Bloodthirster
Released during the preseason of 2020, Bloodthirster almost immediately became a sensation for the top lane due to its incredible damage output. With two easy-to-build components, The Brutalizer and Bloodthirster, and its passive providing an excessive amount of attack speed, Bloodthirster turns split-pushing champions into true monsters that no one can stop.
In the early days of Bloodthirster’s release, every split-pushing champion that dealt physical damage and every Assassin built this item. Although it was nerfed shortly after, it still impacts today’s meta, especially after The Shy popularized Kalista in the top lane utilizing Bloodthirster’s power. With this item, we witnessed the true terrifying strength of split-pushing champions when they have the right items.
Duskblade of Draktharr
Moving away from the top lane, let’s head to the jungle with the Duskblade of Draktharr, which once made jungle Assassins shake up solo queue. The most noticeable feature of this item is its low cost of only 2400 gold and easy build path with The Brutalizer plus 2 Long Swords. Its passive is perfect for the jungle role with exceptional vision denial capabilities.
Not only junglers, but some unique Marksmen like Senna or lethality Varus also use this item extremely effectively; after all, everyone wants vision denial, right? With the emergence of Duskblade of Draktharr, jungle champions felt like they sprouted wings, until a new force emerged to end their dominance.
Fire Cloak Items
The buff aimed at the Fire Cloak items occurred in patch 10.4, two months ago, and it truly showed players what “League of Tanks” or “League of Resilience” meant. At that time, Ornn was like an unstoppable monster in both the top lane and mid lane, leading to incredibly drawn-out matches to maximize the benefit of this god’s unique item forging ability.
Not only Ornn, the buff to the Fire Cloak item caused many tank junglers to return extremely powerfully. Champions like Sejuani and Zac gradually reclaimed their spots among the top junglers, and even Jarvan IV switched to using this item in solo queue instead of the traditional Warrior enchant. A small change from Riot completely flipped the meta from a plethora of Fighters to Tanks across the board.
Blade of the Ruined King
Another powerful buff from Riot Games, but this time the beneficiaries are the Fighters. Just a minor change in damage, where Blade of the Ruined King dealt 12% of the target’s maximum health as physical damage, has caused many Fighters to rise up strongly, even abandoning their traditional playstyles.
Previously, no one would have thought of champions like Renekton, Sett, or Wukong building Blade of the Ruined King, but now it is almost a must-have item for these champions. In Irelia’s case, it’s not quite the same, but she synergizes with Blade of the Ruined King so well that players completely abandon Trinity Force when building for her. It can be said that Blade of the Ruined King helped League of Legends escape from the “League of Resilience” of the previous days.
