League of Legends: Five items that were too good to stay untouched

Riot Games is one of the game developers that love changing the dynamics of their game a lot, and that means the items we know today might not be the same in the next patch. Numerous items were introduced, changed and removed throughout the history of League of Legends, but we picked five of them for you to remember and relive a little bit of nostalgia.

For today, we have five items that are changed, but if you wonder about the removed ones, we got you covered. You can check out the link below to see our picks from the legacy items in League of Legends. If you are ready to take a trip down the memory lane, let’s start with a relatively new item that was too broken for Riot’s taste, Duskblade of Draktharr.

Duskblade of Draktharr

Duskblade offers high amounts of attack damage, ability haste and lethality, the perfect recipe for an AD assassin like Zed or Talon. Today, it’s a Mythic item, an item that empowers your other full items basically. If you have it on, your next basic attack will apply extra physical damage and slow the enemy for a short period, but 99% slow for 0.25 seconds is more than enough for assassins.

Additionally, if you get a takedown (kill or assist) from a champion that you dealt damage to in the last three seconds, the first passive resets and you are granted invisibility for 1.5 seconds.

Looks like a lot of passives for a single item. Back in the day when it was first introduced, Duskblade offered similar options, attack damage, movement speed and armor penetration. However, its passive was a lot different: just like Zed’s ultimate, when you basic attack an enemy, you leave a mark on them that deals physical damage amplified by missing health. Its cooldown was 120 seconds though.

It was frustrating to play against Zed in the assassin meta as an ADC, and even if you got rid of Zed’s R through quicksilver sash or Sivir E, you would probably get taken down by Duskblade of Draktharr anyway. Riot decided to change the item, but it might still be too strong.

Stridebreaker

This one is an even newer item than Duskblade of Draktharr. Stridebreaker was introduced just before Season 11, one year ago. The item offered attack damage, attack speed, health and ability haste, a great choice for fighters. It was a Mythic item with a unique active which was the actual problem.

Stridebreaker’s active offered a very small dash, which would deal damage like Hydra actives and slow the enemies in the circle by 60%. You can see the problem if you imagine this item on a champion like Urgot, Vi or Nocturne, and even assassins like Talon.

To fix this, Stridebreaker still offers the same stats, but its active status was changed. The dash is no longer there, it deals slightly more damage and slows a lot less around you. When Riot first changed it, even without a dash, champions like Nocturne made use of it so well that it broke the game balance again, so they had to lower the slow also.

Moral of the story: just stop exploiting broken items with already broken champions, so that we can have an extra dash for Darius or Fiora, OK guys?

Ravenous/Titanic Hydra

Ravenous Hydra is one of the most iconic items in League of Legends. It offers life steal, wave push, lots of attack damage and looks cool. In 2015-16, Titanic Hydra offered a similar wave push advantage but less attacking power and more health, a tanky option. It was even possible to change between these items during a patch without spending any gold.

I remember the days that every top lane champion used a Hydra item, then stopped, then started using it again. Riot Games found an option to stop their dominance, only to transfer it to somewhere else.

The active option which dealt very low damage around you was stripped off from Tiamat, the number one recipe item for both Hydras. Instead, a new item called Ironspike Whip joined the game. Ironspike Whip is included both in Goredrinker and in Stridebreaker, but although it works like Tiamat when the item isn’t complete, the active turns into something else when it is.

What happened to Hydra items? They are the same now, without their active part. An iconic mechanic for most top laners which also helped them with a crucial thing: animation cancelling, and even auto attack cancelling, although it was fixed later. They can be bought by ranged champions, and some builds for Ashe, Twitch and Kai'Sa made use of that fact. Urgot also benefited from this and keeps on using them according to the balances in that particular patch.

Trinity Force

Hydras are beautiful, but maybe the most iconic one of all items in League of Legends is the Trinity Force. The idea behind it is that when you buy it, you get everything. Its icon in game used to signify Sheen and the dual swords in Zeal.

It was a great choice if you were a champion that used basic attacks and auto-attack cancelling a lot. If it’s 70 minutes into the game and you want to sell your boots to buy something else as an ADC, you would either get Zephyr or “Triforce”. You could also use it if you were immensely fed in the first ten minutes of the game and you just wanted to bully your opponent in the top lane.

However, today, Trinity Force is a Mythic item and you can’t buy it with other Mythics. Once it offered 20% critical chance, which would help champions like Lucian, Gangplank or even a fighter like Fiora to deal incredible damages without having to buy a lot of critical chance items.

Today, a low amount of AD, good amount of ability haste, attack speed and health can be gathered from Trinity Force. It empowers your base stats the more items you buy, and you have the sheen passive as always which amplifies the next basic attack after you use a skill. Trinity Force also still offers movement speed when you hit a champion, and as you hit more basic attacks, you get more AD.