League of Legends Getting Two New Items

Alright LoLerskaters, I’ve got some bad news for fans of Runic Bulwark. If you haven’t heard, it will be removed in the upcoming Lucian patch for League of Legends. I know, it is an awesome item and it will be sorely missed. Fear not though, we are getting two new items to help with the whole, “not enough MR” problem.

 

Two New Items For League of Legends

But why are they taking away my bulwark?! Why!? WHY!?

To make it simple, Runic Bulwark is just too damn good. The amount of defensive stats it gives your team is just outrageous. You end up giving them tons of gold worth of stats just by standing next to them, that’s a no-no in LoL. It was a must have for every single team, either the support or jungle was wearing the bulwark every single game. Riot made the smart decision to split up the MR stat into two new items, instead of having one awesome item that is a must have, *cough* Force of Nature *cough*. So let’s take a look at it’s replacements, and dive into some crazy theories.

 

Spectre’s Cowl

 Tier: Advanced

+200 Health

+45 Magic Resistance

 Passive: Unique: Grants 15hp/5 for 10 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion.

 Cost: 1350 g.

 

This bad little cowl is the replacement for Catalyst the Protector in the Banshee’s Veil recipe. Which of course means that the Veil will be losing it’s mana bonus and gaining an MR bonus instead. Sounds good to me! Great for champions who don’t even have mana, but can still benefit from the use of a Veil. Banshee’s Veil is basically going to be the go to item against AP lanes and AP comp teams. While it won’t be enough to shut them down on its own, it will certainly make a huge difference in fights.

The Spectre’s Cowl itself is nothing to scoff at, that passive is sweet. Suddenly Singed and Teemo poison seems a whole lot less scary. If you bring it up to a Veil, you’ll get an even more powerful version of the passive. No more hitting random Teemo mushrooms in the jungle, and wasting away to nothingness trying to walk back to fountain. There isn’t a whole lot of craziness going on with this item. It’s a great choice for anyone against an AP opponent, and a great building block for Banshee’s Veil. The only downside is that people who start catalyst for the health and mana on level will have one less option for upgrades.

 

Spellbreaker

Tier: Legendary

Melee Only

 +40 Attack Damage

+25 Magic Resistance

+20% Critical Chance

 Passive:

Unique – Lifeline: Upon taking magic damage that would reduce health below 30%, grants a shield that absorbs 400 magic damage for 5 seconds (90 second cooldown).

 Unique – Tenacity: The duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, silences, blinds and immobilizes are reduced by 35%.

 Cost: 2800g.

Looks like Maw of Malmortius has some competition on the Hexdrinker front. The Spellbreaker certainly can’t compete with the Maw when it comes to raw damage, but it will certainly have its own niche. That niches is of course, melee Attack Damage Carries. This items has a lot of what someone like Trynd or AD Yi wants in an item; AD, Crit, Shield, Tenacity, in some circumstances MR. But, how often does a melee ADC end up tangling with someone where MR and the Lifeline passive are going to be relevant?

Now I have a theory, it’s crazy, but bear with me. I’m calling for melee ADCs to drop into the mid lane! I know, I know, it sounds like the ravings of a mad man. But just think about it, this item gives all you need to try it out. It builds from a Hexdrinker and an Avarice Blade, both items that are totally great low tier builds. It gives several offensive stats that an ADC wants, as well as the survivability to help make it in mid lane. And even crazier, I’m calling it a first item to rush for a mid lane melee ADC.

This items is clearly designed to help bring melee ADCs back to a viable place within League of Legends. Looking at its stats, I don’t think it fits in anywhere as well as it would in the mid lane. Tenacity gets you through the stun/slow that mids all carry, MR and Lifeline help you survive it, AD and Crit help you turn around and execute them for their insolence.

Sure, Spellbreaker does cost a hefty 3200g. but it also offers a better balance of stats than a Phantom Dancer does. I think the Spellbreaker is an great way to help revive the sad state of melee carries, and I can’t wait to get in some play time with it. I am a little sad that it’s melee only, because this thing would be pretty sick on some of the range ADCs out there.

Overall, I think we can consider these welcome additions to the LoL item lineup. Who knows if they’ll turn out to be as useful as I hope they are. We’ve seen a lot of items come and go since the beginning of season 3, let’s hope these have a bit of staying power.