Should RoA be sold late game for another item?

Mody bird·Mar 27, 2016·2 votes·727 views

or no?

15 Comments

Irelia BotMar 27, 20165 votes

When you first get it

300 health = 800 Gold 400 mana = 560 Gold 80 ability power = 1740 Gold Total Gold Value = 3100 Gold for 3000 cost

When fully stacked

500 health = 1333 Gold 800 mana = 1120 Gold 120 ability power = 2610 Gold Total Gold Value = 5063 Gold for 3000 cost and 10 minutes of time

You decided if you want to sell it but I wouldn't. Each item slot is a limit on what you can get and RoA offers a tone of raw stats.

ValyrianBladeMar 27, 20163 votes

Short answer: No

Medium answer: RoA is an investment, you go through a power lull before getting one of the most stat efficient items in the game. It's a great item, why would you sell it?

Long answer: Sometimes. It depends on what you need in the game. RoA is not a hugely expensive item, so while it's insanely gold efficient it is only somewhat slot efficient. Items like Rabadon's deathcap actually offer a lot more in slot efficiency. If between your champion's natural stats and kit you find you don't need that extra mana pool, the item's slot efficiency is even lower. So under certain circumstances, perhaps you do need something else. Maybe you need just a bit more damage or a bit more CDR or something. It's very game dependent. I think you should be able to itemize correctly before reaching that point to as not require selling it, but I'm not about to say that under no circumstances would you ever sell it.

LostFr0stMar 27, 20161 votes

Not a chance. It's super gold efficient.

SlythionMar 27, 20161 votes

By late game I think he meant full build where gold isn't an issue

AbyssphereMar 28, 20161 votes

{quoted}

By late game I think he meant full build where gold isn't an issue

A 3k gold item with insane gold efficiency always will be worth keeping late game because with that high a cost and huge cost efficiency, it is guaranteed to be extremely slot efficient. You will always have something else in your build more worth selling.

SlythionMar 28, 20161 votes

If I could buy a 100 gold item that gave the same same stats as RoA it still wouldn't be relevant to his question. He was asking if there are items with better stats when gold isn't an issue. Cost efficiency is irrelevant when cost isn't an issue

Although I would agree keeping RoA what you should do seeing how it's stats make it one of the best ap times in the game rn

AbyssphereMar 28, 20162 votes

{quoted}

If I could buy a 100 gold item that gave the same same stats as RoA it still wouldn't be relevant to his question. He was asking if there are items with better stats when gold isn't an issue. Cost efficiency is irrelevant when cost isn't an issue

Although I would agree keeping RoA what you should do seeing how it's stats make it one of the best ap times in the game rn

You don't get it. You sell things late game so that you can have the best possible slot efficiency in your build. Optimum slot efficiency = as many relevant stats as possible in the lowest amount of items possible. That means you need your items to be worth as much gold as absolutely possible. Expensive items are king here because the more expensive an item is, the more gold efficiency means - a 2k gold item that's 150% gold efficient won't actually have that many stats, but a 3k gold item with that same efficiency will.

Rod of Ages being so gold efficient despite how expensive it is means that is has a lot of stats (5,063g worth of stats according to the Wiki). That's why it's so slot efficient - it's extremely hard to find even one other item with that many stats on it and for mages the only item more slot efficient than ROA is probably Deathcap at significant AP values. As I said, there will almost always be something in your full build more worth selling for another item - most everything will be a downgrade from a highly gold efficient expensive item because it just won't have as many stats.

You think people are mentioning gold efficiency in terms of this discussion because they think getting it cheaply is relevant but that's not the case. Gold efficiency matters here because it's an objective indicator that the item, which is already decently priced for an AP item, offers an extreme amount of stats for its price. When the item is that expensive, that basically just amounts to "offers an extreme amount of stats". And that description for an item = highly slot efficient.

Of course, you also need to take into account passives and actives when determining slot efficiency - something like Zhonya's is very mediocre in terms of how many stats it'll give you for its slot, but its active makes it pretty much impossible to ever justify selling in certain games. But the argument in favour of Rod of Ages' late game slot and the one being presented here is absolutely its insane amount of stats.

KrinuMar 27, 20161 votes

Nope. It's gold efficient before it's fully stacked. Afterward? Very few things come close.

MorbazanMar 27, 20161 votes

RoA is an investment that pays off once it stacks up. The whole idea of buying it from the get go is to keep it.

barbarianskullMar 27, 20161 votes

no way its a super late game thing there is no point in getting it after its stacked

JayHog1992Mar 27, 20161 votes

Question is: If you play morgana in aram, get the left half of the RoA and NEVER die untill like 30 minutes in... Should I bother finishing it with the 7000 gold or should I just do something else with it?

Legit question, this happened to me once, except I never died since we won the game.

ValexforMar 27, 20161 votes

You shouldn't the item provides quite a good amount of hp, mana and ap, making you more durable while still allowing to dish out a lot of damage and have some extra mana do back up your combo. You buy it in the first place since by late game you will have it fully stacked usually and it provides a lot of good stats.