Itemization overhaul series: AP item rebalance idea's

AP itemization is a bit lacking right now and it could use some tweaking, there are definitely some very good items out there but also a lot of bad ones and some with a toxic design element. This thread is aimed at suggesting changes to a few items to make them less awkward to build and play with or play against as well as giving mages some better late game options as well. i will certainly not touch on every single item as some are fine imho and for some i do not have a proper solution

But let's start with 2 very very common items, these are changes i would like to see happen, but only if mages gain access to better itemization in general. These two are the most overpowered mage items, they are never a bad buy and therefore seen in pretty much every game that has mages in them. I do not have much problems with these items though, mages like every class need some solid staple items but perhaps we can do something to make these a bit better, though not with straight buffs, But with some changes, i do have an idea of what these changes should be but i think they might be a bit controversial and i will possibly add those changes later.

Edit One of the thing is wanted to change about voidstaff is to give AP champions, mages mainly, a specific strength. I would change the % pen to flat pen And give it a new unique passive which allows your magic spell damage to bypass shields

This would accomplish 2 things mainly, makes mages a lot stronger vs squishy targets but weaker vs tanks. Gives a potentially bigger mid game spike

Specific kit alterations will leave certain mages potent vs high defense targets where it makes sense, for example Cassiopeia could gain both flat and % shred on her poison or at least on the poisons Or azir's would ignore some magic resist scaling with levels in ultimate. Stuff like that. Creating more diverse strengths and thus more diverse picks.

Anyway these aren't the important changes right now

**Now on to what i would change first, before touching any of the strong mage items, and make some of the current awkward items a lot more use able or less toxic ** is a bit bad right now, it kept it's toxic permanent slow It basically invalidates melee's without mobility The slow should have a cool down on it, and apply only once per spell to prevent dot abuse, and even then it would still be kinda shitty to play against for many melee's. As compensation to the item the hp should be increased and the AP lowered. Possibly it could have flat regen, not %base regen since mages have shit regen, instead of increased hp as additional defense

The item should be focused on defense/utility and as such have lower ap but better defensive stats, making it a strong defensive option and better suited for AP bruisers as well

My solution would be to reduce the ap to 60 and either increase the hp to 500 or give it a flat 25hp/5

The next item i think is really awkward

It's allover the place, with the % damage and flat pen and hp it's doing a little bit of everything without being great at anything and it requires the a fore mentioned Rylais for maximum effectiveness

Perhaps this item should lose it's % damage in favor of a new bleed effect which works fine as a stand alone

The new bleed would do a % of your AP as damage over time and grant increased movement towards that target similar to what does

Would make for a good utility option for mages and ap assassins as well as AP bruisers.

Next up

With a build path like that it might as well not exist, it's supposed to be the pinnacle of raw ap and there is nothing wrong with that concept The fact that it is very expensive isn't the issue either.

It's the build path primarily and the way it functions, the passive is only really useful later so you cannot build it first, this is partially because the buildpath is so awkward as well, but it's even more awkward later once you run out of inventory.

I have a couple of solutions for this item.

The first one, changing the build path and stats + 865 = Now giving 150 AP and + 30% total AP

Giving it more flat ap makes it more feasible to build earlier, and being able to sit on 2 NLR's isn't too bad either since you would still get a sizeable amount of AP from that, the extra tome is then an option if you have the inventory to spare to get a little more before you can grab the upgrade

The second solution, and this one can be done with the first solution or be a standalone Is to change how the passive works,

Rather then increasing the Raw AP it could simply increase your magic ability damage However the % will have to change since this will also benefit any base damage you have on your spells.

The main benefit of doing this is that the passive would no longer be as reliant on the amount of ability power you have accumulated and therefore Deathcap would be more useful earlier in the game.

The downside to this is how for some champions some of their utility or shields scale with AP but they still have the option to tap into some of the enchanter itemization, and for most enchanters deathcap is beyond luxury anyway. In cases where champions suffer from this change too much individual buffs could fix that too.

I think the following items are actually ok

All of these have the benefit of expanding your total AP ratio's making any ap you have worth more, In addition they provide extra utilities like waveclear and mobility/anti mobility through movement steroids or slows as well as passive/active bonus damage

and These are solid defensive options considering the amount of hp many mages also have access too. I often see people complaining about how they don't have mana if they need to rush these but it's not that hard to get a And if you are also running meditate that fixes a lot of your mana issues already. And while many AD champions do not have to make the same trade offs that doesn't make AP's under powered but rather AD itemization imbalanced and the issue should be addressed there instead of over buffing AP itemization.

That being said I do think there is a way to give AP champions more defensive options

could definitely use a secondary upgrade path

The other option i was thinking about is

It's active/passive could be changed Right now it gives a big ass shield on a long cooldown, provided you have ample mana otherwise the shield isn't that big But i have a better idea

It could passively generate a shield by consuming mana, and regenerate that shield as well as long as it isn't broken, once it gets broken it goes on cooldown for 5 seconds before starting to regenerate a new mana barrier It would consume 1% of mana to generate 2% of shielding for a maximum shield of 10% max mana

As for the active it would overcharge the shield doubling the the regen and maximum shield strength and spell casts consume 25% of current shield to do an equal amount of bonus magic damage, this would keep the current active cooldown

Alternatively the active could be a much shorter cooldown option, one which consumes your current shield to heal you for the amount consumed. Giving mages a sustain option.

All of these changes would represent a buff to the item but imho that is quite ok as it is a bit lackluster right now for a late game option.

More armor!!!

could definitely use a secondary upgrade path and it's time to touch on it as the final part of my mage item update thread as this will be the 1 new item i would introduce if i could.

+ + 800 gold =

Frost Guard Raiment 90 Armor 35 AP Unique 10% CDR Unique Passive - Cold Steel Unique Passive - Covenant of Cold harbor: Hitting an enemy with a spell reduces their attack speed by 15% for 1 second and steals 2% of their mana, when no more mana can be drained it takes their life force instead. on target cool down of 2 seconds (this passive doesn't affect minions)

Neither cheap nor very expensive and meant to counter AD opponents.

Doesn't give much offensive power, just what arm guard would provide but it will grant a hefty amount of armor access to attack speed slows and a way to get some mana back by hitting enemy champions while getting rid of their resource pool to attack you shortening the window of opportunity for successful engages over time. Not as effective vs manaless opponents but it will help keep you topped of hp wise instead while granting a little more damage. However your mana won't stay topped off so you will run out more quickly making it more important to land every hit.

The main downside is that this item gives very little offensive power so you will be unlikely to kill your enemy yourself But sometimes all you want to do is just survive which is what this item was designed to do

Hope you like some of my concept changes, i know there will be plenty of you out there that agree or disagree with some of these changes, there are plenty of changes here so don't hate spear me with downvotes if you dislike one or drown me in upvotes if you only like one, rather contribute to the discussion by providing me with some feedback. also please forgive me my spelling i'm not a native english speaker :P