User blog:Lukeatlook/Pyro's Item Overhaul 7 - The Tank Project


 * What is "Pyro's Item Overhaul"?

It's a set of custom patch notes that are meant to enhance and/or fix the problems with itemization in LoL. Previous episodes were a hit or miss, sometimes correctly predicting items implemented by Riot, sometimes being far off.


 * What is the scope of the overhaul?

Pretty much everything. The idea is to increase diversity in item builds by introducing new items and rebalancing the current ones. Keep in mind while assessing this part of the project that more or less all item categories will be affected, so this is far from over.


 * Why?

Tl;DR here would be: To have more than top 3-5 picks for every role in LCS.

Premise of the Tank Project
Fixing up leftovers from the changes to resists made in preseason, plus redefining the tank item class. Basically: tank items are a tiny bit cheaper, but less slot efficient - unless you invest into "heavy stuff" that makes your lategame tank build feel better. This is similar to how Rabadon's Deathcap enhances your AP threshhold.

The guideline here is to provide different means to mitigate damage, not just balls of stats. Proactive tanking - not just through activated effects, but suiting the passive to match the threat. Something similar to the current Warden's Mail reducing AS-oriented damage - just expanded to few other options.

One significant change you need to keep in mind is that in this project and  penetrate 50% of bonus MR/armor, not 35% of total. This means they're more effective against heavy resistance stacking, but not as good against umarmored targets. In a similar manner, and  lose a bit of their absolute power and become more situational. Additionally, Executioner's Calling makes a comeback.

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New items
These are divided into three categories:
 * CC reduction - opportunity to counteract stacking a specific type of CC (displacements, slows)
 * Hybrid resistances - 2-step item line dedicated to balancing out laning against champions who deal hybrid damage, allowing to put them in a better place balance-wise
 * CDR revamp - more related to the Support Project, but some of the or  upgrades could be used by tanks as well.

CC reduction= Tanks are getting kited to death, even though unlike bruisers they can't really kill the carries by themselves. These items provide situational counterplay to crowd control effects.

Knockups, knockbacks... Seems like the latest few dozen releases are overloaded with those. Since Tenacity does nothing to mitigate them, there is no way to work around heavy displacements. This solves the problem while requiring skillfull utilization (you have to anticipate the displacement) and not shutting down the caster (you're still under CC, you just stay in place). Raw stats are so-so, but situationally this could become really worthwhile (Yasuo comps, AoE effects that you want to maintain in the original location, etc).
 * +800 health, +10% cooldown reduction
 * For the next 5 seconds, displacement effects stun you instead for the duration.

It isn't particularly gold efficient, but the slow resistance could be a godsend against permaslowing champions. Heavy MR threshhold makes up for the slight nerfs to MR rating of SV and BV when needing this raw stat (the 55 ones are down to 50 in this project).
 * +70 magic resistance, +50% base mana regeneration
 * Restore 2% of your missing mana per 5 seconds.
 * Movement slowing effects are reduced by 25%.
 * Doesn't stack with or  (yeah, this one is receiving slow resistance as well).

Early season 4 was dominated by tanky bruisers with built-in %health magic damage. The likes of Shyvana and Mundo (also: BotRK Jax/Trundle) thrived on lack of hybrid resistance items to counter their kits. With this item in existence, it should be easier to balance out hybrid damage dealers and make them more satisfying to play.
 * -|Hybrid resistances=

This item is very much not cost efficient by itself unless the passive is triggered, and even then it depends on your bonus reistsances (runes, other items, built-in steroids).
 * +30 armor, +30 magic resistance
 * Whenever hit by a basic attack, your bonus armor and magic resistance increase by 4% for 5 seconds (effect stacks up to 5 times).

Pretty much a "tank Deathcap" suited for a lategame build, a soft response to % penetration items. It's not that gold efficient unless you have resistances from other items - this is to prevent it from becoming a one-item wonder for all fighters.
 * +400 health, +50 armor, +50 magic resistance
 * Your bonus armor and magic resistance increase by 20%.

Currently, CDR doesn't feel like it's in a good spot. This is particularly visible in the middle lane, where almost everyone rushes a 20% CDR item with absurd cost efficiency, and support role, where it's easy to overshot CDR. Guideline of this revamp is as follows:
 * -|CDR revamp=
 * CDR doesn't double out of nowhere anymore - All 20% CDR items build out of two 10% CDR items, like the current Morellonomicon.
 * in its current form is removed from the game, Nashor's Tooth has a new component with on-hit damage passive and builds out of tweaked
 * Most other items that used to have 20% CDR -, , - are rebalanced and down to 10%.
 * In order to reach the CDR cap, you have to include several 10% CDR items in your build or use one of the following new ones:

Of course not all of these combinations need to exist. (But they could).

This one fills the niche for champions who prefer maxing out CDR over stacking AP and dealing damage to towers. Since the elixirs are a choice now, we don't have to account for every single champion taking this one.
 * On use: Gain 15% CDR and for 3 minutes.
 * When out of combat, your mana regen increases by 100%.
 * When out of combat, your mana regen increases by 100%.

Most of these concepts are expendable and/or subject to change, but Blackfrost Helmet and Chillwind Crown should be the cornerstone of this revamp.

Health items
Items with less than 400 health will be covered in other sections or other parts of the itemization overhaul.

Overall, most items that are oriented around their health threshhold are rather unchanged.

400 health= Health is usually one of the two defining characteristics of the item. Their updated state and build is described in their respective section (armor/MR).


 * see: 


 * see: 


 * +60 ability power, +400 health (-50), +400 mana (-50)
 * On leveling up, restores 150 health and 200 mana over 8 seconds.
 * This item gains 10 health, 10 mana and 2 ability power every minute, up to 10 times.
 * A rebalance in stats granted by this item - cheaper, less a tank item, more a mage item now. Should remain viable on Maokai for example, just not as overwhelming.


 * see: 


 * see: 

These items are meant for tanks and durability is their primary attribute.
 * -|500 health=


 * Unchanged.


 * +500 health (-200), +30 attack damage, +100% base health regeneration (new)
 * +10 armor penetration (new, from the revamped Phage)
 * Your basic attacks apply a 20% slow and reduce the target's armor by 10 for 2 seconds.
 * Doubles the strength of this item's passive for 5 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
 * Part of The Figther Project, let's just ignore it for now.


 * +500 health, +100% base health regeneration (new), +10% cooldown reduction
 * +35 Tenacity
 * Just a small buff to make it comparable with other enchantments.


 * see: 


 * Unchanged.

Big chunk of health. No resistances on the items past that line.
 * -|800 health=


 * +800 health (-50)
 * On champion kill or assist, restore 300 health over 5 seconds.
 * The TT version - a little bit tweaked.


 * Unchanged.

Armor items
50 armor= The item's main strength is not the armor, but its utility.


 * see: 


 * +40 ability power, +500 mana, +50 armor (-10), +10% cooldown reduction
 * After using an ability, your next basic attack critically strikes and deals bonus magical damage equal to crit modifier to surrounding enemies and creates a field for 2 seconds that slows enemies inside by 30% (2.5 second cooldown). (rebalanced)
 * Your critical strikes deal magical damage equal to 100% of your bonus armor.
 * Only highest critical strike modifier counts.
 * Details will be talked over in the Carry/Fighter Project - basically crit is not 200% AD damage, but 100% AD + crit damage modifier. The default CDM is 100% base AD (like the current Spellblade), but it can be replaced
 * This also means that Spellblade does not stack with Critical Strike, Triforce provides a unique crit modifier instead.
 * Parallel to Sunfire Cape, it provides some tankiness-scaling damage at the cost of slightly longer cooldown on Spellblade.


 * see: 


 * Unchanged.


 * +50 armor (-20), +500 health
 * When hit by basic attacks, reduces the attacker's attack speed by 15%.
 * Blocks 10-50 damage from basic attacks depending on distance from the attacker (10 at 300 range, 50 at 700 range). (new)
 * This item provides more protection against basic attacks than it seems. Anyways, the armor+health+slow bundle made it a one-item wonder for bruisers. that became a little bit too overused. Now it's better against ranged champions, but worse against meelee ones.


 * +400 health (-50), +50 armor (+5), +100% base health regeneration (new)
 * Grants + 30% bonus movement speed that build up over 2 seconds when near turrets or Void Gates. (new)
 * Deals 20 + (1% of your current health) magic damage per second to nearby enemies (400 range). (rebalanced)
 * Sunfire gains some tank identity as well and should be noticeably worse on bruisers. You can build it for towerdiving, but it needs other tanky items to scale its damage.


 * Armor up to 50 from 45, just to match the pattern :P


 * Unchanged.


 * see: 

No other resistances allowed.
 * -|100 armor=


 * +100 armor, +400 mana, +10% cooldown reduction (-10)
 * Reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies by 15%. (700 range)
 * Slows the movement speed of nearby enemy units by 35% for 2 (+1% magic resistance) seconds. 60 second cooldown (500 Range). (new)
 * Less CDR (part of the cdr revamp), but gets the Randuin active - however, without armor scaling on the duration.


 * Unchanged (recipe slightly altered).
 * Smoother buildpath.

Magic Resistance items
Again, a small change to an advanced item recipe (stats unchanged):


 * Stats unchanged.


 * +30 magic resistance (-5)
 * Removes all debuffs from your champion. 90 second cooldown. (30 sec longer CD)
 * As it is, QSS is too cheap for an item with as much MR and as powerful active. It became 300g cheaper while losing only 200g of stats. This slightly tunes down its sheer power.

40 magic resistance= The typical MR items, although the other stats are still significant.


 * +60 ability power, +40 magic resistance (+15), +50% base mana regeneration, +10% cooldown reduction (-10)
 * Restores 2% of missing mana every 5 seconds.
 * Restores 15% of your max mana on kill or assist.
 * Less CDR, lower price - overall item suited for both midlaners and supports.


 * +300 health (+100), +60 ability power, +20 magic resistance, +10% cooldown reduction
 * Grants nearby allies +20 magic resist and +75% base health regeneration.
 * Greatly increases the power of a lane minion and grants it immunity to magic damage. 120 second cooldown.
 * Just +100 health for 100 gold to make this feel better in its raw stats in a lategame build, enabling purchasing it on midlaners.


 * +400 health, +20 magic resistance, +10% cooldown reduction
 * Grants nearby allies +20 magic resist and +75% base health regeneration.
 * Shield yourself and nearby allied champions for 5 seconds, absorbing up to 60 (+100% magic resistance) damage. 60 second cooldown. (600 range) (rebalance)
 * Shield scales with MR instead of levels, making the item less of a must-have item and a more specialized purchase.


 * Unchanged.


 * +80 attack damage, +40 magic resistance (+5)
 * Removes all debuffs from your champion and grants +50% movement speed for 1 second. 90 second cooldown.


 * +40 magic resistance, +100% base mana regeneration, +10% cooldown reduction (all base stats unchanged)
 * Removes all debuffs from an allied champion (cannot be used on other champions while unable to use items). 90 second cooldown.
 * Without the heal, Mikael's should be a more situational and specialized purachase - and no longer a must-have on every support.


 * +40% attack speed (-10), +40 magic resistance (+10), +42 magic damage on hit
 * Basic attacks reduce target's magic resistance by 5 (stacks up to 5 times). (nerfed)
 * Removes all debuffs from your champion and grants +50% attack speed for 3 seconds. 90 second cooldown.
 * Old Wit's End is... old and busted. Behold the new aweseomeness. in this project is an AS component with on-hit damage, building into Nashor's, Devourer and BotRK.


 * -|50 magic resistance=


 * +60 ability power (-10), +50 magic resistance
 * Reduces the magic resistance of nearby enemies by 25%. (700 range) (rebalanced)
 * Redefined as a mage bruiser item, with less AP and more anti-MR approach (instead of squishy-stomping one).


 * +400 health (-50), +50 magic resistance (-5), +100% base health regeneration
 * Grants a spell shield that blocks the next enemy ability. This shield refreshes after no damage is taken from enemy champions for 30 seconds. (buffed)
 * Grants 100% base health regeneration for 10 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion. (new)
 * -5 MR, -50 health, +100% regen in combat, -160 cost and CD on spellshield is down from 40 to 30. Overall part of the tank identity revamp, emphasizing the anti-poke element while slighlty worsening its one-item wonder status for carries.


 * see: 


 * see: 


 * +300 health (-50), +300 mana (-50), +50 magic resistance
 * On leveling up, restores 150 health and 200 mana over 8 seconds. (new)
 * Reduces and stores 10% of the magic damage dealt to your champion (max 200 damage stored).
 * Deals 200 + (stored magic damage) magic damage to nearby enemy units. 90 second cooldown. (500 range)
 * Item loses 50 health/50 mana and gains the Catalyst's Valor's Reward (otherwise it would be the only Catalyst upgrade losing it in the upgrade).


 * +400 health, +50 magic resistance (-5), +100% base health regeneration, +10% cooldown reduction
 * Increases your self-healing, health regen, life steal and spell vamp by 20%.
 * MR down by 5, cost down by 150. Part of the tank itemization revamp (Colossus, FoN).


 * see: 

Not necessarily cost-efficient, but strong against heavy AP teams.
 * -|70 magic resistance=


 * +70 magic resistance, +150% base health regeneration (+50)
 * Grants a shield that absorbs up to 30 + (10 per level) damage. This shield refreshes after no damage is taken from enemy champions for 9 seconds.
 * Just a small regen buff. Item still remains Howling Abyss-only.

Hybrid resistance items
Placed at 50 armor and 50 MR, these items belong to both groups at once.


 * Unchanged.


 * +40 ability power (-10), +50 armor, +50 magic resistance
 * +35 Tenacity
 * Introduced to Summoner's Rift with 10 less AP, better build path and price lowered by 100. Followup to changes to Abyssal Sceepter - those two should make for a neat anti-mage mage bruiser build.


 * +50 armor (+10), +50 magic resistance, +100% base health regeneration
 * Grants +30% bonus movement speed that builds up over 2 seconds while near turrets or Void Gates.
 * Your Summoner spell Teleport can target Void Gates, spawning 7 Voidlings at once. (new)
 * Create a Void Gate at a target location. 120 second cooldown.
 * Rounded up to 50 armor and slightly tweaked - basically, sacrificing your Teleport summoner spell guarantees a turret takedown.

= Coming Up Next =


 * The Support Project, based more or less on feedback to this Boards post.
 * The Carry Project, including but not limited to a complete Critical Strike rework.
 * The Fighter Project - combining the tank project with the carry project.

Of course I'm looking forward to any feedback from you guys, it's the only way to move the project forward :) Keep in mind this is the first iteration of the first part, so we still have a long way to go :)