Morellonomicon or Athene's on mages?

Bismuthinite·11/30/2014, 4:17:24 PM·2 votes·2,776 views

What are people buying nowadays? Athene's has received a few nerfs in S5.

Morellonomicon is now cheaper, provides 20 more AP and more upfront mana regeneration. Oh, and a fancy passive of course. The cheaper price will help you to advance your build quicker.

On the other hand, Athene's gives mana on kill/assist, which might be useful in prolonged team fights. I can also see the MR being useful in lane against another mage.

What have you guys been buying? I've been leaning towards Morellonomicon in order to finish my build quicker. Maybe RoA will see a comeback? I'm not sure.

tl;dr: or ?

12 Comments

Moulin Rouge11/30/2014, 4:25:52 PM2 votes

Depends on the matchup. Against AD? Morello

Against AP? Unholy grail.

That's how I decide.

Learn3411/30/2014, 4:33:28 PM1 votes

Depends on your mage and the opposing team. Because most folks who play mages try to turn them into assassins, item 3165 isn't all the useful in lane. It can be, thanks to being exceedingly gold efficient even without the passive, but generally you're buying that as a counter to lifesteal/HP5 on the other team. Additionally, it's best put on mages who can dish out a lot of AoE damage, thereby applying the passive to more enemies (and probably letting you stay farther away from the front line in team fights). item 3174 , on the other hand, is good for mages/players with noticeable mana issues in prolonged fights and/or a relative lack of AoE. As examples, I put item 3165 on Annie , as Tibber's aura deals magic damage (what Morello's procs off); whereas I put on Malzahar because I his AoE isn;t well-suited to applying Morello's debuff.

BastionKross11/30/2014, 5:31:48 PM1 votes

Are you against an AD lane opponent? If so, item 3165 . Are there three or more heals/lifesteals/HP regen champs on the other team? If so, . If not any of those, item 3174 .

wakefire12/4/2014, 6:08:55 PM1 votes

Let's do a comparison.

Morellonomicon 2100 g 80 AP 100% base mana regen 20 CDR Grievous wounds passive (currently unique to this item)

Athene's Unholy Grail 2700 g 60 AP 25 MR 50% base mana regen 20 CDR 15% mana on kill, 1.5% of missing mana per 5

So, for 600g less I get 20 more AP, 25 less MR, 50% more base mana regen, and the grievous wounds passive. Sounds good to me! Remember, a null-magic mantle is 25 MR for only 500g.

"But what about the athene's passive?" you might think. I'm going to forget about the 15% on kill or assist, since after a teamfight you're either dead or pushing objectives, and mana is probably not a huge issue. So, is 1.5% of missing mana per 5 better than an extra 50% mana regen? Let's look at around the earliest one could acquire these items, let's say, level 7. In patch 4.20, almost all mages were normalized to start with 6 mp5, adding (growthstat)0.8 mp5 per level, so at level 7 they would have approximately 10.4 mp5. As for starting mana pools, not every mage is equal, but Ziggs, Syndra, Orianna, Ahri, Lux, Leblanc, Annie, and Zyra all start with 334 mana and a growth stat of 50. At level 7, that's a base mana pool of 586.75. 1.5% of that is just a smidge under 9 mp5, which is a grand total of 4 mp5 better than Morellonomicon's 100% base mana regen. When you have no mana at all.

TL;DR: the wiki says Athene's is 103.6% gold efficient, and Morellonomicon is 147.2% gold efficient, without taking passives into account. If you're an AP mid who needs MR, you might as well spend an extra 300 gold on item 3060 and help your team out.

Drunk Rummate12/4/2014, 6:16:30 PM1 votes

chalice still gives, by far, the best mana sustain in the game. it's pretty much a necessary buy on farm champs that have to waveclear a lot like orianna.

i'd only take morello if you know you'll need the grievous wounds (IE: swain, mundo, vlad)

otherwise you might as well build a damn DFG for all the mana sustain morello gives you. buy mana potions.

insaiyanbacca12/4/2014, 6:37:27 PM1 votes

here is how i decide if i fight and ad mid the mr on chalice isnt that useful so i get morello if its an ap mid im fighting mr is useful so i get chalice

Volt Cruelerz11/30/2014, 4:23:10 PM1 votes

My mains are Veigar, Xerath, and Azir. Veigar and Azir are both a bit odd, so I use tear and RoA respectively for them. On Xerath, I used to always use chalice, but after the changes, I've been using Morello. With the new sustain jungle meta, it comes in very handy. Also, 20 more AP for less gold has seemed to increase my KDA.

Ümit5/24/2015, 1:29:45 PM1 votes

item 3165 always.