Riot Games announced that the next preseason will see some items retiring as they didn't fit into their vision with the item overhaul and this includes Hextech Gunblade, a quintessential point of building Akali.
Akali was released on May 11, 2010. One patch later, on June 1, 2010, Riot Games also released Hextech Gunblade that because so synonymous with the champion that it's hard to imagine one without the other. And yet, that is exactly what is going to happen as soon as the preseason patch kicks in.
League of Legends will be introducing Mythic items as well as new Legendary ones but some old Legendaries are going to be removed - Hextech Gunblade among them. This will certainly leave a mark in the playstyle of both Akali and Katarina since both champions are quite used to having it to make their plays.
Akali will probably be using Hextech Rocketbelt Mythic afterwards, since it will give her additional gap closing and burst potential while it remains to be seen what will sit best with Kat.
The full list of removed League of Legends items this preseason is:
- Adaptive Helm
- Athene's Unholy Grail
- Frozen Mallet
- Hextech GLP-800
- Hextech Gunblade
- Spellbinder
- Statikk Shiv
- Twin Shadows
League of Legends - showcase of several champion splash arts
- Image: 1 / 10
According to Riot, these items' effects were "too far off the mark to salvage" and "were only needed because the item system wasn't able to properly support its users overall".
