Patch 6.9 Summary of Item Updates

After the insane amount of reworks Patch 6.9 brought us, I figured I'd do some analysis to help out with identifying what exactly is going on with the massive number of changes. Since we already talked about the major mage reworks and the "minor" mage reworks, this seems like a good time to make a dent in the item reworks as well.

For those of you wondering if this patch analysis will be a reoccurring article, it might be (depending on how much you guys like it), but on a standard patch size I'll probably condense it into one page. This one just happens to be ginormous!

Introduction

After the insane amount of reworks Patch 6.9 brought us, I figured I'd do some analysis to help out with identifying what exactly is going on with the massive number of changes. Since we already talked about the major mage reworks and the "minor" mage reworks, this seems like a good time to make a dent in the item reworks as well.

For those of you wondering if this patch analysis will be a reoccurring article, it might be (depending on how much you guys like it), but on a standard patch size I'll probably condense it into one page. This one just happens to be ginormous!

Item Change Recap

Mana Regen Items

Tear of the Goddess

Mana Regen changed to refunding 15% of mana spent

The change from a regen to a pure mana refund type originally seems like a big buff, but in reality may just be more of a lateral change. As most champions that currently build tear tend to be more of a low cooldown type of champion to begin with, impact may be low overall. Time will tell which champions this ends up being stronger on.

Catalyst of the Aeons

Cost reduced by 100 gold,
New Passive:  "15% of damage taken from champions is gained as mana. Spending mana restores 20% of mana spent as health, up to 15 per cast (toggle spells heal for up to 15 per second)"

This item looks like a massive buff for mana hungry champions that also have a built-in self heal, such as Swain and Yorick. Expect to see much more of them in the future as a result. Even tank based champions may build this and transition it into a Righteous Glory or one of the new Hextech items (see below).

Rod of Ages

Cost reduced by 400 gold, AP reduced by 20, mana reduced by 100.
New Passive: 15% of damage taken from champions is gained as mana. Spending mana restores 25% of mana spent as health, up to 25 per cast (toggle spells heal for up to 25 per second)

Similar to Catalyst, this item may be a new go-to for AP based tanks like Maokai simply for its trading potential.

Chalice of Harmony

New Passive:  Grants 100% base regen per 5 seconds if your current health percentage is lower than your current mana percentage. Grants 100% base mana regen per 5 seconds if your current mana percentage is lower than your current health percentage.

The changes on this item look like they could be a sizable buff to champions like Soraka, that passively drains both her health and her mana pool.

Lost Chapter

25 AP, 300 mana for 900 gold
Passive:  Restores 20% of your maximum mana over 3 seconds upon leveling up. 

Looks similar to the old catalyst's mana regen on level up, and could be useful to build over fiendish codex for mana-hungry champions while building towards Morello.

Morellonomicon

Gold cost increased by 500, 20 more AP than before, 400 mana added, mana regen removed. 20% cooldown no longer stacks, Grievous Wound threshold dropped by 5% and duration increased by 3 seconds.
New Passive: Kills and assist restore 20% of your maximum mana.

This item was nerfed for sustained damage mages, but is now better for burst mage assassins. The massive gold increase doesn't seem worth the trade-off, but it does include an extra 20 AP.

Athene's Unholy Grail - OP?

Cost reduced by 450, ability power reduced by 20, mana regen reduced by 25%

New Passive: 20% of the damage you deal to champions gives you a charge, up to 100-250 based on level. Healing or shielding an ally consumes the charge and heals your target.

New Passive 2 (same as chalice): Grants 100% base regen per 5 seconds if your current health percentage is lower than your current mana percentage. Grants 100% base mana regen per 5 seconds if your current mana percentage is lower than your current health percentage.

By creating an item that helps shield-based champions like Lulu and Morgana sustain in lane against heal-based supports, they may have just made Janna the strongest support in the game (again).

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Defensive Items

Abyssal Scepter

Gold cost increased by 400, ability power reduced by 10, magic resist increased by 10, 10% cooldown reduction added, magic resist aura adjusted from 20 to 10~25 based on level.

Big nerfs all around, but more of a defensive item and provides cooldown reduction.It's not worth building on any burst mages anymore, but could still find a niche with tank based AP champions.

Zhonya's Hourglass

Cost reduced by 600, AP reduced by 30, 10% cooldown reduction added, active cooldown increased by 30 seconds.

Massive cost reduction on this item, and in return the damage was reduced and the cooldown on the item active was significantly increased. They also gave it a free 10% cooldown. Overall it's a buff to champions like Kennen and Fiddle, who need this item to stay relevant mid-game, and won't be using it without their ultimates. However, it's a nerf to Fizz and other AP assassins with low cooldown escapes.

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Hextech Items

Hextech Revolver

Cost reduced by 150, spell vamp removed.
New Passive: Damaging an enemy with a basic attack does a bonus 75~150 damage based on level in bonus magic damage with a 40 second cooldown.

Really cheap item now that deals additional burst damage. Major buff to any champion's early game, and expect Kayle, Akali, and Teemo to see fast rises. Especially Teemo, as he just received a buff this patch too.

Hextech GLP-800 (Ice)

3000 gold builds from Hextech Revolver + Catalyst. 80 AP, 300 health, 400 mana.

New Passive (same as RoA): 15% of damage taken from champions is gained as mana. Spending mana restores 25% of mana spent as health, up to 25 per cast (toggle spells heal for up to 25 per second)

New Active: Shoots spray of ice bolts that explode and deal 100-200 magic damage (scales with level) and slow enemies by 65% decaying over 0.5 seconds; 40 sec cooldown.

I could see this as an upgrade for Maokai as well over Rod of Ages. It's slightly more expensive (400 gold more) but it provides more stats and also has a sweet active.

Hextech Protobelt-01 (Fire) - OP!

2500 gold, builds from Hextech Revolver and Kindlegem. 60 AP, 300 health, 10% cooldown reduction

New Active: Dash forward and unleash a nova of fire bolts that deals 75-150 magic damage (scales with level) enemies hit by multiple bolts take 20% damage from additional bolts; 40 sec cooldown.

This item looks super interesting, and the most obvious use is for burst mages that already have high mobility, such as Fizz. However, as the first item that actually provides a champion a dash ability,  one could also wonder which junglers it could be built on with low mobility for stronger ganks...maybe Phoenix Udyr? It could also be used on low mobility burst mages such as Malzahar, Brand, or Vladimir. Vladimir especially since it doesn't give any mana or mana regen.

Hextech Gunblade

New Active: Deals 250 damage to target champion and slows for 40% for 2 seconds; 40 sec cooldown

Not much different from before, the items it builds from are stronger and the active matches the new changes to revolver.

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Jungle Items

Removed Items - Bye Devourer!

Devourer Enchantment, All Boot Enchantments

This should knock a few champions down with on-hit skills stronger than 3% of the target's maximum health, most notably Kindred and possibly Master Yi, Warwick and Xin Zhao as well.

Enchantment: Bloodrazor

2625 gold, builds from Recurve Bow and a Tier 2 jungle item. Grants 40% attack speed.
New Passive: Basic attacks deal 3% of the target's maximum health as bonus physical damage.

This new enchantment seems significantly weaker than Devourer, and doesn't really seem like a good replacement. As games tend to snowball quickly, a 3% maximum health item is somewhat aimed at helping fight the tank meta, but most champions will likely just pick up Warrior for the early game and a Blade of the Ruined King if they need to take down high health tanks.

Guinsoo's Rageblade

Cost increased by 800 to 3600 gold, builds out of Blasting Wand + Pickaxe + Recurve Bow. Grants 35 AD, 50 AP, 15 magic damage on-hit. Basic attacks grant 8% ASPD, 3 AD, 4 AP for 5 seconds, and gives Guinsoo's Rage at max stacks (6, down from 8).

Guinsoo's Rage Changes: Melee champions no longer get two stacks, every other basic attack will trigger on-hit effects an additional time.

Massive changes on Guinsoo's Rageblade, and it looks like champions like Vayne could benefit greatly from it (although the AP will go to waste). 

The Black Cleaver

Cost reduced by 400 to 3100 gold, attack damage reduced by 5

Not much to say here. Earlier power spikes, meant to target tanks and boost melee DPS play ability.

Spectre's Cowl

Cost increased by 100 to 1200, health increased by 50, magic resist dropped by 5.

Not much change here.

Banshee's Veil

Cost decreased 450 to 2450, health reduced by 200.

Excellent buff on Banshee's Veil, and we'll likely be seeing it put into play more. The cooldown on the item's unique ability will likely start being of more staple importance.

Spirit Visage

Magic resist reduced by 15, health regen increased by 50%, passive healing increase boosted by 5%

Decent boost on spirit visage, not much to say.

Guardian Angel - ADC Buff?

Cost reduced by 300 to 2400, magic resist reduced by 15 to 45.

Similar to Banshee's this change should help squishies with an earlier spike in defensive against assassins and dive based champions. To think marksmen were complaining they didn't get a buff this patch!

Quicksilver Sash & Mercurial Scimitar - BIG NERF

Active effect now only removes crowd control debuffs.

Buff to Zed, Vladimir, Poppy, etc.

Hexdrinker, Maw of Malmortius, Sterak's Gage

Both of the old effects proc when one triggers, but only once and then put on cooldown.

It looks like tanks will choose to pick up Maw of Malmortius, whereas squishier champions will pick up Sterak's Gage. It's somewhat of an early to mid game buff and a late game nerf to champions that used to build both.

Sunfire Cape

Cost increased 200g to 2900

Bami's Cinder also lost 20 health. This one's mostly a community complaint nerf, but it does make the item slightly undesirable. It doesn't make much of a difference since everyone's going to be stacking magic resist against insanely powerful mages anyway though.

Enchantment: Cinderhulk

Damage immolation changed from 15 + 0.6 per level to 7 + 2 per level (breaks even at 6)

I'd say this is an overall buff. Tank champions are now able to deal more damage mid to late game.

Vision Ward - New Minigame

Health dropped to 4, but regenerates 1 health every 3 seconds after 5 seconds out of combat.

I kinda like this change, as it now gives you much more incentive to fight enemy champions if they're attacking it.

Farsight Alteration - Big Nerf!

Cooldown increased from 90-60 seconds to 148-99 seconds

Massive nerf on this trinket...I may actually have to start buying sweepers, or might just switch back to yellow trinket.

Righteous Glory - BIG NERF

Now receives same passive as Rod of Ages (the one that heals via mana spend). It no longer speeds up allies and the movespeed and slow have been nerfed.

Right when I was enjoying building it, they nerfed it. Rip. It's still good for single target lockdown tanks, but otherwise few people will be building it.

Warmog's Armor

Build path changed to Giant's Belt + Kindlegem + Crystalline Bracer and now grants 10% cooldown reduction.

Definitely a cooldown reduction theme going on here.

Conclusions

This analysis definitely ended up a lot longer than I expected. Overall there's a strong move towards cooldown reduction, and with the new item build paths I'd expect almost every champion to hit 40% cooldown reduction at full build. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but does make the game much more spammy.

There seems to be a good mixture of nerfs and buffs, but the items to watch out for are definitely Guinsoo's Rageblade, the new Athene's Grail, and the new Hextech lineup.

Farsight Alteration is probably the big loser this patch, and Devourer removal will shake up the jungle pecking order quite a bit. 

What do you think about the new item changes? Think there's something particularly overpowered? Comment below!