Dragons Claw
In season 6, there was a time when magic damage compositions reigned supreme, dominating the meta with Sorcerers and key champions like Akali and Viktor. Even a somewhat “clunky” composition like Chemtech utilized the Urgot – Statikk Shiv combo to maximize the magical damage output of this team comp. As a result, Dragons Claw became an almost mandatory defensive item in Teamfight Tactics if you wanted your tanks to survive as long as possible.
However, with the arrival of season 6.5, everything has changed drastically, and Dragons Claw has fallen to being a “useless” item in many matches. The simple reason is that the current meta has too many strong physical damage compositions, making an item that only provides magic resistance become ineffective. This is directly caused by Ahri and the Sorcerer team becoming too weak, while the 5-cost champions dealing magic damage are too hard to be strong due to their reduced appearance rate.
Shojin Spear
With its ability to provide energy upon attacking, Shojin Spear was once a very strong item in a meta dominated by units with large mana pools. Just a month ago, in patch 12.2, this item was among the strongest when Seraphine and the Innovator team completely dominated the meta. However, at this point, the value of Shojin Spear has significantly decreased, even though it has not been nerfed.
The main reason for this is that the Innovator composition has changed its gameplay and no longer relies on Seraphine. With Janna’s departure, it became clear that relying on healing for the Innovator team has weakened significantly. Instead, utilizing the attack stat buff from the Tech Bear for physical damage carries has become much stronger. As a result, Seraphine is no longer the strongest carry, and consequently, Shojin Spear has also weakened considerably.
Staff of the Celestial
With the decline of many magic damage compositions, items that enhance them have also decreased in value. Among them, Staff of the Celestial is perhaps the item most affected as it is both weak and unsuitable for the current meta. Remember that this was a very strong item in season 6 when key 5-cost units like Kai’Sa, Akali, or Viktor were still powerful. However, at present, very few players are using Staff of the Celestial anymore.
With the current hot units in the meta like Sejuani and Rek’Sai making compositions very “tanky”, having additional skill damage from Staff of the Celestial is not very beneficial. Instead, percentage damage items like Morello’s Evil Tome will be far more effective. Moreover, with the current physical carries being able to deal large critical damage and end rounds quickly, you also won’t have much time for Staff of the Celestial to accumulate many stats.