AP Bruiser Item concepts

Idea is to fill holes in itemisation. Numbers are "exploratory" and serve to indicate the kind of ratio of stats the item would have, rather than being a focal tuning point.

Arcane Reaver (Melee only) Buildpath: Lost Chapter + Kindlegem (3k gold total cost) 50 AP 400 HP 300 Mana 10% CDR

Unique Passive: Rending Spells X% of magic damage dealt to champions is reapplied as a damage-over-time effect over 2 seconds. This damage cannot exceed X (low) damage. Unqiue Passive: Haste Gain 10% CDR

A lost chapter item for bruisers, providing them with a 20% CDR option that offers them the stats that they need. Bleed effect supports sustained damage patterns with its cap (which would be low) much moreso than burst patterns. Main issue is potentially that existing AP bruisers include entries like Rumble and Morde that are manaless, but I feel supporting mana bruisers like Diana and Sylas is important too.

Runeforged Spellblade Buildpath: Sheen + Recurve Bow + Blasting Wand (2.8k total cost) 300 HP 40 AP 30% AS 250 Mana 10% CDR

Unique Passive: Spellblade Casting an ability empowers your next auto-attack to deal bonus damage equal to (100% bAD+25% AP) and grant movement speed for 3s.

Movement speed buffs for AP champions are difficult. With the existence of Rylais, you cannot really grant movement speed simply on ability but you also want your AP movement speed items to feel like they interact with your spells which is why I shied away from a traditional rage passive. Numbers are tuned with a lower AP ratio than Lich Bane but a higher bAD to allow for the lower AP pick-ups of AP bruisers vs. assassins. HP on it feels bloated (and out of no-where) but bruiser-centric items without HP tend not to function well. Don't feel the melee only tag is necessary here due to the stat line.

Hextech Bulwark Buildpath: Hextech Revolver + Seeker's Armguard (3300g) 70 AP 50 Armour 10% CDR

Unique Active: Shield Burst - Release a shockwave over a 200 unit radius that deals X damage (scaling with level and lightly off of AP) and gain a shield per enemy champion hit (scaling with AP and HP). Shares a CD with other hextech items. Passive: Overload - This item will not grant a shield if you have recently received a shield from one of your other item effects and will grant a debuff that reduces shielding granted from your item effects to 0 for several seconds.

Brace of Relentless Power Buildpath: Aether Wisp + Crystalline Bracer (3400g) 500 HP 40 AP 7% Movement Speed 150% Base Health Regen

Unique Passive: Generate stacks whilst crowd controlled, each granting 10% tenacity for 5s. Stacks infinitely but multiplicatively. Immobilizing effects and silence grant 2 stacks per second and slows grant 1 stack. Gain a short burst of speed when recovering from a crowd control effect.

Sterak's fulfils two roles. One is shielding when you need it most, the other is to provide tenacity. By breaking these effects up into 2 seperate items it allows both effects to have slightly more "involved" gameplay. I also wanted to provide a Seeker's Armguard route even though Zhonyas is often a good item on AP bruisers. Both effects require you to be tanky in the first place to get good value from them. Could move Brace to Kindgem or Fiendish and give CDR but felt not including CDR on every item was important, despite Rylai and Liandry already being reasonable bruiser pick-ups that do not give CDR.

Sceptre of Undeath Buildpath: Blasting Wand + Chain Vest + Null Magic Mantle (3600g)

50 AP 40 Armour 30 Magic Resist

Unique Passive: Unique Passive (Shared with Gunblade): Heals for 15% of all damage dealt. Area of effect and pets damage only heals 5% for every unit affected. Unique Active: Grip of Undeath: Enemy champions that die nearby release their soul, temporarily granting you AP and movement speed and rapidly regenerating your mana. Manaless champions gain a slightly higher amount of AP.

So I wanted to include some kind of equivalent to Death's Dance that granted omnivamp to allow AP bruisers that have low in-kit sustain to itemise into it in a similar way to how certain AD bruisers do. At the same time, I also wanted to make it appeal as little as possible to assassins. In this way I came up with the idea of making it give a large amount of its reward after you have already killed someone and bring its focus more into sustaining through a fight to kill multiple people rather than giving up-front power. Resistances are included to allow it to have a similar form of damage reduction to Death's Dance but with 2 effects already it felt like it would be too complicated to add a third "proper" damage reduction.

Definitely one of the more controversial items I came up with.

Thanks for reading! Feedback is super welcome.