More “Quest” Items?

The concept of doing something other than spending gold to upgrade an item is underutilized in League of Legends.

Manamune and Archangel’s Staff both upgrade upon completion of the stacking quest. The removed Poacher’s Dirk upgraded into Serrated Dirk for free upon stealing three enemy jungle camps. The support gold income items grant wards upon generating enough gold with their unique passives, although the gold generation itself has been abused in recent history.

I believe League has plenty of room for more items whose power is not gated purely by gold income. Specifically, I believe the jungle items should feature long quests that start upon purchasing the tier 2 jungle item and typically don’t finish until the verge of late game. The particulars of how this is achieved are open for debate, but a few things should be noted: The quests should reward junglers for doing something other than powerfarming, taking kills, or taxing lanes. There should also be multiple quests for unlocking each finished item, dictated by which combination of t2 and t3 jungle items are purchased. Most of the attached stats on the existing items should be nerfed. The intent is to directly weaken junglers early in the game (minimizing snowball) while requiring them to think strategically in order to acquire a massive power boost later on.

If you’re thinking of Sated Devourer right now, you’re pretty darn close to what I have imagined - except, like I stated above, these items will not encourage powerfarming, but rather other deeds to unlock the true potential of a powerful piece of equipment.

There could also be a few new quest items available for everyone. In fact, the concept that got me thinking about this mechanic was a tank item that, upon scoring a takedown on every enemy champion at least once, grants a shield that regenerates out of combat. Very similar to the bottom-tier runes in the Domination tree.

“But Alzon, if these items are so strong and for less gold, won’t everyone build them?” Just look at who builds Tear. Ezreal, Cassiopeia, and Ryze. The main reason for this may be that no one needs to invest that much gold into mana over other options, but another big reason is that the powerspike is greatly delayed and cannot be reached just by purchasing the final item available in the shop.

So, what do y’all think? Any thoughts on which champions would appreciate these “scaling” items, how gameplay would be affected, or how the meta would be affected? Any particular item concepts?