Preseason is one of the most exciting times for League of Legends. After a long stretch of time without too many changes to the game, Riot pushes boundaries and works to refresh a major part of the game. For Season 11, they targeted an important, if often ignored part of the game: items. For a lot of players, they simply built items based on muscle memory and what "feels good" regardless of situation.
In Season 11, Riot took a sledgehammer to the entire shop, breaking it down and rebuilding it. The items of the past are gone. With a smarter shop and a whole collection of new items, the game has changed drastically. Unlike in the past, there aren't too many items that are downright awful. Of course, there are still some that are bad, even if they are situationally useful.
10 Amazing: The Collector
The Collector is an impressive item that altered the marksman meta. One of Riot's intentions was to give marksmen various options that allowed them to still focus on building crit chance. This had its bonuses and drawbacks, of course. With crit being more accessible, items like Infinity Edge had their bonus crit damage toned down. Crit, overall, is still in a weak spot, but it isn't unviable.
That's where The Collector comes in. The passive, which executes enemies at 5% health or lower, isn't even the reason the item is so effective. The stats it gives are just ideal for any marksman, especially since they rarely get a chance to pick up a stat as valuable as lethality. Characters designed to wipe whole teams, like Samira, love to take the item just to put their damage output over the edge. It's a convenient, powerful item.
9 Awful: Serpent's Fang
The idea changes helped to cull a lot of items that just weren't finding a purpose anymore. Niche items are important to the game, as building items to increase effectiveness against specific strategies is nice. However, Serpent's Fang is a bit too niche and not very gold efficient.
The stats the Serpent's Fang gives aren't exactly fantastic, especially compared to the other, better lethality items. The main thing the Serpent's Fang provides is the ability to deal bonus damage to shields. Against enchanters and tanks that thrive on shields, it can be a nice item. However, building an item for one character just feels awful, especially when the efficiency of the item is so low.
8 Amazing: Sunfire Aegis
Sunfire Aegis is pretty much the best tank item in the whole game. All the other tank mythics are situational, providing utility that is, of course, for babies. True connoisseurs of League of Legends know that death is the best CC, and Funfire provides the best damage. Even after the nerfs, it's just that good.
Along with some serious damage in extended fights, Sunfire Aegis also gives additional ability haste for each completed mythic item. This scales to give the item a ridiculous amount of gold efficiency. Every stat is great on the item. If you can't use the active of Turbo Chemtank, Sunfire Aegis is easily the best option.
7 Awful: Archangel's Staff
One of the more interesting changes in the preseason was the changing of Tear of the Goddess to be a starter item. It's a greedier purchase, but for spellcasters it's nice to get the item stacked as quickly as possible while working toward a mythic. Unfortunately, neither of the Tear upgrades are that great, with Archangel's being a shell of its former self.
Archangel's on its own is a pretty terrible item, offering an underwhelming amount of AP for the high cost. When upgraded into Seraph's Embrace, the item gives some of the highest AP in the game that a single item can provide. However, that AP doesn't mean a whole lot without the ability haste to back it up. Considering Manamune (the AD-counterpart) gives ability haste, it makes no sense why Archangel's doesn't.
6 Amazing: Galeforce
During the first patch of the preseason, the marksman mythic items were a bit sad. They were bad enough that many marksmen opted into going lethality to synergize with The Collector. After some adjustments, however, they've started to gain some serious power. It's arguable which one is the best, but Galeforce is the most well-rounded option.
Galeforce's active makes characters as mobile as Wild Rift. The damage the item does isn't anything to underestimate either. More importantly, as a Mythic item, it gives bonus stats for each completed Legendary item. Galeforce makes that stat more movement speed, a rarity that's a godsend on any marksman. Unless the champion synergizes well with the other two marksman mythics, Galeforce is just a solid selection.
5 Awful: Shurelya's Battlesong
Shurelya's Reverie was a long-time staple of the game's active items. It served as the ultimate "Go" button for entire teams to engage, and plenty of characters like Rakan made great use of its active ability. Shurelya's was upgraded to Mythic status as a support option, giving bonus additional movement speed as the Mythic passive. It even allows allies to deal bonus damage, so what's not to like?
Well, the problem with Shurelya's is that, for a tank mythic, it doesn't give enough defensive stats. 150 extra health isn't enough to justify the trade-off from losing the resistances of Locket of the Iron Solari. In terms of offensive power for enchanters and mages, Imperial Mandate is just so much more effective. Shurelya's Battlesong isn't a totally useless item, but it has no purpose.
4 Awesome: Night Harvester/Riftmaker
Looking at the mage mythics, it's hard to pick just one that feels the best to use. Liandry and Ludens are just as good as they've always been, and Hextech Rocketbelt is a fun option on certain champions. However, it's hard to beat the raw power of Night Harvester or the insane healing of Riftmaker.
Night Harvester's passive deals a sizeable amount of damage to each individual champion, along with providing movement speed to the user. Assassins like Akali can go absolutely crazy in short skirmishes. Alternatively, Riftmaker boosts damage based on duration in combat, along with providing some excellent Omnivamp healing. Assassins and bruisers alike can use Riftmaker to dominate fights and get out without a scratch.
3 Awful: Everfrost
The collection of mage mythics are pretty good in most cases. Assassin mages might have won big, but control mages also got a couple of decent options. Unfortunately, there's also Everfrost. Everfrost isn't much worse statwise than the other mage mythics, and it even provides a bit of extra HP.
However, looking at the active effect, it pales in comparison to the other items. It's the replacement for Hextech-GLP, giving an extra slow and root to champions that might need it. The damage is nowhere near as good as the other mythic passives, and the root is a bit finicky to land. Champions like Sylas can terrorize with the item, but without an easy way to land the root, there's no reason to build it over the other options.
2 Amazing: Goredrinker
Goredrinker is absurd. It's almost definitely going to eat a nerf before the season officially starts, and possibly some afterward. The build path for the item is really solid, with Ironspike Whip and Phage both being quality items to pick up early. The stats on the item alone make it gold efficient, which is surprisingly rare for so-called "mythic" items.
The active is really what makes Goredrinker so strong. The active creates a cleave in a sizeable radius around the user, dealing decent damage and healing. The healing scales hard based on missing health, meaning juggernauts and bruisers will love to use it in clutch moments. Aatrox especially can get absurd healing from the item in the right situation. No amount of pitiful healing reduction stops the Goredrinker from going crazy.
1 Awful: Vigilant Wardstone
Back in the old days of League, vision control was the ultimate way to play the game. Junglers and supports were both packing Sightstone items to help keep the map lit up. With the removal of the ward jungle item, along with limits on wards across the board, the game completely changed. Supports were stuck holding onto Control Wards instead of getting any extra stats during late-game scenarios.
The Vigilant Wardstone is good in concept. The argument is that, obviously, any stats are better than nothing. Plus, extra wards are nothing to scoff at. There's a chance Wardstone is going to be an incredibly effective item at the highest levels of play. The problem is that games end so fast that supports can't even get a high enough level to build a Wardstone. It has the potential to change the game, but it just feels like a trap item right now.