League of legends: Item Guides

Introduction

Update: just added seeker's armguard to the list

Many of the builds detail items that are good for the specific character that they're building for, but they never really explain exactly why this item was chosen over another and the situation that demanded that choice. Guides offer a few builds for a champ and while this is generally a good way to learn how to play a character, it's not good for becoming a better player in general. There are too many team compositions for a single build to work in every case, thus a good player knows how to be fluid when building their items. This not only includes what items you buy but: what order you buy the components in, what items you buy at the start, what items to sell and when, and what items to build early so that they can reach their full potential.

The goal of this guide is to deliver an understanding of the items in this game and the phases of build order and to act as a reference for those who might forget about some of the lesser known items that could be useful in certain situations.

Note:If you're looking for info on a specific item, just use ctrl+f and search for it.

Terms

Here's a quick list of terms and acronyms used throughout the guide:
AD = Attack damage
AP = Ability Power
AS = Attack Speed
Ar. Pen. = Armor Penetration
M Pen = Magic Penetration
H/M/GPX = Health/Mana/Gold per X seconds
CDR= Cooldown reduction
Nuke = Champion who deals a large amount of damage within a very short period, then waits for cooldowns
DPS = Damage per second, Champion who deals damage over time through auto attacks
CC = Crowd Control (slows, taunts, fears, stuns, snares)

The Basics [Basic Tier]

Before I get into anything I want to list the various basic items to help give an understanding of whether you should buy a or wait for a and such. Items will be listed with a category as well as their gold efficiency

Consumables
(Mastery)
Explorer Ward (Mastery)

Doran's Set:

AD items:
(40 gold per 1 AD)
(35 gold per 1 AD)
(34.5 gold per 1 AD)

SPACE

AP items:
(21.75 goldper 1 AP)
(21.5 gold per 1 AP)
(20 gold per 1 AP)

Armor Items:
(20 gold per 1 Armor)
(18 gold per 1 Armor)

Magic Resist Items:
(20 goldper 1 M. Resist)
(18 gold per 1 M. Resist)

Attack Speed Items:
(33.3 gold per 1% AS)
(31.67 gold per 1% AS)

SPACE

Critical Chance Items:
(50 gold per 1% crit chance)
(48.6 gold per 1% crit chance)

Health and Health Regen:
(2.6 gold per 1 Health)
(2.6 gold per 1 Health)
(36 goldper 1 HP5)

Mana and Mana Regen:
(2 gold per 1 Mana)
(60 gold per 1 MP5)

Note: the stats on the doran's items are exceptional, thus you often see them being stacked to compound their effect. However, this should be done with consideration as they lose their effect as the game progresses and your only option is to sell them since they do not build into anything else.

You may be wondering why I would be listing this when it's all available in the Mobafire database. But I want to call attention to the way these items are grouped and the way the groups differ.

For the sake of this discussion I'll be referring to these items in "tiers."  is tier 1.  is tier 2.  is tier 3.

You may notice that there is a tier 2 for health, but not for mana; also that a  costs 875, whereas a costs 860, despite being in the same tier of damage. Basic items are basic because they offer nothing except pure stats at low costs. In many cases this is all you need for the early phases of the game. So you may find yourself buying a ,  and a  if you're an offtank who needs the extra mana. You may build the  and  together into a , or the  and the  into a  and build the giant's belt into a .

You can see how important the order you buy your basic items in is. In most cases you'll find that the utility of the passive on an item like  demands that you build it as fast as possible. However, if you can focus on building various basic items first than you allow yourself much more flexibility as the game begins to change to favor one thing.

All tier 1 items in this section can be bought at the beginning of the game and they leave a varying amount of gold left over for potions (generally 1-3) and wards (generally one). In most cases you'll want to spend most of the 475 gold you start with. For example, should you buy a sapphire crystal and 2 pots or boots and 3 pots? While this generally depends on what you plan on buying later, sapphire crystal will allow you to cast more spells early, while boots will give you higher mobility and better sustain with the 3rd potion. In the event that you were rushing  you would start with the  to get it as soon as possible instead of the boots.

To illustrate how complex choosing your basic items can be, I'll use another scenario. Lets say you are an AD caster up against an AP carry mid and they are harassing you very well. The rest of the opponent's team is decently heavy on CC. On your first return to base, you have 780 gold. This is enough to allow you to buy a  but it will also leave you with only enough to buy a pot and set you back from buying the damage dealing items you need to get as quickly as possible (like a BF sword). However you could also buy a cheaper  to reduce their damage a little bit without setting yourself far back in your build. The cloak can be built into a mid-late game , the mantle can be built into an early game  (I'll go over boot choice in the next section). Both options are viable against a CC heavy team. The point here is that there is no clear decision. The factors you should consider when making a decision like this are: what characters you're playing and who you're up against, how much damage you are dealing now, how much damage you need to deal now and later, and how much damage the opponent is dealing to you now.

So many shoes to choose from

If there is anything you need to know, it's what boots to choose. Boots are essential because everyone builds them. Although it might be possible in very special cases to build without boots, the base movement speed of EVERY champ is simply too low to keep them viable without them.

Enchantments

Before I go into the boots themselves, I'm going to go over the various enchantments that can be applied to boots so I can discuss specific combinations later.

This is the most straightforward enchantment. It gives you a bonus flat 15 movement speed. It is important to note that this flat movement speed will be increased by any items that increase movement speed by percentage e.g. .

This is a good enchantment for support or initiators as it allows your team to follow you quickly wherever you go. It's also good for pushing as nearby ally minions will move faster, thus meaning they get to towers quicker.

This is a great enchantment since so many initiations rely on flash being off cooldown. It's even more potent if you pack flash AND teleport as it allows you to telegank more often. Try getting this enchantment early as it will have a greater impact on the game that way.

A good enchantment for carries that allows you to stick to your target while attacking them. With 400 movement speed you'll gain a bonus 48 while in combat, which is the equivalent to having another pair of tier 2 boots.

Possibly the most fun enchantment as it lets you zoom out of base extremely quickly and is one of the cheaper options among enchantments. It's particularly good for defending your base against split pushing and backdooring as it allows you to quickly catch up to an enemy champ who's invading your base alone.

The Boots

The basic boots offer a decent boost to speed, but offer no other benefits. Many champions will start with these boots and 3 s. Doing so allows for a movement speed advantage over foes and can help you harass and avoid harass easier. For example, if you're mid lane and your opponent is , buying boots first will make him simply unable to harass you with . However starting with these is not mandatory unless you feel you will need the sustain from 3 potions.

Berserker's Greaves are a standard choice for AD champs and are practically required on ranged AD characters like  or . The attack speed bonus not only makes it easier to farm but gives you an advantage over other AD champs. Keep in mind that attack speed is the difference between hitting like a hammer and hitting like a Jackhammer. These boots synergize well with the  as it allows you to chase extremely well, giving you the equivalent of 's passive.

The standard choice for AP carries, do not underestimate the damage bonus that the magic penetration gives. When playing AP I usually buy these boots before any AP item because the magic penetration can have a huge impact, even in early game. These boots go well with  since many AP carries are dependent on flash for setting up combos.

A good choice for champs who are extremely reliant on their abilities. Champs like  or  can benefit from these since they need to use their abilities as a combo to use them to their full extent. Keep in mind that max CDR is 40%.

Mercury's Treads are possibly the most versatile boot choice. Every champ can benefit from buying these boots. It offers the tenacity buff, which is useful during all phases of the game. Even carries can benefit from these boots if they expect to be focused down a lot, but you'll most often see these on tanks.

The other boot choice for tank, useful if the enemy team is heavy on AD champs, otherwise you're better off with merc treads since the majority of champs have some sort of CC they could use on you. These boots provide the most damage reduction.

Very useful on stealth and assassin characters who stay out of a fight until the right moment to pick off a foe. Was seen more often when roaming was popular, but you'll typically see , , or  wearing these. They saw a surge in popularity in S2 on junglers like for their phenomenal ganking ability. Pack these with  for ridiculous speeds when leaving base.

These boots offer the highest flat movement speed and synergize well with , especially on champions with abilities that increase movement speed by a percentage like  or . The slow reduction is good, but I don't suggest buying these boots specifically for that reason, as Mercury Treads reduces the duration of slows and is more versatile. (Though it could be a favorable option if the only CC the enemy team has is in slows).

Unique like everyone else

This section will explain the term unique and the various types of items that have "unique" abilities.

Unique Passives

As you can see there are A LOT of items with unique passives. An item with a unique passive means that the passive isn't multiplied if more than one of the item is purchased (AKA stacking items). While some items like or the tenacity items don't really need their passives to be unique, other items like are extremely powerful and/or annoying when stacked. The term "unique" is basically Riot's go to card when they realize that an item is overpowered when stacked.

You may notice that some unique passives have a special name like "mana font" associated with them. This terminology is used to clear up any ambiguity with how item passives interact with their upgrade. Simply, if two items share a unique passive with the same name, the passives will not stack with each other. For example, will not apply its passive if you also own a .

To be clear, the Unique passive enforces a greatly diminished return on each purchase after the first of an item. The unique passive of an item is factored into its cost so no matter how enticing an item's stats are, in nearly every case it is more gold efficient to buy a seperate item.

GP10 items

Among the items with unique passives are the GP10 items. These items provide good early game stats and allow characters to increase their gold income when they feel they might be missing out on farm. Supports will often buy one or two and Avarice Blade is a strong pick for champions who are dependent on farm like or .

GP10 items run an average cost of 750 gold. With 5 GP10 this means it takes approximately 20-25 minutes for a GP10 item to completely pay itself off. It may seem like a long time but the GP10 items generally have strong stats. Therefore you have the benefits of the GP10 item's stats for the early game without actually having to pay for it. Plus, you can use this gold to buy things like wards.

Unique Auras

Auras are a special type of unique passive. Auras have 2 different cases in who they effect:

You and your teammates
Just your enemies

All auras are unique. This means that one champion cannot stack multiple of the same aura item and have the passive effect apply multiple times. For example, a champion with multiple will receive the base stats of the Aegis multiple times, but the aura effect will only be applied once to himself and his teammates. HOWEVER, auras between champions stack up to two times for the champions holding the items.This means that if you and a teammate have an , the aura will apply to you and your teammate twice if you are within the proper range of each other. The rest of your teammates would only have the aura once, even if they were in range of both of you. If another champion on your team were to buy aegis, that champ would gain one aura if alone, one aura if around another champ without it, two auras if around one other champ with it, and two auras if around all three champs with it (meaning one of them is a complete waste). While it is generally better to only have 1 aura item per team, it is alright to have multiple support auras like for the above stated reason and because you'll have better aura coverage in team fights where people might be separated from the aura bearer.

Unique Actives

Most unique actives have unique passives as well, but their strength truly lies in the active. Many of the actives are game changing and should not be forgotten. If you forget to use the active on an item, then you've essentially wasted money buying the item. The cost of the item factors in the active so spam it if you need to until you learn the proper times to use it, otherwise it's a waste. That the actives are unique means you can not have two and activate them at seperate times. One of the Hourglasses will simply not have an active ability.

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