful statistics. That's how I'd change these 3 items:

item 2053 Raptor cloak: I'd change its stats to be just armor/magic resistance to prevent turret-diving from assassins (both AD or AP) and make it the base of two viable hybrid resistance items (currently you only have GA). Also, I'd readjust Point runner to be more useful as a defensive passive against tower-diving champions. Armor: 30 ⇒ 25 Magic resistance: 0 ⇒ 25 Base health regen: 100% ⇒ 0% Passive (unique): Point runner: Grants +30% bonus movement speed that build up over 2 seconds when near turrets. ⇒ Grants 25% bonus movement speed when running towards a turret (1,200 range).

item 3056 Ohmwrecker: I'd just change this item to make it a defensive option (as they tested on PBE this pre-season) by giving attack speed to a nearby turret. Health: 300 ⇒ 0 Armor: 50 Magic resistance: 0 ⇒ 50 Base health regen: 100% Passive (unique): Point runner: Grants +30% bonus movement speed that build up over 2 seconds when near turrets. ⇒ Grants 25% bonus movement speed when running towards a turret (1,200 range). Active (unique): Prevents nearby enemy towers from attacking for 3 seconds (120 second cooldown). This effect cannot be used against the same tower more than once every 8 seconds. ⇒ If casted near an enemy turret, prevents that turret from attacking for 3 seconds. If casted near a friendly turret, grants 100% attack speed to that turret for the same duration and causes that turret to deal splash damage on-hit (150 seconds cooldown).

item 3512 Zz'Rot portal: Just make that portal be useful. Currently has little use since the voidspawns will just die before reaching enemy minions no matter where you place it (if you place it where minions are now, they will just push that wave and they'll be unable to reach further waves. If you place it on another place, it will be useless). Armor: 50 Magic resistance: 50 Base health regen: 100% Passive (unique): Point runner: Grants +30% bonus movement speed that build up over 2 seconds when near turrets. ⇒ Grants 25% bonus movement speed when running towards a turret (1,200 range). Active (unique): Spawns a Void Gate at target location for 150 seconds. Every 4 seconds the gate creates a voidspawn that travels down the nearest lane, attacking enemy minions and exploding when attacking structures, but ignoring champions and void targets (150 second cooldown). These voidspawns do not die over time.

ZylotheWolfbane6 votes

The only problem I see with your Zz'Rot portal changes are the fact that once you get the item, you could literally drop the Portal on your own fountain and the voidlings would travel down lanes and push them, making it impossible for enemies to destroy the portal. Which is bad. The enemies need to be able to destroy the portals. So having the voidspawn time out is one of the only ways to make it so an entire team doesn't just rush 5 Zz'Rot portals, put them in their fountain, and have all their lanes pushing all the time without even having to be in lanes. Maybe instead of making the voidspawn drain health over time, just make them disappear after X amount of seconds etc.? Make it enough time for them to go from one tower to the next, but not farther. So if you want to take deeper turrets you have to move the Portal closer and closer to enemy territory, making it easier for enemies to counter by finding it and destroying it.

Chromatic Eagle4 votes

Eh I use Ardent Censor. I use it a lot actually. The attack speed on ADCs takes turrets down faster.

Passionlip4 votes

When you have a team with Irelia, Zed, insertrandomADC and maybe a Nautilus and you play soraka it's pretty fun pressing R and watch them become all the more speedly.

Gaminon4 votes

I feel like there needs to be a recognition that strategic power on an item is worth far less than raw combat oriented stats or abilities.

For instance, compare Zz'rot and GA. Same raw stats, but GA is always going to give you it's benefit, regardless of where you're fighting or the lead up to the fight or anything else. Zz'rot only really pays off when you carefully set up a split push situation. While the items probably can probably be of equal value, they rarely are. The one that provides a constant benefit in any fight trumps the one that doesn't.

Items designed for certain strategies need to be a good item all the time if they're to ever see use, not just when you can set up the complex situation required by said strategy.

Tentacle Love4 votes

the raptor cloak and its family could be buffed to give bonus movement speed near dragon and baron, and around the wreckage of turrets... That might help out a bit and make them more useful later.

RiotRiot Reinboom28 votes

[{quoted}](name=Love Tentacle,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=YAYUikEO,comment-id=003d,timestamp=2015-02-23T22:22:49.743+0000)

the raptor cloak and its family could be buffed to give bonus movement speed near dragon and baron, and around the wreckage of turrets... That might help out a bit and make them more useful later.

Fun story: Raptor Cloak's Point Runner worked near dead turrets during 90% of its testing. We had a different change (You could Teleport to dead turrets) that had tech that kept turrets around as reference points for things such as this. We disabled that tech because of Teleport basically near the very end of its internal testing (it had a few other issues we found that we couldn't figure out by the time preseason rolled near). This also disabled Point Runner's "near dead turrets" effect. The result is the item came out much weaker than what we initially tested it at.

That is something I would like to restore. Point Runner is already only situationally good and should not get weaker as the game state advances.

ChimeiTekinaNasu2 votes

You mentioned Teleport also working on dead turrets with that tech. So when/if you restore that tech for Point Runner, are you also allowing Teleporting to dead turrets, or is the restoring of the tech only for Point Runner??

RiotRiot Reinboom9 votes

{quoted}

You mentioned Teleport also working on dead turrets with that tech. So when/if you restore that tech for Point Runner, are you also allowing Teleporting to dead turrets, or is the restoring of the tech only for Point Runner??

Nah, it's new tech.

Irelia Bot3 votes

It is sad because people actually defend these items

Suggest making wit's end like it was in season 2 (price between 2000 and 2200 but no MR shred) where it was fairly common on a fair number of champs in a match up vs a magic damage enemy and all the people come out saying it would destroy a teemo and kayle play style even though it would still be a solid pickup if it was like it was in season 2. Heck if it built into something better late game then it would have basically no down sides. FYI only like 4 champs can really make good use of wit's end in it's current state.

Some other items like Zeke's have their place on some comps. I have bought it in ranked games sometimes when having a team that is mostly AD say Irelia, Vi, Jinx, and Zed since it more then pays for itself much in the same way Black cleaver is better on heavy AD comps because reducing enemy armor is a team stat.

Twin shadows was a better item when it had MR since it at least provided something that other AP items did not. it lacks anything really making it worth getting over other items that are somewhat like it.

Sword of the Occult and mejai's soulstealer should honestly be deleted like Leviathan. RIP bravery games :'''(

Zephyr is actually a decent item just situational.

Banner of Command is likely to become more common in time since it now has a good build path finally and isn't just about having minions split push. It does not need to be buffed.

Rageblade doesn't have damage that many champs can use that effectively. It might need a full rework if it is to become something actually bought again.

Jungle Lux God4 votes

In my opinion, Twin Shadows is a bit better with the CDR and the extra AP, along with the ghost return active CD reduction.

It gives you a little bit more punch out of the item in the mid-late game, and the CDR lets you use your abilities more often.

Also, I think that when the new 120AP item comes out, this item will see a lot more play as part of a 'movespeed mage' kind of build.

Pyro4 votes

Twin shadows was a better item when it had MR since it at least provided something that other AP items did not. it lacks anything really making it worth getting over other items that are somewhat like it.

The problem with AP/MR items is a matter for entire new post.

Long story short, Athene's being weak causes Abyssal Scepter to warp the meta around double AP and favours close-ranged mages/assassins over long-ranged mages.

Abyssal Scepter is the best item for double AP comps and against double AP comps all at once. This is not good.

GuiltyGecko3 votes

item 2053 This item needs to give movespeed just around structures period. Even destroyed ones. Once towers are down currently, this passive becomes more and more useless.

item 3800 The active isn't as good as talisman. What you could do, is have them sure the same unique active. That way, this item could have a talisman effect, but you couldn't stack talisman actives on one champion.

item 3010 The passive, Valor's reward, needs to "transform" once you hit lvl 18. It's useless late game. Perhaps if it had an effect like "Gain 50hp & Mana over 5 seconds when you get a kill or assist" would make catalyst items more useful end game.

item 3023 IMO, the ghost are too slow in their travel speed toward their target. I suggest that ghost have more movespeed and/or add a third ghost to the active and rename the item spooky ghost ;)

item 3512 This item is too expensive. It's supposed to be for tanks, but if I am a tank I rather have another life. I think it should give different stats and be made into a support item instead. Also, the voidlings die too quickly imo.

item 3060 This item needs a QoL buff in that it needs to show you how much gold it has earned you from the promoted minion. Also, I think it needs to have a slightly lower cost. Maybe 2800?

Jungle Lux God3 votes

In my opinion, I think that some of these items have such a low pick rate because the items are new and players don't want to experiment with them. I think this is the case with Zz'rot portal and Ohmwrecker, as their stats are technically not bad, but players don't want to experiment with what they provide. I've used Ohmwrecker and Zz'rot portal a bit, and I think both have their place in the game, although Ohmwrecker is really bad if you are behind.

Other items are there to support playstyles that either cannot be supported or do not have the proper support to be good fits. Guinsoo's Rageblade is a good example of the latter: it wants to support a hybrid build, but hybrid builds are not currently viable right now because there are not enough items that can support a hybrid build. Poacher's Knife, on the other hand, is an example of the former: Poacher's Knife is designed to amplify counterjungling, but counterjungling is the kind of playstyle that cannot be supported because counterjungling is inherently a opportunistic play.

Other items are straight trash. Like Ardent Censor.

Then there are items that offer niche builds that not everyone uses. That is the case with Essence Reaver, as it sees play on blue build for infinite Muramana toggle procs, but other than that it really doesn't see play, as most ADC's have enough mana that as long as they don't spam their abilities, then they can keep their mana up for a long time, and don't need the mana regen.

Pyro2 votes

In my opinion, I think that some of these items have such a low pick rate because the items are new and players don't want to experiment with them.

I'd say it's the exact other way around. They got introduced, people experimented with them and found them underwhelming.

Other items are straight trash. Like Ardent Censor.

Censer isn't straight out trash - it's quite good on champions like Janna, Sona and Karma. It's just that all the alternatives are stronger for very little more gold.

Jungle Lux God2 votes

Censor has some champs that can use it, but you need a champ that can both use it and ally champs that can also use it well.

Censor is useless if you have a support that can use it but 4 other champs that don't care about its buffs.

This also doesn't mention that its other stats aren't great either. I can get Morellonomicon for only 200 extra gold to trade the movement speed for twice the CDR and AP, and that is a trade that I think anyone would make on any champ.

Gigahappytown2 votes

When sword of hte occult gave armor pen it was a okish snowball item ardent censor should give more ap and attacks speed

Ohmwrecker should stun targets based on how much armor health and magic resist they have

replace the 20 bonus on sword of the occult to give 30 armor pen but unusable by ranged champions

Pyro9 votes

Sword of the Occult used to give movement speed, not armor penetration.

TheRainInSpain2 votes

item 3060 Banner of Command

I feel like it's in a good place, though a buff to pets would be awesome.

item 3124 Rageblade

I think the problem is that it's a pretty big investment with a passive that really only works with two champions, namely Jax and Kayle.

item 3050 Zeke's Herald

The only kind of champion I would see this being advantageous on is a teamfighting AD carry, in particular a melee carry like Zed or Lee Sin. But the bonuses are lackluster and you can do far, far better with other items. This item is not designed for split pushers.

item 3091 Wit's End

I feel that it could potentially be pretty wonderful as part of an "On-Hit" offensive group, but it gets overshadowed by Armor Pen items, which are further overshadowed by Critical Hit items. Realistically, the only four champions I can see it working on are Teemo, Miss Fortune, Warwick, and Diana.

item 3023 Twin Shadows

I can actually see a use for it, but not as a mid laner's item. The reason? Mid lane is just too close to the action. Not, because mid lane champions would hate it. The point I think is to use it to sniff out and reveal champions who went MIA. There's no reason to do this as a mid laner, regardless of your champion. Whether you went Rumble mid or Syndra mid, neither would benefit at all because of how close battles are to the mid lane. But to an AP split pushing top laner ... Ahem, like Teemo, this is a great item. Should have been a 5v4 in the mid lane? People go MIA? The active will figure out if you have enemies incoming.

item 3504 Ardent Crescent

I think a really good niche for it would be to allow it to turn your AOE spells (Morgana Dark Pool) into pseudo-healing spells. However it's incompatible with Mikael's Crucible somehow.

item 3172 Zephyr

As people said, it's a luxury item. I don't think the tenacity is used much considering any AD user who gets it also normally gets blown up instantly. Maybe I could see Volibear or Irelia using it, but only after their core builds. In my opinion, it could be given a niche where instead of tenacity, it gives passive health regen based on your movement speed. I could see it then being used on some fast moving AD users. Blinks, dashes, and jumps do not count.

item 3508 Essence Reaver

This item NEEDS a secondary build path, rather than a straight up BF Sword route. I personally think that it should build out of a pickaxe, like Ravenous Hydra, so you can move more power into the secondary item. The niche I think Essence Reaver should occupy is with high powered AD auto attack champions that rely on mana, but have very limited mana pools. A Tear/Muramana is too cost inefficient for their small pools. Maybe as a second item, though.

SpecterVonBaren2 votes

{quoted}

item 3050 Zeke's Herald

The only kind of champion I would see this being advantageous on is a teamfighting AD carry, in particular a melee carry like Zed or Lee Sin. But the bonuses are lackluster and you can do far, far better with other items. This item is not designed for split pushers.

Hhm, What if they made it so the aura effected minions as well? Then it would be useful even on supports that don't benefit from ad since it could help you push a wave. Buy Banner of command and Zeke's and you have the ultimate splitpush support.

BastionKross2 votes

item 3056 would be pretty decent if by the time you put it together in the average build the only turrets left weren't the nexus/inhibitor turrets and their patented tickle cannons.

item 3060 (and by extension the item 3256 enchantment) used to affect pets and were picked for that purpose. Now that they don't, who's this item for? Maybe if the upgraded siege minion could 1v1 a turret and force someone on the other team go stop it it'd be great.

item 3050. Hello AD support item. How many AD supports are there, two or three? How many are meta? None. I think I can figure out the low pick rate here.

item 3512. Finally an item that gives both armor and MR designed just for tank champs. Too bad tanks are struggling right now and people are using bruisers instead.

item 3504 item 3023. Oh yeah, the luxury support items. Surely supports are just rolling in gold so they can buy these items all the time, right?

item 3172 is the marksman's seventh item. If a game ever goes long enough for the marksman to reach full build and consider selling their boots for this item, they're probably going to win anyway.

item 3124. Are you Jax? Are you Kayle? If you answered no to both questions, chances are you can't make this item gold efficient enough to justify buying.

item 3091. I'll let the man himself say it. Warwick Sorry baby, I know we've been together for a while, but I've found someone new.

item 3508 is the AD item that grants some relief from mana issues. item 3042 had a monopoly over that slot, but some champs just can't stack that item 3070 fast enough. This item promised an alternative, but then doesn't actually help your mana sustain until the item is completed.

youngjake931 votes

{quoted} item 3060 (and by extension the item 3256 enchantment) used to affect pets and were picked for that purpose. Now that they don't, who's this item for? Maybe if the upgraded siege minion could 1v1 a turret and force someone on the other team go stop it it'd be great.

A baron+banner siege minion can take down a turret while you just defend it 5v5. It stands out of range of the turret and anyone that can auto it while being immune to spells..

BastionKross2 votes

Any tactic that relies on you having baron buff probably isn't reliable enough to seriously consider. Now if the upgraded cannon minion had it's attack range boosted so it can attack the tower without being fired upon without baron buff, then yeah it might be worth dedicating an item slot to.

Chaotic Reks2 votes

You've never seen a Hecarim with all item 3172s

Sirsir9 votes

Nope, cuz he pops like a grape

Rasv5 votes

I like grapes.

qetzel2 votes

http://www.elophant.com/league-of-legends/items/win-rate

Some of these are easily eplainable - you don't buy Mejai's when losing, for example, but every item you mentioned has a >50% winrate. What does that mean for your analysis?

Banner of command sits at a 54.99 wr - the lowest of these items(!)

This suggests that they don't need buffs at all - like Janna about 5 patches ago. She was OP all along, but nobody bothered with her.

Pyro1 votes

every item you mentioned has a >50% winrate

Sorry, bro, but you're failing at analysis. Did you happen to notice that none of the completed items in the game have lower winrate than 50%? ALL completed items have 50%+ winrate. Only items with lower winrate than 50% are the incomplete ones.

And, while you're bringing up Banner, there are actually only 11 completed items with lower winrate, and over 50 (I'm not counting the boot enchantments) with higher.

Then, there's the whole fact that this data is most likely garbage, as the list doesn't even contain the new items (Righteous Glory, Zz'Rot Portal).

qetzel6 votes

Good point, I retract my post. I should have spent more time thinking.

Pyro4 votes

Holy shit, a reasonable disputant! :D Not thinking, though, just observing ;)

kunkudunk2 votes

Essence reaver is good on champs that would rather have 10% cdr over 10% more life steal and who love infinite mana. Unfortunately this boils down to ezreal and sorta jayce or urgot. When ez gets this item, even if it isn't blue ez, he pretty much never has to go b unless he wants to shop and he is still just as survivable as he would be with BT since he goes so well with cdr from his q mechanic. Jayce is just mana hungry all the time, as is urgot, but urgot doesn't scale off of life steal as well anyway. Still, the item itself isn't bad, its just like runaans in the sense that only a few champs really use it well but those that do use it really well or at least well enough that it is a serious consideration.

logique2 votes

I was extremely disappointed in the voidling portal. First couple of times I used it I didn't realize my voidlings weren't even getting anywhere because they died before doing any damage. So the portal has to be set up really close by to be effective which means the opposing team doesn't even have to scout for it, its right there to be taken out. Finally the cooldown was so long, what was the point?

AMYS GRAVE2 votes

I actually buy several of these items, they are just situational and there is nothing wrong with that.

Señor Karthus1 votes

[deleted]

SpecterVonBaren2 votes

It instantly applies if you have full build. You don't need to sell your boots.

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