League of Legends mythic items were supposed to be the "holy grail" of build diversity. Riot Games launched them with the 2021 preseason, promising that every champion would have meaningful choices in every single game. But honestly? It didn't quite work out that way. By the time 2024 rolled around, Riot officially scrapped the entire system, reverting the game back to a more flexible itemization state. If you played during that era, you know exactly how it felt to be "locked in." You'd open the shop, look at your gold, and realize that if you didn't buy Liandry's Anguish or Kraken Slayer first, you were basically trolling. It was a weird time.
It's gone now.
The mythic tier was a design experiment that fundamentally changed how we thought about power spikes. Before mythics, you just bought whatever item suited the lane. After mythics, your entire identity was tied to that one big purple-bordered icon. If you were playing an assassin, you were a Duskblade of Draktharr user. Period. The system was designed to add "coolness" but often just added "clutter" and balancing nightmares that the dev team, led by designers like Phreak and Matt "Phroxzon" Leung-Harrison, had to navigate for three years.
Why League of Legends Mythic Items Failed to Stick
The biggest problem with League of Legends mythic items was the "Mythic Passive." This was a mechanic where every other completed item in your inventory gained bonus stats—like armor penetration or ability haste—based on which Mythic you owned. It sounded great on paper. In practice, it meant that if one Mythic item was slightly stronger than the others, it became the only viable choice for 40 different champions.
Take Sunfire Aegis at the start of Season 11. It was so overtuned that even assassins and some mages were building it. You had Diana jumping into the middle of a team, not to burst them, but to burn them down with tank stats. It broke the "class identity" Riot was trying to preserve.
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The diversity just wasn't there. Riot's goal was for players to choose their Mythic based on the game state. "Is the enemy team tanky? Get Liandry's. Are they squishy? Get Luden's." But players don't work like that. Players find the "mathematically correct" build and stick to it. According to Riot's own internal data shared in various Dev Corner blogs, many champions had a 90% or higher pick rate for a single Mythic item. That isn't choice; that's a requirement.
The Balancing Nightmare of Universal Passives
When you create an item like Galeforce, which gave a dash to immobile ADCs, you're not just adding an item. You're changing the fundamental balance of the game. Champions like Jhin or Miss Fortune are designed to be vulnerable if they misposition. Suddenly, they had a "get out of jail free" card.
This forced Riot to balance the champions around the items. If Galeforce was strong, Jhin had to be weak. If Galeforce was nerfed, Jhin became unplayable. It was a circular headache. This is a huge reason why the system was eventually retired in Patch 14.1. The developers realized that trying to balance 160+ champions against 20+ "god-tier" items was an impossible task.
The Most Infamous Items of the Era
If we're talking about the League of Legends mythic items that defined (or ruined) the meta, we have to talk about Goredrinker and Stridebreaker. Remember the "Ironspike Whip" meta? Bruisers like Renekton and Lee Sin were essentially unkillable because Goredrinker's active heal scaled with missing health. You'd get someone down to 5% HP, they'd press one button, and suddenly they were back to half health. It was frustrating.
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- Duskblade of Draktharr: This was the bane of every support player's existence. The version that granted invisibility on takedowns made teamfights a chaotic mess where you couldn't even see the person killing you.
- Immortal Shieldbow: For a long time, this was the only way for ADCs to survive the burst damage in the game, but it made them so tanky that assassins felt useless.
- Everfrost: A mage item that literally gave you a root. It was great for champions like Sylas or Ahri to guarantee their full combo, but it felt terrible to play against.
Then there was the constant shifting of categories. Riot tried moving items in and out of the Mythic tier. Behemoths like Rod of Ages came back as Mythics, but they never quite felt right in the restrictive system. The game felt like it was wearing a suit that was two sizes too small.
What the Removal Taught Us About League's Design
When Riot pulled the plug on the mythic system, they didn't just delete the items. They converted many of them—like Liandry's, Luden's, and Sunfire—back into "Legendary" items. But they stripped away the game-breaking passives. Now, you can build Liandry's and Luden's (in some cases) or mix and match without being told "You can only have one."
This shift back to the old ways proved something important: League of Legends is at its best when players have the freedom to be creative. The Mythic system was a "top-down" design approach. Riot was telling us how to play. The current system is "bottom-up." You see a problem in your game—maybe a fed Briar or a pesky Hwei—and you build specifically to counter them without worrying if your "Mythic slot" is already taken.
It also solved the "power creep" issue. Mythic items were inherently more powerful than anything else in the shop. By removing that tier, the overall burst damage in the game could be tuned more effectively. You don't get that massive 15-minute power spike that ends the game instantly anymore.
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Real Insights for the Current Meta
Since the era of League of Legends mythic items ended, the game has shifted toward a more "component-heavy" strategy. You really need to understand your power spikes relative to your gold income now. Without the "Mythic Passive" padding your stats, every item purchase matters more.
- Focus on Haste and Pen: Since you don't get free stats from a Mythic passive anymore, you have to be very intentional about buying Ability Haste or Magic/Armor Penetration. You can't just assume you'll "scale into it."
- Adaptive Itemization: Don't follow a static build path. In the Mythic days, your first item was almost always the same. Now, your first item should vary based on your lane opponent. If you're a mage against a heavy poke lane, maybe you rush Verdant Veil or Archangel's instead of just blindly going for damage.
- Watch the Gold: Legendary items are generally cheaper than the old Mythics. This means the mid-game (2-3 items) happens faster. Use this window to force objectives like Dragon or Void Grubs.
The death of League of Legends mythic items was actually the best thing to happen to the game in years. It felt like a weight was lifted. We went from a game where your build was decided in the loading screen to a game where you're constantly checking the scoreboard and the shop to make the right move. That’s the "skill expression" Riot always talks about.
If you're still looking for that "one item to rule them all," stop. It's not coming back. Instead, learn the synergies between the new Legendary items. Understand how the new versions of Tiamat or the reworked mage items like Malignance interact with your champion's kit. That is where the real depth lies now. Use the practice tool to test "time to kill" on dummies with different combinations; you'll be surprised how much better some "non-standard" builds perform compared to the old cookie-cutter Mythic paths.