Your team is losing, you have 3000 gold.

[quote=eXecute]Let's say you're in a 5v5, you're AD or AP carry your choice. Your team has 1-2 feeders, and even you have gotten maybe a 4-5 K/D and you're losing turrets. The enemy team is roaming around ganking your teammates together. You have approximately 3000 gold saved up. What do you buy? Let me remind you this is just a theoretical item build that will usually depend on situation. The decision you have to make is whether to buy offensive items or defensive items--to give you the best chance of recovery. Obviously very subjective and situational. Some options to get you started: [list=1] [*]You buy a banshee's veil and charge in and out of battles. [*]You buy a quicksilver sash to avoid some CC on enemy team. [*]You buy/save for a deathcap/infinity-edge in order to get more kills on enemy team. [*]You buy a Zonhya hourglass, because you noticed they focus you and have good physical carries. [*]You buy/save for a lichbane or bloodthirster for extra damage / lifesteal. [*]You buy mostly items with passives that help the whole team (Stark's fervor, Abyssal Scepter, tome). [*]You buy a deathfire grasp or madred bloodrazor to fight tanks/high-HP. [/list] So many choices... Sometimes I just pick one if I cannot decide on a particular situation (like if the enemy team is a good mix of AD/AP and no one particular counter applies to the whole team). Go...[/quote]

[quote=Jebus McAzn]It's pretty situational, as you said. But let's take a random champion - say, [[Nidalee]]. Say you've already gotten Rageblade, or whatever the core item on the particular champion you're playing is. In a scenario where the enemy team is the biggest threat, you need to find the highest source of damage on their team and build to counter it - but not necessarily completely. Consider the scenario where their highest source of damage is a very fed [[Annie]] who bursts you down quite easily. Is there a need to blow 3k+ gold on a Banshee's Veil? No, not at all, especially if it's not part of your core build or your typical alternative build. In that scenario, I would do what a previous site member has called "horizontal building" - namely getting the components of items that I need to counter enemy damage. My buy upon returning back might be a [[Negatron Cloak]], a [[Needlessly Large Rod]], an [[Elixir of Fortitude]], and a few [[Sight Ward]]s. The point is, I wouldn't rush a big item like Banshee's Veil or QSS or Hourglass if it's not part of your typical item build (obviously, if you're a tank, you would build a Banshee's Veil to counter that Annie). The immediate benefits from the components are generally what you need the most, and you can continue on your typical path after. If I was [[Ashe]], my buy would be very similar - maybe a Negatron Cloak, a BF Sword, a red pot, and wards. This reminds me of Day[9]'s lecture on "over-responding to an enemy threat". You have to still continue down your typical item build while building to counter them - you can't just all-out rush an extremely situational item.[/quote]

[quote=eXecute]Hmm very well put. Let's say in your example, that my regular build is Deathcap and Lichbane, would I still get a negatron cloak, knowing that annie does so much damage? Maybe a Lich Bane first is enough because of the magic resist? But I don't know. I still don't understand how much magic resist is necessary and how much damage it will reduce from an annie doing 1k per skill to me etc. If that situation you describe with annie happened a number of times::: Sometimes I think, hmm, maybe I should get a banshee's veil anyway... Other times, I think, hmm maybe I should get a rylai or rod of ages so that I am not as squishy and have more HP. Other times, I think, maybe I can just continue buying my heavily offensive items like deathcap and maybe I can two shot annie if I can isolate her. Other times, I think, maybe I should get a lich bane first because it gives damage and some magic resist too. See the tough choices (they are all pretty good ideas)? Thus, my decision making there becomes, "well just pick one.." It's never a "oh no... I MUST get X" which I believe, high ELO players would know EXACTLY what to get and be extremely confident that that item will change the course of the game. My question boils down to, can you ever be confidently sure that one item path based on the situation is definitely necessary, or is it all just "well I tried it, and it worked a bunch of games"... It almost makes me wish I have the time to just launch a number of custom games with other players as testers and scientifically calculate all the pros/cons of each item versus each champion. That would be quite scientific but also a huge consumption of time and pissed off testers who are bored. Or maybe just do the math if the formulas are well known.[/quote]

[quote=Jebus McAzn]In early game, you build to win your lane. Losing about 100 gold to build armor/MR early game is completely worth it if it means you don't lose the lane. Your scenario seems to be more mid-game, where you've already got a few items. If you're ok with your damage at that point, then yes, build more MR if you're getting nuked down. However, you really shouldn't build too defensively - so I understand your conflict. The most logical thing to do is, if you're not playing a tank, you can itemize slightly against threads (e.g. ONE banshee's veil, lich bane, hourglass, guardian angel) and keep your build true to your character's purpose otherwise. Because if you survive, you'll still be useless in a fight - let the tank build tanky items, only build what you have to. So again, the most logical thing would be to just not engage annie solo, just like any sane Nidalee would never engage Tryndamere solo or Olaf solo. Until you get to the point where you're confident she can't kill you, you need to just play more conservatively - wait until her ult is popped, then burst her down. TL;DR - Don't over-itemize against a threat. One or two defensive items is usually enough, and the rest needs to be determined by playstyle. You still need to build offensively enough that you're still useful, but you need enough defense that you're not focused down instantly.[/quote]

[quote=AnalSamurai]Sometimes I buy 15-20 sight wards. No joke.[/quote]

[quote=mobrebel]I usually ward and only build one situational item after core items. In this situation, I would take the person who does the most damage or focuses me the most and buy an item to counteract that. Say [[Xin Zhao]], I would get a Chain Armor. So on.[/quote]