In the current Pre-Season 2022, we can clearly see the dominance of Mages, especially in the Mid Lane position. The reason stems from the fact that the new Mage items added to the League of Legends shop are proving to be too powerful in both offensive and self-defense capabilities. Even a series of Marksmen champions that typically build pure crit items and increase AD, like Ezreal, Corki, and Kai’Sa, have transitioned to using Mage items.
This has led to the situation where magic damage in League of Legends is becoming extremely strong, and naturally, magic resistance items should be more favored. However, the reality is not entirely as such, as the magic resistance item for Fighters and Marksmen, Malmortius’ Spike, is being completely ignored. The numbers do not lie, and the fact that this item has a mere 0.6% purchase rate at this time clearly indicates this.
So why is this absurdity happening in League of Legends? The first reason comes from the fact that Malmortius’ Spike shares its unique passive with two other items: Guardian Angel and Sterak’s Gage. Essentially, all three of these items possess the unique passive of Spell Shield, so players can only build one item.
Clearly, when compared, Malmortius’ Spike appears to be significantly weaker than the other two items in terms of versatility and defensive capabilities. Guardian Angel provides all the necessary stats for Marksmen along with incredibly needed lifesteal. Meanwhile, Sterak’s Gage is extremely strong for Fighters as it offers a lot of health and good recovery. Therefore, even when providing a decent amount of magic resistance of 50 points, Malmortius’ Spike is still being ignored.
Not stopping there, the inherent ability of Malmortius’ Spike also faces a significant problem, making it not provide enough safety for the champion using it. If you didn’t know, the shield against magic damage from Malmortius’ Spike scales with the health of the champion who possesses it. However, the item itself does not increase health, and champions such as Fighters, Assassins, and Marksmen building this item do not have a large health pool. Thus, the amount of shield provided by this item is very low and lacks significance.
In conclusion, with the unique passive Spell Shield, Riot has turned Malmortius’ Spike into an “extremely useless” item in the eyes of players, as it cannot compete with Guardian Angel or Sterak’s Gage. Moreover, the absurdity in how this item creates shields further drives Assassins, Fighters, or Marksmen to overlook it. Perhaps Riot needs to rework the formula of this item or give it a different unique passive so that Malmortius’ Spike is no longer neglected.