Frokat
Every pre-season is a time for experimentation. As players adjust to the changed Rift and learn new interactions with updated characters, items, and sometimes entirely new mechanics, the developers are seemingly doing so as well. And since 11.23 pre-season brought perhaps some of the most sweeping changes League of Legends has seen to date with the ambitious changes to the Dragons, Runes, Items, and even the Rift itself, there’s a good reason for that.
Among the plethora of adjustments to existing items, the pre-season brings us some brand new artifacts for nearly every role in the game. AD Assassins, Tanks, Control Mages all got new toys to play around with, figuring out the best builds and comps for when the real season drops. Some of the items seem underwhelming, some seem incredibly strong – and receive almost immediate intervention from the developers in the form of nerfs just a few weeks after. Let’s check and see which ones are which, shall we?
Crown of the Shattered Queen
It’s only fitting to begin our list with the symbol of royalty – and, perhaps, one of the most powerful items on the list. Seemingly created for the immobile Control and Artillery Mages in mind, the Crown gives its wearer an additional level of protection against poke – and most importantly, burst damage. Unlike similar items that we’re used to in the form of, say, Banshee’s Veil, Crown’s lingering effect proves a formidable roadblock for anyone attempting to burst down its user.
While the Crown’s defensive effect seems powerful as is, a keen observer would notice something beyond that. The release version of the Crown sported an impressive 127.26% gold efficiency *before* taking into account its effects and Mythic passive. Combined with an incredibly easy build path that contained the Mage favorite Lost Chapter, the clearly intended as a defensive option item was outperforming its offensive counterpart, Luden’s Tempest (103% gold efficient), in every metric: from gold cost, to build effectiveness and raw damage. Last but not least, the defensive portion of the item itself is giving the user even more AP – it just seems like Christmas came early for the mage players.
Obviously, this didn’t go unnoticed by the player base. What was intended as an anti-burst option to counter the current popularity of Assassins (looking at you, Zed) for Mages turned into an all-around powerhouse. And, obviously, those champions whose kit lent most to using the item thrived.
Doesn’t look much like an “option” to me if you’re building this every game! By the way, these are Viktor’s stats *after* Crown’s Nerf that took 10 AP off the item. That is clearly not enough, seeing that the item is still sitting at an impressive 119% gold efficiency – again, before even addressing any of its effects.
Well, big deal, Control Mages using control mage items, right? Well… Let’s take a look at how they use it.
Perhaps Viktor’s rise in popularity could’ve been explained with League’s recent animated series, Arcane. But, obviously, that wouldn’t have explained his steadily increasing win ratio. It doesn’t take a rocket laser scientist to put 2 + 2 together and see how Crown’s powerful damage mitigation effect solves the mage’s biggest weakness – squishiness – while not sacrificing any offense whatsoever. It is no wonder that Viktor quickly rose to Tier-1 midlaner status after receiving this new toy.
But Control Mages like Viktor aren’t the only ones enjoying Crown’s benefits. Another champion plays into its strength, perhaps even better than the already mentioned long-range, immobile caster. Meet Kassadin, their mirror image.
Always walking on the edge between a must-ban and a pocket counter-pick, it seems that the new addition to the shop has propelled the Void Walker to the former. As every build for Kassadin includes Crown of the Shattered Queen as its first item, it’s not hard to see why – Kassadin’s “blink in, do damage, blink out” plays perfectly into the item’s strengths. The AP Assassin’s winrate has been steadily rising, with him jumping 30% in popularity from 11.22 to 11.23, and again from 11.23 to 11.24, which puts him firmly as the Tier-1 midlaner by OP.GG’s algorithm. Not to mention that another Kassadin’s long-time favorite item, Seraph’s Embrace, received a nice buff in 11.24, as well, bringing its cost down by 400g.
And these are just two examples of how Crown’s power elevated two completely different champions with different playstyles to the top. Given the item’s versatility, there are definitely many more out there – and many more still waiting to get discovered. It seems like Riot might have overdone it a bit.
Shadowflame
Shadowflame is… honestly, it is hard to tell what its intended role and place in the itemization meta is. While Crown’s intended area of use is clear on the first glace – even when it goes above and beyond performing in just its role – Shadowflame is muddy. Very muddy. Reading its Unique Passive may make you feel like it’s an anti-shield item, yet it clearly doesn’t do much against the actual shields. Since it has Flat Magic Penetration that amps up, it might seem like an AP Assassin’s item – but then why health? Granting as much MPen as Sorcerer’s Shoes (in a perfect scenario), this item seems out of place in the current itemization meta with its massive AP budget that looks straight out of Season 3 while trading it for a useful effect.
Although initially received as “the AP Serpent’s Fang” after its PBE arrival, the item clearly struggles to reach this niche. Designed with bringing down squishies with little Magic Resist in their build in mind, the item directly competes with the popular first build Luden’s Tempest in this regard. In case the enemy stacks MR, however, this item doesn’t get any better – for the ol’ reliable Void Staff outmatches it against any kind of MR. And while its AP budget is quite impressive at the first glance, here’s the catch – the item’s gold efficiency is… 100%, with a conditional increase to 110% if its user is attacking a low-health or a recently shielded target.
Compared to Crown’s 120% gold efficiency just for existing – even without taking its Passive and Mythic Passive effects into consideration – this seems rather mediocre. Sure, one is a Mythic, another is a Legendary, so let’s take a look at the fan-favorite Legendary item from the older cast: Void Staff. And what do we see? Void Staff sports a whopping 126% Gold Efficiency with just its raw stats, and it actually increases as your opponents build MR, while the same can not be said about Shadowflame.
Few characters use Shadowflame effectively as it requires numerous conditions to actually outclass its direct competition. Orianna makes an appearance on the list of its users in an attempt to bring the enemy ADCs MR to zero as the item plays into her great AP ratios. But, then again, this item isn’t on the Crown’s power level, as Orianna remains a solid – but not an overbearing – pick for midlane, drawing no bans and attracting little popularity to the champion. Alas, robot girl.
Even then, a detailed post on the r/leagueoflegends subreddit noted that when it comes to Magic Penetration effectiveness, a single Negatron Cloak worth of Magic Resist across the entire enemy team would tip the scales in favor of the Void Staff. Which is pretty much guaranteed to be the case.
Although Riot were enthusiastic to present another aggressive burst item option, it doesn’t seem to be the definite one. After all, past itemization changes made AP champions trade some of their AP for utility, while this item seems to be the opposite. Still, despite its vague role intentions, the item did find some popularity among some champions, namely Akali. In the case of the Rogue Assassin, some builds even forego building the Mythic item first sometimes, opting for Shadowflame as the opening item.
Axiom Arc
The new patch blesses the AD Assassin enjoyers with yet another Longsword-only build path item. After Shadowflame’s complicated backstory of trying to fit in, this item is a breath of fresh air: simple, understandable, kind of flashy. Just like… a longsword. Its niche is clear – if you really like your ultimate, you build this.
Intended with flashy assassins that use their ultimate to pressure or kill enemy carries in teamfights – like Zed – this item also found use in champions that use their ultimate on an isolated target and run away – like Rengar.
In fact, one of the champions most affected by this item is Nocturne. Featuring Axiom Arc as the first buy in nearly every build, Nocturne uses it as a boost to his ganking capability before the laning phase even ends. Interestingly, the day 11.23 dropped, Nocturne’s popularity jumped up trifold – the community has probably been itching to use this item on him for quite a while. Ironically, the new addition failed to bring any wonders to him – in fact, Nocturne’s rise in popularity also caused him to fall from ~50% Win Rate to just 46%. First-time Nocturne ranked players, man!
Although the item features a measly 88% gold efficiency, this is actually very in line for AD Assassin items. With build paths this straightforward and prices this low, giving those guys items with higher gold efficiency would be a riot! Plus, money is money, but getting that sweet sweet ultimate twice in a fight is priceless.
One weakness this item has, however, is its feast or famine design. Offloading its potential onto rewarding takedowns, the item’s small gold efficiency budget makes it a suboptimal pick in cases where you might be playing from behind. Which makes it harder to utilize the higher on the competitive ladder you go.
Despite all that, the item was powerful enough to warrant a quick nerf as its Unique Passive – Flux received a decrease in effectiveness, bringing it down from 25% to 20% in patch 11.24. And, of course, this item completely broke ARAM. Again.
Evenshroud
Intended for and bought by supports with engage CC capabilities, Evenshroud appears as a beefed-up version of the old Abyssal Mask. One important catch, however – while the old Abyssal used to increase the damage only a single immobilized enemy takes, Evenshroud is actually an AoE debuff with 600 units radius (around your character, not your target). This means a single Leona Q will be able to put additional damage on the entire enemy team in the right circumstances.
However, the thing with melee engage supports is that… they’re melee and they have to engage (and preferably stay alive afterwards). Which means that this mythic would have to compete with two incredibly powerful items – the Locket of the Iron Solari, and Shurelia’s Battlesong.
The item was still deemed very – too much, even – effective by Riot, as its effect was reduced in patch 11.24, bringing down the debuff duration by one second and debuff strength by 3%.
Which is exactly what we see as Locket still remains the most popular choice for the likes of Alistar and Leona as their buildpaths remain largely unchanged compared to pre-11.23. As Riot want to push support itemization from being a dynamic choice instead of set-in-stone cookie-cutter, perhaps they’ve gone too far in limiting Evenshroud?
Winter’s Approach/Fimbulwinter
For years, Archangel’s Staff/Seraph’s Embrace and Manamune/Muramana were the only “mana battery” items. This year’s newest addition finally adds a final piece to the Tear items with a defensive option.
Most enjoyed by the likes of Malphite and Sion, this new item provides these champions (especially Malphite) with an answer for a years-old mana question. However, its straightforward nature leaves little room for surprises and excitement – so Malphite’s pick and win rates remain pretty much the same as always.
Let’s take a look at another role’s champion Taric – while building Fimbulwinter as a second item nearly every game, Taric struggles to make a dent in its popularity as his own pick rate never even breaches 1% nowadays.
Speculated at one point to be a strong defensive option for Kassadin, this item is overshadowed both defensively and offensively by building Crown of the Shattered Queen and Archangel’s Staff – especially after a small buff to the latter item.