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Why was Atma's Impaler removed?

Deadly Mittens·11/26/2014, 6:29:58 PM·2 votes·4,333 views

Patch 4.20 notes

For a long time, Atma's has been one of my favorite tools for getting offense and defense on a character late game. When I found it removed with no alternative under the latest item changes I was quite surprised and wanted to hear Riot's reasoning on it. The patch notes leave two possibilities for why it was removed but I find both reasons unjustified.

Abusable in Edge cases (No explanations were provided for the items removed outside SotD and the only case I'd see for Atma's would be Sion but last I checked he wasn't an op champ)
A trap Item that's rarely effective. Late game even with no hp outside runes and masteries Atma's is cost efficient on most champs, and serves a unique role of providing offense and armor. Removing it because it's usually best built last hardly seems like a fair reason to call it a trap item to me.

Ultimately, I want some explanation/justification for why one of my favorite items was removed.

5 Comments

RazorTS11/26/2014, 7:36:31 PM3 votes

I miss Atma's, removal messed up my itemization on my favorite champions, I want armor, I want AD and I want CRITS

CenteredSelf11/29/2014, 3:52:41 AM2 votes

I wholeheartedly agree. I ran a couple of item sets that used Atma's as a key item for a good bruiser item. I wouldn't consider it a best or worst item, though everyone seemed to say why are you using it, and would like to hear what the idea was behind fully removing it.

Bad Luck Braum11/27/2014, 1:55:17 AM1 votes

Its still in Aram. idky

Kill Everybody11/30/2014, 1:47:59 AM1 votes

I too disagree with the removal of Atma's item 3005 . It was a key item for Sion , which is very lacking without it. I also built it many times on an AD carry when that enemy Vayne was just doing way too much damage with BotRK item 3153 on top of her Silver Bolts. Also Executioner's Calling item 3123 was a solid item that sometimes was able to get the job done. Not everyone wants to just build Recommended path all the time. While they were both situational items, they were both solid items in a build when they were optimal. I really feel that Avarice Blade item 3093 was what was trying to be hurt by their removal, now leaving only half of the items it once built into.

Commander Nami1/27/2015, 6:09:09 PM1 votes

There are three problems I have with the atma's removal.

The reasons riot gave are unjustifiable
There is no other item that does the same thing or something similar.
They are creating 'trap' items by removing it. To continue to reinforce Blaze of Heats argument, Atma's was a good item that tanks could build to give them armor and a little bit of damage. There are no items that give both armor and damage now while there are still items that give you Magic resist and damage.

You also can't say "...'trap' items that are rarely (if ever) the correct strategic purchase." when learning what items to build and when to build them are a necessity to win. It might be unintentional but by removing Atma's they have made other items the only goto for fulfilling certain needs. These items however give stats that are completely unnecessary. If i'm tanking and the enemy is mostly AD but we still need some sort of extra damage my goto would be atma's. However, with it gone my only options for that little extra damage would come from item 3156 but because the enemy team is mostly AD I don't need the magic resist. Additionally If the enemy team was mostly AP but i still needed armor and damage the atma's is the go to.

Lastly each role has a item cap so people have been able to compensate for that by buying items that fulfill two different needs at the same time. Each role can only do so much as well. ADC's can only output so much damage and tanks can only take so much damage. There has to be a way that the other roles are able to do something they aren't meant for while still being able to do what they need to. Meaning there needs to be a way that tanks can deal a little bit of damage and still tank. Or have ADC's be able to deal damage but still be able to tank a little bit.