Limited By Our Options - An Examination of Current Voids in Itemization

Being able to itemize correctly is a fundamental skill for any League of Legends player. However, in order to itemize optimally in a game environment with (on the release of Rek'Sai) 123 champions, there must be an incredibly diverse pool of items to choose from, because a restrictive arsenal would threaten to leave less flexible champions without an itemization path that allows them to emphasize their strengths or compensate for their eaknesses. I took a look at the current League of Legends arsenal and looked for stat combinations that don't currently exist in a single item. What follows are a few non-existant combinations that I felt would be the most useful, what their values to certain champions would be, as well as a basic recipe.

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Armor + Attack Speed

These two stats synergize well together on Tanks and Bruisers. These two types of champions prioritize defensive stats over offensive stats because they are expected in teamfights to primarily absorb damage while the carries deal it back to the enemy team. In spite of this, attack speed can be a valuable stat on a tank like Shen or a bruiser like Irelia who can use the stat to offset the disadvantage of not prioritizing offense in their build paths by using attack speed as a secondary stat to become more powerful by using it to scale up the damage they deal through on-hit mechanics they have built into their kits.

For example, Shen's Passive, Ki Strike, has its cooldown reduced every time Shen autoattacks, and doubly so when Shen autoattacks with Feint (W) active. Attack Speed, in this instance, in addition to simply allowing Shen to attack more frequently, also act as a form of Cooldown Reduction for his passive. His passive gives extra damage to Shen's next attack that scales based on his max HP.

Therefore, Attack Speed allows Shen to attack more, which allows him to proc his passive more often, which allows him to deal more significant single target damage. This is why pairing attack speed with defensive stats is doubly useful to tanks and bruisers, because it allows them indirect access to more damage while at the same time allowing them to continue to prioritize defensive stats.

Suggested Recipe: +

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Armor + Mana Regen

At the beginning of Season 4 we saw a top lane meta that made priority picks out of Dr. Mundo, Shyvana, Renekton, and other manaless bruisers. The reason for this (one among many) was because mana, as a resource, was deemed too much of a liability in a role defined by that player staying in-lane for long periods of time without returning to base. This argument was supported by the relative lack of early-game mana regeneration items available to top lane champions.

I would like to see this necessity filled by an early game item that is a component to a greater item later on, since, even in the current top lane meta, manaless top laners have that very obvious advantage over champions with a resource, in that they can exist in their lane for prolonged periods of time without having to worry about losing their capacity to use abilities.

Suggested Recipe: +

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MR + Mana

Mana is a very hard statistic with which to create items with as not every champion uses Mana, it is technically a niche statistic So when introducing items with mana you must be mindful to not create a situation in which an entire item set provides better for mana-resourced champions than it does for manaless or non-mana-resourced champions.

The motivation for this item is simply because, since the rejiggering of armor--and magic resist--item build paths in patch 4.20 (with cloth armor building into chain vest and negatron cloak being removed entirely, as well as the values of many magic resist items going down) magic resist has become extremely difficult to itemize for, giving a slight advantage to magic damage heavy team compositions in terms of item-based counterplay.

Suggested Recipe:  + + 

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Critical Strike + Lifesteal

In the current meta game (the metagame that has existed since Fnatic ran it at Season 1 world championships) ADC is arguably the most important member of your team come lategame. They are also the role that makes the most use of the Critical Strike statistic (excluding individual cases like Shaco or Yasuo). ADC is also the role that, arguably, has the least amount of diversity in itemization of any role.

This item, which covers the secondary stats of the ADC role (that is, the stats that the ADC does not directly scale off of, but rather stats that scale off of other stats, in this case AD) should shake up the relatively linear build path that just about every ADC champion follows. This item that covers all of the popular bases, giving the ADC some extra lifesteal and some valuable Crit percentage points, would make the investment into a full crit chance build less risky with the small pool of lifesteal that comes along with it (although I assume this is a choice that Riot has included intentionally), but would also have the ADC sacrifice attack speed, another important secondary statistic.

A critical (haha puns) consideration that must be made when choosing the recipe for this item is whether to have the crit chance component be an Avarice Blade or a Cloak of Agility. The Avarice Blade will encourage players to build it earlier to take advantage of the bonus gold per 10, it would also allow them to fake out their opponents, since Statikk Shiv and Youmuu's Ghostblade, two popular ADC itemization choices, also build out of Avarice Blade, but fulfill radically different purposes.

Critical Cloak, on the other hand, would almost force players to build it later, since purchasing such a large chunk of critical strike % in the early game is a large, dead investment without any extra AD to be scaled by it. However it justifies giving the completed item a larger amount of critical hit chance, since the component item has a large amount of it by itself.

Suggested Recipe: + OR +

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Magic. Pen. + Armor

Changes and additions to League of Legends over that past two or so seasons has seen an entirely new group of champions enter the mid lane meta: AD Casters. Zed, Talon, Yasuo and others have carved a niche for themselves terrorizing their lane opponents by using their scaling and efficient trading to take advantage of AP mid laners, who are traditionally built glass cannon. The success of AD casters in the mid lane has significantly influenced the lane behaviour. However, Riot has been slow to provide items to mid laners to allow them to itemize against the AD menace.

Seeker's Armguard is a start, but considering it only build into a single (admittedly powerful) item, it leaves AP mid laners without an option with which they can itemize against an AD Caster, a class of champions known for snowballing very effectively. This is particularly troublesome because AD Casters have a powerful defensive response to AP Mids: Hexdrinker. It is also important to note that it is relatively easier, as an AP Mid, to itemize against other AP Mids, since magic resist is built into a few important core items (Athene's Unholy Grail and Abyssal Scepter).

Perhaps the popularity and success of AD Casters in the mid lane (so great, in fact, that it has warranted multiple nerfs to these champions) can be attributed in part to lack of effective counter-itemization.

Suggested Recipe:  +

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Magic Pen. + CDR

What the Crit Chance + Lifesteal item was to AD Carries, this item would be to AP Casters. Magic Pen and Cooldown Reduction are two secondary stats to an AP caster. They allow the AP caster to cast more impactful spells more frequently.

The difference between this item and the AD Carry item I outlined before is the build path. It is harder to isolate these two stats in a single item because there are no component items that only offer these stats (I know Vamp Scepter gives AD but work with me here). An item that offers these stats would likely build out of Fiendish Codex and Haunting Guise. Because of this it is harder to make this item without making it a staple.

The reason "staple" items are bad is because they violate the principles of "strategic diversity" that Riot has spent so much effort introducing into the game. If every AP Caster rushed this item because it gives them every stat that they need then there is no strategy. Strategy is the decision to purchase one item over another, and not having to make that decision means that the item is, in a way, imbalanced. This could potentially be solved by making component items that give an amount of Cooldown Reduction and Magic Pen ONLY.

Suggested Recipe:   +