Ardent Censer

RookPusher·Feb 12, 2016·4 votes·1,155 views

Does anyone weave this into their build? I really like the concept of giving free AS to someone with a heal or shield, but I don't see many champs take it. I think it's a loaded up underused item and i'm wondering why?

19 Comments

NarsicusFeb 12, 20162 votes

I occasionally pick it up on Sona after the core items like lich bane. She likes all the stats it gives and is able to give the buff to everyone.

Pika310Feb 12, 20162 votes

The item is honestly trash, there are no champions that use it effectively. Not due to the champs themselves being incompatible, but more that the item itself is overly situational. It's an item that gives a shitty amount of AP, that can only be bought on a specific sub-set of champions, that applies an underwhelming buff that can be utilized by an even SMALLER sub-set of champions.

Not every ADC cares about attack speed and as time progresses, fewer and fewer actually do, especially as Rito has recently been applying negative AS interactions to certain champs like Cait and Graves. As for other roles, the odds of your ally caring about attack speed is exponentially less likely than your ADC and if you have to use your heal or shield on any of them, you're completely losing Censer's value and it just becomes a wasted investment.

Now let's look at why Zeke's Harbinger is the successful version of what this item wishes it could be. It doesn't have a restriction on its builder, you don't have to have some fancy "shield/heal" in your kit just to buy it and the item applies its effect completely on its own without you really having to do anything. You don't have to micromanage your spells trying to decide whether its worthwhile using something on any specific ally. Then it gives 2 buffs: Crit & AP meaning a larger range of champions will be able to benefit from its granted stats. While bonus AP speaks for itself, it's worth noting the Crit Chance is a much more valuable stat than AS and Rito is continuously striving to increase its interaction with champs' kits. Not just randomly making attacks hit for double damage, but actually putting Crit scalings on their kits not just for ADCs, but also as they've noted "Light-weight Fighters" as well. Looking at 5.22 alone, they added new Crit scalings to 5 separate champions and 1 of them even benefited from it(that's better than Rito's usual success rate.)

theonlyaustinFeb 12, 20161 votes

Anybody who has a heal that isn't a tank should have this item

RookPusherFeb 12, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Anybody who has a heal that isn't a tank should have this item

I assume you mean "and a shield" too.

That's a more forceful support of it than I expected. Are the LCS people taking it? What champs do you use it on? My assumption is that it's great if your 3rd maxed ability (and lowest mana) is a heal/shield. E.g. Taric seems like a good choice.

RavenhaleFeb 12, 20161 votes

Actually, I grab this item for the 8% MS bonus on every support that has a shield/heal. I don't really think anyone notices the AS bonus while shielded, unless we are talking about a Lux waving her baton at the entire team to take down a turret.

RookPusherFeb 12, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Actually, I grab this item for the 8% MS bonus on every support that has a shield/heal. I don't really think anyone notices the AS bonus while shielded, unless we are talking about a Lux waving her baton at the entire team to take down a turret.

Really? it seems to be a huge tide-turner in trades. No?

RavenhaleFeb 12, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Really? it seems to be a huge tide-turner in trades. No?

In theory, yes. In my experience, most ADC I've played with are quick to back off when being shielded/healed because it's like a Warning Ping.

It generally goes like this. ADC initiates and you shield/heal. ADC retreats too soon for the AS benefits of Ardent to matter, though they might get one boosted AA in (Ardent does boost AA with 30 additional Magic Damage On-Hit for 6 seconds). ADC is initiated upon and you shield/heal. Usually happens when ADC is OOP so most won't attempt to trade. And worst case is when you shield pre-emptively and they do absolutely nothing and wonder why you wasted a skill.

RookPusherFeb 12, 20162 votes

{quoted}

In theory, yes. In my experience, most ADC I've played with are quick to back off when being shielded/healed because it's like a Warning Ping.

It generally goes like this. ADC initiates and you shield/heal. ADC retreats too soon for the AS benefits of Ardent to matter, though they might get one boosted AA in (Ardent does boost AA with 30 additional Magic Damage On-Hit for 6 seconds). ADC is initiated upon and you shield/heal. Usually happens when ADC is OOP so most won't attempt to trade. And worst case is when you shield pre-emptively and they do absolutely nothing and wonder why you wasted a skill.

Holy crap I'm so glad you said this. I thought it was just me and it drives me nuts. I think the biggest violator is the AS buff from Nunu. That thing looks like a major debuff and since most ADC's have no idea what's going on, the red combined with the sound makes them run in fear.

I end up applying is while the enemy is MIA just to train them to know it's a good thing.

CherysseFeb 12, 20161 votes

Its good on Nidalee Support :S but yes, the item currently sucks sweaty balls, I really think that a way to fix it would be to make the user able to apply the buff on himself.

AMYS GRAVEFeb 12, 20161 votes

alistar, sona, and soraka use it well if your team comp has at least 2 auto attackers in a teamfight.

DeathBurstFeb 12, 20161 votes

The buff is not incredibly strong alone, but in the right circumstances it can synergize pretty well.

Sona can give it as an AoE with her aura shield. It can be pretty strong to siege turret, and even if you don't apply the AoE with the shield, it still has a ~50% uptime if you spam your heal on CD.
Janna's shield already gives bonus AD, so adding a bonus AS buff at the same time has a multiplicative effect.
Soraka can have a 100% uptime with her heal, and her ult is a guaranteed 5-man buff, it can really turn the tide of a big teamfight.

People who could use it but may probably have a better item instead:

Nami: her heal will at most touch 2 persons, so not as good as with the previous supports. You're probably better with a Mikael or a Locker Solari
Karma: her shield is one person only unless you use your ult. You're probably better with just more AP.
Alistar: it can be a 5-man buff with your heal, but you are probably better with another tanky item or a raw AP item.

EDIT: reading the other comment, I see mention of Lux and Taric. I think Lux is better with raw AP, but maybe if your AP carry is already fed it can be a good idea. For Taric, I don't know, I never even played this champ once.

RookPusherFeb 12, 20161 votes

Thanks, folks. Typical Riot, screwing me. My favorite item in the game best suited for every champ I hate ;)

Oh well. Maybe the next support.

DeloricVIFeb 12, 20161 votes

Alistar

It's the champion most people think of when they want to find someone to use Ardent Censer with.

Pika310Feb 12, 20161 votes

Except, now that it no longer applies to minions anymore, even that singular playable interaction is gone. Now the item is just useless on literally EVERY character.

DeloricVIFeb 13, 20162 votes

yeah, unfortunately. Ardent Censer is in a really weird place right now. It's not good on supports because the utility is pretty... meh. You get the mana regen from all of the new sightstone items, the AP is really poultry at best, you have at least 4 other items that are better for cdr, and the ms is a moot point, as a lot of people just build boots of swiftness anyway. Barring that, the passive is nothing really special, or useful enough to make it stand out. A real shame :/

TaoistMasterFeb 12, 20161 votes

Lulu uses this the best.

delonixFeb 12, 20161 votes

Ardent Censer is best on champions that can shield or heal multiple champions at the same time, so Alistar, Karma, and Sona. Janna and Soraka get honorable mentions because they have basic abilities than can proc Censer as well as ults that can proc it on the whole team. It also has some nice synergy with Aegis of the Legion. Still, that's 5 champions, and sometimes other items have higher priority for them, like tanky items on Alistar or Lichbane on Sona. It's a pretty niche item, but I don't think it's underused.

Absoluti0n ZeroFeb 13, 20161 votes

i get the item on supports like Janna Lulu Nami because it works well with their kits (bonus ad, magic on hit, and namis W+E for trades) and sometimes if i can swing it without worry i get it on Bard and Alistar sometimes if the ad is really AA reliant.

ErockandrollFeb 13, 20161 votes

Am I the only Sona main who priorities Censor over Lichbane? The two items may have similar stats, except that censor actually gives you more supportive utility. Along side with the extra mana to supplement your FQC.