Detailed Preseason-Feedback Part 1: Items
I desided to share some thoughts on the preseason, now after i had 1 patch time to make my experience and refine my stance on the chances. i won't focus to much on balance, as balance always is off duering preseason, and riot usually does a good job restoring it towards end of preseason by simple number tuneing. I try to focuse more on issues that reach a bit deeper and are usually not solved by tweaking some numbers, as those are the things that riot nearly never changes once they hit pbe...
It's alot content, so i decided to split it up on serveral posts, hopefully allowing for somewhat sorted discussions fousing on one bigger theme. waring, huge wall of text incomeing!(TL;DR at the end) This is Part 1: Items, here are th links to the other parts: Part 2: Marksmen Part 3: Masteries Part 4: Miscellaneous
Table of Contents:
- Items 1.1 new items 1.2 reworked/changed items 1.3 removed items 1.4 general item changes
- Marksmen 2.1 Caitlyn 2.2 Corki 2.3 Graves 2.4 Kogmaw 2.5 Miss Fortune 2.6 Quinn 2.7 other marksmen
- Masteries 3.1 Generall Impression 3.2 Ferocity 3.3 Cunning 3.4 Resolve 3.5 Missing Masteries
- Miscellaneous 3.1 Tower 3.2. Vision 3.3. Gold 3.4. Jungle 3.5. Other Stuff
- Conclusion for preaseason
#Items:
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New Items:
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Refilable Potion: after the recent buff, refilabe seems like a decent starting item for anyone who needs aditionaly sustainfor the entire laneingphase. However, the fact that you can't buy aditional pots screws that item. What should be a 'save' option becomes risky and more off a snowball purchase for dominant laners, as the weaker part of the lane needs normal pots to stay alive most of the time. That i doesn't profit much from the 'Secret Stash' masterie compared to normal pots is another problem. -
Corrupting Potion: Shares most of it's problems with Refilable Potion, aditionally it just seems like a nerfed flask, it costs far more, gives only 60hp more over all uses, and less mana. The dot is hard to notice and simply doesn't make up for the not that great sustain. -
Claulfield's Warhammer: A sub for Brutalizer, but not nearly as effective as a rushed item. Nice to smooth out some builtpaths though. -
Cull: seems a bit weak right now. I guess it's intendet to be a starting item for those who just want to farm up, so it's not really suited for the current fast paced meta, which might be a reason for why it seems weak. However, it also seems like a clearly weaker option compared to longsword+pots, haveing a far weaker early withonly little payoff mid-late. It gives way to less sustain to be a save option, and not enough reward to warrant the risk.
Pruposed change:
Lowering the price to 400, removeing the ad, increase the health on hit to 5, add 10bonus damage vs minons
This would allow a second potion while adding more sustain, improve farming, and it becomes an option for anychamp rather than ad only ad -
Death's Dance: Finaly a 'spellvamp' option for ADs, but i'm not 100% sure if it's worth useing. The stats it provides for the costs aren't that great, and the sustain it offers feels pretty weak, mostly because of the remaining problem that spellvamp is really unstatisfying on aoe unless you face a huge minionwave. the 12% damage delay cserrtainly is a nice thing, but i'm not sure if it's worth it. For melees, hydra seems the far superior option, and for ranged BT/Mercurial seem way better(exept for urgot). I thik the most important thing to help out that item would be finding a new approach on lifesteal vs multi targets, the 'reduce to 33%' simply sucks. -
Eyes: I like the idea off different wardstone options, however, i do not feel like it's worth skipping the powerfull gp/10-actives for that, atleast for talisman and frostqueen. -
Giant Slayer: I don't really like that item. The fact that it's based on max hp **difference **punishes you for buying defensive items or even getting a lulu ult, not only you but also every opponent...that item neither feels good to use nor to play against imo. -
Hunters Potion: Just like the other refliables, it has a lot of issues, it's only usefull you need the aditional sustain AND can fully first clear with refilable rather than 3 pots(which limits the number of potential users a lot. A big issue for it is that you need 600g on your first back to really use it, as you need your second jungleitem for the aditional xp, and a smite/ward upgrade would only cost 100 more gold, which usually is the better option at that point.
The sustain it offers once you have it is quite nice though, on a full clear(4camps+1scuttler), it gives 600hp and 350 mana, not massive but cetainly alot for 400g -
Jaurim's Fist: A nice little adition to smooth out the builtpath of 3 items that were realy ankward to get beofre, i like it.(though i often run around with a giants belt and con't upgrade it into any of the items i wanted to^^) -
Kircheis Shard: nice gimmick if you plan on getting shiv/rfc and have to back with not enough gold, but nothing more. -
Rapid Fire Cannon: I like that tem, the idea off a one-time increased-range attack aswell as bonus nuke vs towers is certainly nice, it filss a unique niche. However, i don't think its good that it stacks with Shiv, it simply feels wrong that stacking two as/crit items gives you the highest burst vs buildings...kinda adding a thired one with trinity... -
Serrated Dirk: Probably meant as a substitute for Brutalizer, but not nearly as effecktive as early rush item for most champs. Pretty nasty on a few that can really abuse the wired passive like pant or MF -
The Dark Seal: a starting snowball item...i hate it. I don't understand why Meja's and Sword of the Occult haven't been removed in the same patch as leviatan. Those snowball items just don't add anything healthy for the game. But hey, lets start the fun at lvl 1 and put even more focuse on getting kills rather than takedowns... -
Trackers Knive: kinda a jungle-sightstone. I really like that item, but i fear that it pushes other options aside, vision is just to important to pass up on that.
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Reworked/Changed Items
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boots: I like most of the changes that have been done to the various boots, but not all. The nerfs to Mercurys seem pretty hard, 15% tenacity really makes a big difference for them. The changes to cdr-boots are great in generall, but together with the masterie changes they leave cdr-runes in a bad spot(no other source of 5/15 cdr) and really hurt mage cdr options.
Maybe it's a personal opinnion, but i feel like boots off swiftness are no superior to boots of mobillity, they nearly give as much out of combat ms due ms-softcap, but allow for far more in combat mobillity. -
Essence Reaver: For me, they reaved it's essence. The changes to this item are easily the most horrible changes i ever witnessed. I used ER as a rush item on ad-casters, mostly for builts that do NOT use crit! It was key for playing alot champs without relying on RNG, it was a great rush item with a strong early-mid spike, not only for adc. It had some flaws, but in it's core it was a great item, and it allowed you to truly focus on a champions kit.
Now it's a twisted abominations, serveing the dark RNG-Lords. Not only that it fpr some ungodly reason has crit it'self, not only that it for some unholy reasons forces you to buy another crit item(soon to be 30% and thus a dps rather than caster item), no, the damn manasustain is also bound to RNG now...
[zombie-nunu-tears]
i can't express how massivly disgusted I am looking at what this item has become -
Executioners Calling: Yeay, return of ad-GW. For everyone. Permanently. Seriously, GW always was a delicate thing to balance, and i thought all came to the conclusion that it needs to be a lower % to be balanced around(40% imo is still to high), AND it should not be applyed with no conditions!
But hey, let's have the effect proc on ALL physical damage with no downtime or conditions for 3(5) sec, that sure will be easy to balance![zombie-brand-facepalm] now it either has shity stats and no one buys it, or the stats are decent and selfhealing reliant champs beginn their endless suffereing...and hey, gw only works vs self heal now, cause fuck clearity. -
Fost Queen's Claim: That new active is just awsome, and the increased mana regen is exactly what it needed. That really was a great change. -
Guinsoo's Rageblade: probably the biggest balance issue this pre-season. WAAAAAAAAAY to much stats/gold, and mostly focused on splitpushing. While splitpushing, you can easily beginn a trade/all in with max stacks, imnidiatly makeing use off all the stats, and the combination of stats+passive usually massivly favours 1v, atleast for melees.
In teamfights, it actually is nearly balanced despite proviing a metric ton of stats for little gold, as you often start at 0 stacks, and AA-dps usually isn't as usfull in a teamfight for melees, especially with no def-stats, as you will get klited, cced and eat alot of damage. If a melee with little def stats manages to survive till it's fully stacked in a teamfight, he kinda deserves to oneshot people left and right as a reward.
They need to fins a way to make it more usable in teamfights, but less opressing 1v1. if you lane vs a guinsoo's user, you know it's time to leave lane and roam the map as soon as he finishes his rageblade, as you have no chance to stand you ground 1v1 anymore. -
Hextech Gunblade: Finally affecting all damage is great, and the changes to the active should open it up for more champs, but it still is hardly a desirable purchase. The only reason it sees play is the huge synergie with rageblade, which is simply broken atm. i think the main problem for this item is rooted in how vamp works on aoe(just like death's dance). picking it up on anyone who does not focus on singletarget just doesn't feel good. -
Iceborn Gauntlet : I'm not really a big fan of the changes, sure, finally 20% cdr is nice, but i miss the ap on many users, and as a defensive item it still kinda sucks, 65 armor with no health to beack it up is pretty poor, and the ustillity only cuts it if you get some aditional armor items, which really limits your built path. Usually if i go went for gauntlet, it was a single armor item(+ninjas) on a bruiser, and it simply doesn't feels very statisfying as such looking at the armor ratio... -
Last Whisper : i really don't like that change. It doesn't feel great to get despite clearly doing it's job, and most people are very hesitant to get it. But once it is bought, buying armor items seems like a waste of mony for the opposition. like yeay, i can spend 2.8k for 60 effective armor with a FH...i'd prefer the BC approach for %pen, needing to stack it up. This would force people to actually focuse a target over some time to cut through it's armor, so you can have it some what balanced(old LW clearly was broken) without haveing it feel like shit vs squishys as the %bonus-armor does. -
Maw of Malmortious: Prettymuch the only item rework that i really like. The new lifegrit pasiive really works well together with the shield, makeing it effective enough even without stacking MR. If it ever needs a buff, i'd like an increase of the spellvamp/lifsteal, drain tanking at the brink of existance is really statisfying. -
Mercurial Scimitar: TBH, i don't know why anyone would feel the need to buff that item, especially with lifesteal. We saw QSS geting bough as 3ed item on prettymuch any adc at worlds/IEM, often even on midlane mages. that active is stupidly powerfull, there is no need to add massive stats on it. -
Phantom Dancer: not sure if i like it, it switch from THE dps item into a dueling item, giving carrys some stupid surivabillity in a 1v1, while also makeing certain melee-carrys pretty damn broken. -
Runaan'S hurricane: just like ER, i have nothing but pure hatred and disgust for this rework. What once was the backbone of on-hit and/or lifesteal centric builts has now become part of the unholy RNG-machinery. to be clear about this, i have no problem with new runaan's existing, nor with ER, i have a problem with old Runaan's and old ER not existing anymore. **It prettymuch takes away all posibillitys to built marksmen without crit.[zombie-nunu-bummed]
** -
Statikk Shiv: After the latest change, it's a nice item now. slightly less dps that runaan's or PD, but great waveclear and some aoe burst, giving it a well defined niche. If it wouldn't stack with rfc, we ctually would have 4 nice crit+as options that each have their specific niche. But with those two stacking, they seem to be the better choice at any point. -
: same problem as the last time it changed: it becomes sup-optimal for one group of champions that once loved it, but strong on another group that occasionally took it. for most juggernauts/bruisers, it's now a raw snowball item. it costs to much gold and gives to little tankiness, hurting the teamfighting potential alot, while offering more damage to decimate you lane opponent. Therefor it has become better as for ad-casters/assasins.
But why not give it the hydra solution? A blackcleaver building out of a kindlegem, giving 500 hp and 40 ad, and a white cleaver useing the current builtpath, giving 60 ad and 250 hp? -
Trinity Force: A item for spellveavers, built from a bruiser, a carry and assasin item, giving 30ad, 30as and 30ap, the holy tirnity of off-stats..or well, thats what it used to do, but just as ER and hurricane, it was slaughtered in the name of crit and has risen as a marionet of the all consumeing darkness known as RNG. I'm just honestly supprised that the spellblade effect didn't get a crit scaleing...
[slayer-jinx-unamused]
And just as ER, it was the backbone of many ad-caster/spellweaver builts that didn't go for crit. The most logical aproach would have been to change stinger to 30% as and 5% ms and slightly lowering the price (building out of two daggers that combined give 24%as, that would be a posibillity for stinger) and replace zeal with it, giving cdr rather than crit. Or leave stinger at 40% as and screw the 30/30/30 part for the sake of balance, but don't defile it with crit!
Also, i don't like new sheen, it hurts the early of alot of it's users, as it is picked up for burst, not sustained damage, so loosing ap for cdr isn't great. I like the cdr on lichbane though, but i would still prefer old sheen. -
Wit's End: The answer is **42 **! Riot: Actually, we think the asnwer is 40. [zombie-brand-facepalm]
I could understand skipping the refference for balance reasons, but the ifference between 40 and 42 is just negligible for balance.
Aditionally, Wit's is one of that least pirchased items, people generally have agrred that it's rather bad. So why on earth would you increase the cost and nerf the stats?!? -
Yomuu's Ghostblade: The second item rework that i actually like. Replaceing the crit with more ad made it finally a good item for ad-casters. Maybe it's slightly overpriced right now(ad-casters perform poorly as a class right now, so buffing their items a bit probably wouldn't be the worst idea) , but the direction is great.
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Removed Items
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Flask/manapotions: i can actually understand the reasoning behind rmoveing those, but the compensation was poorly executed so far, leaving alot to be desired for everyone who needs mana and doesn't use Dorans Ring. A new dorans that offeres some mana for ad champs would have been great.
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Stealthwards: just as with mana potions, i can understand and acutally support that decision, but the compensation changes have been really poor so far.
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Zephyr: a rarly seen item, but it had it's place, in the game aswell as in my heart It's really sad to see it gone, i don't think it would have been all that hard to put some work into it to make it overall a bit more appealing, i miss it.[zombie-nunu-bummed]
-** Sword of the occult**: I'm happy that it's gone, but it's still a questionable decision. Why remove SotO but keep meja's? I can't find a reasonable explanation to kick one, but not the other. Good job on consistency*[zombie-brand-clap]*
-General Item Changes:
As most have noticed, fully upgradet item have generaly become more expensive, apparently because the overall goldflow has been increased. However, i feel like it did hurt some groups more than others, and generaly the cost increase was bigger than the gold-gain increase.
Adc-items seem to be hardly affected, IE costs less, as/crit costs as much as allways, Mercurial costs less, vampiric is a better standalone item, LW can be picked up for little gold, only the fully upgradet Lifesteal items(exept mercurial) have been hit by the cost increase. Yes, AD and AS have been reduced overall, but crit has been increased aswell as cdr, leading to a very small overall loss in dps, as well of a higher focuse on raw rightclick power rather than champion kits.
Armor items in general have become weaker ever sicne the juggernaut patch, but that seems ok given the LW nerfs. However, the armor+lw changes add to the naturally strong midgame spike of tanky champs and the hard fall-off for anyone who relys on tanking damage. The buffst to mr are probably a respons to the armor nerfs, trying to keep tanks somewhat potent and adressing the fact that voidstaff wasn't changed. however, that makes tanks quite snowbally vs ap heavy comps, as one mr item already gives insane effective hp vs magic damage. In nearly every season so far, mr was a bit weaker than armor, cause you had to deal with far more physical damage than magical, this is the first time mr items are actually more efficient.
For mages, the gold cost increase hit's them for sure harder than adc, but it's not that bad. however, what hits em hard is that lack of cdr options. i also think RoA is grossly overpowered, or would be if it wasn't for the faster gamepace that crews scaleing builts.
AD-casters are jsut roaly screwed right now. They were balanced around the Brut+LW powerspike, snowballing from there. Now they need WAY longer to spike and fall off as hard as ever, they are no longer worth the risk right now.
Ap-supports generally did profit alot from item changes, few of their items have become more expensive, and the frostqueen's buffs were massive.
Coin users therfor got a huge slap into the face. I personaly don't use it anymore, without the ms, it simply does offer to little stat wise even though the active still is great, and the alternative, frost Queen'S, is jsut really great atm.
I think the jungle item changes are also a good idea, talisman just is a bit undertuned right now(probably still even after the buff) i feel like i have more mana issues than ever, so thats clearly a point where talisman could use a buff.
It also seems like the more expensive full-upgradet items lead to harder snowballing, as item powerspikes are harder to reach and thus more meaningfull.
Aditionally, it's VERY odd to me that crit-builts, a stat that purely focuses on enchanceing AAs, have the best and easiest acces to CDR and manasustain, while tanks and ad-casters have no real options for mana sutain and only very few for max mana, while tanks mages are incredible limited in terms off cdr...
Overall, there is only one thing i really dislike about the itemchanges, but therefor that disguts my more than any other change i have witnessed as a gamer: We are forced into crit! There is no way to built any adc effectivly without crit atm, all the 3 items that were core for no crit builts have been changed into crit items. if you play ad, there is no way to escape the RNG.
TL;DR:
- Most new items are great and only need some fine tuneing
- Most reworks should have been new iems instead, they take away to much important things. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to much focus on crit
- The discrepency between classes isn't as bad as i thought when i first read the changes, but it still is there, adc profiting compared to mages, tanks and assains, but the difference isn't as big. Ad-casters are in a poor spot.
- Goldcost to goldgain ratio has been slightly increased, combined with the faster gampace, this means you rarly very get to reach your endgame fantasy(if you have one that is, endgame still sucks for off tanks and ad-casters)
- Guinsoo's is the onyl real outliner, most other items are pretty blanced (for preseason), but guinsoo's is absurd, nearly balanced in teamfights, but an abomination 1v1.
