League of Legends’ Patch 8.6 was finally released yesterday, following a 24-hour delay to an unforeseen problem with the Oceanic and Japanese Servers. But now everything is up and running, and alongside the (many) balance changes to champions, some items were affected as well, including the addition of an old friend – if you are a veteran player you might remember it – in form of Shurelya's Reverie, returning to the game as a replacement to Talisman’s Ascension.

To help giving you an overview to all the itemization changes on patch 8.6, I prepared a short article pointing out all changes, as well as giving my personal take on how those aforementioned changes can affect the meta.

Shurelya's Reverie

COST: 2100 gold
BUILD PATH: Aether Wisp + Kindlegem + 450 gold

ABILITY POWER: 40
HEALTH: 200
COOLDOWN REDUCTION: 10%
MOVEMENT SPEED: 8%
UNIQUE ACTIVE: Grants user and nearby allies + 40% movement speed for 3 seconds (60 second cooldown)

Starting right away with the newcomer, as I already mentioned, Shurelya's Reverie will be the spiritual successor of the retired Talisman’s Ascension, whose active gives the entire team a short but substantial movement speed increase to catch enemies unware or disengage from a losing fight.

But while Talisman’s was all about defensive stats, the 40 Ability Power provided by Shurelya’s transforms it into the perfect item for aggressive supports – especially if they are playing the likes of Morgana and Zyra. But of course, Shurelya’s still is a great option for other engage-heavy champions in the botlane, such as Thresh and Alistar.

Personally, I am very excited about this item: in situations where games are stalled, having the active on all 5 members is a huge deal, and can result on really explosive engages later on, breaking the deadlock and bringing games to an earlier end. In the pro scene, we will probably just see it after the Mid-Season Invitational, but will be nonetheless interesting to see how high-elo players will adapt their playstyle if at least one Shurelya’s in present in their game.


Guinsoo's Rageblade

TOTAL COST: 3600 gold ⇒ 3000 gold
BUILD PATH: Blasting Wand + Recurve Bow + Pickaxe + 875 gold ⇒Amplifying Tome + Recurve Bow + Pickaxe + 690 gold

ATTACK DAMAGE: 35 ⇒ 25
ABILITY POWER: 50 ⇒ 25
MAGIC DAMAGE ON HIT: 15 ⇒ 5 (+0.1 ability power)
NEW PHYSICAL DAMAGE ON HIT: 5 + (0.1 bonus attack damage)
ABILITY POWER PER STACK: 4 flat ability power ⇒ 4% ability power
ATTACK SPEED PER STACK: 8% bonus attack speed ⇒ 8% total attack speed
ATTACK DAMAGE PER STACK: ⇒ 4% bonus attack damage
NEW RAPID RAGE: At half stacks, melee champions' next basic attack fully stacks Rageblade

The changes to Guinsoo’s Rageblade are extensive, but have a main goal in mind: to make sure that champions who are highly dependent of the item don’t simply rush it straightaway, which automatically meant a huge powerspike thanks to its passives, which provided flat bonuses to stats.

By now giving bonuses stats instead, Guinsoo’s becomes a rather useless choice for first item, as obviously, there won’t be any bonus AD and AP available for the champions to stack on. However in the late game, it will still be a  very interesting choice, as at that point is when the bonus AD and AP really start to have a noticeable effect, so expect it still being used by attack speed-based ADCs – most notably Varus and Kog’Maw, who up until now built it as their first complete item.

Talking about Guinsoo’s users, by decreasing its overall price, adding some physical damage on hit and adding a new passive, which at half stacks, the next basic attack by a melee champion fully stacks Rageblade, it suddenly becomes a good option for bruisers and fighters in the top side of the map as well – so expect to see it often used by the likes of Darius, Renekton, Garen or Fiora.


Dead Man's Plate

PROC DAMAGE TYPE: Physical ⇒ Magic

REMOVED SLOWMENTUM: Users no longer lose stacks while Slowed|
UPDATED SOMENTUM: Now consumes all momentum on basic attacks even if at less than max stacks, dealing 1 damage per momentum consumed
NEEDS MO'MENTUM: The slow only triggers at max stacks (unchanged; still melee-only)|

NEW LOCKING OUT MY GENERATION: Basic attacking now locks out momentum generation until your attack timer resets

Dead Man’s Plate also received some tweaks on patch 8.6, with Riot wanting to make sure that fighters prioritize buying the item over tanks. The biggest changes involve its Momentum, which no longer decays after some time and can be expended at any time, dealing 1 damage per charge consumed.

But while this means that it is no longer necessary to reach maximum Momentum before being able to have an empowered auto-attack, Dead Man’s Plate’s slow is still only applied when you reach 100 stacks of Momentum.

Therefore, the revamped item is most efficiently used by champions who go on the aggressive, bringing the fight to their opponent – the reworked Irelia can be a good example of someone who can be really effective after grabbing it.


Abyssal Mask

AURA RADIUS:  700 (edge to edge) ⇒ 325 (center to edge)
MAGIC DAMAGE AMPLIFIER:  10% ⇒ 15%
HI, ORNN: These changes also apply to Ornn's masterwork upgrade, Infernal Mask

BUGFIX: Abyssal Mask no longer counts as a spell for the purposes of Electrocute or Phase Rush's "3 unique spell" requirement

A couple of straightforward changes to Abyssal Mask were shipped alongside patch 8.6: with its aura radius reduced significantly, it is simply not very useful for long-range mages anymore, who kind of abused the item thanks to its powerful defensive stats alongside the respectable boost to magic damage.

Therefore, it will become once more an item aimed to frontline champions, who can use the improved aura to provide an assistance to his backline mages, while keeping enemy magic damage dealers away.


Seraph's Embrace

SHIELD RATIO:  20% current mana ⇒ 15% current mana
SHIELD DURATION: 3 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds

Considered a bit too strong, Seraph’s Embrace received a significant nerf: its shield lasting 33% less time is actually a big deal for an item so commonly seem on scaling mages.


Hextech GLP-800

TOTAL COST: 3000 gold ⇒ 2800 gold

Quite underused lately, reducing its cost is an attempt to make the Hextech perhaps a bit more popular…but I am unsure whether it will be enough.


Statikk Shiv

PROC DAMAGE: 60-160 ⇒ 60-140
REMOVED WAVE CLEAR: No longer deals bonus damage to minions

Small changes but actually a huge nerf to the most popular Attack Speed item in the game – especially for ADCs. Not being able to deal bonus damage to minions is a big deal for champions who have a relatively weak wave clear, and can affect those champions’ building paths in the days to come.


Rapid Firecannon

PROC DAMAGE: 50-120 ⇒ 60-140

To wrap it up, Rapid Firecannon will be receiving a small damage boost to match the nerf Statikk Shiv received. Well, at least it is something, right?


And that concludes the item changes overview for patch 8.6! Are you particularly excited about any of them? Let me know in the comments below!

(Pictures courtesy of Riot Games)