Which Items Can Slow Attack Speed In LoL?

Attack speed is one of the most critical attack stats in the game. An additional 0.1% attack speed over your opponent could decide who comes out victorious in every trade. ADCs utilize this statistic the most as they are mostly auto-attack-reliant champions. While numerous items increase attack speed, for yourself and your allies, there is only a single item that can reduce the attack speed of enemy champions.

Frozen Heart is the only item in the entire League of Legends item lineup that can reduce attack speed. Other than this tier 3, tank item, no other item can reduce an enemy champion’s attack speed.

Even with Frozen Heart, reducing attack speed is not an easy feat to accomplish. The passive only activates when you are in close proximity to the enemy champion, and if it’s an ADC, we all know that is near-impossible unless you are ambushing them. Let’s look at how exactly Frozen Heart works, the best way to utilize it, and the impact it can have.

Frozen Heart – A Breakdown

The Frozen Heart item is built from two tier-2 items, Glacial Buckler & Warden’s Mail. It is built primarily for added armor as it provides one of the highest armor boosts in the game. Paralleled only by Randuin’s Omen, Frozen Heart provides the user with 80 additional armor. On top of that, it gives you 400 extra mana and +20 ability haste.

It has two passives, Winter’s Caress & Rock Solid. Rock Solid is an armor-related passive which reduces incoming damage from attacks to make your champion a bit beefier. Winter’s Caress, on the other hand, is a unique passive attributed only to Frozen Heart. It reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies when they are within the target’s proximity. This is the passive that makes Frozen Heart so useful in some cases.

Best Champs

Now since Frozen Heart gives you an additional 400 mana, you should consider building it on tank champions who struggle with mana problems. Most tank champions do not rely on abilities to be effective, so they do not require mana, while others, like Dr. Mundo, are mana-less champions.

Some champions this item would synergize perfectly with are Tahm Kench, Rammus, or even Cho’Gath.

There are two main conditions you should focus on while deciding whether or not to build Frozen Heart:

Does The Champion Struggle With Mana Consumption?

If the answer is yes, Frozen Heart is a must. There is no other item that synergizes better with tank kits and provides mana other than Frozen Heart. The only other item Glacial Barrier builds into is Zeke’s Convergence, and that is a support item that requires you to shadow another player.

If you are a solo laner (preferably top lane), you cannot rely on any other item and will need to buy this item.

Is This Champion Tanky Enough And Have CC?

Now, this is an important factor to consider while debating about Frozen Heart. That is because Frozen Heart’s passive, Winter’s Caress, only works when the enemy champion is close to you. If your champion dies while on the way or cannot sustain the damage dealt to a front-line champ, the item’s effect is nullified.

Champions like Tahm Kench are extremely tanky, can get in the middle of a fight with his W, and sustain for over 10 seconds, even with everyone targeting him. This makes him an ideal champion to buy Frozen Heart on.

Also read: How to Get Maximum Attack Speed in League of Legends?

Is It A Situational Item?

Logically speaking, every item is a situational item in League. No item build is definite since every match has different team compositions. In matches where you have high AP threats like APC Ziggs or Akali mid, this item may not prove to be as useful.

To play this item effectively, you also need to target who you want to stop. If it is a jungler like Master Yi, you will definitely need some CC in order to stop him from spamming Q on you. But if it is an ADC like Cait or any ADC for that matter, chances are you will need to dive in. This can be done with abilities like Tahm Kench W, Rammus W, or Volibear R. The enemy team will not let you simply walk up to their ADC, so casually strolling in is not an option.

The Takeaway

Riot has built an item for almost every type of build you can think of. They carefully thought about stat reduction, and that is why they made only one item for it. But this item, although niche, is worth trying and having some fun with. Get a tanky champion and definitely check this out to stun some ADCs while they think they can just burst you down. With the additional armor and ability haste to spam your abilities, you should become unstoppable.