Revolutionizing Item Diversity for Marksmen and Fighters
League of Legends is undergoing significant changes in the upcoming preseason, particularly in terms of item diversity for marksmen and fighters. Riot Games has announced a range of new and reworked items aimed at differentiating these two classes. However, this also means that popular items like Goredrinker, Divine Sunderer, Silvermere Dawn, Ironspike Whip, Rageknife, and Galeforce will be phased out, leading to a complete shift in champion control.
One notable change is the removal of bonus healing from almost all items for marksmen and fighters. Instead, the focus is on damage, with additional base health granted upon completing an item. This encourages players to be more cautious and strategic in their gameplay and itemization.
Several new items are being introduced for these classes. Sundered Sky offers sustain and burst damage, with an initial critical strike and healing when damaging an enemy champion for the first time. Nitro Hexaegis provides a massive burst of attack and movement speed for seven seconds upon casting an ultimate, making it ideal for initiating or escaping. The new component item, Tunneler, is required to build both of these items.
For marksmen, Terminus introduces a unique mechanic where each attack switches between Light and Dark forms, offering different effects. Light attacks provide bonus armor and magic resist for five seconds, while Dark attacks grant additional armor and magic penetration. Despite its high cost, this item allows champions to deal significant damage and sustain themselves without much external assistance.
While Tiamat and Ravenous Hydra regain their passives, the splitpushing item Hullbreaker undergoes a complete identity change. It no longer rewards pathing alone but instead grants stacks for each basic attack, up to five, which can be unleashed for bonus damage against enemy champions, epic monsters, or structures. The item’s passive of granting cannon and super minions bonus defenses remains.
Other changes include Spear of Shojin losing its bonus movement speed in favor of additional damage through stacks, cost reductions for items like Stridebreaker and Witt’s End, and slight tweaks to Guardian Angel’s build path due to the removal of Stopwatch.
These item changes have the potential to completely reshape the League of Legends gameplay. While they are currently undergoing testing on the PBE servers, there may be further adjustments before their release on live servers. Players can participate in the testing and experience all the upcoming changes, including the introduction of the newest champion, Hwei.
Source: DOTESPORTS
