The new League Legends Preseason 2022 items are now available on the PBE and are set to launch globally in patch 11.23. Some of the new items, like Fimbulwinter and Winter’s Approach, already exist in League of Legends: Wild Rift. These previously exclusive Wild Rift items will now be available in League’s preseason PBE.
Along with the new items being released, several existing items are seeing changes as well.
New items in the League of Legends Preseason 2022 patch
There are six new items that have been introduced in the LoL Preseason 2022 patch that hit the PBE today. These items include a big new tank option and two powerful mage items. There are also new items for crowd control supports and assassins or AD fighters looking for resets on their ultimate abilities.
Winter’s Approach
Winter’s Approach is a new tank-focused item that uses Tear of the Goddess. It is similar in function to Manamune and Archangel’s Staff. The item comes with base stats of 400 health, 500 mana and 15 ability haste. It also comes with a scaling passive called Awe that grants the wielder bonus health equal to 8% of their total mana.
Similar to all Tear of the Goddess items, Winter’s Approach comes with a passive called “Mana Charge.” Any time the wielding champion hits a target with an ability or attack, the item consumes a charge and adds 3 bonus mana which is doubled if the target is a champion. When the item has capped out at 360 bonus mana, it transforms into Fimbulwinter.
Fimbulwinter
Riot Games recently hinted at a new item coming to League of Legends when they mentioned that “a new Legendary tank item that gives users a large chunk of mana and a new effect that allows them to dip into that mana for additional shields every time they immobilize or slow enemies” was coming to the PC game.
We now know that the item being referenced in that blog was Fimbulwinter, an item that already exists on League of Legends: Wild Rift.
As mentioned above, Fimbulwinter is a legendary-tier tank item that evolves out of Winter’s Approach. It comes with big base stats of 400 health, 860 mana and 15 ability haste. The item also gives two passive effects:
- Awe: Gain bonus health equal to 8% mana. (This effect is inherited from Winter’s Approach.)
- Everlasting: Immobilizing or Slowing (melee only) an enemy champion consumes 3% of current mana and grants a shield for 3 seconds, absorbing damage. The shield is increased by 80% if more than one enemy is nearby
Given the big base stats, the very powerful passives and the fact that Fimbulwinter evolves out of Winter’s Approach, it’s hard to imagine this item not being one of the most gold efficient tank equips in the game. Not only will players immediately gain a big chunk of health and mana off the bat, the item will provide a huge bonus to tankiness via the scaling health/mana passive and the bonus crowd control-triggered shields.
Crown of the Shattered Queen
Crown of the Shattered Queen is a new defensive item for magic damage dealers. This item grants champions a “Safeguard” after they haven’t taken damage from other champions for 40 seconds.
This safeguard is a new modified shielding mechanic that reduces all incoming damage by 50% for 1.5 seconds after the item holder takes damage from another champion. Along with the damage reduction, the wielder also gains 10-40 bonus ability power (scales based on level).
Along with the safeguard passive, Crown of the Shattered Queen comes with base stats of 70 ability power, 250 health, 600 mana and 20 ability haste.
While an item like Banshee’s Veil comes in handy against champions with one big engage ability, like Malphite’s Unstoppable Force ultimate, Crown of the Shattered Queen may help against entire burst rotations from champions like LeBlanc and Ahri.
Evenshroud
Evenshroud is a utility item that will likely see most of its usage on supportive champions. The item grants base stats of 200 health, 20 ability haste, 30 armor and 30 magic resist. Its passive is “Repentance” and is a crowd control steroid. After immobilizing a champion or being immobilized, the target and all nearby enemies take 12% more damage for five seconds.
Axiom Arc
Axiom Arc grants 55 attack damage, 10 lethality and 25 ability haste. The item also comes with a new passive titled “Refresh” that is instantly one of the most unique mechanics in the game.
Any time a champion dies within 3 seconds of being attacked by a wielder of Axiom Arc, the champion wielding the item has 25% of their ultimate’s cooldown refunded. For example, a champion wielding Axiom Arc that gets a double kill will have their ultimate’s cooldown reduced by half.
In other words, this item’s passive works very similarly to the way Katarina’s passive interacts with her ultimate. We envision it immediately becoming a build mainstay of AD champions with rich kits and strong ultimates, like Pyke, Zed and Talon.
Shadowflame
Shadowflame is another new mage item with a unique magic penetration mechanic. To begin with, the item grants base stats of 80 ability power and 250 health. Furthermore, the item gives the wielder 10-20 bonus magic penetration that scales based on how much health their target currently has. The lower the target’s HP, the higher the item’s magic penetration.
If the wielder’s target has recently used or been given a shield, the item will activate the max value of 20 magic penetration automatically.
Changes to existing items in LoL Preseason 2022 patch
Along with the six new items, the League of Legends 2022 Preseason patch will also introduce several changes to existing items. These items include Turbo Chemtank, Frostfire Gauntlet, Cosmic Drive, Horizon Focus, Demonic Embrace, Seraph’s Embrace, Force of Nature, Knight’s Vow and Abyssal Mask.
To read the complete list of changes, check out the official Riot Games Preseason 2022 blog.
Published: Oct 19, 2021 11:00 am