League of Legends Crit Changes: Everything You Need to Know

League of Legends​ crit changes are on the way as Riot Games continues to discuss changes in items that boost a champion's chance to deal critical hits. Game designer Matt "PhRoXzOn" Leung-Harrison ​posted in the League of Legends forum detailing changes to crit items such as Essence Reaver and Infinity Edge. 

Considered an essential part of many AD Carry champion kits, crit items were changed throughout 2018, most infamously in Patch 8.11, which saw the ADC position switch from Marksmen to Mages for the first time in the game's history. It was a change so dramatic that it necessitated the position itself renamed from ADC to bottom (bot) laner. 

The change was controversial and many players, professional and casual, bemoaned the state it left many Marksmen champions. Many hoped for the items to be reverted or otherwise changed, such as Team Liquid bot laner Yilang Peter "Doublelift" Peng. 

The newest round of changes seems to address these complaints. PhRoXzOn details changes to ten crit items. The most notable of these are:

Phantom Dancer

• ​+30% Attack Speed
• +25% Critical Hit Chance
• +7% Movement Speed
• Unique Passive - Lifeline: Upon taking damage that would reduce Health below 30%, grants a shield that absorbs 280 damage for 5 seconds (90 second cooldown)

Essence Reaver

• +60 Attack Damage
• +25% Critical Strike Chance
• Unique Passive: +20% Cooldown Reduction
• Unique Passive: Basic attacks refund 1.5% of your missing mana

Infinity Edge

• +70 Attack Damage
• +25% Critical Strike Chance
• Unique Passive: Critical strikes deal 225% damage instead of 200%

The Phantom Dancer changes are intended to give players the option of an early defensive item as opposed to the near-ubiquitous choice of Stormrazor in previous patches. ​Essence Reaver changes are expected to aid spell-intensive Marksmen such as Ezreal or Lucian, and the Infinity Edge changes will likely give renewed life to traditional AD Carries such as Caitlyn or Ashe. 

PhRoXzOn cautions that these proposed changes are not final and are subject to change. However, as currently proposed, they can be expected to revitalize the AD Carries in the bottom lane.

UPDATE (1:21 p.m. ET Jan. 25): The crit changes are expected to enter League of Legends Patch 9.3, as outlined by Riot Games' Andrei "Meddler" van Roon. He listed some of the goals of the changes:

--Crit marksmen players have an appealing crit build path

--Marksmen (crit especially, but others to some degree) have improved ability to get some defensive effects when needed early/mid game

--Satisfaction of play for crit marksmen games increases

--Changes range from power neutral to power positive depending on the marksmen in question (e.g. Tristana has room to be stronger, Sivir probably doesn't)

UPDATE (Feb. 5, 5:27 p.m. EST): Riot Games released League of Legends Patch 9.3 with official crit changes going live. For a full list of the live changes, click here.

Image courtesy of Riot Games.