Infinity Edge
One of the biggest strengths of Infinity Edge was its ability to help champions deal damage extremely effectively both early and late in the game. This was due to the effect that increased damage by 40% from basic attacks and skills, making this item suitable for most carry champions. However, in Season 5, Riot Games removed this effect and replaced it with a flat bonus of 40 Attack Damage and skill damage. This change has rendered Infinity Edge incredibly weak.
With this change, the attack effect of Infinity Edge now only provides stats. Meanwhile, as the game progresses, the percentage-based damage increase from the old effect becomes much stronger on champions that have reached full levels. Riot’s change has created a vast disparity between the offensive and defensive effects of Infinity Edge. As a result, players in Season 5 often opt for Bloodthirster to gain both effects rather than gamble on the randomness of Infinity Edge.
Dragon Claw
Before the update in Season 5, Dragon Claw had an effect that reduced magic damage taken by 60%. However, this item in Teamfight Tactics Season 5 now only provides a fixed magic resistance of 250. At first glance, this item seems stronger in Season 5 due to the higher magic resistance. Nevertheless, this is actually a heavy nerf that significantly diminishes the value of Dragon Claw.
Essentially, the old Dragon Claw would always reduce incoming magic damage by 60%, after accounting for all defense stats. With Dragon Claw now only providing magic resistance stats, it becomes heavily countered by items such as Thundershot, Heavy Bow, or the champion Brand. The advice here is to lean towards Demon Claw instead of Dragon Claw at this point. With the additional effect of immunity to extra damage from critical hits, Demon Claw helps your champion withstand damage much better.
Giant Slayer
The way Riot reworked Giant Slayer is quite similar to how they did with Dragon Claw, removing the percentage-based power increase and replacing it with flat stats. The commonality is that both of these items have become extremely “useless” after their rework. Gaining an additional 75 Attack Damage and skill damage at maximum stacking is incomparable to the old effect that increased output damage by 50%. This causes players to experience a significant drop in damage when using this item.
It seems that players are gradually realizing the “uselessness” of Giant Slayer and are no longer using it as much. The champion considered most compatible with Giant Slayer, Mordekaiser, is also gradually abandoning this item to use Warmog’s Armor, Hextech Gunblade, or Guardian Angel. Indeed, Riot Games needs to reconsider the rework of Giant Slayer (and the two items mentioned above) so they are no longer too “useless” in the upcoming mid-season update.