"Strategic Diversity"

HadesBlades··6 votes·490 views

So I don't work for Riot, I don't know why they decided to nerf Zhonya or why they decided to increase the cost of ap while decreasing its overall efficiency, one thing I do know is the recent post S@20 post has shown that items(all excluding ADC) are receiving nerfs.
Riot I will just give a few examples of what is wrong with these changes

  • Frozen Heart item 3110 Total Cost increased to 2800 from 2600- Not only was this item nerfed recently by reducing its armor but if you are going to usher in a new format of items that present grevious wounds and more efficient items to cut down tanks/juggernauts then I would presume you have some base buffs for tanks? I mean there is no reason for this item to be nerfed again, you are not only delaying an item for tanks but I think it is more heavily outclassed by other armor items e.g randuins(which I will say is going to be more important since so much Crit will be an even larger toxic issue now.)

  • Zhonya's Hourglass item 3157 - cost increased to 3200 from 3000 AP reduced to 80 from 100 Armor reduced to 45 from 50. Okay Riot I could understand 120 ap was a little to much and I get this item could be toxic if over buffed but.... WHAT IS THIS? AP mages already have a hard time as it is itemizing against ad assassins/comps. Not only are you reducing the armor but the ap as well? I don't understand why it's not like the recent AP itemization changes pushed every ap champ over the top, and its not like every ap mage, assassin can explode ADCs unless ahead. Katarina Akali Leblanc ones that posed a large threat and toxic format in pre-5 and parts of 5 but now you don't see them at all because they don't stand a chance vs the juggers/counter assassin mages mid. It will be a even harder time to do what assassins and burst mages do best when you introduce more life steal and stronger crits in items.

  • Tiamat item 3077 -Cost reduced to 1250 from 1900g Recipe now [Pickaxe + Rejuv bead] from [Pickaxe + Long Sword + Rejuv bead x2] AD reduced to 30 from 40 HP regen reduced to 50% from 100% Unique Passive - Cleave removed. So the cost is greatly lowered wooooo but I will just say this R.I.P the remaining khazix fanbase Khazix your isolation plays will be even harder if not impossible to achieve with these new itemization and nerfs to assassins.

Riot I remember you saying you wanted strategic diversity in the game. ADCs have been in 99% of the games because it is now a requirement to have one. These items are not benefiting other lanes or champions at all except for an even more dominate adc meta. If strategic diversity was you goal all along in season 5 I would have rather seen an AD itemization change than an AP one and then throw in Mage updates instead so we could see more champs diverse from bot and mid lane. I really just want some context on these changes. I know Riot is extremely busy and these changes are just a few to come but my god are these drastic.

Is anyone else concerned about this preseason or is it just me?

9 Comments

Silents4292 votes

While you thought about all these reasons for why you think you are right, did the new masteries occur to you by any chance?

dangopee1 votes

I'm just going to start doing marksman builds on every champion.

HadesBlades1 votes

Honestly the true crab god will rise again! Malzahar

Oopsie Bear1 votes

A lot of these new items are also going to be VERY good choices for single target assassins like zix. There are quite a few exciting items for him to pick from that I am extremely interested to play around with. For instance, the new essence reaver can stack up to 30% CDR just by adding crit to your build, which I'd be more than willing to try. I think rito understands just how powerful zhonya's is, and frozen heart is pretty powerful on quite a few champs. They're hard to put a value on when some are champions are just so amazing with them. Granted, this doesn't help justify SO MANY more defensive item nerfs, but ADCs have not been very fun to play for the past couple months. I really hope we can actually break the meta, and see adc's out of mid, top, or jungle. we'll see, but i think graves has a lot of jg potential, and corki and cait could be seen mid again.

HadesBlades1 votes

I would argue the opposite on a few points, lets take the essence reaver benefits. Khazix benefits much more from the black cleaver than he would Essence Reaver. For the sake of not over capping on CDR too much.

Compare the 2:

Black Cleaver - Health, ad, armor shred, 20% cdr, and move speed for doing damage.

Essence reaver- mana, ad, cdr, crit, (more crit from other items)

Khazix does not benefit from crit as much as he does flat ad stats, reasons why people build flat ad with armor shred is because his Q doesn't proc for crits and he really is only meant to jump in then right back out. Essence may help his mana hungry clear during the mid game but imo he doesn't need 30% cdr from one item considering I would think he has cdr in his runes/masteries, or a defensive item that brings cdr to the table. Personally I also I know it's not right to hurt immobile champs for the few mobile assassins that aceel with Zhonya. I get that the active is great and all but it really is only meant for the ones that don't have a blink or dash or protective escapes (e.g Morgana ) if Riot wanted to crete ways to reduce the use of this item they should be buffing offensive ap items rather than nerfing and increasing the cost of other AP items.

Oopsie Bear1 votes

please refer to my reply to the first comment. After reconsideration of the item I admit that's not a valid argument for zix, but a lot of the other AD items are.

BluePolarizer1 votes

it is terrible for assassins because these new items are expensive and involve BF sword, which bruisers and assassins usually can't afford to rush because they can't just sit in lane farming for the BF. If they have to back early and don't invest in stats like longswords, they'll fall behind an enemy who does. ADs can wait it out because they have a support peeling for them.

Oopsie Bear2 votes

Both BF AND new brutalizer have had their prices reduced. Furthermore, death's dance doesn't use a BF sword. Honestly if you look at the build paths, almost none of the new items that assassins would utilize build from BF.
Look at ghostblade, ravenous, maw, death's dance, mortal reminder/lord dominik's (granted a lot of these items aren't new, they have been altered to better benefit assassins). The only assassin item I might consider on zix with BF would be essence reaver, but even then since his abilities don't crit.. i probably wouldn't pick that up either.

xJLx MCHammer1 votes

With the new jungle monster in top lane, they need to have another adc for seige

More from Gameplay

More by HadesBlades