Do you think AP Bruisers need more itemisation support? Been thinking of the potential Diana Diver rework in the future that might shift her more towards a Fighter, but I feel that the items don't support that kind of class very well at the moment (Or at the very least, Diana).
There's a bit of a problem underlying this. Here's the super high level: we generally expect physical damage to be flat over time while magic damage tends to be spiky. These expectations are baked into the item system. In designing our kits, we like breaking expectations because new is exciting, but often we do so without fully grasping the implications. Look at Adaptive Helm: the very fact it had to be added to the game should tell you that a damage profile had arisen our item system did not manage well.
AP bruisers as you call them tend to be flat (but high) magic damage over time. They indeed do not have good item support; they generally care less about mana and magic pen and more about mixing AP with attack speed or defensive stats. They have Nashor's, Guinsoo's, maybe Wit's End, maybe Gunblade. Rylaj's generally doesn't fit them as well because their kit tends to have stickiness baked in (low CD leap strike on Jax, refreshable jump + pull-in on Diana, slows and a stun on Ekko etc).
So to circle back to your question: if we accept the goal of "AP bruiser as they exist today should have more empowering itemization choices", then yes, absolutely, they need more support. More important is to ask and answer the question of "are AP bruisers as they exist today a healthy class we should support, and if not, what needs to be done to make them healthier?" I don't have the answer to that one.
AP bruisers as you call them tend to be flat (but high) magic damage over time. They indeed do not have good item support; they generally care less about mana and magic pen and more about mixing AP with attack speed or defensive stats. They have Nashor's, Guinsoo's, maybe Wit's End, maybe Gunblade. Rylaj's generally doesn't fit them as well because their kit tends to have stickiness baked in (low CD leap strike on Jax, refreshable jump + pull-in on Diana, slows and a stun on Ekko etc).
So to circle back to your question: if we accept the goal of "AP bruiser as they exist today should have more empowering itemization choices", then yes, absolutely, they need more support. More important is to ask and answer the question of "are AP bruisers as they exist today a healthy class we should support, and if not, what needs to be done to make them healthier?" I don't have the answer to that one.
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Brian
