To put it bluntly, the complete overhaul of items during the Pre-Season 2021 was one of the biggest updates Riot has ever made for League of Legends. This almost completely changed the way players think about building items and operating many champions in the game. The result was the Pre-Season 2021 period produced many “weird” builds as players exploited these powerful items on champions no one expected.
Among these changes, the dominance of the Fighter class emerged as they possessed some of the strongest tools and items in League of Legends. Perhaps we still remember the unstoppable power of Bloodthirster and Sterak’s Gage before they were nerfed. These items even transformed previously underwhelming champions like Aatrox and Nocturne into genuine “demigods” for a time.
As for Riot, it wasn’t until today – January 29th – that they had a “heart-to-heart” about the Fighter items and explained the significant item overhaul in patch 12.3 coming soon. First, Riot Games admitted they made a mistake by giving Fighters too much sustain from Bloodthirster and Sterak’s Gage. As a result, champions using these items could serve as excellent tanks without even building tank items.
This led to a situation where strong meta champions would be the ones utilizing the best items rather than relying on champion quality, skill set, etc. Moreover, the differences between the various types of Fighters have gradually blurred recently, as the item builds of champions have become quite similar. Therefore, Riot had to implement a series of changes, adjustments, and even rework the effects of numerous Fighter items in the upcoming patch 12.3 (details can be found HERE).
Looking at the adjustments to Fighter items in the upcoming patch, we can see that Riot is making significant efforts to reduce the safety of this character class. Specifically, many items will have reduced bonus health, and components will no longer provide as much health but instead grant more AD. The consequence is that the damage of Fighters will increase, but they will also be much easier to take down, especially since the healing passive of Sterak’s Gage has also been removed.
However, Riot will definitely have to keep a close eye on the effects of these adjustments in the upcoming patch 12.3. The reason is that Fighter items not only affect this character class itself but also impact some other champions. For example, Zeri is showing to be extremely strong in the current meta with the item build of Galeforce and Black Cleaver. If the increase in AD for these items makes Zeri even more dominant, Riot will need to implement timely adjustments.