Terminus, a new marksman item, will have passives that give both defense and offense in turn.
Season 2024 of League of Legends is brimming with newness and creativity. New Map, new objectives, champion quests, Support Item rework, Riding Rift Herald, 3 Baron Variants– the list is quite huge this time around. Amidst these, the removal of Mythic Items and the introduction of new items are among the headliners for Preseason 2024 changes.
Ever since items were reworked to make room for the Mythic system, the game has looked completely different. Each role and each class of champions had their playstyle altered to adapt to it. Now that mythic items are going to be removed, the game is once again on the verge of a paradigm shift.
The addition of new and unique items is a hot topic in the community. And each item requires deep analysis for good reasons. For this article, I would like to put the spotlight on Terminus, a new item designed for the Marksman class.
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Terminus Item Description
Terminus
- Total Cost: 3200
- Item Recipe: Recurve Bow + Last Whisper + Dagger + 750 gold
- 40 Attack Damage
- 30% Attack Speed
- Passive – Shadow: Attacks apply 30 magic damage on-hit.
- Passive – Juxtaposition: Alternate between Light and Dark on-hits each attack. Light attacks grant 3-5 armor and magic resist (up to 15-25) for 5 seconds. Dark attacks grant 6% armor penetration and magic penetration (up to 30%) for 5 seconds.
There’s nothing extraordinary about its cost and recipe. Looks completely regular with 40 AD and 30% attack speed. Just another Marksman item, right?
Well, not really, if you look at the passives below.
Terminus Passives
Shadow
The first passive, named shadow, is nothing we have never seen. On-hit bonus damage is quite common. For example, Wit’s End, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, and Kraken Slayer. Terminus provides the champion it’s equipped on with 30 bonus magic damage on-hit. So, a marksman champion with high attack speed shall greatly benefit from it. Especially, Akshan, Quinn, and Vayne should have great synergy with their inherent on-hit features.
Juxtaposition
As the name suggests, this passive has 2 opposite types of attributes built in. Basically, each attack from your champion will have ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’ attributes. They will take turns, as in, one attack will be considered Light and the instant next, Dark.
So what are the Light and Dark aspects of the passive? When your attack uses the Light attribute, it will grant 4 armor and magic resist (up to 20) for 5 seconds. On the other hand, the very next attack will send the champion to the dark side, with 6% armor and magic penetration (up to 30%) for 5 seconds.
Light gives you defense, and Dark gives you offense. This contrasting effect in a single passive is something League of Legends players are seeing for the first time, if I’m not wrong. And if you look carefully, this item is kind of a full package in terms of stat type. It has attack damage, magic damage, both types of penetration, armor, magic resist, and attack speed. Oh, right, I guess Riot forgot to put bonus Health and Shield in it. Maybe next patch, who knows!
Terminus on Non-Marksman Champions
Even though it is built for the Marksman class, there are some pseudo-melee champions that have historically utilized a lot of items of the same nature. You probably know what I’m talking about.
Yes, the infamous brothers – Yasuo and Yone. Yasuo has always built marksman items due to having a kit that benefits greatly from Crit and Attack Speed. Terminus’s having attack speed, bonus on-hit damage, and armor penetration will greatly synergize with Yasuo’s Q spam and built-in armor penetration from Ultimate.
Yone’s case is more interesting. His passive, Steel and Spirit, is oddly similar to Terminus’ Light and Shadow. Yone’s passive makes him alternate between steel and Azakana sword. Steel sword gives regular physical damage. But the Azakan sword has 50% physical and 50% magic damage. So when you use Terminus, if the Dark from Juxtaposition aligns with the Azakana Sword, you will get to utilize both Armor and Magic Penetration at the same time.
This can be particularly useful if you are dueling against a champion who has built only one type of defense (either Armor or Magic Resistance). Since you have both types of penetration coming from your passive, either AD or AP penetration can technically deal true damage against such an enemy.
I am pretty sure there are other champions I am missing who can potentially use this item as effectively as traditional Marksmen. Too bad for Graves and Jhin, though.
When is Terminus Coming to League of Legends?
As with all the Preseason 2024 changes, the new Marksman Item is scheduled to hit the live servers with Patch 14.1 in early January 2024.
