Let's see, amplifying costs 435 gold, provides 20 AP and thats it. Dorans Ring, costs 400 and provides mana regen, ap and more bonuses. While dorans doesn't build anything, amplifying is just too much gold for its singular stat. This could help mages with itemization a little bit as well.
Renascent2 votesI wouldn't say that amp tome offers too little for its price, but that Doran's Ring offers too much. It is the most cost efficient Doran's item, sitting at 184.06% gold efficiency, in comparison to Doran's Blade at 134.63% gold efficiency and Doran's Shield at 95.41%.
YumScrumptious961 votesI never buy shield, its a waste.
Princess Emma1 votesWhat would you suggest it's price be?
YumScrumptious961 votesAround 300, its pretty much a cloth armor in AP form.
Irelia Bot1 votesno
YumScrumptious961 votesThat isn't a good response, you have to have reason behind it.
Meep Man1 votesStarting items are supposed to be underpriced yet build into nothing. It's a starting boost. Every starting item is like 150% gold efficient or something like that.
YumScrumptious961 votesYes but that doesn't disguise that buying amp tome is not even close to efficient. I would rather save up 400 more gold to get 40 AP than get a worse dorans ring.
PhantomGG1 votesThe reason why Dorans ring has better stats is done on purpose.
You are given a decission you have to make.
Do you buy the second dorans ring so you can dominate lane phase? Or do you tought it out, save the gold and go into the amplifying tome so you can go straight into your core build.
It is done on purpose to force you into a stratagic decission.
Base Combat stats at the price of stalling your core build?
OR
Investing completely into a major item, at the price of lesser combat stats?
These are the major decisions that make league of legends a strategic game.
YumScrumptious961 votesYou don't understand what I'm getting at. When you wanna build something like Rabadon's, you should have your dorans already. But you can buy amp tome to get Rabadon's at a lower cost, however it isn't gold efficient enough to justify buying it rather than waiting to buy blasting wand. It is a very gold inefficient item that builds into almost every item for mages.