Items are more than a minor feature in League of Legends. A huge amount of the game is building the right items, in the right order, to fit the unique situation of the game being played. Are you ahead? Is the enemy building armor/health/magic resistance/pure damage? Does your team have a tank? Could another teammate use the aura from Zeke’s/Runic/WotA? All of these can completely change the direction of a given player’s build, but generally there are a few items any given champion can almost always use.
Now summoners can save time hunting down the items they want in the shop. The pre-game client now has an option under each summoner’s profile where they can set several item builds. They can name the build and even craft subdivisions within each of those builds describing different parts of the game. Each of these builds gets put under a new tab in the actual in-game store, allowing summoners to very quickly access their own build concepts.
An obvious practical use would be for a jungler whose recommended items are not those of a jungle champion. I have set up a basic jungler starting item set and a basic support starting item set, so I don’t have to waste precious seconds at the start of a match hunting down that Faerie Charm or Machete before getting to lane, seconds the other team could be using to get into position to catch me unawares.
One word of advice, summoners. Remember all those questions I opened with? Do not forget them. Just because you can put together a complete build before the game starts does not mean you should stick to it every game. Abyssal Scepter is great, but it loses a lot of its flair if you are going mid against a Gangplank who isn’t building magic resistance.
One other thing this does allow is it gives players a much easier time comparing and theory-crafting new builds without using some form of third-party software or phone app. Being able to play around with the items using the actual official client also avoids the hassle of having to manually update every time the game gets a new patch.
The item customizer is live now. Get your builds ready, I’ll see you at the rift!
