There is too much Cooldown Reduction in the game. These items should be changed. Here's why.
Trinity Force: As the core component of many Fighter and Skirmisher builds, Trinity Force is one of the main contributors to the Cooldown Reduction problem. It only got its 20% CDR in Patch 6.11 as compensation for the removal of its Critical Strike Chance and has granted half the cap to its buyers since, twisting their ability cooldowns around its existence. Reducing its CDR to 10% with appropriate compensation buffs won't affect those champions all too negatively balance-wise, as they have many more CDR item options that they naturally build or can choose to build for a certain tradeoff. It will, however, reduce the excessive amounts of CDR in the game and help create a healthier base to work up from when looking at Fighters in the future.
Suggested Changes: CDR 20% --> 10% | Attack Damage 25 --> 35 | Attack Speed 40% --> 33% | Cost reduced by 100 Gold | Build Path: Stinger --> Recurve Bow
Notes: The 10 Attack Damage comes from the 10 physical damage on-hit from Recurve Bow. The cost reduction serves to alleviate another problem of Fighter item costs being too high, and the Attack Speed nerf both looks nice on Trinity Force and helps keep the gold efficiency the same. Alternatively, the Attack Damage could be brought up to 30 and the Attack Speed could be left untouched. That keeps the gold efficiency the same as well, but it isn't as appealing to most of its buyers because Attack Damage is worth more than Attack Speed and lots of them have AD ratios and/or are spell based.
Edit: Another option is 33 Attack Damage and 35% Attack Speed.
Banshee's Veil: Banshee's Veil was reworked to its current Mage iteration as part of the Tank Update in Patch 7.9 with the reason that Tanks only bought it for its stat line, not its Spell Shield, and that carries would much rather have it as an item. And that makes sense. However, the item was given Cooldown Reduction as well, probably because Mages lost Abyssal Scepter and its stat line in the same Patch and wanted an item to replace it. Banshee's Veil is a much more ubiquitous item than Abyssal Scepter, though, and the focus of the item is on its Spell Shield first and its Magic Resistance second. Because of those points, Banshee's Veil shouldn't offer Cooldown Reduction. Adding it in order to make the item more enticing is the wrong way of doing that. You should return Banshee's Veil to something closer to its original, more affordable form. You could have it mirror the physical damage carries' Guardian Angel, for example.
Suggested Changes: Cost 3000 --> 2600 Gold | Build Path: Current --> Needlessly Large Rod + Null-Magic Mantle + Stopwatch + 300 Gold | Stats: 70 Ability Power, 10% CDR, 60 Magic Resistance --> 60 Ability Power, 40 Magic Resistance
Notes: If Banshee's Veil cost only 2600 Gold I could see Supports and possibly even Hybrid Marksmen buying it as a counter to Catchers like Blitzcrank, Thresh, and Morgana as well.
Abyssal Mask: Abyssal Mask creates a whole lot of problems as an item and should either be reverted back to Abyssal Scepter to improve Mage Itemisation in tandem with the Banshee's Veil changes, changed as a Tank item or just be removed. As a Mage item, Abyssal Mask acts as a knock-off Trinity Force for magic damage dealers that lacks mobility -- it offers offense, defense, unlimited Mana and Cooldown Reduction. As a Tank item, it does the same, which is much worse. Changing it back to Abyssal Scepter lessens the overall amount of Cooldown Reduction in the game because Abyssal Scepter is a niche item. Changing it as an item for Tanks by removing any one of its features and highlighting the others will automatically make it more niche and do the same. Just removing it removes a Cooldown Reduction item from the game. Overall, it's a win-win for health and balance.
Notes: I don't believe Tanks should have easy access to the Eternity passive. Long-term Mana sustain has historically been a weakness of their class and to overcome that there should be a trade-off (e.g. buying Rod of Ages, which lacks Resistances and CDR).
Duskblade of Draktharr: Pure AD needs to lose one source of CDR as well, imo, but I don't actually have much to justify that in this case. I guess Duskblade was introduced to be the high-damage option of the three Lethality items, but it no longer has that identity (see its Blackout passive). I just hope that if a Rioter ever reworks this item again they'll opt for a version that lacks CDR. Maybe someone else can give some thoughts on Duskblade? I lack the understanding of Assassins to do so.
If there are any other items you think should lose some CDR, I would be glad to hear why. Thanks for reading. Hope we can have a discussion about the topic.
