An In-Depth Discussion On Item Choices (Y11, Patch 11.1 "Year 11") (2024)

This item is similar to BoV, providing good physical protection and mana, but while it trades off a bit of CDR, it gains high utility via a boost in MS and power triggered by your healing.

This is a physical protection item for tanks, specifically for the mana pool and the CDR. It is usually picked up fairly early in a build.

In extreme situations, can be considered by Mages as an alternative to Chronos' Pendant if they're struggling mightily with physical enemy ganks.

It has 2 glyph options for added effect, making it quite appealing.

This is one of the upgrade options of the Jungle starter Bumba's Dagger. The bonus CDR it provides is best gained through attack canceled abilities in back-to-back combos. A couple of examples of gods that utilize this effect well include Ravana and Susano. It's not for everyone.

The other Bumba's Dagger upgrade, this item provides balanced offensive stats and is the best upgrade option for most Junglers.

Provides pretty good general stats including high MP5 and CDR, but the passive effect has situational function, due to the need to pick up the drops, which can be inconvenient in the middle of a fight.

This may be the most balanced anti-magical protection item. It provides some of everything...high protection, a bit of health, great mana sustain, and a passive that situationally gives you better than 20% CDR for some abilities.

The bonus damage the passive provides allows this to be a functional item for boxing, both reducing damage intake and increasing damage output. Helpful early game in the Solo lane.

The stats aren't bad, but the protections provided to you and teammates you affect are not very high. Can still be helpful and comes at a low price so can see situational use for gods that can quickly and easily apply healing to multiple teammates, such as Guan Yu, Sylvanus, Terra and Yemoja.

Decent balanced protections accompany the CDR. The specific appeal here lies in the passive effect, which allows you to absorb/cancel a single hard CC effect once every 70 seconds, which also gives you an additional second of CC immunity.

More specifically, however, is that this offers 2 glyph items, 1 for offensive aggression and 1 that can protect nearby teammates from CC as well.

The balanced protections are higher than Spirit Robe, but this item is more often picked up as a single protection item by squishy gods that like to dive the backline. The passive causes a shockwave, stunning nearby enemies and potentially allowing you to finish of an enemy and survive. Of course, tanky gods can also pick this up if they want that stun disruption effect.

If you're able to play it reasonably safe and have good teamwork, getting this 5 minute consumable can provide a good payoff. At the 10-minute mark (when this item unlocks), you won't have maxed CDR, and the power boost is helpful, especially for gods with high-scaling abilities.

The availability of this item means you don't necessarily have to get a full 40% CDR from items if you're okay with this consumable.

This is a solid pickup for tanks looking for a large boost to CDR, while also getting some protections. The shield gained upon ulting is very functional for teamfights. As it doesn't provide any health or mana sustain, it's better after some those are purchased.

Note the functionality of when the ult activates; it only activates when the ult has ended. This can create weird, non-synergistic function for certain gods.

A big draw is that this offers 2 glyph upgrades for additional protections / damage.

Note that the max stacks make this item very strong, but it requires stacking to reach there, which can be a while depending on the situation. At full stacks, and especially with a high protection build, can give you great damage mitigation.

This item is only purchasable by Guardians and Warriors, and allows them to deal bonus damage as long as they've built enough power from items. It is not a common pickup and is usually picked up when people are just looking to have fun with off-meta picks.

Best and most common use of this item will be for gods that are looking for a lot of added utility, due to the high health, CDR, CC reduction, and movement speed. The passive takes a significant amount of cooldown time off of relics, which can provide some great function late-game in teamfights.

Almost a core item in teamfight modes for gods like Odin and Ares when combining with Blink Rune for initiation purposes.

A major draw is that this offers 2 glyphs, one of which ( Bewitched Dagger) is particularly useful to counter basic attackers by slowing their attack speed.

This is an interesting item that allows you to increase your CDR past the cap of 40%. 10% extra isn't all that much, and you have to invest so much into CDR items that you likely miss out on other helpful stats. Not typically recommended except for funsies.

This provides a great balance of stats with great anti-CC function, useful for almost any tank. A big draw is the passive's ability to situationally mitigate a good portion of incoming damage.

The somewhat high price makes it a better pickup in the mid to late-game. The CDR it provides is invaluable, and with the passive, provides better than 20% CDR equivalence.

This item is great for later portions of a match for mages that want added attack speed. It counts as a hybrid item due to the CDR, and it also has burst damage potential from the passive, stacked and applied by basics.

This and Soul Gem are similar options providing lifesteal and CDR. However, the CDR is provided as an aura, so nearby teammates gain the effect. In addition, all healing is increased by 30%, which makes this a functional item specifically for teammate-healing gods.

This item is focused a bit on utility since it also has lifesteal and situational bonus damage output. The burst damage it provides at full stacks is helpful, but to get enough healing out of it, it's better for gods that have low CDs on their damaging abilities.

The combination of power and flat penetration is useful for basically any mage looking for extra damage, especially in the earlier stages of a match due to the flat penetration. Many will want to pick this up, but you might consider skipping this item if you need to counter a healer (in which case, you'd Divine Ruin is the common substitute which still provides some flat penetration).

This item provides some well-balanced stats, but the passive interaction with the ultimate means it's not going to be extremely effective for all gods. Great for gods that initiate with ults and immmediately follow up with other damaging abilities.

Sands of Time is a popular starter for Mid-Lane Mages, and mages of all types in other game modes. It also provides some mana sustain.

Pendulum of Ages is the offensive, high CDR upgrade, purchased specifically for that function.

The Alternate Timeline is the utility / defensive upgrade that provides decent protections, along with a Khepri ult-like function to prevent your immediate death.

This item provides high power and some CDR. The passive is best used to track and kill retreating enemies, or to surprise an unsuspecting enemy. Great for gods that start a fight with their ults.

This revived item provides good power, health and mana, along with situational CDR or a huge MP5 boost to make sure you never run out of mana for long. While the stats are generally good, its effectiveness falls off late when you have more base mana and MP5 from other items, so consider replacing it then.

This item provides well rounded utility stats, including some power, health, MP5, and CDR. The interesting features are the passive and aura, which increases healing and provides nearby teammates with CC reduction and a bit of movement speed. It should only be purchased by gods that can heal others, such as Guan Yu and Horus.

This item provides good power, along with high CDR, some crit chance and % pen, providing solid stats for hunters that want CDR that's especially helpful for more ult use.

The passive will find better use in a teamfight, as it creates a crit debuff on affected enemies, allowing ALL teammates the chance to deal critical strikes. However, the main draw will be for the main stats.

Provides bonus damage on basic attacks performed immediately after using abilities. Along with CDR and penetration, it makes this a key damage booster for select gods that use both basics and abilities (mainly Assassins such as Awilix, Susano, Ravana, Loki, etc.).

People generally buy this for the CDR to help spam their abilities, not for the penetration it brings, which is just an added bonus.

Usually picked up in the early to mid game, and is not recommended for most basic attackers.

While many people building Deathbringer will opt for the Envenomed Deathbringer variant, this one is underrated to provide significantly reduced CDR for abilities on cooldown, which can be greatly helpful for hybrid basic attackers.

This is an interesting item that combines 2 effects...healing and offense. After healing yourself or a teammate, when you damage enemies, you get some CDR for your non-ult abilities. It's potentially great for certain gods that have self healing but want to deal continuous damage.

This is an interesting item that is generally meant for gods that are more ability-based and looking for some health sustain. The passive lifesteal allows you to gain health from ability use.

Although it's a stacking item, it won't take long to evolve, as ANY nearby death (friend or foe, including minions) will provide stacks. That said, it's used very situationally and mainly in the Solo lane, with select junglers potentially considering it as well. Without providing any protections, it's used early for the sustain and to maintain pressure.