Blog of Legends
Fansided

The massive upcoming changes to AP items

By Andrew Ross

Annie is one of the top users of ProtobeltCredit: Riot Games
Annie is one of the top users of ProtobeltCredit: Riot Games /
facebooktwitterreddit

Mages and AP items will be very different during the second half of this season.

Kuo-Yen “Xypherous” Lo, League’s Technical Designer, posted on the League of Legends boards last night about the upcoming changes to ability power (AP) items for the mid-season mage update.

More from News

At the beginning of the mage update, Riot explained that this wouldn’t be as big of an update as the marksmen one that took place during the preseason, but it looks like they couldn’t help themselves. Not only are a lot of the mages getting an update, but a huge chunk of the AP items are getting changes as well as new items being introduced.

Xypherous notes that changing the mana components in both purpose and function was really important. He wants mana items to do more than just give mana. They need to have useful stats behind them, too. Riot wants mana items to push for offensive play while mana regeneration items are more support/team focused.

The first item he brought up was Catalyst the Protector, however, the name will be changed to Catalyst of Aeons. The item’s passive, Valor’s Reward, has been removed (upon leveling up, restores 150 health and 200 mana over eight seconds) in favor of a new one: Eternity. With the new passive, 15 percent of damage taken from champions is gained as mana and 15 percent of mana spent is gained as health (healing limited to 25 per spell cast or 25 per second for toggled spells).

Eternity makes for a very interesting passive, and it changes the item a lot. It won’t give an early-game spike anymore, but it should become a powerful item in fights.

Tear of the Goddess’ 25 percent mana regeneration has been completely taken away. Instead, it has an additional passive – Awe. The new passive refunds 25 percent of mana spent.

Xypherous explained that he wanted to make the item geared towards bigger spells that take up a lot of mana, because the item is mainly used to spam low-cost spells.

Continuing with the change of passives, Chalice of Harmony is getting one as well. The item’s current passive restores two percent of missing mana every five seconds, but the new passive increases your health regeneration by 100 percent if your health percentage is lower than your mana percentage – or – it will increase your mana regeneration by 100 percent if your mana percentage is lower than your health percentage.

More from Blog of Legends

Lost Chapter will be a new item that is made from a Sapphire Crystal, Amplifying Tome and 115 gold. It gives 25 AP, 250 mana and has a unique passive: upon leveling up, restore 20 percent of your maximum mana over three seconds.

Next, Xypherous brings up how Morellonomicon and Athene’s Unholy Grail have always kind of battled against each other in terms of what a mage wants to buy, and that’s something that needs to be changed.

Morellonomicon’s recipe has been changed to Lost Chapter, Fiendish Codex and 500 gold. Its mana regeneration of 100 percent has been completely taken away, but it now gives 400 flat mana (cooldown reduction stays at 20 percent).

Athene’s Unholy Grail’s recipe has been changed to Chalice, Fiendish Codex and 300 gold. It’s AP has been decreased from 60 to 40, mana regeneration lowered from 100 percent to 75 percent and its magic resistance and cooldown reduction have been left unchanged. Its passive from kills or assists has been taken away, but it now has a new passive: gain 15 percent of pre-mitigation damage dealt to champions as Blood charges, up to 100 to 270 (based on level). With the new passive, healing or shielding another ally consumes Blood Charges to heal that ally.

Xypherous wasn’t joking about wanting to make mana regeneration items support based while making flat mana items for offensive mages, because the changes in Morellonomicon and Athene’s Unholy Grail display that perfectly.

Xypherous goes on to explain that Spell Vamp will be taken away from the item system completely, noting that they could never make it a relevant stat and it was only purchased on Vladimir. However, spell vamp will remain in passives, runes and masteries.

Will of the Ancients has been removed from the game.

RIP.

While there are already Hextech items in the game, Xypherous says that they are changing those up a bit and introducing more items to the class.

Hextech Revolver’s AP will stay the same, but its spell vamp has been removed in favor of a new passive – Magic Bolt. Magic Bolt makes basic attacks deal 75-150 magic damage on-hit (30-second cooldown, shared with other Hextech items).

Hextech Gunblade’s active damage is increased from 150 to 300 while its active AP damage ratio has been decreased from 0.4 to 0.3. Its active now instantaneously shoots a lightning bolt with zero travel time, immediately slowing the target for two seconds (active now shares a cooldown with other Hextech items).

Now time for some new Hextech toys. Hextech Rocket Belt (temporary name) will have a recipe of Hextech Revolver, Kindlegem and 800 gold. The item gives 300 health, 80 AP and 10 percent cooldown reduction. Its active is Fire Bolt, and it gives champions a dash (can’t be used over walls) of 300 units in a direction (at 1200 speed) and then unleashes a nova of fireballs that deal 100-250 (plus 25 percent of your AP) magic damage to enemies hit. Enemies hit by more than one fireball take 15 percent damage from additional balls (30-second cooldown, shared with other Hextech items).

Hextech GLP-07A (another temporary name) has a recipe of Catalyst of Aeons, Hextech Revolver and 750 gold. This item gives 80 AP, 300 health, 400 mana and has an active: Ice Bolts. This active allows a champion to throw an arc of five piercing icy bolts that explode to deal 100-200 (plus 20 percent of your AP) as magic damage. Enemies hit are slowed by 60 percent decaying over 0.5 seconds (30-second cooldown, shared with other Hextech items).

Its active is Fire Bolt, and it gives champions a dash (can’t be used over walls) of 300 units in a direction (at 1200 speed) and then unleashes a nova of fireballs that deal 100-250 (plus 25 percent of your AP) magic damage to enemies hit.

That is it for the Hextech items, and what a change it is. The whole group of them seem extremely powerful with strong base stats and insane actives. You’re going to see them built constantly, and they will probably be overpowered at first.

Back to changing current items: Rod of Ages’ recipe has been changed to Catalyst of Aeons, Needlessly Large Rod and 50 gold. Its health stats are the same, but its AP is decreased from 80 to 60 (AP per stack remains at 20) and its mana is lowered from 400 to 300 (mana per stack decreased from 40 to 10).

This is a negative change to Rod of Ages, but making it 500 gold cheaper might be enough to justify the changes.

Zhonya’s Hourglass’ recipe is changed to Seeker’s Armguard, Fiendish Codex and 900 gold. Its AP is decreased from 100 to 70, armor is unchanged, active cooldown increased from 90 seconds to 120 seconds and it now gives 10 percent cooldown reduction.

Abyssal Scepter’s recipe is changed to Fiendish Codex, Negatron Cloak, Aplyifying Tome and 695 gold. Its AP is decreased from 70 to 60, magic resistance increased from 50 to 60 and it now gives 10 percent cooldown reduction. The item’s aura no longer affects minions, but it now scales with level and reduces magic resistance of nearby enemy champions from 10 to 25.

Finally, the two major magic resist items are also getting tweaked a bit. To get things started, Spectre’s Cowl’s cost is increased by 100 gold, and it now gives 50 more health and five less magic resistance.

Banshee’s Veil’s recipe has been changed to Spectre’s Cowl, Negatron Cloak and 530 gold. Its magic resistance is unchanged, but the health given has been decreased from 500 to 300.

Spirit Visage’s recipe and cost have stayed the same, but it now gives only 55 magic resistance instead of 70. To make up for that, its health stats have been boosted: health regeneration increased from 150 percent to 300 percent, and passive healing increased from 20 percent to 25 percent.

It’s kind of odd that Riot wanted to essentially nerf the major items to counter AP while also buffing AP items a lot. This is going to put mages in a great place once all these changes take place (we’re about to be in “mid or AFK” land).

Xypherous said these changes would go on the Public Beta Environment within the next day or two, and everything is subject to change once they see how things react on there. The plan is to have these changes go live on patch 6.9.

What are your thoughts on these changes? Is it a move in the right direction or is it too much? Let us know below.

Stay up-to-date with all League of Legends changes by visiting out News and Patch Updates pages. 

Home/News