What makes a good item in League of Legends? If you ask this question to 100 different people, you will get at least 100 different answers. Some people value cheap cost and high stats while others prefer flashy animations and unique passives.
Regardless of what criteria an item has to meet in order for it to be considered “good,” one thing is certain: some items were just not meant to be.
Sometimes, an item’s concept simply does not fit the game; sometimes, the item is too weak or too strong; on rare occasions, Riot might even remove an item due to balance concerns with other items. In the article below, I list 10 of my favorite removed League of Legends items.
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10. Madred’s Bloodrazor
The unique on-hit effect of this item’s release in 2009 was enjoyed by a lot of DPS champions. The item dealt 4% of the target’s maximum health as magic damage and increased attack speed by 40%. It also increased attack damage by 40 and armor by 25, in addition to increasing magic resistance by 10.
The item was eventually removed because it offered too many stats and its on-hit damage was magic damage, making it difficult to incorporate into an effective item build that works with auto-attacking champions.
Warwick was the only champion to make significant use of the item. Despite the fact that the item was discontinued, it gave rise to the Blade of the Ruined King, which is still in play today. The primary distinction between them is that rather than magical damage, it now deals physical damage.
9. The Blue Pill
Recall is a crucial component of League of Legends, allowing players to instantly return to their base after a brief wait. Did you realize, however, that before there was a recall ability, players had to buy an item and activate it from their inventory?
Before there was a recall mechanism, players had to buy the “Blue Pill” from the shop, which needed them to turn it on in order to return to base. This idea was comparable to DOTA, in which players must purchase town portal scrolls in order to return.
Riot must have decided it was too similar, and they wanted to do something unique, therefore the recall ability was removed and replaced with a completely new function. It’s also possible that Morpheus wanted his blue pill back.
8. Sightstone
Sightstone is one of the most iconic items in League of Legends – however, it received a significant rework that made it into a trinket. Its loss is not very surprising, as it’s old active and passive (which gave you free wards once every three minutes) was not seen as an interesting or unique mechanic.
The new Sightstone offers stats appropriate to fully upgrading it but does not substitute for the active of the old version.
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7. Sword of the Occult
Back when this item was available in the game, there were only three stats that increased movement speed by percent: Jaurim’s Fist, Boots of Swiftness, and Sword of the Occult. If you had Sword of the Occult at level 18, it would offer an additional 30% movement speed – meaning your champion could reach a maximum MS value of 480 at level 18 with both boots.
This created some interesting possibilities for champions who prioritized attack damage over attack speed. When these champions reached level 18, they could purchase Sword of the Occult to get to their targets faster while building items that did not provide MS bonuses (such as The Bloodthirster). This synergy between AD-based champions was removed after being deemed overpowered by players and Riot.
6. Leviathan
Leviathan was removed because it was too efficient in all ways. It used to reward you for not dying by making you harder to kill. In addition to this though, it does nothing to improve killing power, unless you suddenly add Max HP scaling damage, which Riot did.
All of a sudden, this item would help these specific champions not die, do more damage, and not involve a significant amount of risk. In short, champs like Sej, Cho, Volibear, ZAC, and would instantly be broken or stupid to balance,
5. First Version Elixirs
The three elixirs available in the store are the Elixir of Iron, Wrath, and Sorcery; however, did you know that there were once more? A long time ago, there were several additional elixirs accessible in-game, such as the Elixir of Agility, Brilliance, Fortitude, and Ruin.
Players could discover runes in the game’s files that were activated by using a specific word or phrase. These elixirs provided players with various enhancements, making them even more powerful in-game.
These elixirs may sound similar to ones currently available in the game, but they are actually different. The newest elixirs, on the other hand, include extra perks that the older versions didn’t have. These new elixirs are essentially upgraded versions of the previous ones, with improved Tenacity, AP, and so on.
The Elixir of Agility, for example, was phased out since it benefited AD carries who had a head start, making them nearly unstoppable. Riot felt this was unjust and that elixirs shouldn’t be a massive snowball device. The Elixir of Agility and its ilk were ultimately removed from the game, with newer versions of them all subsequently introduced.
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4. Twin Shadows
Twin Shadows was a very underrated item that provided affordable AP and magic penetration. Additionally, on top of this, it also gave high movement speed (which made up for the fact it didn’t give any health), as well as giving you two ghosts who could slow your enemies – making it an excellent chasing tool.
These ghosts would attack whoever you were targeting at the time; however, if there wasn’t an enemy champion to target, they would prioritize minions over jungle monsters.
The reason why Twin Shadows is now gone is that there are much more interesting items available in-game like Zhonya’s Hourglass and Liandry’s Torment that serve similar purposes without being too generic or straightforward. There are several other niche items that help accomplish
3. Frozen Mallet
Frozen Mallet was a very popular item for AD carries as well as bruisers. It was so popular, in fact, that it became one of the most used items. Although Frozen Mallet is now gone from League of Legends, Iceborne Gauntlet seems to serve its purpose by providing a slow on-hit effect and some bonus attack damage – making it a suitable replacement for those who wish to reminisce.
2. Sword of the Divine
Sword of the Divine used to be a really fun item, but I have no idea why Riot removed it from League. While building Sword of the Divine on Pantheon was sometimes very effective, it did not affect his power level in any significant way because your ability damage remained the same regardless of whether you built this item or not.
The reason for its removal is unknown to me, but I feel like Riot wanted to remove all items that reduce champion’s base damages even if an item had other useful passives (like Sword of the Occult).
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1. Deathfire Grasp
I cannot remember the last time I saw Deathfire Grasp played on League of Legends (it was probably Season 5); this item was removed because Riot wanted to stop champions like LeBlanc from one-shotting their opponents.
However, there were some champions that could use this item effectively even without getting close enough to attack their opponent – using it as a threat or damage amplifier made it really strong!
This is my favorite removal of all time because of how unique the active and passives were; it is also one of the best examples of an item with both offensive and defensive components… Now if only you could properly combine these two aspects into one item once again!
Conclusion
The top 10 removed items in League of Legends history span a variety of different item types: both offensive and defensive. However, all these items were for the same reason – they had too much power that Riot could not allow to continue!
We hope you enjoyed this article on our blog about the best-removed items in League of Legends history. Let us know what other types of topics would interest you; we are always looking for new ideas!
For more interesting items, check out our article on shadow items in TFT.
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