Views: 1099 Items make the Champion Viable: Items are Important than you think
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In League of Legends, we are always discussing strategies and builds and which Champions are viable, etc... Summoners may not realize the importance of Items play in making a Champion viable. A Champion can exist and be considered 'not viable' for numerous reasons, but one of the biggest factors is Itemization. If items do not exist that compliment that Champion's kit, then that Champion will continue to be 'not viable'. I want to discuss the importance of Itemization and Champion viability.
This Article is divided into
-History of the League
-Recurring Themes in League History
-Items = Champion Viability
-Mixed Damage: Magic and Physical Damage and AP Scaling Ultimates
-Item Niches still unfulfilled
Historical Context: This is my description of League History to the best of my knowledge.
Season 1 Dominant Strategies:
-S1: Alistar and Roaming Supports and GP/10: Back when there were 4 Items that gave Gold per 10 Seconds, a Champion could build any combination of the 4 and roam the Summoner's Rift from lane to lane, usually to gank. It was like having a second Jungler. This Champion did not worry about losing too much gold to buy items with because the GP/10 insured a decent Gold Income. Although, they did have to worry about the loss of experience from not having a lane. This strategy worked until Riot's continuous nerfs to GP/10 Items eventually broke the strategy. You may still see variations of this strategy even today with things like Double Jungle, but they don't buy GP/10s any more.
-S1: League of Sunfire Capes: Stacking Sunfire Capes: Stacking items has always been a problem. Why build AD or AP when my whole team can just stack Sunfire Capes that deal 45 Magic Damage per second. 1 Champion stacking 6 Sunfires would deal 270 AoE Magic Damage/second and have 270 Armor and 2700 Bonus Health. 6 Champions stacking 6 Sunfire Capes would deal 1620 AoE Magic Damage/second. This strategy worked best with all tanks. Such a team might be Garen, Blitzcrank, Alistar, Rammus and Galio. The addition of 'Unique Passive' has put an end this and to numerous other Item Stacking strategies.
Season 2 Dominant Strategies:
-S2: League of Bruisers: Warmogs, Atma's Impaler, Trinity Force: Bruisers became the dominant Role in League during this time. Because of how the Flat Penetration and Percent Penetration stacked, building penetration to counter Armor and Magic Resist was tough. Bruisers were very hard to counter because they could soak tons of damage and dealt tons of damage. Bruisers could stack enormous amounts of AR, MR and Health and be nigh unkillable. Add in Trinity Force for overall good stats and Atma's for bonus AD. These Bruisers did not deal quite as much damage as a full-blown ADC, but they could survive long enough to weardown or browbeat anyone and everyone who wasn't a Bruiser. This strategy was dismantled by Riot by nerfing Trinity Force's cost and crit chance, and by nerfing Atma's crit chance and Health to AD conversion.
Olaf: the typical Bruiser, stacked Health and Resistances and could face-tank everyone and put out great damage. Olaf's old kit liked Health + CDR. Olaf was mega-nerfed during the beginning of S3 because he was the quintessential Bruiser. May he Rest in Peace.
-S2: Stacking ArchAngel Staffs: Mid AP Champions could reach ridiculously high AP, around 1000 AP easily during most games. I use to stack ArchAngels on Anivia all the time. The wholesale nerfing of Rabadons' Deathcap along with other AP items has reduced the total amount of AP a Champion can get to around 500~600. This nerf was done during Season 3 Itemization, with the changing of how Flat and Percent Penetration worked, the amount of AP in the game had to be brought lower.
-S2 Stacking Bloodthirsters: 50% to 100% Lifesteal use to be a thing. It was aggravating. Bloodthirster was nerfed from 25% to 20%, but it can still be stacked, though less effectively due to other circumstances.
-S2: League of Spellvamp: Stackable Hextech Gunblades: Riot buffed Spellvamp up to 25% on all items that had SV to improve what they thought was an underused stat. If you weren't a Hybrid who could stack Hextech Gunblades, you might as well have not played at all. Jax, Irelia, Akali, Mordekaiser and other hybrids roamed the Summoner's Rift uncontested. No matter how much Damage you dealt to them, they would survive by healing it right back up with Spellvamp mostly. The addition of 'Unique Passive' to many Spellvamp items killed this strategy along with other nerfs that have destroyed Spellvamps's usefullness. Hextech Gunblade is in a dire situation, the Lifesteal on it was nerfed from 15 to 12%. Champions like Jax who liked this item now forgo getting it in place of the recent addition, Blade of the Ruined King, which is more cost efficient.
-S2: Shen: Ionic Spark: Health plus Attack Speed plus a Chain Lightning Effect: Shen has always been a threat due to his ability to Splitpush all day and still be there for teamfights when he is needed. Ionic Spark was an extremely niche item that only a few champions could utilize at all because of it's very odd combination of stats. Shen was one of those, and it gave him the ability to clear minion waves easily. Shen was able to splitpush very effectively with this in both low and high elos and in tournaments. This item was deleted from the game and given to ADCs, Statikk Shiv.
-S2: Singed Stacking Force of Nature: All Singed had to do was build Mercury Treads, one Rod of Ages and 4 Force of Natures. Singed's kit revolves around running away and making everyone breath his poison. Force of Nature granted 76 MR, Regen equal to 2% of Maximum Health and 6% Movement Speed. Force of Nature's tanky stats plus the Movement Speed made Singed impossible to kill or catch. Force of Nature was deleted from the game because of Singed, and to a lesser extent Mundo.
Season 3 Dominant Strategies:
-Season 3 Itemization: Flat and Percent Penetration Order reversed. Attack Damage was buffed. Attack Speed was nerfed. Armor and Magic Resist nerfed. More Magic Resist Item options. More Support Items. More CDR Items. More Jungler Items. Removal of Force of Nature. Champions who liked AD benefitted the most, such as Assassins. Champions who liked AS were nerfed, such as Irelia and ADCs.
-S3: League of Warmogs: Health Stacking: With the S3 Itemization changes, ADC's found it very hard to deal enough damage with their normal builds being nerfed alot. So Tanks, Offtanks and Bruisers made a short comeback. Just by stacking Warmogs, they could run roughshod over eveything that wasn't stacking Health too.
--Anti-Warmogs: Blade of the Ruined King (BotRK) and Liandry's Torment. BotRK in its current form brought an end to the rampage of the League of Warmogs. As a Bruiser, if you didn't build Armor and Magic Resist to negate the BotRK, you were just essentially transferring your Health to the Enemy ADC.
-S3: League of Black Cleavers: Talon and Pantheon and other AD Assassins were very happy for a short while. Black Cleaver gave AD, CDR, Health, Flat Armor Penetration and Percent Armor Reduction. And on top of all that, it didn't have a 'Unique Passive'. Stacking Black Cleavers essentially negated all armor you bought. Assassins could essentially deal True Damage to everyone, including Tanks. All AD teams cropped up for awhile. AP Champions were ineffectual in this environment. The addition of 'Unique Passive' and some small nerfs killed this strategy.
-S3: CDR + Tank Items: Rise of CDR Tanks
-Hecarim: Hecarim needs so many various and complicated stats in order to work. Some of those stats include AD, CDR, Health, and Resistances. During Season 2, these items didn't exist yet to make Hecarim viable. But with Season 3, all the new items made Hecarim a happy Tanky Bruiser.
-Nasus: Nasus, much like Hecarim, likes similar stats and items such CDR and Tanky Stats. Nasus' kit was also buffed into viability. I foresee his passive getting nerfed if anything.
-S3: Singed: Rod of Ages became cheaper, and Singed was able to reach Tanky/Damagey proportions far sooner than he normally did. Singed literally ran rampant across SR and no one could catch him. Singed received two nerfs and was swiftly kicked in the groin. Price Reduction of RoA = Loss of Crowd Control Reduction on Ultimate: Insanity Potion.
-S3: Manamura and Muramana:
-S3 Urgot: Urgot got a passive added onto an Item just for him to make him useful outside of just being a lane-bully. It gives him all the Mana and AD he needs and damage. However, his kit is still nerfed in some major ways that need fixing. Urgot is considered too strong at the tournament level, I foresee a minor rework in his future.
-Ryze + Muramana: When Muramana deal Magic Damage, Ryze was actually able to make great use of this with his Single Target Abilities. So Riot changed it from magic to physical damage.
-Jayce + Muramana: Jayce uses this item to great effect, although his kit has been nerfed for other reasons.
-S3: Evelynn: Deathfire Grasp: Deathfire Grasp has had so many changes. During early S3, it was incredibly powerful and Evelynn had just been reworked. For a while, our little AP Assassin was in the limelight. Then they nerfed Evelynn and the Deathfire Grasp. Deathfire Grasp was reworked into its 'final' and current form. Evelynn unfortunately is still nerfed, unfairly. Deathfire Grasp has also been the undoing of Veigar during S1 & S2.
-S3: Liandry's Torment: Rise of the AP Offtanks.
-Kayle: (Kayle is not an Offtank) Kayle rose to be feared by all for a short while on SR. With the addition of Liandry's Torment and some other MR Pen and AP Items, AP Kayle was rediscovered. In fact she was so potent, that Riot nerfed her Q and R. AP Kayle is still viable. AD Kayle is not viable unfortunately.
-Elise: Similar to Kayle and Hecarim, Elise did not have the right items to be viable when she was first released. People couldn't decide how to build her. Then Liandry's Torment was created. Now Elise is considered by many, despite nerfs, to be overpowered. Elise likes AP, MR Pen, Health, CDR, etc... Liandry's Torment
Recurring Themes in League History (This list will change as the Meta changes, so don't blame me if Champion X is or is not on a certain list)
-Champion X is not viable. A new Item is created / An old Item is remade. Champion X is now viable.
--Examples: Hecarim, Elise, Sejuani, Orianna, Teemo, Kayle, Vayne
-Champion X is viable. An old Item is nerfed/reworked/deleted. Champion X is now not viable.
--Examples: Evelynn (DFG and SotEL), Shen (Splitpush with Ionic Spark),
-Champion X is OP with Y Item(s). X Champion is nerfed into the ground and Y Item is also nerfed.
--Examples: Irelia (with anything), Hecarim (S3 items), Vi, Veigar (DFG), Jayce (Muramana), Jax (Ninja Tabi, Dodge %), Urgot, Skarner (HoG)
-Reasons for nerfing Champion X and/or Y Item no longer exist, yet no buffs are given to either.
--Examples: Talon, Karthus, Gangplank, Karthus, Mordekaiser,
-X Champions are nerfed, Y Champion(s) are now viable or OP.
--Examples: Corki, Galio, J4, Xin Zhao, Nautilus, Kassadin
-Champion gets Reworked. Their old Build Path no longer works.
--Examples: Olaf, Karma, AD Katarina, AD Evelynn, Shen (Ionic Spark), Kayle,
Items = Champion Viability
- As you can see, the cycles of nerfs and buffs are continuous for Champions, it always rearranges who is OP and who is not OP.
-However, Items remain one of the biggest factors that can make or break a Champion's viability. If the items don't exist, that Champion is out of luck until Riot decides to make such an item. Elise and Kayle are good examples of Champions without the perfect item to accentuate their kits (Liandry's Torment).
-If items do exist for that Champion, but said item doesn't have the correct amount of stats, then that Champion will remain under-powered until Riot decides to buff the Item or the Champion. Riot has a tendency to do nerfs in pairs, such as they will nerf an OP Champion's kit and the item they use. This generally leads to the Champion being unplayable and the item being useless, such as Hecarim.
Mixed Damage kits: Magic and Physical Damage and AP scaling Ultimates
-Many Champions are given AP Scaling Ultimates seemingly arbitrarily, even though the rest of their kit scales with physical damage. This creates very awkward building scenarios.
-Reason 1: Riot sometimes does this (somewhat arbitrarily) so that if that Champion buys Trinity Force or gets Baron Buff, they don't feel cheated by not having an AP Scaling ability.
-Reason 2: Riot sometimes does this because the rest of the kit does too much damage, and giving that Champion another ability that scales with their primary damage would be too much.
-Even so with those two reasons, it still creates awkward building situations where it is impossible to make an efficient item build for some Champions.
--Examples of AP Ult Scalers that don't make sense: Aatrox, Trundle, Gangplank, Volibear, Nasus, Renekton, Shyvana, Ashe, Varus (AP Varus, fun but still...), Rammus, Garen (Magic Damage)
-These Champions deal mixed Damage, but their is no way to efficiently optimize this damage.
--Examples: Warwick, Shyvana, Rammus,
Roles and Niches that need Items:
-Hybrid Penetration
-Melee ADC Items
-More Seeker's Armguard build paths
-Armor/Attack Speed Item
-AD + CDR: Garen: Riven: Assassins: Talon:
-Critical Strike Chance Items for Melee Champions
-AD Sheen Item
-Huge (70-100) AD Item without Lifesteal or Critical Strikes
-Spellvamp + CDR (SotSW is getting nerfed)
- Price reduction or stat buff on Zephyr and Runaan's Hurricane, and Hextech Gunblade
-More items with movementspeed
-Better Frozen Mallet build path
Champions who require Too Many Stats spread across Too Many Items
Karma: CDR, AP, Resistances, Health
Rammus: AR, Health, MR, MR Pen,
Poppy: AD or AP, Health, MR, AR, LS or SV
Swain: AP, CDR, Health, Resistances,
Champion's Kit is Bad/Poorly Made = no amount of items will ever help them
Quinn: ADC in melee Range. Quinn is a bursty Assassin-like ADC. But she is still an ADC. And even worse, her Ultimate: Tag Team, puts her melee range and into danger.
Volibear: I like Volibear. But Volibear is always either overbearing or underpowered. He has such a convoluted kit. He needs Health, AS, AR, and MR, some spells deal physical damage and others deal magic Damage.
Sion: He is getting a remake though.
Shaco: While he is a great champion to play, his kit really needs to be reworked.
This Article is divided into
-History of the League
-Recurring Themes in League History
-Items = Champion Viability
-Mixed Damage: Magic and Physical Damage and AP Scaling Ultimates
-Item Niches still unfulfilled
Historical Context: This is my description of League History to the best of my knowledge.
Season 1 Dominant Strategies:
-S1: Alistar and Roaming Supports and GP/10: Back when there were 4 Items that gave Gold per 10 Seconds, a Champion could build any combination of the 4 and roam the Summoner's Rift from lane to lane, usually to gank. It was like having a second Jungler. This Champion did not worry about losing too much gold to buy items with because the GP/10 insured a decent Gold Income. Although, they did have to worry about the loss of experience from not having a lane. This strategy worked until Riot's continuous nerfs to GP/10 Items eventually broke the strategy. You may still see variations of this strategy even today with things like Double Jungle, but they don't buy GP/10s any more.
-S1: League of Sunfire Capes: Stacking Sunfire Capes: Stacking items has always been a problem. Why build AD or AP when my whole team can just stack Sunfire Capes that deal 45 Magic Damage per second. 1 Champion stacking 6 Sunfires would deal 270 AoE Magic Damage/second and have 270 Armor and 2700 Bonus Health. 6 Champions stacking 6 Sunfire Capes would deal 1620 AoE Magic Damage/second. This strategy worked best with all tanks. Such a team might be Garen, Blitzcrank, Alistar, Rammus and Galio. The addition of 'Unique Passive' has put an end this and to numerous other Item Stacking strategies.
Season 2 Dominant Strategies:
-S2: League of Bruisers: Warmogs, Atma's Impaler, Trinity Force: Bruisers became the dominant Role in League during this time. Because of how the Flat Penetration and Percent Penetration stacked, building penetration to counter Armor and Magic Resist was tough. Bruisers were very hard to counter because they could soak tons of damage and dealt tons of damage. Bruisers could stack enormous amounts of AR, MR and Health and be nigh unkillable. Add in Trinity Force for overall good stats and Atma's for bonus AD. These Bruisers did not deal quite as much damage as a full-blown ADC, but they could survive long enough to weardown or browbeat anyone and everyone who wasn't a Bruiser. This strategy was dismantled by Riot by nerfing Trinity Force's cost and crit chance, and by nerfing Atma's crit chance and Health to AD conversion.
Olaf: the typical Bruiser, stacked Health and Resistances and could face-tank everyone and put out great damage. Olaf's old kit liked Health + CDR. Olaf was mega-nerfed during the beginning of S3 because he was the quintessential Bruiser. May he Rest in Peace.
-S2: Stacking ArchAngel Staffs: Mid AP Champions could reach ridiculously high AP, around 1000 AP easily during most games. I use to stack ArchAngels on Anivia all the time. The wholesale nerfing of Rabadons' Deathcap along with other AP items has reduced the total amount of AP a Champion can get to around 500~600. This nerf was done during Season 3 Itemization, with the changing of how Flat and Percent Penetration worked, the amount of AP in the game had to be brought lower.
-S2 Stacking Bloodthirsters: 50% to 100% Lifesteal use to be a thing. It was aggravating. Bloodthirster was nerfed from 25% to 20%, but it can still be stacked, though less effectively due to other circumstances.
-S2: League of Spellvamp: Stackable Hextech Gunblades: Riot buffed Spellvamp up to 25% on all items that had SV to improve what they thought was an underused stat. If you weren't a Hybrid who could stack Hextech Gunblades, you might as well have not played at all. Jax, Irelia, Akali, Mordekaiser and other hybrids roamed the Summoner's Rift uncontested. No matter how much Damage you dealt to them, they would survive by healing it right back up with Spellvamp mostly. The addition of 'Unique Passive' to many Spellvamp items killed this strategy along with other nerfs that have destroyed Spellvamps's usefullness. Hextech Gunblade is in a dire situation, the Lifesteal on it was nerfed from 15 to 12%. Champions like Jax who liked this item now forgo getting it in place of the recent addition, Blade of the Ruined King, which is more cost efficient.
-S2: Shen: Ionic Spark: Health plus Attack Speed plus a Chain Lightning Effect: Shen has always been a threat due to his ability to Splitpush all day and still be there for teamfights when he is needed. Ionic Spark was an extremely niche item that only a few champions could utilize at all because of it's very odd combination of stats. Shen was one of those, and it gave him the ability to clear minion waves easily. Shen was able to splitpush very effectively with this in both low and high elos and in tournaments. This item was deleted from the game and given to ADCs, Statikk Shiv.
-S2: Singed Stacking Force of Nature: All Singed had to do was build Mercury Treads, one Rod of Ages and 4 Force of Natures. Singed's kit revolves around running away and making everyone breath his poison. Force of Nature granted 76 MR, Regen equal to 2% of Maximum Health and 6% Movement Speed. Force of Nature's tanky stats plus the Movement Speed made Singed impossible to kill or catch. Force of Nature was deleted from the game because of Singed, and to a lesser extent Mundo.
Season 3 Dominant Strategies:
-Season 3 Itemization: Flat and Percent Penetration Order reversed. Attack Damage was buffed. Attack Speed was nerfed. Armor and Magic Resist nerfed. More Magic Resist Item options. More Support Items. More CDR Items. More Jungler Items. Removal of Force of Nature. Champions who liked AD benefitted the most, such as Assassins. Champions who liked AS were nerfed, such as Irelia and ADCs.
-S3: League of Warmogs: Health Stacking: With the S3 Itemization changes, ADC's found it very hard to deal enough damage with their normal builds being nerfed alot. So Tanks, Offtanks and Bruisers made a short comeback. Just by stacking Warmogs, they could run roughshod over eveything that wasn't stacking Health too.
--Anti-Warmogs: Blade of the Ruined King (BotRK) and Liandry's Torment. BotRK in its current form brought an end to the rampage of the League of Warmogs. As a Bruiser, if you didn't build Armor and Magic Resist to negate the BotRK, you were just essentially transferring your Health to the Enemy ADC.
-S3: League of Black Cleavers: Talon and Pantheon and other AD Assassins were very happy for a short while. Black Cleaver gave AD, CDR, Health, Flat Armor Penetration and Percent Armor Reduction. And on top of all that, it didn't have a 'Unique Passive'. Stacking Black Cleavers essentially negated all armor you bought. Assassins could essentially deal True Damage to everyone, including Tanks. All AD teams cropped up for awhile. AP Champions were ineffectual in this environment. The addition of 'Unique Passive' and some small nerfs killed this strategy.
-S3: CDR + Tank Items: Rise of CDR Tanks
-Hecarim: Hecarim needs so many various and complicated stats in order to work. Some of those stats include AD, CDR, Health, and Resistances. During Season 2, these items didn't exist yet to make Hecarim viable. But with Season 3, all the new items made Hecarim a happy Tanky Bruiser.
-Nasus: Nasus, much like Hecarim, likes similar stats and items such CDR and Tanky Stats. Nasus' kit was also buffed into viability. I foresee his passive getting nerfed if anything.
-S3: Singed: Rod of Ages became cheaper, and Singed was able to reach Tanky/Damagey proportions far sooner than he normally did. Singed literally ran rampant across SR and no one could catch him. Singed received two nerfs and was swiftly kicked in the groin. Price Reduction of RoA = Loss of Crowd Control Reduction on Ultimate: Insanity Potion.
-S3: Manamura and Muramana:
-S3 Urgot: Urgot got a passive added onto an Item just for him to make him useful outside of just being a lane-bully. It gives him all the Mana and AD he needs and damage. However, his kit is still nerfed in some major ways that need fixing. Urgot is considered too strong at the tournament level, I foresee a minor rework in his future.
-Ryze + Muramana: When Muramana deal Magic Damage, Ryze was actually able to make great use of this with his Single Target Abilities. So Riot changed it from magic to physical damage.
-Jayce + Muramana: Jayce uses this item to great effect, although his kit has been nerfed for other reasons.
-S3: Evelynn: Deathfire Grasp: Deathfire Grasp has had so many changes. During early S3, it was incredibly powerful and Evelynn had just been reworked. For a while, our little AP Assassin was in the limelight. Then they nerfed Evelynn and the Deathfire Grasp. Deathfire Grasp was reworked into its 'final' and current form. Evelynn unfortunately is still nerfed, unfairly. Deathfire Grasp has also been the undoing of Veigar during S1 & S2.
-S3: Liandry's Torment: Rise of the AP Offtanks.
-Kayle: (Kayle is not an Offtank) Kayle rose to be feared by all for a short while on SR. With the addition of Liandry's Torment and some other MR Pen and AP Items, AP Kayle was rediscovered. In fact she was so potent, that Riot nerfed her Q and R. AP Kayle is still viable. AD Kayle is not viable unfortunately.
-Elise: Similar to Kayle and Hecarim, Elise did not have the right items to be viable when she was first released. People couldn't decide how to build her. Then Liandry's Torment was created. Now Elise is considered by many, despite nerfs, to be overpowered. Elise likes AP, MR Pen, Health, CDR, etc... Liandry's Torment
Recurring Themes in League History (This list will change as the Meta changes, so don't blame me if Champion X is or is not on a certain list)
-Champion X is not viable. A new Item is created / An old Item is remade. Champion X is now viable.
--Examples: Hecarim, Elise, Sejuani, Orianna, Teemo, Kayle, Vayne
-Champion X is viable. An old Item is nerfed/reworked/deleted. Champion X is now not viable.
--Examples: Evelynn (DFG and SotEL), Shen (Splitpush with Ionic Spark),
-Champion X is OP with Y Item(s). X Champion is nerfed into the ground and Y Item is also nerfed.
--Examples: Irelia (with anything), Hecarim (S3 items), Vi, Veigar (DFG), Jayce (Muramana), Jax (Ninja Tabi, Dodge %), Urgot, Skarner (HoG)
-Reasons for nerfing Champion X and/or Y Item no longer exist, yet no buffs are given to either.
--Examples: Talon, Karthus, Gangplank, Karthus, Mordekaiser,
-X Champions are nerfed, Y Champion(s) are now viable or OP.
--Examples: Corki, Galio, J4, Xin Zhao, Nautilus, Kassadin
-Champion gets Reworked. Their old Build Path no longer works.
--Examples: Olaf, Karma, AD Katarina, AD Evelynn, Shen (Ionic Spark), Kayle,
Items = Champion Viability
- As you can see, the cycles of nerfs and buffs are continuous for Champions, it always rearranges who is OP and who is not OP.
-However, Items remain one of the biggest factors that can make or break a Champion's viability. If the items don't exist, that Champion is out of luck until Riot decides to make such an item. Elise and Kayle are good examples of Champions without the perfect item to accentuate their kits (Liandry's Torment).
-If items do exist for that Champion, but said item doesn't have the correct amount of stats, then that Champion will remain under-powered until Riot decides to buff the Item or the Champion. Riot has a tendency to do nerfs in pairs, such as they will nerf an OP Champion's kit and the item they use. This generally leads to the Champion being unplayable and the item being useless, such as Hecarim.
Mixed Damage kits: Magic and Physical Damage and AP scaling Ultimates
-Many Champions are given AP Scaling Ultimates seemingly arbitrarily, even though the rest of their kit scales with physical damage. This creates very awkward building scenarios.
-Reason 1: Riot sometimes does this (somewhat arbitrarily) so that if that Champion buys Trinity Force or gets Baron Buff, they don't feel cheated by not having an AP Scaling ability.
-Reason 2: Riot sometimes does this because the rest of the kit does too much damage, and giving that Champion another ability that scales with their primary damage would be too much.
-Even so with those two reasons, it still creates awkward building situations where it is impossible to make an efficient item build for some Champions.
--Examples of AP Ult Scalers that don't make sense: Aatrox, Trundle, Gangplank, Volibear, Nasus, Renekton, Shyvana, Ashe, Varus (AP Varus, fun but still...), Rammus, Garen (Magic Damage)
-These Champions deal mixed Damage, but their is no way to efficiently optimize this damage.
--Examples: Warwick, Shyvana, Rammus,
Roles and Niches that need Items:
-Hybrid Penetration
-Melee ADC Items
-More Seeker's Armguard build paths
-Armor/Attack Speed Item
-AD + CDR: Garen: Riven: Assassins: Talon:
-Critical Strike Chance Items for Melee Champions
-AD Sheen Item
-Huge (70-100) AD Item without Lifesteal or Critical Strikes
-Spellvamp + CDR (SotSW is getting nerfed)
- Price reduction or stat buff on Zephyr and Runaan's Hurricane, and Hextech Gunblade
-More items with movementspeed
-Better Frozen Mallet build path
Champions who require Too Many Stats spread across Too Many Items
Karma: CDR, AP, Resistances, Health
Rammus: AR, Health, MR, MR Pen,
Poppy: AD or AP, Health, MR, AR, LS or SV
Swain: AP, CDR, Health, Resistances,
Champion's Kit is Bad/Poorly Made = no amount of items will ever help them
Quinn: ADC in melee Range. Quinn is a bursty Assassin-like ADC. But she is still an ADC. And even worse, her Ultimate: Tag Team, puts her melee range and into danger.
Volibear: I like Volibear. But Volibear is always either overbearing or underpowered. He has such a convoluted kit. He needs Health, AS, AR, and MR, some spells deal physical damage and others deal magic Damage.
Sion: He is getting a remake though.
Shaco: While he is a great champion to play, his kit really needs to be reworked.
THEY WONT SEE THE FLAMES COMIN