The reason why I wouldn't build it early on is because it builds from items that are virtually useless against most of the champions and have even less use if you are alone on the lane. Losing early game sets you behind which means that you get your items later on and that sets you behind in terms of tanking.
TL;DR the build path isn't good for sololaners
TL;DR the build path isn't good for sololaners
targon's brace != 
Heart of Gold
Maybe if the numbers really work out that way you could consider it as icing on the cake in special situations, but I wouldn't buy it early game.
On another note, in your example build, your total HP will be 2248 + 500 + 500 + 200 + 400 = 3848 HP giving you a shield of 384.8 HP. If you were to give this to a Vayne with no additional health, the shield would make up 384.8/(1909 + 384.8) * 100 = 16.78% of her effective HP, while you will lose 10% of your effective HP, given you both are level 18 and at full health.
Then, considering the buff will be gone after 4 seconds and that the explosion shouldn't hit someone if everything is going according to plan, then I wouldn't say it's worth it.
Something else to consider is that a marksman isn't the one that should be stressing out about % of HP damage, and that if you use it on yourself you should get at least 10% of your max health eaten in 4 seconds from activation to say it was worth it.
Heart of GoldMaybe if the numbers really work out that way you could consider it as icing on the cake in special situations, but I wouldn't buy it early game.
On another note, in your example build, your total HP will be 2248 + 500 + 500 + 200 + 400 = 3848 HP giving you a shield of 384.8 HP. If you were to give this to a
Vayne with no additional health, the shield would make up 384.8/(1909 + 384.8) * 100 = 16.78% of her effective HP, while you will lose 10% of your effective HP, given you both are level 18 and at full health.Then, considering the buff will be gone after 4 seconds and that the explosion shouldn't hit someone if everything is going according to plan, then I wouldn't say it's worth it.
Something else to consider is that a marksman isn't the one that should be stressing out about % of HP damage, and that if you use it on yourself you should get at least 10% of your max health eaten in 4 seconds from activation to say it was worth it.
********'s a pretty good fertilizer
I never said you should use it earlygame. Look up my build. It is clearly a mid to mid-lategame item, if you start grouping up as a team. Obviously, as first item it makes no sense.
About the shield, you should use it on the target who is focused like with any shield. If a target is focused, the bonus health from the item will never be wasted. If you would now have Warmog's Armor instead of the item and nobody focuses you, the HP is wasted as well.
As for ADC, 16.78% effective HP can definitly make the difference between life or death. Or at least make him live longer. If he just gets 1 more hit off, the value of your shield skyrockets and outscales other options very hard.
And if you use it on yourself, you are basically guranteed to proc the damage as you are a melee front liner, making it worth it again.
About the shield, you should use it on the target who is focused like with any shield. If a target is focused, the bonus health from the item will never be wasted. If you would now have Warmog's Armor instead of the item and nobody focuses you, the HP is wasted as well.
As for ADC, 16.78% effective HP can definitly make the difference between life or death. Or at least make him live longer. If he just gets 1 more hit off, the value of your shield skyrockets and outscales other options very hard.
And if you use it on yourself, you are basically guranteed to proc the damage as you are a melee front liner, making it worth it again.
You listed it as your second item in both examples. I'd honestly only get it on champs that go basically full tank like shen or nasus, and get it as a 6th item. I think shakarez said something about this way back when the item was introduced. It's not horrendous, but it doesn't have many uses. It'd only be good against a team with lots of assassins/nukes, and only on some champs, garen and galio I would not assume to be them.
Do do do dee do do do
That is not the only use. It is the best pure HP item in the game if you just want health. After you got a resistance/HP item depending on the mayor damage of the enemy team (aka who is fed), a pure HP item is a very efficient buy despite of Blade of the Ruined King. This is due to the amount of penetration existing in the game, making resistances way less worth it. At S4 I saw Vizicsacsi building Randuin's Omen -> Warmog's Armor for example. But, as the calculations I stated, pretty much in any situation except you get a pure resistance item first (like Frozen Heart), face of the mountain alyways is more efficient than Warmog's Armor, even used on yourself. Due to that I can justify face of the mountain pretty much every game as the second item on a tanky top/mid if you buy Randuin's Omen or Locket of the Iron Solari/ Spirit Visage/ Banshee's Veil.
If the enemy team consists of a mayor amount of true damage or your champion scales really well with health, you can also consider Warmog's Armor as first item, then get the resistance/HP item and then get face of the mountain as the combination of both items is very cost efficient, due to scaling with each other.
Blade of the Ruined King. This is due to the amount of penetration existing in the game, making resistances way less worth it. At S4 I saw Vizicsacsi building Randuin's Omen -> Warmog's Armor for example. But, as the calculations I stated, pretty much in any situation except you get a pure resistance item first (like Frozen Heart), face of the mountain alyways is more efficient than Warmog's Armor, even used on yourself. Due to that I can justify face of the mountain pretty much every game as the second item on a tanky top/mid if you buy Randuin's Omen or Locket of the Iron Solari/ Spirit Visage/ Banshee's Veil.If the enemy team consists of a mayor amount of true damage or your champion scales really well with health, you can also consider
Warmog's Armor as first item, then get the resistance/HP item and then get face of the mountain as the combination of both items is very cost efficient, due to scaling with each other.
He is gonna kill you!!!
I never said it would be a good mid-game item. It's only useful when you have a decent amount of max health and targon's brace sucks if you're not in a duo lane so it's not something you want to invest money in early-mid-prelate game. As a last item I could understand but definitely not as a second item.
The shield might save one AA for the adc, but if the tank would peel better and the adc would position better, there's no need for the shield, or at least it won't be fully used in those max 4 seconds it lasts. If it does get fully used, your adc is probably dead. The explosion doesn't do **** either because the adc isn't in someone's face in the correct situation.
I also don't understand how one hit of an adc would suddenly make this item worth a buy. You could also just buy an Infinity Edge and you would be sure to get more damage off than that single AA.
The shield might save one AA for the adc, but if the tank would peel better and the adc would position better, there's no need for the shield, or at least it won't be fully used in those max 4 seconds it lasts. If it does get fully used, your adc is probably dead. The explosion doesn't do **** either because the adc isn't in someone's face in the correct situation.
I also don't understand how one hit of an adc would suddenly make this item worth a buy. You could also just buy an
Infinity Edge and you would be sure to get more damage off than that single AA.
********'s a pretty good fertilizer
Well, you don't have to use it on the carry then. If you use it on yourself, it is still the most efficient defense at that point that you can get. This is what basically the calculator of leagueoflegendsmath.com from Inverted Composer calculates. Look at this:
And this is just the calculation for defense. For offense, it is calculated by attack schemes which factors in basically everything. It also has a utility chapter which factors in general item value's and CDR based onto the utility spells of your character. Then it also has a pricr comparison, which also calculates mana pots into it due to not enough mana items. This is all calculated together based onto which type of champ you stated (from tank to full adc) and gives you the best build as result.
And this is just the calculation for defense. For offense, it is calculated by attack schemes which factors in basically everything. It also has a utility chapter which factors in general item value's and CDR based onto the utility spells of your character. Then it also has a pricr comparison, which also calculates mana pots into it due to not enough mana items. This is all calculated together based onto which type of champ you stated (from tank to full adc) and gives you the best build as result.
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Also, for calculating the optimal defense, you have to consider penetration and % damage. The only thing that is unaffected by both are shields, which face of the mountain grants, making it a super efficient way of defense. Another important aspect is that you can use it either on your team or yourself, making it very flexible defense depending on what the enemy team is doing. Another reason why that item is superior to
Example build for
Runes