Lately there has been a lot of discussion about itemization in league of legends. People complain that there isn't enough choice in items, that there is always an 80%+ optimal build path to choose. Then people ask for items with a different arrangement of stats, as if that will help anything. When people talk about the optimal build, you have to realize how much optimization and numbers relate to one another. The gold value/efficiency of 90% of items can be completely calculated. It only makes sense that people would be able to use this information to calculate an efficient build. There is a way to throw a cog in the calculation however, but I'll get to that later. First we've got to look at why people want "better" itemization, or what even makes itemization good or bad.
I'm going to go against the current consensus and say that itemization in league of legends is good. When I say itemization I don't mean variety, in my opinion thats isn't required for a game to be good. In most games with weapons/equipments there is usually always a "best" item to use and only in competitive games do you see a broad scope of items being used. Its the same in league of legends, at the end of a game look at the items people have built and you'll see a variety of items. Not only that but there are almost items for every situation you might find yourself in. Riot has done a great job of creating a staple choice of items for every class thats made. I'd even argue the idea that the variety in item choice is poor and I will argue that itemization in general is very well done. You have to remember that there was times where there was no AP item for vsing AD in lane. Or poor itemization choices for AD casters. Or even just recently how supports were pigeonholed into building "support" items and buying wards. Itemization is at a good place right now, there are items for every class to build even though there is no choice. Creating more items won't add any variety to builds, it'll just add to the pile of items people don't and shouldn't even use because there are better choices for getting what they want done.
The kind of items that create variety are niche items. Items that fill a niche roll in game, have some sort of unique ability that can't be calculated and are rarely picked. When I say niche I mean niche. Just because an item is rarely picked doesn't mean that its bad. People are always saying, "buff runnans so it'll be built more" or something along the lines of that. You can only build 6 items at a time. If runnans is buffed to the point where it starts to be more appealing than other items, another item is just going to fall out of flavor since runnans does its job better and it has a truly unique passive. Its fine just where it is, it performs a niche roll and should stay rarely picked. What you really want is not more items that will be popularly picked, that does not create variation. To create variation you need truly unique items that are rarely picked individually, but all together maintain a good pick rate versus staple items.
Also its not even like there are no niche items to pick from, there are quite a bit of them. Runaan's Hurricane, Morellonomicon, QSS/upgrade, Guardians Angel, Gauntlet, Twin Shadows, Ohmrecker, Mikael's Crucible, Hexdrinker/Upgrade, Wit's End, DFG and some more popular ones such as Athene's. The stats on them may not be as good as the staple items for certain builds but have passives/uniques that make it hard for people, or impossible in some cases to calculate their item efficiency/value in raw gold. If you want more itemization, are you asking for an item that is a better/worse choice than the items already out there? That won't help the variety issue. More niche items? We have plenty, but more wouldn't hurt.
Maybe there aren't enough niche items to create the illusion of build diversity but I honestly think the diversity is there. Why is it such a bad thing to have an optimal build route and why is diversity so sought after? The current item system works very well, there is no reason to break it.
I'm going to go against the current consensus and say that itemization in league of legends is good. When I say itemization I don't mean variety, in my opinion thats isn't required for a game to be good. In most games with weapons/equipments there is usually always a "best" item to use and only in competitive games do you see a broad scope of items being used. Its the same in league of legends, at the end of a game look at the items people have built and you'll see a variety of items. Not only that but there are almost items for every situation you might find yourself in. Riot has done a great job of creating a staple choice of items for every class thats made. I'd even argue the idea that the variety in item choice is poor and I will argue that itemization in general is very well done. You have to remember that there was times where there was no AP item for vsing AD in lane. Or poor itemization choices for AD casters. Or even just recently how supports were pigeonholed into building "support" items and buying wards. Itemization is at a good place right now, there are items for every class to build even though there is no choice. Creating more items won't add any variety to builds, it'll just add to the pile of items people don't and shouldn't even use because there are better choices for getting what they want done.
The kind of items that create variety are niche items. Items that fill a niche roll in game, have some sort of unique ability that can't be calculated and are rarely picked. When I say niche I mean niche. Just because an item is rarely picked doesn't mean that its bad. People are always saying, "buff runnans so it'll be built more" or something along the lines of that. You can only build 6 items at a time. If runnans is buffed to the point where it starts to be more appealing than other items, another item is just going to fall out of flavor since runnans does its job better and it has a truly unique passive. Its fine just where it is, it performs a niche roll and should stay rarely picked. What you really want is not more items that will be popularly picked, that does not create variation. To create variation you need truly unique items that are rarely picked individually, but all together maintain a good pick rate versus staple items.
Also its not even like there are no niche items to pick from, there are quite a bit of them. Runaan's Hurricane, Morellonomicon, QSS/upgrade, Guardians Angel, Gauntlet, Twin Shadows, Ohmrecker, Mikael's Crucible, Hexdrinker/Upgrade, Wit's End, DFG and some more popular ones such as Athene's. The stats on them may not be as good as the staple items for certain builds but have passives/uniques that make it hard for people, or impossible in some cases to calculate their item efficiency/value in raw gold. If you want more itemization, are you asking for an item that is a better/worse choice than the items already out there? That won't help the variety issue. More niche items? We have plenty, but more wouldn't hurt.
Maybe there aren't enough niche items to create the illusion of build diversity but I honestly think the diversity is there. Why is it such a bad thing to have an optimal build route and why is diversity so sought after? The current item system works very well, there is no reason to break it.
