TFT Guide: Breaking Down Set 5’s Shadow Items & How To Use Them

Archdemon’s Staff

Recipe: Shadow Tear of the Goddess + Needlessly Large Rod

"Each time the holder casts their spell, they gain maximum Health equal to 300% of their maximum Mana. The holder then heals for the maximum Health that was gained from that spellcast."

This removes the AP gain from Archangel’s staff and replaces it with health and healing. This is therefore very good on high-mana units, particularly who have utility ultimates (Morgana immediately jumps to mind).

Very Dark Blue Buff

Recipe: Shadow Tear of the Goddess + Tear of the Goddess

"After casting their spell, the wearer’s Mana is set to 10. If the wearer has less than 60% health, this is increased to 40."

This will be better than the vanilla Blue Buff in almost all cases, but make sure not to put it on any unit that has a ton of healing, as it might cause them to lose that 30 mana after a spell cast.

Learn how to use TFT Set 5’s new Shadow Items!

Cursed Hextech Gunblade

Recipe: Shadow Needlessly Large Rod + BF Sword

"The holder’s spells heal the nearest ally with missing health for 50% of the damage dealt. This heal cannot effect the holder."

Again, this creates a situation where you would almost never want to put this on the same units that would love the vanilla version. Instead, you probably want it on low-mana utility units who get a lot of casts off in a fight.

Locket of the Dark Solari

Recipe: Shadow Needlessly Large Rod + Chain Vest

"When combat begins, the holder and all allies with 2 hexes in the same row gain 60 bonus Armor and Magic Resist, but gain 5 less Mana per attack."

5 less mana per attack is actually gigantic, so definitely do not put this on or near units that are very spell-reliant. This is, ultimately, better for tanky units like Poppy or Taric, but there are only a few front-line units that don’t care about mana costs (Thresh, Udyr, and Kled). Most others would be better with the vanilla version.

Mor-evil-lonomicon

Recipe: Shadow Needlessly Large Rod + Giant’s Belt

"When the holder deals magic damage with their spell, the spell deals 50% less damage but they burn the target, dealing 100% of the target’s maximum Health as true damage over 25 seconds, and reducing healing by 50% for the duration of the burn."

This is a slow-burn version of Morello with lower damage, so it’s actually better on tankier champions with AoE abilities. Whether the Shadow Item is better than the normal version depends entirely on your comp and how long they can survive while that burn ticks away.