Itemization depends on your knowledge of the champions, basic stats, and interactions between them. Your goal is first to get to know every single character in the game and what their champ depends on. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to this. You just have to try different champs and learn them. You could try the featured game mode at the time like URF or just play ARAM.

Countering Champions with Items

Once you have better knowledge about the champions and items in the game. You can make easy purchases that will help you with your game significantly. The simplest example is: if you know the enemy has a Zed. Buy Zhonya or Stasis Enchant is what it’s called in Wild Rift. His damage source is his ult, so you can counter it in two ways:

1. Stasis early the moment he ults you. This prevents him from stacking damage into his ult.

OR

2. Stasis later to mitigate the damage he already stacked on you. FYI: Stasis is the boots upgrade that makes you go “ka-ching” and you turn to gold.

Once you start to understand the champions and how they work. You will naturally start to see how items can counter skills or even other items.

Item and Stats Interactions

Unfortunately, there are too many champs for there to be an easy 1-page guide. But we can try and generalize the effects and build from there. Itemization is not that complicated if you understand most of these interactions.

Here are the item & stats interactions that you should understand:

1. Attack damage and Armor:

   Higher armor reduces damage received from attack damage. Fighting characters that have really high AD can be countered by buying more armor. If their team is all AD characters don’t buy MR. I’ve seen a lot of players just blindly following the shop-recommended build. There are some exceptions to this, like spirit visage. Sometimes characters like Nunu, Nasus, Aatrox, and other sustain characters can benefit from SV Blessed healing effect so much that you can still buy this even if your enemy only has 1 AP character.
   

2. Armor and Armor penetration:

   Imagine someone has so much armor that your attacks no longer deal any damage to them. What can you do? Buy armor penetration items; simple. If you are fighting a Malphite and you are a bruiser get Black Cleaver. All the AD assassin items that build from Serrated Dirk also give Armor Pen. Youmuu, Edge of night, Duskblade. Then you have Mortal Reminder, Serylda, and Lord Dominik which are usually late-game items.
   

   Pure Armor Pen Items:

   

   AD Assassin Items:

   

3. Ability Power and Magic Resistance:

   Higher magic resistance reduces damage from ability power. Just like attack damage and armor. If you are playing a tank/bruiser then watch what your enemy picks. If their top, mid and jungle are all AP then buy MR early on. No use stacking your armor if they are all AP. Again, watch the enemy picks and decide on the items.

   

4. Magic Resistance and Magic Penetration:

   Same with armor and armor pen. Magic resistance is like wearing magic armor. You need some magic penetration to go through it. Early game you don’t usually worry too much about magic pen. Mid-game you have Awakened Soulstealer or Infinity Orb that has a magic pen. If the enemy stacks MR early then you can buy void staff. But usually, it’s the last item to buy.
   

5. Lifesteal/ Spell Vamp/Omnivamp and Grievous Wound:

   You will encounter characters that just keep healing. Soraka, Mundo, ADCs, Aatrox…. This is where grievous wound comes into play. Grievous wounds will reduce healing and regeneration effects. There is Bramble Vest which combines into Thornmail, Executioner’s Calling which combines into Mortal Reminder, and Oblivion Orb which combines into Morellonomicon. The most important thing about these items is that you can buy the sub-items to get the grievous wound effect and finish them later on. If you fight Aatrox you can buy executioners calling the second item and continue with your build. And finish the mortal reminder late game.
   
   
   

6. Tenacity and Crowd Control:

   How do you counter someone that has a 2-second stun? You buy an item that gives you tenacity. This will help you reduce the amount of time you are stunned or charmed. You can buy mercury’s treads early and get tenacity. Amaranth Twinguard also gives tenacity. If you are fighting Morgana, finish ur merc treads early.
   

7. Crowd Control and Cleanse:

   It’s sad but there is no cleanse summoners spell in WR. So the only option here is QSS or quicksilver enchant which is the grey headband item when you upgrade to tier 3 boots. If you are getting rooted by Morgana or blinded by Teemo you can cleanse the effect with this.

   

8. Crit damage and Crit damage reduction:

   The only item I know to reduce this is Randuin Omen. If your enemy mid-Yasuo and top-Yone please build this item early.
   

9. Attack speed and attack speed reduction:

   2 items reduce attack speed and they both build from the same item. Wardens mail which builds to Randuin and frozen heart. This is good against Vayne, Yasuo, Yone, and more… basically auto-attack speed-based characters.
   

10. Health and Percentage of health damage:

    If for some reason the enemy is stacking health. You can buy BORK (Blade of the ruined king), Divine Sunderer, and Liandry. These items give you health percentage damage and increase your damage against tanky champions.
    

Most players even in Diamond do not understand these interactions and they have a hard time-fighting certain champions. Understanding itemization is essential to get you to the next level. There might be some other effects that I missed at the time of this writing. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new item builds and go climb the ranks. If you need help climbing ranks take a look at my guide here.