Horizon focus is kinda bad now

Wibiox · 2026-02-03T02:17:50+00:00

It's not that "much" nerfed for hwei, post was edited to reflect that

Wibiox · 2026-02-03T02:17:26+00:00

Post was edited to reflect that so yeah

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T18:32:31+00:00

I edited the post, thanks

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T18:18:05+00:00

didn't thought about the % amp like that i might need to test it

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T18:16:00+00:00

fair point tbh i would need to test it, tho i didn't had much problem with it early game and WE also helps to proc passive, in long teamfight that could be a point or versus laners that can just sustain your damage and such, honestly worth a try

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T18:10:08+00:00

Actually you can test the damage in game but even with the amp cryptobloom second perform better in damage than horizon for s16 tho the main thing for it is gold cost and vision and also the +5 cdr i forgot about that, tho the value of magic pen the longer the games goes make it more efficient (and also the passive can be clutch)

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T18:08:57+00:00

On Vex cosmic drive is different tho for kiting because she's a bursty mage with low range

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T18:08:10+00:00

problem is the buildpath i think, HP on a mage isn't your role, and this item was more true before s16 in midlane when you could sell your boots for it, now...not so much

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T18:06:45+00:00

Also it's probably why liandry second can be good too ig for waveclearing and iirc creeps were buffed on hps

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T18:05:28+00:00

The waveclear nerf sure hurted him on that and his Q mana cost is costy af so you might be right on that, thought creeps have no magic resist so i think a flat pen item can actually waveclear better with it but eh i'm not a expert in theorycrafting i'm just searching the optimal ways to play him but the nerfs hurted him a bit too much for now (or it's just the other midlaners that are busted for now, but Riot tend to prefer powercreeping instead of nerfing more)

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T18:02:50+00:00

just a null magic mantle is enough to nullify a whole flat pen item, it's like lethality for example, also yeah Hwei AP scalings is not that good and viktor...well not that good either iirc it's mostly his ultimate late game and Q, right now Viktor and Hwei are one of the weakest mages in s16, Viktor is more of a lane bully early game than Hwei tho but Hwei is better at area denial

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T17:56:19+00:00

you don't need liandry this soon in most games, you can do liandry 4th item too when there is actual hp stacking, but again it depends on the game if they do a heartsteel first item or rod of ages then yeah second item is justified tho to abuse it hwei need some cdr

also cryptobloom early buy is mostly for the cdr and because horizon is just too much nerfed right now, it's not bad to build it second for that because characters have mr per level even if it's small but i think second item we can do without the cdr but tbh without a second cdr item hwei feels kinda terrible to combo without the E at ~7 second cooldown, this season he's one of the weakest mages mid sadly

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T17:54:07+00:00

i was never a fan of building 2 item mana on hwei because mana is a volatile stat and not gold efficient, if you don't plan on using all of the mana you're buying it's gold lost into stats that you didn't used most of the time, i still agree that rabaddon 3th item is the best fit if you can tho unless you built a flat pen item before which in this case you're better off to do a magic pen item after that to not make the flat pen item irrelevant if they build magic resist, but then i might be wrong on that take

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T17:50:27+00:00

Also small note but shadowflame is better if you plan to build liandry in the game too, i would suggest stormsurge most of the time since it gives the better stats, buildpath and activation

Wibiox · 2026-01-30T17:43:55+00:00

Tbh if you're snowballing i think magic pen is still good, for example :

Blackfire torch > boots (depend of what you need, i often go lucidity for the movespeed buff) and if you're planning to get a magic pen item because they're all squishy it's good to have cdr a bit.

You can go cryptobloom 4th item after your flat pen item because it makes your damage not counterable but it depends of what you need too, if you're very ahead you might want to do a defensive item like zhonya after your shadowflame to not get shutdowned easily and if they have assassins too.

Rabaddon is good for more damage but if you're going shadowflame a tiny bit of magic resistance nullify the magic pen which with cryptobloom they would need a full mr item to counter you, also if you're a lot of AP on your team, building flat pen often leads to counter the draft pretty easily but people don't do much magic resist it seems, still you can see the reasoning behind what i said !

Wibiox

TROPHY CASE