[5.13] Core AP Items Pass
Xypherous submitted about 2 hours ago in Champions & Gameplay Feedback
Note: These changes aren't on the PBE yet! But will on the PBE once we switch over to testing the new patch stuff.
TL;DR - We're changing AP Items! NLR is cheaper! More things give 80 AP! More things build out of NLR! Most things top out at 100 AP - but you'll still probably have the same amount of AP in your full build!
Rationale
Ability Power is a relatively easy thing to optimize in the current ecosystem and the current AP builds are a little more generic than I'd like.
AP mages bring a mix of damage and utility but the AP items have accidentally converged around damaging AP builds far outpacing more utility or counter-centric ones.
Needlessly Large Rod and the '120 AP' Build
The crux of this issue is the fact that if you want a relatively high amount of AP - you were constrained to a fixed set of items that greatly synergize with each other due to the high amounts of base AP on them (Zhonya's, Ludens, Deathcap). These items also tend to be more gold efficient because they're behind the huge barrier of Needlessly Large Rod, in order to reward players for taking a power dip.
As time has passed - this NLR has created some odd side effects - the strongest AP items also have terrific utility or potential, which places every other AP item in a semi-awkward spot. It's hard to justify a utility item over a build full of NLR items - especially since an NLR item gave something on the order of +52 / 78 more AP innately per slot after Deathcap or other potential multipliers.
What we've seen is that because this particular combination is so favored - it heavily narrows the types of mage patterns to those that can best use this particular offensive combination, effectively pushing out more control oriented mage playstyles or sustained mage playstyles in favor of whatever kits work well with a large amount of raw AP and care about burst damage.
This means that mages who have a core item or side item that don't contain the default 4 items are heavily unfavored relative to their counterparts. While a certain degree of optimization around the items will exist - the power gap between different AP styles really doesn't have to be on the order of 50-75 AP per slot in order to be meaningful.
What we're doing
Tactically, we're hitting the high end items in terms of AP while retouching and doing an update on the AP of most of the other items such that they compare more favorably to each other. Some items have been raised or lowered to 100 AP - while others have been lifted up to 80 Ability Power. We want to keep the overall amount of AP you get about the same at the end - but we want there to be more variations on the type items there - in case you need to deviate from a standard core.
Here goes - It's a pretty big changelist but it's mostly a cleanup and tier adjustment pass.
Changelist
Blasting WandCost: 860 G --> 850 G
Needlessly Large RodCost: 1600 G --> 1250 G
Ability Power: 80 AP --> 60 AP
NLR being at such a high price / AP point means that almost any item that builds from NLR would have to have greater than 100 Ability Power on it when combined with any other Ability Power component. This proved to be a pretty huge constraint in using NLR as a stepping stone for certain items - going to retarget NLR as a smaller item. While this does have some implications on lane timing (You no longer need a double kill to get NLR first back, for example) - It was either this or inflate AP as a whole across the board.
This has some... interesting ramifications in terms of the stability of mid lane purchases.
Rabadon's DeathcapRecipe Change: NLR + Blasting Wand + Amplifying Tome
Total Cost: 3300 G --> 3500 G
UNIQUE Passive: 30% Ability Power Amp --> 35% Ability Power Amp
Deathcap's change mostly revolves around keeping total final AP of the damage build the same - while being able to nerf the individual AP items to have more comparable numbers to each other. As Deathcap is the keystone I want a lot of AP item - we pushed the power here.
Zhonya's HourglassTotal Cost: 3300 G --> 3000 G
Ability Power: 120 Ability Power --> 100 Ability Power
Luden's Echo (Summoner's Rift)Total Cost: 3100 G --> 3000 G
Ability Power: 120 Ablity Power --> 100 Ability Power
Movement Speed: 7% Movement Speed --> 10% Movement Speed
Luden's is a terrifying item in terms of the general poke power it adds - Luden's probably needs a more solid identity that 'raw power' - so we've been pushing the item to be more and more about being mobility focused rather than spam spell focused.
I suspect we'll eventually need to do more to the item but it'd most likely be more of a slow burn.
Archangel's Staff (Summoner's Rift)Recipe Change: NLR + Tear of the Goddess + 1030 G
Total Cost: 2700 G --> 3000 G
Ability Power: 60 Base AP --> 80 Base AP
Making more items build out of NLR in the hopes of expanding the high-tier AP space. AAA is definitely deserving of being one of the high tier AP slots, given its general growth pattern and the fact that it's attached to a quest in order to achieve maximum AP potential.
Seraph's Embrace (Summoner's Rift)Ability Power: 60 Base AP --> 80 Base AP
...For completion's sake.
Rod of Ages (Summoner's Rift)Total Cost: 2800 G --> 2700 G
Health: 450 Base Health --> 300 Base Health
Mana: 450 Base Mana --> 400 Base Mana
Passive: 20 Mana Growth / 200 Maximum Mana --> 40 Mana Growth / 400 Maximum Mana
Passive: 2 Ability Power / 20 Maximum Ability Power --> 4 Ability Power / 40 Maximum Ability Power
Rod is currently leaning a bit too much towards favoring AP Heavies with the statline - while not really solving Mana / AP concerns for mages who want to pick it up. Going to adjust the item to more favor the Mana and Offensive statistics of this item, especially over time.
Nashor's ToothTotal Cost: 2920 G --> 3000 G
Attack Speed: 50% Attack Speed --> 40% Attack Speed
Ability Power: 60 Ability Power --> 80 Ability Power
We're also pushing more items up to compete in the 80 Ability Power range - While Nashor's is a fine purchase for people who already have strong on-hit procs - the ratio of Attack Speed to Spells favored these characters probably a bit too hard.
Nashor's should be acceptable as a niche for certain mages that can use their autoattacks well - but also have decent ratios.
(I'm not being biased here at all. I don't know who you're talking about.)
Rylai's Crystal ScepterRecipe Change: NLR + Amplifying Tome + Giant's Belt
Total Cost: 2900 G --> 3000 G
Passive Single Target: 35% Slow for 1.5 seconds --> 40% Single Target Slow for 1.5 seconds
Passive AoE: 15% Slow for 1.5 seconds --> 40% Slow for 1 second
Passive DoT: 15% slow for 1.5 seconds --> 20% Slow for 1 second
Note: If a spell is both an AoE and a DoT - they use the DoT value.
Rylai's is currently good in a few scenarios, namely - do you have a spammable single target spell and a train pattern - a large part of this is the fact that the AoE / DoT portions of the slow are so weak in comparison to the single target slow. Changing the tactic here to make those slows have less overall duration rather than penalizing the direct effect.
This is a very powerful push in terms of Rylai's overall power - but we'll be looking at modifying and cleaning up of the slow rules as well either now or in the near future.
(Also added a self-only freeze particle effect so you can watch everyone become ice cubes when you're slowing them. FOR CLARITY.)
Haunting GuiseTotal Cost: 1480G --> 1500 G
Wait for it...
Liandry's TormentRecipe Change: Haunting Guise + Blasting Wand
Total Cost: 2900 G --> 3000 G
Ability Power: 50 Base AP --> 80 Base AP
Liandry's Torment is designed to be able to fit as a High Health / Low Resistance shredder (hence the combination of health damage + flat penetration). However, the lower AP on the item frequently meant your kit didn't actually work. Aggressively pushing the power of this build to be able to compete with the more immediate damage type builds - like proc builds.
Will of the AncientsSpell Vamp 20% Spell Vamp --> 0% Spell Vamp
New Passive: Your spells and abilities heal you for 15% of the damage dealt, calculated BEFORE your opponent's resistances. 33% effect for AoE Spells.
You need so many things to get a Spell Vamp build to work. You have to be resistant enough to not get bursted. You have to deal a sufficient amount of raw damage in order to heal. You probably need to be ahead to outscale the opponent's resistances. You need a ton of base damage. Therefore - this change is trying to reduce the number of dependencies needed in order to 'turn on.' You won't need Pen to heal from this item on champions. Spell Vamp builds are fairly problematic to control once they get rolling - so they tend to be pretty binary.
The hope here is that there's a lower spell vamp value and less healing generally in exchange for not needing so much to get started.
OmNomNomicon Recipe Change: Codex + Idol + Amplifying Tome
Total Cost Unchanged
Wanted to increase the number of potential purchase options at the ~1200 G level.
I'm attempting to make Codex + Book or Wisp + Book potentially attractive choices compared to NLR, especially on your first back. You'll get more interim power than the NLR - at the slight cost of strongly telegrahing what you're going to build and locking yourself into a build. It's mostly an experiment to see if players like having this kind of choice between 800 + 400 component vs. ~1200 mid-tier.
It makes the recipe a bit bloated but... yeah.
Athene's Unholy GrailRecipe Change: Codex + Chalice + Amplifying Tome
Total Cost Unchanged
See Omnomnomicon Above.
Void StaffTotal Cost: 2295 G --> 2500 G
Ability Power: 70 Ability Power --> 80 Ability Power
Void Staff's raw efficiency is pretty high compared to some of the other items on the list.
While % Penetration will always be a great multiplier for damage for any damage oriented mage - you don't really need it to also be such a great source of Ability Power. This pushes Void Staff's efficiency more in line with some of the other items with comparable multipliers. Also adding a bit of AP to ensure that players end up at roughly the same amount of AP they did pre-patch.
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