AP Assassin Itemization

I have to say, I really like the changes Riot has made to AD items in terms of separating the items meant for sustained damage dealers like ADCs and Fighters from the items clearly meant for Assassins. While there have been issues with abuse, these issues have been mostly do with numbers and not with the items being broken in concept.

However, even though the AD items received another overhaul with the Assassin update, making them less appealing to ADCs and Fighters and more appealing to AD Assassins there has been no work done on AP Assassin items. While AP Champions have a pretty large selection of items to choose from, the only one that could be argued as meant for AP Assassins is Luden’s Echo, which is useful on almost every AP champion. I thought it would be fun to do some work on Magic Penetration in general, as well as introducing some AP Assassin specific items. Please note that all numbers and names are subject to change, just having some fun.

% Penetration Items

Void Stone (NEW ITEM) Stats: AP, Unique Bonus Magic Penetration (think the new Last Whisper items) recipe: Amp Tome Commentary: I really like the concept of ‘baby items’ like Bami’s Cinder and the new Last Whisper, so I thought I’d make one for the %Pen items.

Haunting Guise (REWORK) Stats: Health, AP (Flat Penetration removed) New Passive: When you damage an enemy champion with an ability, you apply a bleed to them, dealing 1 (+1 per level) (+2.5% AP) magic damage per half second. The duration of this bleed is based on the applying ability: Single Target abilities apply the bleed for 4 seconds for a total of 8 (+8 per level) (+20% AP) magic damage. AoE abilities apply the bleed for 2 seconds for a total of 4 (+4 per level) (+10% AP) magic damage DoT abilities apply the bleed for 1 second, refreshed each time the DoT damage is applied Recipe: Amp Tome + Ruby Crystal Commentary: Flat penetration doesn’t really make sense on this item since it builds into an item that deals percent damage, so I turned it into a baby Liandry’s. The numbers are just place holders, they will probably need a lot of tuning.

Liandry’s Torment (REWORK) Stats: AP, Health, %Bonus Magic Penetration (Flat Penetration removed) New Passive: When you damage an enemy champion with an ability, you apply a bleed to them, dealing 1 (+0.5% AP)% of the enemy’s current HP or 1 (+1 per level) (+2.5% AP) magic damage per half second, whichever is greater. The duration of this bleed is based on the applying ability: Single Target abilities apply the bleed for 4 seconds for a total of 8 (+4% AP)% of the enemy’s current HP as magic damage AoE abilities apply the bleed for 2 seconds for a total of 4 (+2% AP)% of the enemy’s current health as magic damage DoT abilities apply the bleed for 1 second, refreshed each time the DoT damage is applied Recipe: Haunting Guise + Void Stone Commentary: I changed Liandry’s into a sort of sister item for Void Staff. Liandry’s is supposed to be used by sustained damage mages, while my new Void Staff is better on bursty champions. Think champions like Brand, Vladimir, and Swain vs champions like Veigar, Lux, or Annie. In relation to the current item’s passive damage it is equal when no cc is applied to the target, lower if there is cc applied, and can now scale with AP. It also has minimum damage like BotRK, so that’s nice.

Void Staff: (REWORK) Stats: AP, %Bonus Magic Penetration (%Total Magic Penetration removed) Active: Increase your AP by 15% for 3 seconds. 90 second cooldown. Decreased by 10 seconds every time you kill an enemy champion or get an assist within 1.5 seconds of damaging them Recipe: Void Stone + Deathfire Wand (new item, will explain in a bit) Commentary: As I said, new Void Staff is supposed to be used by Burst Mages. The numbers need a bit of tuning of course, but I think this is a good way to separate the two main types of mages. That being said, increasing AP is a bit to general and maybe something else should be done.

Flat Penetration Items

Bandit’s Band (NEW ITEM) Stats: AP, Flat Magic Penetration Recipe: Amp Tome Commentary: Basically the AP equivalent of Serrated Dirk, without the Movespeed.

Deathfire Wand (NEW ITEM) Stats: AP Active: Increase your AP by 10% for 3 seconds. 90 second cooldown. Commentary: Pretty straight forward situational steroid.

The Mark (NEW ITEM) Stats: AP, Flat Magic Penetration Active: Target an enemy champion, and mark them after 1 second for 5 seconds. If you get a kill or assist on the enemy champion while they are marked you gain a stack of ‘Marked’. For every stack of ‘Marked’ your AP is increased by 4%. You can only gain a stack from an enemy champion once (effectively capping the bonus at 20% increased AP outside of featured game modes). 90 second cooldown. Recipe: Bandit’s Band + Deathfire Wand Commentary: Yes the name is pretty dumb, and I know how much you all LOVE stacking mechanics. I really like this item because it’s a sort of investment; you’re losing the guaranteed 10% AP steroid from Deathfire Wand in exchange for the possibility of 12,16, or 20% increased AP. I prefer this item to Mejai’s because it discourages farming the same champion over and over, which isn’t fun for anyone.

Wanderer’s Cloak (NEW ITEM) Stats: AP, Flat Magic Penetration, Percent Movespeed Passive: Every time you get a kill against an enemy champion or get an assist within 1.5 seconds of damaging a champion you gain a stack of ‘Wanderer’. For every stack of ‘Wanderer’ your move speed is increased by 10, reduced to 5 when in combat. You can only gain a stack from an enemy champion once (effectively capping the max move speed gained by 50 out of combat and 25 in combat, outside featured game modes) Recipe: Bandit’s Band + Aether Wisp Commentary: Yay more stacking mechanics. Nothing much to say here, I think the item’s pretty easy to understand.

Raider’s Gospel (NEW ITEM) Stats: AP, Unique Flat Magic Penetration Passive: When you get a kill or an assist within 1.5 seconds of damaging a champion you gain 10 (+2% AP)% of your missing Health and Mana over 2 secnods. This passive has a 5 second cooldown. Recipe: Bandit’s Band + Blasting Wand Commentary: I do think all champions should have ways of surviving in combat, but I don’t think it’s healthy for Assassins to do this just by not taking damage. Giving them a super Dangerous Game rewards them for doing their job, while simultaneously allowing other players to punish them for making a mistake.

TL; DR I feel like AP Assassins don’t really have unique itemization, so I made some. I also played around with % Magic Penetration.

Please feel free to comment, I’d love to hear what everyone’s opinion is on these proposed changes!