'League Of Legends Wild Rift' New Items; Tank Meta Incoming?

A few new items and changes to existing ones are being added to “League of Legends: Wild Rift” in the latest patch, and they’re set to give some much needed attention to the game’s current roster of tanks.

The patch is going to introduce three new items to the game: Frozen Heart, Force of Nature and Winged Moonplate. These three items are designed to help “Wild Rift’s” tanky champions remain impactful even after initiating a teamfight.

Frozen Heart is an anti-marksman item that slows down the attack speed of all enemies near its user by 15% while also granting bonus Armor, Mana and Ability Haste. This item directly counters champions who rely on attack speed like Jinx, Vayne, Jax, Master Yi and Yasuo.

Force of Nature is a Magic Resist item that’s meant to replace Adaptive Helm as the go-to choice against mages. Every time its user takes ability damage, the item will grant 6 Movement Speed and 6 Magic Resist for up to five times. Each unique ability that hits grants one stack of this passive. The item also grants a hefty 350 HP and 45 Magic Resist.

Unlike the previous two, Winged Moonplate is a component item that builds into Deadman’s Plate. Moonplate grants 150 HP and a flat 5% bonus movement speed to its wearer for only 900 gold. It also upgrades directly from a Ruby Crystal, giving the item a better build path.

The addition of these new items will improve the overall experience for tank mains in “Wild Rift,” but the new patch has more in store.

Thornmail, Fimbulwinter/Winter’s Approach and Sunfire Cape are all getting changes.

Thornmail will be changed to be more similar to its PC counterpart. The item will now inflict Grievous Wounds whenever its wearer immobilizes a target, making it more proactive.

Fimbulwinter and Winter’s Approach will be trading their Armor stat for Health and a bit of extra mana, making these items more suited for mana-based ability spammers like Singed.

Sunfire Cape is now called Sunfire Aegies, and it will lose also be losing its Armor stat in favor of HP, Ability Haste and more damage. This change was made to enforce the item as a damage option for tanks at the expense of survivability.

Tank items have been a point of contention in “League Of Legends.” They tread a very fine balance that constantly sways between “too strong” and “too weak.” The new item changes make a tank meta for “Wild Rift” more plausible than before, but it’s too early to tell whether or not game balance will break due to the relatively low number of actual tank champions in the game so far.