Preseason Overview - Items

A ton of items have been updated and reintroduced during the Preseason, mainly for tanks and front-liners. Let's take a look at the biggest changes.

Mythics

Several new tank Mythics have been introduced to game, starting off with Jak'Sho, The Protean:

• Cost - 3000g
• Build path - Aegis of the Legion + Kindlegem + Ruby Crystal
• Health - 400
• Armour - 30
• MR - 30
• Ability Haste - 20
• Passive - Voidborn Resilience - for each second in champion combat, gain a stack granting 2 armour and MR, up to 8 max. At max stacks become empowered, instantly draining enemies around you for 3% of your max health (reduced to 30% against minions and monsters) and increasing your resists by 10% until end of combat.
• Mythic Passive - grants all other Legendary items 5 armor and 5 magic resistance

This is a fantastic item for extended team fights, as you generate more armour and MR before sapping health from nearby enemies. Front liners who stack health (like Dr. Mundo) or use Conqueror as their keystone have great synergy with this item. The next new item is Radiant Virtue:

• Cost - 3000g
• Build path - Aegis of the Legion + Kindlegem + Ruby Crystal
• Health - 400
• Armour - 30
• MR - 30
• Ability Haste - 20
• Passive - Guiding Light - upon casting your ultimate you Transcend, increasing your max health by 10% for 9 seconds. While Transcended, you and allies within 1200 range of you gain 15 non-ultimate ability haste and heal for 1% of your max health every 3 seconds, increased by up to 100% based on that champion's missing health (60 second cooldown)
• Mythic Passive - grants all other Legendary items 100 health

Radiant Virtue is a great choice for any front liner that uses their ultimate to engage, such as Maokai or Gnar. This will work fantastically in death-ball comps who want to run at and rush down enemies with champions like Sivir, Lissandra and Seraphine. The last new Mythic is Heartsteel:

• Cost - 3200g
• Build path - Kindlegem + Crystalline Bracer + Giant’s Belt
• Health - 800
• Health Regen - 200%
• Ability Haste - 20
• Passive - Colossal Consumption - charge up a powerful attack against a champion over 3 seconds while within 700 range of them. The charged attack deals 125 +6% of your max health as bonus physical damage, and grants you 10% of that amount as permanent max health (30 second cooldown per target)
• Mythic Passive - grants all other Legendary items 1% bonus health and 6% champion size

Heartsteel's value increases over the course of the game, granting you permanent max health the more empowered attacks you're able to land. Naturally this works well on front-liners that can proc it on multiple times with AoE abilities, like Diana and Jax, and can be used alongside Grasp of the Undying.

Reworked Items

While new Mythics have been introduced, Sunfire Aegis and Turbo Chemtank have been changed from Mythics to Legendaries. Starting with Sunfire Aegis:

• Cost - 2800g, down from 3200
• Build path - Bami's Cinder + Chain Vest
• Health - 450, down from 400
• Armour - 50, up from 35
• MR - 0, down from 35
• Ability Haste - 0, down from 20
• Passive - Immolate damage is no longer increased by 150% against monsters
• Passive - Flametouch - removed

Sunfire Aegis is still a solid choice for helping with wave clear, but no longer provides any MR in favour of more armour. Turbo Chemtank has also been drastically changed:

• Cost - 2800g, down from 3200
• Build path - Kindlegem + Negatron Cloak + Ruby Crystal
• Health - 500, up from 450
• Armour - 0, down from 25
• MR - 50, up from 25
• Ability Haste - 10, down from 20
• Passive - Refuel - removed

Chemtank can still be used to help with engages, and now provides a ton of MR at the cost of no longer providing armour. The removal of the Refuel passive means it no longer helps with jungle or wave clear.

Returning Items

Two items are returning to the Rift: Rod of Ages (as a Mythic) and Spear of Shojin. Rod of Ages is an AP mage item that provides scaling stats:

• Gold Cost: 3200g
• Build path: Catalyst of Aeons + Blasting Wand + Amplifying Tome
• Ability Power: 60
• Health: 300
• Mana: 400
• Passive - this item gains 20 health, 20 mana, and 4 ability power every minute (max 10 times for a total of 200 health, 200 mana, and 40 ability power). Upon reaching max stacks, gain a level and all effects of Eternity are increased by 50%. (Note: this will not increase the level cap of 18)
• Passive - Eternity - restore mana equal to 8% of premitigation damage taken from champions, and health equal to 20% of mana spent, up to 15 health per cast. Toggled abilities can only heal for up to 15 per second. For every 250 health or mana restored this way, gain 25% decaying move speed for 2 seconds.
• Mythic Passive - grants all other Legendary items 5 Ability Haste

Scaling mages will welcome the return of RoA after being away for a few seasons, particularly melee mages like Kassadin and Sylas who value the tanky stats. Meanwhile, Spear of Shojin is a great choice for AD champions who want to spam their abilities and escape from tricky situations:

• Gold Cost - 3400
• Build path - B.F. Sword + Kindlegem + Caulfield’s Warhammer
• AD - 65
• Health - 300
• Ability Haste - 20
• Passive - Dragonforce - non-ultimate spells gain an extra [8 (+8% bonus AD) Ability Haste for melee champions | 6 (+6% bonus AD) Ability Haste for ranged champions], reduced to [4 (+4% bonus AD) Ability Haste for melee champions | 3 (+3% bonus AD) Ability Haste for ranged] for spells with immobilizing effects
• Passive - Exigency - gain up to [15% melee | 10% ranged] move speed, based on your % missing health (maxed out while below 33% health)

Summary

The new Mythics and changes to Sunfire Aegis and Turbo Chemtank have greatly benefitted tanks; they now have a ton of different Mythic options, and a slew of great legendaries to choose from. Therefore, it's likely the meta for the next few weeks will revolve around tanks.