The new item set tool - A very poor job

We were loud to protest against the removal of the item set tool, so Riot promised to give us one. They delivered it in the new patch and it is disappointing to say the least.

1. The new tool uses the old ItemSets.json file to recreate your old item sets. This file is the compilation of the individual RIOTxxxx.json item set files located in the Champion folder. What Riot failed to realize that some players might have modified those individual files (with the web item set tool) during the time the item set tool was not available. This means that the ItemSets.json file remained the same even if RIOTxxxx. json files were altered. The new item set tool overwrote the RIOT files in the Champion folder with the content of the ItemSets,json files, which means that if you made modifications to those files with the web item set tool (and did not rename the files), those modifications are lost. I fortunately expected that Riot will mess this up, and regularly backed up my Champion folder.

2. Riot is also appeared to change the format of the RIOTxxxx.json files in the Champion folder, so now the web based item set tool cannot open them. I tried several, they would not open. My backed up files still open with the web tool.

3. There is no export and import option that was available in the old version.

4. Others already extensively discussed the limit of the number of item sets. It is not even close to the number of champions.

5. The format doe not feel user friendly. We can't sort the item sets by champion (although you can search by champion). Generally, the item set screen is cluttered. The old layout was way better,

It appears to me that Riot did not really want to make an item set creator, but after we complained they quickly put together one and butchered the job in the process. The web based item set tool is right now way superior. Since I have all my old RIOTxxxx.json files backed up, I will just simply rename them and use them as "third party" files. Hopefully they will not change the file format, so I cannot use them any more......

Riot argued that not many players were using item sets, but they failed to realize that it is an important learning tool that help to introduce new generations to the game. If they really want to model this game after professional sports, the they must attract generations after generations. The current version of the tool will not help that.