Razor’s Edge
Introduced during Season 1, Razor’s Edge quickly became the item that frustrated players the most at that time. If you didn’t know, the character wielding Razor’s Edge would have a 20% chance to reduce the level of enemy champions by 1 star with each hit. This item combined with the multi-target attack effect of the Marksman class made all the effort in building the opponent’s team composition meaningless. At that point, you could win far too easily.
We need to remember that when a champion levels up, they will gain all basic stats and skill effects. Razor’s Edge did not simply make targets easier to take down; this item also limited a massive amount of damage that opponents could deal. One could say that the effect of Razor’s Edge was too “ridiculous” as it countered all team compositions. Therefore, this item was removed in patch 9.22 and replaced by Runaan’s Hurricane.
Duskblade of Draktharr
Essentially, the effect of Duskblade of Draktharr helps the champion wielding it to dodge all types of critical damage. At the beginning of Season 1, this item did not seem too powerful as it only countered Assassin compositions or Infinity Edge. However, with the introduction of the item Gloves of Thievery, the effect of Duskblade of Draktharr became overwhelmingly dominant and completely countered critical damage output.
When the item line from Gloves of Thievery appeared, both basic attacks and skills could deal critical damage. This significantly boosted the damage output capability of team compositions in Teamfight Tactics. To survive in the meta, players turned to Duskblade of Draktharr as an incredibly “safe” insurance item for key damage dealers. Clearly, Riot did not want their new items to be “useless” because of one item, so they removed Duskblade of Draktharr in patch 10.1.
Chalice of Blessing
The ability to regenerate mana is considered critical for running Mage compositions or teams that rely on skill damage. However, when an item allows your entire team to regenerate mana too quickly and cast spells continuously, it becomes severely imbalanced. This is exactly what happened with Chalice of Blessing in Season 3 when players abused this item in Mage compositions.
Essentially, Chalice of Blessing has an effect that restores 10 mana to all nearby allies whenever a champion casts a skill. When combining two Chalices of Power and the Archangel’s Staff for Sona (a champion with only 40 maximum mana), she could continuously cast spells and “pump” mana for her allies. Most Mages at that time were part of the Star Guardian trait with the effect of sharing energy when using skills. Thus, the Chalice of Blessing – Sona combo could provide energy for the entire team.
It was this “ridiculous” nature of Chalice of Blessing that made the Mage – Star Guardian composition too strong. As a result, Riot had to remove this item in patch 10.12 and replaced it with Chalice of Power.