Views: 2618 Gold Items part II
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As some of you must know I'm a main support player. I have a very high interest in everything related to supports, but I like to learn and do things my way. I don't watch streams, tournaments or anything - I just play. I don't intend to be pro, but I'm happy when I learn something new and improve.
So for the last preseason months I've had a very high interest in the new gold items. I love them - hence the second part in Gold Items discussion in my blog.
After playing out a lot of support with different starter items and different supports I've come to think which is the ultimate gold income item? Some people say it's
Nomad's Medallion, some still prefer the Targon's Brace, only AP supports seem to use Spellthief's Edge and even they don't use it properly.
So first let's discuss my favourite, the Spellthief's Edge/ Frostfang. It's the most efficient gold income item, but only if you use it properly.
So what is properly?This is how you do it.
In the long run Frostfang is the most efficient gold item, but it depends a lot on a champion and how your harassing/teamfights are going. If you're playing an easy to harass champion like Sona (or Soraka) who can spam spells and/or auto attacks, you'll get gold easily and just go ahead and admit, everyone needs gold. Well, wants more likely and why not abuse the fact you can get more?
So what comes to champions like Zyra and Karma supports and even Annie support, they have relatively long cooldowns and the first 2 have "hard-to-hit" abilities so their gold income with Frostfang is more reliant on auto attacks rather than spell spamming.
Ofc, there is my other favourite (and the only good competitor to Frostfang, the Nomad's Medallion!
So most people think the Nomad's Medallion > Frostfang and in some cases it is superior, but yet again it's very much related to which champ you play and against which champs.
For example, if I face a high-harass/high kill enemy lane, there's no way I'd start out with Spellthief's Edge, because if you can't harass, you don't get the money. However with Nomad's Medallion you'll get money just by sitting idle by the tower and not to forget that you actually have some sort of regen even if you get harassed there.
And here is the reality. Nomad's Medallion vs. moderate harassing Frostfang:
Early game Spellthief's Edge and Ancient Coin give roughly the same amount of coins with moderate harassing, but mid-game (or after getting Frostfang rather, that can happen early) Frostfang is superior to Nomad's Medallion goldwise. Late game if you have managed to get a gold income gap, the gap will stay.
Nomad's Medallion/ Talisman of Ascension at 23-24mins into the game:
Frostfang at 23-24 mins into the game:
As you can see, both items have their dependency:
- Frostfang is dependent on harassing with both auto attacks and spells, and hitting multiple enemies. Works with champs that have long range, short cooldowns and can stand some damage, for example Sona, Soraka and Nami. (I know they are squishy, but they can heal the damage they might take.)
- Nomad's Medallion is dependent on staying on a lane with enemy minions nearby. You don't have to do anything else than just sit there and enjoy the gold income. Leaves less time for roaming.
I know this more like a comparison between Nomad's Medallion and Frostfang, but I gotta say nowadays Targon's Brace isn't any good. Only melee people use it and even they can't use it all the time, because if they do, they get harassed. They get less gold anyway and I'd still prefer the Nomad's Medallion over Targon's Brace.
So for the last preseason months I've had a very high interest in the new gold items. I love them - hence the second part in Gold Items discussion in my blog.
After playing out a lot of support with different starter items and different supports I've come to think which is the ultimate gold income item? Some people say it's
Nomad's Medallion, some still prefer the Targon's Brace, only AP supports seem to use Spellthief's Edge and even they don't use it properly.So first let's discuss my favourite, the
Spellthief's Edge/ Frostfang. It's the most efficient gold income item, but only if you use it properly.So what is properly?
- Spellthief's Edge only procs with auto attacks. The only way to benefit out of this item in addition to the passive gold income (which is poor) is to harass the enemy with auto attacks. You need a ranged hero and some balls to go and auto attack that Annie, but if you keep doing it, you'll have more gold income through harassing than through the passive of Spellthief's Edge. In addition you might even get a chance to kill the enemy when they're low hp!
- The wrong way is to not auto attack, obviously. Fiddlesticks and Zyra supports have a habit of harassing with spells which is ok, but early game you need them auto attacks. If you can't do it, go with the Ancient Coin instead.
- Frostfang procs with auto attacks and spells. SEPARATELY. Yes, if you hit a Hymn of Valor first, then hit an auto attack you get 8+8(+3 from
Bandit
) gold. And it works for all enemies separately as well. If you play properly, you hit your Q, then you hit your auto attack on both enemy champions on bot lane. There you go, you're rich.
This is how you do it.In the long run
Frostfang is the most efficient gold item, but it depends a lot on a champion and how your harassing/teamfights are going. If you're playing an easy to harass champion like Sona (or Soraka) who can spam spells and/or auto attacks, you'll get gold easily and just go ahead and admit, everyone needs gold. Well, wants more likely and why not abuse the fact you can get more?So what comes to champions like
Zyra and Karma supports and even Annie support, they have relatively long cooldowns and the first 2 have "hard-to-hit" abilities so their gold income with Frostfang is more reliant on auto attacks rather than spell spamming.Ofc, there is my other favourite (and the only good competitor to
Frostfang, the Nomad's Medallion!- Ancient Coin gives money everytime a minion dies around you, so all you have to do is be on a lane. You'll get stable coins throughout the game by staying on lane - that however restricts you to be on the lane if you wanna be rich.
- Nomad's Medallion allows you to stay in lane forever, because of the good regen. In addition to the gold gotten from dying minions, you'll get 2 gold/10 seconds additionally. Sounds good doesn't it?
So most people think the
Nomad's Medallion > Frostfang and in some cases it is superior, but yet again it's very much related to which champ you play and against which champs.For example, if I face a high-harass/high kill enemy lane, there's no way I'd start out with
Spellthief's Edge, because if you can't harass, you don't get the money. However with Nomad's Medallion you'll get money just by sitting idle by the tower and not to forget that you actually have some sort of regen even if you get harassed there.And here is the reality.
Nomad's Medallion vs. moderate harassing Frostfang:Early game
Spellthief's Edge and Ancient Coin give roughly the same amount of coins with moderate harassing, but mid-game (or after getting Frostfang rather, that can happen early) Frostfang is superior to Nomad's Medallion goldwise. Late game if you have managed to get a gold income gap, the gap will stay. Nomad's Medallion/ Talisman of Ascension at 23-24mins into the game: Frostfang at 23-24 mins into the game:As you can see, both items have their dependency:
-
Frostfang is dependent on harassing with both auto attacks and spells, and hitting multiple enemies. Works with champs that have long range, short cooldowns and can stand some damage, for example Sona, Soraka and Nami. (I know they are squishy, but they can heal the damage they might take.)-
Nomad's Medallion is dependent on staying on a lane with enemy minions nearby. You don't have to do anything else than just sit there and enjoy the gold income. Leaves less time for roaming.I know this more like a comparison between
Nomad's Medallion and Frostfang, but I gotta say nowadays Targon's Brace isn't any good. Only melee people use it and even they can't use it all the time, because if they do, they get harassed. They get less gold anyway and I'd still prefer the Nomad's Medallion over Targon's Brace.
1) You don't need to constantly expose yourself, and shutter stepping/attack cancel allows minimal harass from the enemy (1, 2 autos at max). Normally, this'd be a small problem, but hence Targon's Brace grants strong health regen which, when combined with masteries, causes pretty much no drawbacks as you heal is seconds after taking a hit.
Besides, your ADC should be able to counterharass should they target you. And since you're tankier and have that regen, guess who's favor the trade is gonna turn to.
2) Who asks the carry anything, just go at it on your own or when he can't last hit. Just make sure it doesn't mess with his last hitting "flow". I'm also pretty sure a decent carry knows the meaning of the item and the small balls floating around you :-)
Ranged supports can't use the execute ability and are hence more probably to mess with their carries' farming, which is why I don't use Targon with them.
But why yes, it falls off late. That's why the snowballing early game tank supports who scale well get most benefit. Basically, as Leona, you can't usually both peel for your carry and disable theirs at the same time. Face of the Mountain gives your carry a shield while you're off messing with theirs. No the less,
And finally, does a 200-300 gold difference in gold income items matter if you're 1/0/21 and your carry has 10 kills :-)
No it doesn't, but it's still fun to think how they work and in which situations :)
I like it on tanky supps too, but it's rather unreliable, because:
1. you get harassed easily when you try to take minions
2. your carry ignores your pleas to get last hits, because it's not used as often anymore.
Otherwise it's a nice item and it gives really nice stats, but yeah it falls off hard in the late game.
1) You don't need to constantly expose yourself, and shutter stepping/attack cancel allows minimal harass from the enemy (1, 2 autos at max). Normally, this'd be a small problem, but hence Targon's Brace grants strong health regen which, when combined with masteries, causes pretty much no drawbacks as you heal is seconds after taking a hit.
Besides, your ADC should be able to counterharass should they target you. And since you're tankier and have that regen, guess who's favor the trade is gonna turn to.
2) Who asks the carry anything, just go at it on your own or when he can't last hit. Just make sure it doesn't mess with his last hitting "flow". I'm also pretty sure a decent carry knows the meaning of the item and the small balls floating around you :-)
Ranged supports can't use the execute ability and are hence more probably to mess with their carries' farming, which is why I don't use Targon with them.
But why yes, it falls off late. That's why the snowballing early game tank supports who scale well get most benefit. Basically, as Leona, you can't usually both peel for your carry and disable theirs at the same time. Face of the Mountain gives your carry a shield while you're off messing with theirs. No the less,
And finally, does a 200-300 gold difference in gold income items matter if you're 1/0/21 and your carry has 10 kills :-)
I like Targon's Brace on Leona for 3 reasons:
1) Stats are excellent early
2) Allows you to heal your carry
3) Is more gold efficient early than
But it's a really niche pick, and grants less gold as game goes on.
I like it on tanky supps too, but it's rather unreliable, because:
1. you get harassed easily when you try to take minions
2. your carry ignores your pleas to get last hits, because it's not used as often anymore.
Otherwise it's a nice item and it gives really nice stats, but yeah it falls off hard in the late game.
1) Stats are excellent early
2) Allows you to heal your carry
3) Is more gold efficient early than
But it's a really niche pick, and grants less gold as game goes on.
Unless you're playing Taric or Leona, at least in high elo, the only viable support item is the coin.
That is dependent on which support you're playing, like I pointed out.
Sure, Talisman of Ascension is better than the
I don't think Plat is low elo, but ofc it's totally different than Diamond. I don't know how things work there an I'm stuck at plat until preseason ends anyway so I'll probably never make it to Diamond either.
Spell thief also procs on spell hits, you say it only goes on auto attacks. But I agree with Luther that Talisman is the best pickup for most supports unless you have health scaling ala
Spellthief doesn't proc on spellhits,
You should also bear in mind that the active on talisman of ascension is much, much better than the active on
I knew that someone would point this out, but this is purely moneywise :) I don't upgrade my gold items, because I get my CDR elsewhere, with the exception of playing healer Soraka with full support items. They're the last items I'd upgrade and what comes to
Unless you're playing Taric or Leona, at least in high elo, the only viable support item is the coin.
Wouldn't completely agree with this. A lot of korean supports actually went for Spelltief in lane and then sold it later on for talisman of ascension.