LoL’s mages will be undergoing a long-awaited item overhaul in the upcoming preseason

The selection of items crafted specifically for mages in League of Legends has remained a point of contention among members of the community in recent years, as many felt that the options available were limiting and one-dimensional.

But now Riot Games is looking to address some of those concerns by adding new items and giving others a fresh coat of paint at the start of the 2024 season, all of which will be available for testing today.

Mages are coming into the spotlight as one of the many classes directly affected by a major item rework. Riot offers an in-depth look at what players can look forward to in the upcoming season through a detailed developer blog Today. However, Riot has also noted that a number of popular mage items – including Everfrost, Demonic Embrace and Night Harvester – will not be returning with the pre-season update.

There is a wealth of new articles league for mages, many of which are full of new mechanics that existing items don’t have, or expand on existing effects to make them even more prominent. For example, Malevolence picks up the burn from Liandry’s Torment and places it on the ground in a small area beneath enemies, while Storm Surge blasts enemies in a larger area with a lightning bolt when they get a kill.

Caster’s Companion is a new stackable mage item that functions similarly to Echoes of Helia. Every three seconds, players gain a maximum of six charges, which are fully depleted when using a damaging ability. However, unlike Echoes of Helia, the shots fired deal damage to two targets rather than one if another is present. Mages also get a new tool with Cryptbloom that makes them better team players in battles. A small healing aura is placed under a champion they have defeated, capable of healing themselves and allies.

Haunting Guise is welcomed back as the main component of Liandry’s Torment, which now costs less, deals burn damage based on two percent of the target’s maximum health, and deals more damage to players the longer they fight. Cosmic Drive now grants players additional movement speed when simply dealing damage to an enemy every two seconds, while Staff of Ages’ base stats are slightly lowered.

Interestingly, Shadowflame undergoes a near-complete identity change to seemingly further differentiate him from the Void Staff. Instead of dealing damage through the enemy’s magic resistance, Shadowflame now allows all of the user’s magic and true damage to critically strike targets below a 35 percent health threshold, effectively giving any mage the ability to kill enemies similar to assassins.

Perhaps most notable is the Amplifying Tome’s price change from 435 gold to 400 gold, lowering the prices of a handful of mage items while making it easier for champions to increase their ability power. It will continue to be a core part of almost all Ability Power-granting items, including the newly reworked Seeker’s Armguards, which have received the Stopwatch active effect following its long-overdue removal league.

As these are major changes that affect almost every Mage Champion currently playable in the game league Riot is expected to keep a close eye on these new and reworked items – as well as any other item changes – over the next few weeks as they continue to be in testing on the PBE. The 2024 league The season is scheduled to start early next year.