The item landscape in League of Legends is ever-changing. Whether because of small tweaks, medium-sized redefinitions of items, or new items altogether, fresh obstacles are presented before us every so often for us to dissect and conquer. In the latest round of changes, we have what can be thought of as a swap of stats between what is now Abyssal Mask and Banshee's Veil while they retain their Unique Passives. I'll be going over the changes in detail and talking about how the changes have affected and may continue to affect specific champions and roles.

The Changes

Abyssal Scepter

-> Abyssal Scepter -> Abyssal Mask 60 AP 0 0 Health 300 60 Magic Resist 65 0% Health Regeneration 100% 

The above table only lists the changes that occurred on the 7.9 patch (excluding the name and icon changes, which rolled out on 7.11). Abyssal Mask still retains:

-10% cooldown reduction
-Unique Passive: Nearby enemy champions take 10% more magic damage.

Banshee's Veil

Old -> New 0 AP 70 70 Magic Resist 60 300 Health 0 100% Health Regeneration 0% 0% Cooldown Reduction 10%

Like with the Abyssal changes, the above table aggregates both the major 7.9 changes and the minor 7.11 changes (Gold cost 2700->3000 and Magic Resist 45 -> 60). It retains its Unique Passive that grants a spell shield that blocks the next enemy ability. This shield refreshes after no damage is taken from enemy champions for 40 seconds.

Guardian Angel

-> Old -> New 60 Armor 30 45 Magic Resist 0 0 Attack Damage 40

While Guardian Angel wasn't directly related to the Abyssal/Banshee's swap, it has been redefined as strictly an AD item, meaning that the defensive options for AP champions, though very few ever considered buying Guardian Angel, are even more limited than before.

Unlike the other items, its Unique Passive has been changed very slightly:

Unique Passive: Upon taking lethal damage, restores ((old) 700 health or 30% of maximum health --> (new) 50% of maximum health) and 30% of maximum mana after 4 seconds of stasis.

Winners and Losers

Considering that the changes roughly amount to the Abyssal passive being swapped for Banshee's bubble passive and Guardian Angel becoming an attack damage item, the winners and losers can be boiled down to who was affected most seriously both offensively and defensively by these changes. In general, both Abyssal Mask and Banshee's Veil are powerful situational items, but Banshee's seems to be built more.

Winners

Low Cooldown or Poke Mages

This section includes champions like Xerath, Viktor, and Taliyah. These champions have a way to pop a Banshee's veil that is relatively low cost and do not have difficulty keeping it off (meaning damaging the enemy every 40 seconds). They also had little use for the Abyssal Aura or Guardian Angel. Cassiopeia is a champion that fits in the Low Cooldown mage territoy but being considered a winner would be very debatable. While she does benefit from the general increase in Banshee's Veils, she was one of the few mid lane champions who could reasonably build old Abyssal Scepter or old Guardian Angel and feel good about it. She's losing two good items while League moves into a slightly more friendly ecosystem for her (when directly compared to how other champions will fare).

Tanks on Magic Damage Heavy Teams

Thinking back to the days of Sunfire Cape stacking and Sunfire + Abyssal combos, I never thought we'd see an iteration of Abyssal Scepter that is a tank item. Not only that, but the slightly less recent Abyssal changes (-20 MR aura -> 10% magic damage taken aura) are even great for tanks in a top lane or split push scenario against other tanks once some Magic Resist is built. Considering Banshee's Veil wasn't all that popular on tanks to begin with, this change seems to, at worst, give them another option for magic heavy teamfight scenarios. Champions like Amumu, Maokai, and Zac like this change a lot (though I suppose any AP Amumu players out there aren't very happy), and the reworked Galio loves it.

Losers

Short Range Burst Mages or High Cooldown Mages

This includes champions like Annie, Diana, Morgana, and Veigar. Morgana is probably the biggest loser here. She only has two abilities that can interact with Banshee's Veil, her ultimate, a ~100 second cooldown with less range than Caitlyn, and her Q, a slow skillshot on an 11 second cooldown. Annie and Veigar have a harder time landing their stun or getting their full combo, while Diana can't apply her passive and reset her ultimate at will, with her Q being her only good way of removing a Veil. Morgana, Annie, and Diana also no longer want to buy Abyssal Scepter, despite making great use of its passive. I'm not including champions like Syndra or Lux here as I think they have an easy enough time with preparation for their own burst combo due either to Lux's extreme range or Syndra wanting to throw down a large number of Spheres for a better ultimate anyways.

Pick Champions

Thresh and Blitzcrank are the two main losers in this category if we look purely at the aforementioned changes. They've seen more play overall, but that's due to changes elsewhere in League. Like many of the other losers mentioned above, in the presence of a Banshee's Veil, they become completely reliant on a teammate to open up their hook possibilities.

Late Game Magic Damage Dealers

For the first time in a very long time (maybe ever), we have three legitimately good options for tanky magic resist items in Spirit Visage, Adaptive Helm, and Abyssal Mask. Each of these items has Health, Magic Resist, Health Regeneration, and Cooldown Reduction. While Spirit Visage is clearly still the strongest and most general of the three, the other two have legitimate niches in the game and are top level (in terms of slot efficiency) items.

The Banshee's Veil and Abyssal Mask passive swap along with the Guardian Angel changes follow a long standing pattern in League of Legends: mixing offense and defense in single items. Zhonya's Hourglass is a classic example of this type of item that has become more and more pervasive in League, whereas Redemption is probably the "Has science gone too far?" moment for this archetype.

Just in the 7.9 patch, Abyssal Scepter went from an offensive item that happened to build out of Negatron Cloak to a defensive item with an offensive passive. Banshee's went from a purely defensive item to an offensive item with a defensive passive. Guardian Angel changed from a purely defensive item and the only remaining non-utility or support item with both magic resist and armor to an AD Carry item with a mix of attack damage and armor on top of the same old revival passive. Even the recent Black Cleaver changes gave it more health and less attack damage.

All that being said, items like Infinity Edge, Rabadon's Deathcap, Randuin's Omen and Warmog's Armor still exist. Riot's just been filling in the gray area between them. Whether that'll be a good thing long term is yet to be seen, but the additional options in itemization are certainly nice for now.

As always, thanks for reading and I'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback.

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