With the start of Split Three, League of Legends players have seen significant changes to many legendary items. Riot Games has implemented nerfs across the board, affecting everything from movement speed to ability power and health. In this article, we’ll go over each nerfed item in detail and how these changes will impact gameplay moving forward. Let’s dive into all the recent updates.
Movement Speed Nerfs Across the Board
A common theme in these changes is reduced movement speed, affecting several key items. Riot seems determined to slow down the pace of the game. Here are the items impacted:
- Shurelya’s Battlesong: Reduced by 1% movement speed.
- Ardent Censer: Less AP and move speed, but gains more health and shield power.
- Staff of Flowing Water: Lower AP and magic power, no move speed from the passive, but increased health and shield power.
- Phantom Dancer, Navori Quickblades, Runaan’s Hurricane, Rapid Firecannon: All have reduced move speed, slowing attack-based champions.
Ability Power (AP) Adjustments
Several AP items have seen reductions in their ability power, likely to balance burst-heavy champions:
- Echoes of Helia: Lower AP and health, reduced magic damage from its passive.
- Moonstone Renewer: Less AP, healing, and shielding power.
- Horizon Focus: Less AP, but compensates with more ability haste.
- Liandry’s Anguish: Less AP overall.
- Rabadon’s Deathcap: Decreased AP and a lower passive AP increase from 35% to 30%.
Attack Damage (AD) Changes
AD items were also hit hard, with most receiving nerfs to both damage output and move speed:
- Essence Reaver: Reduced AD and ability haste.
- Kraken Slayer: Less AD and move speed.
- Lord Dominik’s Regards: Reduced AD.
- Spear of Shojin: Reduced AD but more health and less ability haste.
Health and Armor Updates
To balance out offensive nerfs, some items gained more health or armor, albeit with other trade-offs:
- Dead Man’s Plate: Increased armor, but less move speed.
- Titanic Hydra: More health, but less cleave damage.
- Warmog’s Armor: Reduced movement speed by 1% for both the stat and passive.
Other Key Changes
Some items underwent unique alterations to their passives or effects:
- Shadowflame: Less AP, but more magic penetration, with its passive now activating on targets below 40% health (instead of 35%).
- Banshee’s Veil: Less AP and magic resist, with a higher cooldown on the shield.
- Mortal Reminder: Reduced armor penetration.
Changes to Iconic Items
A few of the game’s most iconic items also received significant adjustments:
- Infinity Edge: Lower AD, which may affect its role as a late-game critical strike booster.
- Ravenous Hydra: Reduced AD and ability haste.
- Zhonya’s Hourglass: Lower AP, which may reduce its popularity as a go-to defensive option for mages.
What’s Next?
With these sweeping changes, it’s clear Riot is aiming to slow down gameplay and balance champions who rely on quick bursts of damage or excessive mobility. As always, expect the meta to evolve as players adjust to these new item dynamics.
For detailed stats on each item and how these changes affect your favorite champions, check out Mobalytics, a great resource for staying updated on patch notes and item builds.
