WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH's Custom Season 8 Midseason Update: Da Big Item Update (plus some)

ADC ITEMS

Crit Items

Critical Strikes Reworked

• Critical Strikes, instead of dealing 2x damage, now ignore 75% of the target's total armor when used against enemy champions. This is calculated at the same time as other sources of armor penetration, so if the attacker has another way to ignore at least 25% of the target's total armor, they will ignore 100% of the target's total armor.

• Critical Strikes against non-champions are unchanged.

This huge mechanic rework solves two issues currently present in League regarding the stat Critical Strike. Firstly, the primary users of Critical Strike are sustained damage champions, which are meant to counter Tanks. Critical Strike has become, for most of them, their main secondary damage stat outside of the primary stats of Attack Damage and Attack Speed. In the basis of League, there is a set triangle of rock, paper, scissors in regards to damage and durability where Burst Champions have the advantage against DPS Champions, DPS Champions have the advantage against Tank Champions, and Tank Champions have the advantage against Burst Champions. This should be natural since a Burst Champion should not have the damage to 100-0 a champion who has completely stated for defense, a DPS Champion should not have the time to kill a Burst Champion before they are dead (note that Burst Champions should have to actually play well to kill someone, it shouldn't just be decided at the beginning of a fight), and a Tank Champion does not have enough damage to kill a DPS Champion while the DPS Champion will tear away at the Tank Champion with an infinite supply of damage. Currently, however, critical strike chance, especially when you obtain 100% of it, makes this a little warped since it allows a large amount of DPS Champions to actually deal enough damage to quite easily out-burst a Burst Champion who is not fed or playing like an absolute legend (although playing well doesn't change numbers), while Critical Strike is actually a worse stat against Tanks since 2x a small number is still a relatively small number. However, sustained damage dealers still have a limitless damage supply, meaning they were still able to perform well against Tanks. This has lead to Marksman being called ADC despite almost every other MOBA allowing multiple roles to be the Carry besides just ranged basic attack champions. Changing Critical Strike to be an anti-defense stat allows Marksman to keep within their proper role in the game without warping the crowd of champions allowed to be considered a Carry. Secondly, critical strike has often felt like a cheesy stat early game when it's used in decent proportions in that section of the game since it often just offers random, sometimes unfair feeling bursts of damage that can decide the laning phase. However, if it is changed to ignore armor instead of simply doubling damage, this would cause it to boost your damage significantly less in the early stages of the game without making it completely useless in the early game, especially against armor heavy Bruisers and Tanks. Champion specific balance for champions that involve critical strike or are somewhat effected by it's change in their kits is at the bottom of this section (for you Yasuo, Shaco, Tryndamere, and Fiora mains and everyone else).

Brawler's Gloves Price: 400 Gold -> 300 Gold

Cloak of Agility Price: 800 Gold -> 600 Gold (Combine Cost: 400 Gold -> 300 Gold)

Essence Reaver Combine Cost: 200 Gold -> 400 Gold Attack Damage: 70 -> 80 Critical Strike Chance: 20% -> 25% Mana Restore On Crit: 3% Maximum Mana -> 15% of the damage dealt

Infinity Edge Price: 3400 Gold -> 3250 Gold (Combined Cost: 425 Gold -> 475 Gold) Critical Strike Chance: 20% -> 25% REWORKED UNIQUE Passive: Critical Strikes now also deal 9% of the target's current health as additional true damage.

Zeal Price: 1200 Gold -> 1000 Gold (Combine Cost: 500 Gold -> 400 Gold)

Phantom Dancer Price: 2600 Gold -> 2550 Gold (Combine Cost: 800 Gold -> 950 Gold) Movement Speed: +5% -> +7% Critical Strike Chance: +30% -> +35%

Rapid Firecannon Combine Cost: 600 Gold -> 800 Gold Critical Strike Chance: +30% -> +35%

Statikk Shiv Combine Cost: 600 Gold -> 800 Gold Critical Strike Chance: +30% -> +35%

Wicked Hatchet Combine Cost: 450 Gold -> 550 Gold Attack Damage: 20 -> 25

The Lightbringer Price: 2350 Gold -> 2250 Gold (Combine Cost: 350 Gold -> 450 Gold) Attack Damage: 30 -> 40

Ashe

• Unchanged

Just wanted to make sure people knew this change doesn't impact Ashe's kit directly since her crits already have a separate effect

Caitlyn Passive: Headshot

• Base AD Ratio increased to 70% from 50%

This is to slightly compensate the loss of Infinity Edge's crit damage modifier which actually modified the damage of her passive.

Corki Passive: Hextech Munitions

• Now also modifies basic attack critical strikes to also ignore 75% of his target's magic resist

This is so that Corki still benefits from critical strike chance.

Fiora E: Bladework

• Now states that it causes the basic attack to critical strike, but only ignore 25/40/55/60/75% the target's total armor

Gangplank W: Remove Scurvy

• Flat Heal increased to 60/90/120/150/180 from 50/75/100/125/150
• Missing Health Heal increased to 20% Missing Health from 15% Missing Health

Gangplank's barrels currently ignore 40% of enemy champion's armor, meaning Gangplank's critical strikes previously made full effect of the 40% shred. However, now it only makes use of 25% shred. This means that the standard Gangplank build has been nerfed with the critical strike change. So, instead of buffing his barrels to be back where they are, I took the opportunity to buff another aspect of Gangplank's kit so that so much of his power budget doesn't reside in his barrels (still a large chunk though).

Garen E: Judgement

• Now simply states that the ability can critically strike

Graves Passive: New Destiny

• Critical Strikes no longer add additional bullets to the attack

Jhin Passive: Whisper

• Now states that Jhin only ignores 37.5% of his target's armor with critical strikes instead of saying his critical strike damage is reduced by 25%

R: Curtain Call

• 4th Shot no loner critical strikes
• 4th Shot now deals true damage instead

While the passive change for Jhin is a simple wording change to properly match up with the new way that critical strike works, Jhin's ultimate is different in that it is one of the only abilities that critical strikes and ALSO gains increased damage from Critical Strike Damage modifiers (Infinity Edge). So, Jhin ACTUALLY needed further buffs beyond simply making it deal 100% increased damage since that would nerf his Infinity Edge builds. So, now, to match with the function of critical strike, his 4th shot now deals true damage, completely ignoring his target's armor. This provides an effect that is similar to what Infinity Edge now provides.

Kindred E: Mounting Dread

• Now causes the attack to ignore 37.5% (+2.5% per Mark) of the target's armor if they are below 15-65% (based on critical strike chance) maximum health

Similarly to Jhin, Kindred gets a small buff to Mounting Dread since it no longer can be buffed in effectiveness by Infinity Edge by causing the armor ignored to increase with marks.

Kog'Maw Q: Caustic Spittle

• Damage increased to 80/135/190/245/300 from 80/130/180/230/280

This is simply a small buff due to Caustic Spittle reducing the effectiveness of armor shred.

Lucian Passive: Lightslinger

• No longer states critical strike damage is halved against champions and monsters

Master Yi Q: Alpha Strike

• Alpha Strike no longer deals bonus damage when it critically strikes
• Alpha Strike now ignores 45% of each target's armor when it critically strikes

Unlike Jhin and other similar champions, Master Yi's Q is not a guaranteed critical strike, meaning it plays by the rules and can retain it's current critical strike equivalent with the new system in place. Probably the second most priority champion to keep an eye on after the critical strike change.

Miss Fortune Q: Double Up

• Double Up now ignores 75% of the target's armor when it critically strikes

R: Bullet Time

• Bullet Time now ignores 10% of the target's armor when it critically strikes

Double Up is a middle ground between Yi and Jhin to where it sometimes is a guaranteed critical strike and other times it is not. However, I decided to still allow it to be counted as a critical strike so that Infinity Edge still procs it's new effect on it. Miss Fortune, however, can abuse the new Infinity Edge a ton with her ultimate. Due to it's current interaction with critical strike with it requiring you to have a chance per wave based on your crit chance, I allowed it to still critically strike. However, this allows Infinity Edge to absolutely shred target's within her ultimate, so I nerfed it's relation with critical strike slightly. Miss Fortune would the highest priority champion to keep an eye on after the critical strike change, so I wanted to be at least a little safer here.

Pantheon Q: Spear Shot

• Now ignores 15/21.25/27.5/33.75/40 flat armor when it damages an enemy below 15% HP due to Pantheon's Heartseeker Strike passive

E: Heartseeker Strike

• Passive changed to cause basic attacks to ignore 30/42.5/55/67.5/80 flat armor when they damage an enemy below 15% HP

Rengar R: Thrill of the Hunt

• No longer causes Rengar's basic attack to critical strike
• Now causes Rengar's basic attack to ignore 45/60/75 flat Armor Penetration against the closest target

I took this opportunity to make sure Rengar, a burst champion, was not gaining an anti-tank steroid with this update and, instead, gains a TON of armor penetration against the closest target. Numbers are not perfect most likely, but you get the drift.

Shaco Passive: Backstab

• No longer counts as a critical strike, now simply dealing the stated damage as an enhanced attack
• Damage vs. Champions increased to 155% AD (+55% AP) from 130% AD (+40% AP)
• AP Ratio vs. Monsters increased to (+55% AP) from (+40% AP)

Wanted to keep Shaco's Backstab similar in function, but compensated for it's loss of interaction with Infinity Edge. Plus, Shaco needs some love right now in my opinion.

Talon Q: Noxian Diplomacy

• Melee range damage now counts as critical strike and will impact with effects that proc off of critical strikes such as Infinity Edge

This is simply because Talon's Melee Range Q damage is currently enhanced by Infinity Edge, so I wanted to keep it enhanced.

Tryndamere Passive: Battle Fury

• Critical Strike Chance per point of Fury increased to 0.5% from 0.35%

Yasuo Passive: Way of the Wanderer

• Now states that Yasuo's critical strikes only ignore 60% of his target's armor (for basic attacks) or 37.5% of his target's armor (for Steel Tempest)

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AP ITEMS

Mage Itemization after the Season 6 Mage Update has made it a little stale in the possibilities and excitement. Here, we make each item much more unique and cool to allow Mages to have a large variety of items that don't all feel the same with slightly different stats and effects. This update is mainly updating fully built items while also creating some new AP items for further variety.

Morellonomicon Price: 2900 Gold -> 2800 Gold (Combine Cost: 665 Gold -> 565 Gold) Ability Power: 100 -> 85 Grievous Wounds Health Threshold: 40% Max Health -> 60% Max Health

Rabadon's Deathcap NEW UNIQUE Passive: Now also grants the user 5% Cool Down Reduction for every 100 Ability Power they possess, capped at 20% Cool Down Reduction

Luden's Echo Build Path: + + 1100 Gold (3200 Gold) -> + + + 950 Gold (3550 Gold) NEW Cool Down Reduction: +20% Cool Down Reduction Passive AP Ratio: (+10% AP) -> (+12% AP)

Haunting Guise Build Path: + + 665 Gold (1500 Gold) -> + + 330 Gold (1200 Gold) Health: Removed Ability Power: 25 -> 40

Rod of Ages Immortal Rod REWORKED Build Path: + + 750 Gold (2700 Gold) -> + + + 150 Gold (3650 Gold) Mana: 300 -> 400 Ability Power: 60 -> 90 NEW Armor: 50 Removed Passive: Grants +20 Health, +10 Mana, +4 Ability Power per stack (max +200 Health, +100 Mana, and +40 Ability Power). Grants 1 stack per minute (max 10 stacks). NEW UNIQUE Passive- Eyes of Pain: +15 Magic Penetration NEW UNIQUE Active: For every nearby enemy champion, gain 8 Ability Power and 4 Armor for the next 8 seconds. If there are at least three nearby enemy champions, you also gain 15% Spell Vamp for the next 8 seconds. (90 second cool down) (900 range)

Liandry's Torment Combine Cost: 750 Gold -> 1050 Gold Health: Removed Ability Power: 80 -> 100 NEW UNIQUE Passive: Heal yourself for 20% of the damage dealt by this item's burn effect, reduced to 5% against small minions and small monsters.

NEW ITEM- Rylai's Crystal Wand Build Path: + + 665 Gold (1500 Gold) +200 Health +25 Ability Power UNIQUE Passive- Icy: Damaging abilities and pet attacks slow affected units by 10% for 1 second.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter Build Path: + + + 915 Gold (2600 Gold) -> Rylai's Crystal Wand + + + 250 Gold (3000 Gold) Health: 300 -> 450

Hextech GLP-800 Combine Cost: 850 Gold (3000 Gold) -> 950 Gold (3100 Gold) Mana: 400 -> 500 Ability Power: 80 -> 90

Hextech Protobelt-01 Combine Cost: 650 Gold (2500 Gold) -> 900 Gold (2750 Gold) Health: 300 -> 500

NEW ITEM- Warlock's Robe Price: 450 Gold +60 Health +15 Ability Power +5% Cool Down Reduction UNIQUE Active- Contract: Bind a contract with the target ally. (90 second cool down) UNIQUE Passive: If your contracted ally is nearby, you gain an additional 25% Base Mana Regeneration and restore mana equal to 15% of the damage you deal to enemy minions via your abilities, reduced to 33% effectiveness (5% of the damage dealt) for Area of Effect abilities.

These changes are, as stated, primarily meant to help AP items get their own niches and support certain champions more than others. Morello has sacrificed some ability power to decrease in gold cost as well as buff it's anti-healing capabilities, but has now moved away from the general Mage item was slightly now due to an increased reliance on the CDR and Healing Debuff to make it gold efficient. Basically, Morello is now more about executing champions to restore mana to quickly cast more spells with the CDR (a team wipe item). Rabadon's Deathcap is now a late game damage Mage item that provides CDR to those who focus a ton on building pure Ability Power, granting 20% CDR once the builder has 400 Ability Power. This comes without an increase in cost, meaning Rabadon's simply got a straight buff, which needs to have an eye kept on it. Luden's Echo is now the spellslinger item for Mages by now also granting CDR and having it's active effect provide slightly more damage. This makes it a great item for DPS Mages late game who are non-stop spamming spells. However, it requires other mana items to support it, so it doesn't make a build by itself like the old Morello. Haunting Guise has had the random Health attached to it removed so that it can be focused down as an offensive component item, allowing for items to have Magic Pen and not also have health. Haunting Guise now has a second item that it builds into besides Liandry's, being the reworked Rod of Ages, now called Immortal Rod. The Immortal Rod is a short ranged Mages best friend by offering a great amount defenses and, most notably, spell vamp if they really wander into a crowd. It, however, is very costly now, making it a better late game purchase compared to now. However, with the price cuts to Haunting Guise and a new component item for Mages, I think it's ok for them to lose an early game rush item. Plus, it was somewhat competing in that same space with Archangel's Staff since they both want you to purchase them as quickly as possible. Finally, Liandry's Torment is now an amazing anti-tank item for DoT/DPS Mages who can constantly reapply the DoT debuff from Liandry's. Not only does Liandry's now offer more Ability Power now, but it also now heals you for a fifth of the damage dealt by it's burn passive, meaning you will be healing for a ton of health against very health heavy teams. This makes it a mirror to ADs BoRK. As we get near the end, we get to see a new item for Mages in the form of Rylai's Crystal Wand, which, similar to Bramblevest and Hexdrinker, is a miniature version of the item it builds into. This allows DoT Mages and other Mages who currently build Rylai's to more quickly gain access to a weaker version of it's slow. Ever since it's nerf, Rylai's has been in a bit of a dumpster for Mages who used to use it since, despite having it's price reduced, it was often too little too late by the time Mages wanted to purchase it. Now, it is ok to just sit on the wand until you have the gold and want to upgrade the wand into the scepter for an increased slow and better stats. Finally, both GLP and Protobelt have been increased in cost so that their stats can be buffed slightly, making them better late game purchases for Mages. GLP provides more Mana and Ability Power now, making it an ample purchase for Artillery Mages who want to use it as self-peel or a slow to land a normally difficult to land skill shot. Protobelt now provides much more health to encourage riskier play with it by slamming into the enemy. Would likely be purchased on short ranged Mages or Burst Mages who could use it for some slightly extended range. Finally, the biggest new addition to the Mage Item Roster is the Warlock's Robe, which acts as a new starting item for Mages who want to go Bottom Lane with a Support. It is a bind item that grants the Mage increased mana generation when near their bound ally. In a duo lane, the Warlock's Robe is most certainly much better than Doran's Ring, but it falls off in helpfulness once your partner is no longer with you. This makes it hard to abuse for solo lane Mages. Additionally, the 5% CDR attached to it pushes it towards DPS Mages who would want to go Bottom Lane so that their team still has a decent DPS champion to replace the typical Marksman in Bottom Lane.

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MISC. ITEMS

Ohmwrecker Bandle Veil Crystal Build Path: + + 950 Gold (2650 Gold) -> + + + 300 Gold (2650 Gold) Health: 300 -> 425 NEW Mana: 300 Armor: 50 -> 45 Cool Down Reduction: 10% -> 20% Removed UNIQUE Passive- Point Runner: Builds up to +20% Movement Speed over 2 seconds while near turrets, fallen turrets, and Void Gates. NEW UNIQUE Passive: Nearby allied structures gain 20% Attack Speed, 30 Armor, and 30 Magic Resist. (900 range) REWORKED UNIQUE Active: Nearby allied structures gain a 120-360 (based on level) (+10% Max Health) shield for up to 10 seconds. While the shield persists, allied turrets affected can fire at any number of enemy champions at once, automatically attacking every enemy champion within it's range, and ignore an additional 35% of it's target's bonus armor with it's attacks. (120 second cool down) (900 range) After the shield breaks, this effect cannot be used on the same allied structure for the next 10 seconds.

Sunfire Cape Combine Cost: 800 Gold (2900 Gold) -> 900 Gold (3000 Gold) Immolate now also affects enemy structures for 150% bonus damage (250% damage).

NEW ITEM- Doran's Hurricane Price: 450 Gold +80 Health +15% Attack Speed Passive: Basic attacks deal an additional 5 damage on-hit. UNIQUE Passive: +3 Life On-Hit

NEW ITEM- Doran's Scroll Price: 450 Gold +70 Health UNIQUE Passive: +10% Cool Down Reduction UNIQUE Passive: Whenever you cast an ability, you regain 5 Health. This cannot trigger off the same ability more than twice every 10 seconds. Passive: Basic attacks deal an additional 5 damage to enemy minions on-hit. Single target abilities deal an additional 8 damage to enemy minions.

First up, we have a reworked Ohmwrecker that focuses more on defending structures now than assaulting them. Passively, it provides nearby allied structures with increased attack speed and defenses, meaning that even being near an allied structure with item is putting it to good use. Then, the new reworked active kicks in that causes ALL nearby structures to gain a decent shield and gain, as I like to call it, "Hydra Attacks" that allow it to shoot all enemy champions within it's range at the same time. Not only this, but it also allows the structure to ignore an increased amount of it's target's armor. It's the ultimate anti-dive tool that causes nearby structures to become decent menaces to the enemy team and allows a more late game oriented team to safely farm under their structures late game with only the worry of quick Assassins bothering their minds. Next, we have overall buffed Sunfire Cape at the cost of a small amount of gold efficiency. However, it's Aura effect now also damages structures, meaning Sunfire Cape is now an amazing item for Pusher champions since it now allows them to more quickly clear a minion wave and then literally melt enemy towers when they are near them. This should allow Sunfire Cape to have a more general use than just, "I'm good at clearing minions," which is it's main issue as of right now. Finally, we have two more new starting items, being Doran's Hurricane and Scroll. Doran's Hurricane is an attack speed starting item, simple as that. It provides a moderate amount of health in order to grant it's user a large boost in attack speed and on-hit damage and healing. It's perfect for on-hit effect champions in the early game, allowing them to try their hands in a lane instead of usually being restricted to the Jungle or not used at all. Doran's Scroll is a CDR starting item that does not provide any mana regeneration effects, meaning it can be purchased by manaless champions for a large increase in sustain due to it's passive and a moderate amount of cool down reduction for a starting item to have. Manaless champions, especially AP ones, might want to purchase Doran's Scroll so that they can have a good Doran's item that doesn't have a portion of it's gold value wasted on mana stats.

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What is the general thoughts? What needs changing? What could be added? Any constructive feedback is appreciated here!