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League of Legends Patch 9.23 breakdown: Items and Runes

By Ben Holsgrove

League of Legends. Photo courtesy of Riot Games.
League of Legends. Photo courtesy of Riot Games. /
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League of Legends. Photo courtesy of Riot Games. /

Support Items

Mechanics Updates

"Support items still have three tiers, but now upgrade automatically for free as you complete their quests: Tier 1: 400 gold starting item. Earn gold from quest to upgrade. Tier 2: Increased stats and 3 ward charges. Earn gold from quest to upgrade. Tier 3: Significantly increased stats and 4 total ward charges. Quest goes away. Farming more than 20 CS per 5 minutes (3 out of 10 waves)  reduces gold from minions by 50%. The penalty increases with further CS to a max of 80% reduction at 50 minions. Once the penalty kicks in, your CS gold is reduced to (70 – CS within 5 minutes)%."

To avoid solo laners picking up a support item and gaining the gold from the quest while still farming, the rules of minion kills, and gold quests have been changed. Now you’ll be at a disadvantage if you choose to farm and have a passive gold income at the same time.

As for the support items themselves, they’re much more streamlined now, making it easier for support players to itemize and not have to worry about spending gold to complete a useless item. This also opens up more gold and more time to complete more important support items.

Spellthief’s Edge Line

"Tribute: Damaging spells and attacks against champions or buildings grants 15 gold. Gain a charge every 10 seconds, up to 3 charges."

Spellthief’s Edge

"Cost: 400 gold Ability Power: 10 -> 8 Health: 10 Removed: No longer grants +25% mana regen. Quest: Earning 500 total gold through Tribute upgrades this item to Frostfang."

Frostfang

"Ability Power: 20 -> 15 Health: 70 Gold per 10: 2 -> 3 Removed: No longer grants +50% mana regen. Removed: No longer grants 10% cooldown reduction. Quest: Earning 1000 total gold through Tribute upgrades this item to Shard of True Ice."

Shard of True Ice

"Ability Power: 35 -> 60 Health: 200 -> 150 Gold per 10: 2 -> 3 Removed: No longer grants +50% mana regen. Removed: No longer grants 10% cooldown reduction."

Fundamentally, the Spellthief’s Edge item line is still the same. Mage supports still want to build this and still want to poke champions/towers to gain some more gold.

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However, looking more closely, it’s clear that this item is weaker early on, and stronger after completing the quest. The lack of mana regen on all three tiers is especially notable. The gold saved from upgrades will have to go straight into a Lost Chapter or Chalice of Harmony in order to maintain high mana during the laning phase.

Cooldown reduction is also lost on the tier 2 and tier 3 items, but this is compensated by a HUGE boost in Ability Power granted by Shard of True Ice. Now, instead of a measly 35 AP, the final Spellthief’s item grants a very impactful 60 AP which is a huge help for mage supports.

Overall, this is a nerf to Spellthief’s in the first 10 minutes, but a buff in the later stages. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter as you only really have one choice when it comes to mage support items.

Spectral Sickle Line

"Tribute: Damaging spells and attacks against champions or buildings grants 15 gold. Gain a charge every 10 seconds, up to 3 charges."

Spectral Sickle

"Cost: 400 gold Attack Damage: 5 Health: 10 Gold per 10: 2 Quest: Earning 500 total gold through Tribute upgrades this item to Harrowing Crescent."

Harrowing Crescent

"Attack Damage: 10 Health: 70 Gold per 10: 3 Quest: Earning 1000 total gold through Tribute upgrades this item to Black Mist Scythe."

Black Mist Scythe

"Attack Damage: 35 Health: 150 Gold per 10: 3"

There’s not much to say except this is the AD version of Spellthief’s, which isn’t going to be very useful considering the number of AD supports in the game. I guess this is an option for Senna and Pyke? Moving along…

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