League of Legends players already frustrated by “broken” new mage items

The newest slate of items that dropped for season 2024 is already frustrating League of Legends players, particularly the new AP items.

The beginning of a new season is always a weird time to play League. The massive changes to the maps and items mean that for a few weeks, every player is on the back foot as they relearn some pretty vital parts of the game, and 2024 is no different.

However, although they’ve only been out for a few days, some of the new items are already turning heads, and not for the right reasons. Mage items got some of the largest changes out of any damage type in the game, and with Mythic items being gone, there’s nothing to stop AP characters from building as many of them as they like.

League players lash out at overtuned 2024 season items

The top culprits are items like Stormsurge, which provides a massive AOE detonation if you finish off enemies within a certain amount of time, and the reworked Shadowflame, which gives you executes on AP and true damage.

The strength of these items means that 2024 League has quickly seen a rise of assassins and burst mages, which many players find frustrating to play against.

“I just played the first few games of this season and the game feels VERY different,” one player noted. “Laning phase ends after minute 8 and after that, the game becomes just constant fighting. Towers fall like paper and everyone just one-shots each other. every AP champ is forced to go stormsurge and ad assasins are broken right now.

Another player suggested that Stormsurge needed to have an indicator because of how unpredictable the damage on it was, saying: “The delayed damage is pretty annoying without knowing exactly how much of the enemy’s hp bar it’s going to delete. Both for the damage dealer and the damage sufferer.”