Set 5.5 Quick Thoughts

Haven't written in FOREVER so here's some quick thoughts on set 5.5 patch 11.18.

Starting Items

Tear > Sword/Belt > Bow > Chain > Cloak >>> Rod

Rod is awful, do not start it.  The only early item you can make with it that's not overly comital is Rageblade.  Spark is an underpowered item and requires a 2 star tank, Gunblade is weak early, Locket is a weak item at all stages, Archangel is really comital and only good on Vlad and a few others.  Morello is a good item but isn't going to save you HP early unless you have something that pairs really well with it like 4 Knight/4 Brawler/Abom.

Comps that need Rods either need one for Rageblade or two for Deathcap (Karma).

Tear

I really like starting Tear right now because comps that use Tear can use a pile of them, with spreads like Blue Buff HOJ Karma with Redemption frontline (4 whole tears!).  The best early game openers right now involve Ziggs and Brand, who absolutely excel with Blue Buff.  You get griefed if you open Tear and hit Cloak/Bow but then you can make a Runaan's and play Jax/Kayle/Lucian (it's actually good I swear).

Best Comps

The best things to play right now are Yasuo, Aphelios, Karma; Lucian and Kayle are good but are a step below.  Nocturne/Sins is insanely good but is too reliant on Sin Spat/Radiant RFC, with the added fail rate of, woops I didn't hit Nocturne 3 guess it's an auto 6th.

Yasuo: Runaan's/JG/Flex, Legionnaire 2/Nightbringer 4 is important and it's pretty flexible after that.  You don't have to go for Yasuo 3 if you're not hitting a lot of Yasuos, but unless you're really high HP it's probably going to be a bot 4/4th.  Yasuo was probably broken in half when everyone was playing Lucian Galio and people either were missing something or playing it wrong, and now it's even better.

Aphelios: Deathblade is like playing a different unit, other two items are more flexible.  Akshan 1 isn't always better than Aphelios 1 because reasons, despite being a legendary AD carry that uses 95% of the same items.

Karma: Blue Buff/Shojin are absolute requirements, and one good damage item like Deathcap or Giant Slayer.  2 Item Karma will work for way longer than it has any right to, as long as you have a lot of frontline Karma will do well.  The dream is stacked Garen 2 but Galio 2 is very good as well.

Jax/Draven/Lucian: All of these comps are backup plans for Aphelios, or if you hit them early/2 star them early.

Rerolling

Most batches of early units can be successfully rerolled if you have a bunch of copies of them.  I've had success/seen other people succeed with the following:

Gragas/Sej/Vlad/Soraka

I've seen Khazix used with Gragas as well.  Soraka is the carry here and needs Archangel or Morello (an item that scales with fight length that isn't Rageblade)

Olaf/Irelia/Senna

Olaf 3 is a monstrosity of a unit but REQUIRES Runaan's.  He has a tendency to get glued to a tank the entire fight, and his passive healing gets doubled with Runaan's.  He plays like weird Jax but the units you can pair him with are better.

Hellions

Tristana is a pretty functional carry but so are Kled and Ziggs.  Ideally you get strong enough to go fast 8/9 and pivot into something else, or play an entirely golden board with MF/Thresh at 6.

Vayne

Needs to be hit reasonably early as the primary strength here is streaking through the end of stage 3 into the beginning of stage 5 easily.  Vayne like Olaf needs Runaan's (it's as close to double damage as it gets while allowing you to not get stuck on a drain tank like Hecarim/Galio/Jax).  Vayne does mostly physical damage because of Forgotten, but is better with items like JG compared to Last Whisper because of the passive. Ideally you want to secure Runaan's/Rageblade and a Trapclaw, with either a good damage Radiant for Vayne or a good tank one for Hecarim

Closing Thoughts

This patch feels pretty skill rewarding and balanced, although I wish Velkoz and Heimer were SLIGHTLY better.  I'm sitting around 590ish LP right now and have felt pretty competitive in all of my games despite being easily the lowest LP player in all of my lobbies.