It was one of the coolest niche items in the game, and offered a really fun alternate playstyle to a few champions. Isn't that the whole point of items? To offer different build paths other than "Assassins all build this one single core path," type of thing?
Why the balls was it removed??
Linna Excel5 votesNo one really cared about getting that much AS and I don't think people really liked the active either. It didn't really have a purpose for staying in the game by in large. You couldn't even call it a niche item because it was never commonly built on any champ.
chumbler5 votes[{quoted}](name=Linna Excel,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Z8zdJVvg,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2014-12-20T07:31:14.570+0000)
No one really cared about getting that much AS and I don't think people really liked the active either. It didn't really have a purpose for staying in the game by in large. You couldn't even call it a niche item because it was never commonly built on any champ.
The active was cool. It was just shackled to a terrible item when you could instead pick a much better item. The problem is Riot never bothered to make it good, then just said fuck it rather than do their goddamn job.
TehNACHO2 votesIt is not their job to make every item or concept good...
chumbler8 votesIt is not their job to make every item or concept good...
Yeah it uhhh... kinda is.
OJ1911 votesYeah it uhhh... kinda is.
I don't think you read that quite right
it most definitely is not riots job to make every item or concept good
that's like trying to say a potter should make pots of their own shit if they run out of clay, because it's their job to make pots
chumbler2 votesI don't think you read that right
it most definitely is not riots job to make every item or concept good
that's like trying to say a potter should make pots of their own shit if they run out of clay, because it's their job to make pots
Oh right, I forgot that Riot ran out of code. Your analogy fails (because you're an idiot who doesn't understand analogies), and it is, in fact, their job to make sure all champions and items in their game are good. Too bad that's not high on their priority list. It is the potter's job to make sure that the pots they make are all of good quality.
OJ1913 votesIt is the potter's job to make sure that the pots he makes are all of good quality.
If a pot is beyond saving they don't fire it anyway, they put it back into raw clay and try again.
And no that doesn't mean reworks, a rework would be taking a slightly wonky pot and fixing it.
as for the analogy, it wasn't meant to imply that riot can "run out of code" but that you don't make items out of shitty ideas. SotD active being one of those, because it was typically either useless or champion breaking. I honestly can't remember a single time that I saw it bought that it wasn't either a noob trap or completely broken.
edit: and I'm not even the one who downvoted you
chumbler4 votesRiot's reworks are more like taking a perfectly fine clay pot and throwing it off a cliff.
Narasimha3 votesBecause it was an edge case. It was either retardedly strong, (
, 
, etc), or no one flat out bought it. It would have been incredibly inefficient to waste resources on such an item, so the better option was just to scrap it.
Quepha3 votesrecently because you built it on sustain damage champions to make them feel like burst damage champs with resets but they still also have sustain damage so it's never viable without being completely broken, think of one time where someone had SotD on the enemy team and you thought anything between "haha why did he build that he's useless" and "oh my god this is dumb there's literally nothing i can do to not get blown up the instant i leave base"
Saevum2 votesThe executioner blade is the one im worried about. Mundo goes where he pleases.
SH Azykan5 votesthat one just needed something to upgrade into, it was perfect for so many matchups but lategame just wasn't slot efficient. Now AD's have no way to get grievous wounds applied for matchups like Mundo except ignite (which I dont run on top lane because tele is too important) =\
EndlessSorcerer1 votesIt might not be that bad. Ever since the changes to mana regen, a lot of mid laners are getting Morellonomicon as their first core item instead of Athene's Unholy Grail. It might not help that much during laning or duels, but you should at least have grevious wounds for teamfights.
doubleguac1 votesRiot purposely made it slot-inefficient due to how hard it counters certain champions. There had to be some drawback to completely screwing over mundo/swain/volibear for the entire game with no counterplay.
As soon as any anyone on the enemy team built a executioner blade, Mundo/Swain/Voli were pretty much going to be grievously wounded constantly in every single team fight from there on out.
Even morellonomicon only works at low health, and, only procs off abilities, which have longer CDs than auto attacks, and can often be dodged.
chumbler2 votesStart of the season and because they were too lazy to balance it/the champions who are good with it.
thePandev2 votes
Tuss2 votesI think they took it out because they were afraid of edge case exploits with it, such as the Rengar one, happening with any new champs they plan on releasing or mechanics they were gonna change etc.
Troy2426211 votesShame such a cool item got removed, it was really fun. Guess they had to make way for the same old generic stat sticks >_>.
Tabs1 votesBecause someone got killed by a Rengar with Swotd and cried about it
Junkο1 votesRiot didn't want Twitch to be viable
NeoScout1 votesno more awesome AD malphite :( , or SoTD Mundo when stomping hard...
TheKingDodo1 votesRiot wants to delete champions slowly so they can capture it on camera in the LCS.
Robert Smith1 votesI used this item on Master Yi and could safely kill without my ult everytime. I used it on Zed as I Ulted to make my Ult more effective. The item was very strong on Assassins. If they removed the reset that may have been enough but that item alone when successfully used made me snowball quicker than before. I didn't build any other crit item cause that was all I needed. I will miss it but the item was OP as it was and maybe they took it out because they are planning on reworking it but can't leave it in