Let's Look at the Item: Chain Vest

Chain Vest Cost: 800 Gold +40 Armor

• Builds From + 500 Gold

• Builds Into , , , ,

Okay, so now that we're acquainted with Chain Vest I want to discuss its place in League.

First off, and please correct me if I'm wrong, Chain Vest is the only 2nd Tier+ item that isn't enhanced in any way. Let me explain what I mean- every 2nd Tier+ item makes some kind of change to the item(s) used to make it, and/or changes the "gold cost:stat bonus" ratio. Chain Vest provides 1 Armor for every 20 Gold it costs, which is the exact same as Cloth Armor. This doesn't make the item useless, it's actually essential for practically every tank build in the game. Besides, it does provide more Armor without consuming another item slot. Let's come back to this though.

Secondly, I want to point out the issues that the community and/or Riot have discussed about the items Chain Vest builds into.

• Thornmail is a great place to begin this discussion. If you're an ADC and you keep getting ganked by the enemy Rammus, just buy Mercurial Scimitar. Thornmail's damage redirection is so easily countered, that it seems to serve more as just a small defense against Life Steal. Mercurial Scimitar is a good item to illustrate peoples' frustrations. A- The damage that is redirected to the attacker is magic damage that can be lowered with some basic MR. The MR of the scimitar cuts down the damage coming back. B- The Lifesteal vs. Thorns paradox is heavily weighted in the favor of lifesteal. The scimitar provides lifesteal. C- And on a side note just to complain about the scimitar some more- it has an active that frees the champion from CC. So my taunt isn't working. Like thanks Riot- now every time I pick a Rammus to counter a Yi, he rushes a scimitar and.. ughh.. okay I'm going to move on.

• Sunfire Cape is going to be undergoing changes in the mid season, which lowers the Health bonus of the item and increases the Armor bonus. According to community members on Boards, Riot isn't very fond of Immolate. The Immolate of Sunfire Cape deals 25 (+1 per champ lvl) per second to enemies in the aoe. That's not really much, but I've picked up a few kills and have even stole a few with it. Riot isn't done pondering what should be done with this item, though. That's for sure.

• Raptor Cloak is really just awkward to me because it sort of resembles a 3rd Tier item, but builds into actual 3rd Tier items..? Zz'Rot Portal received a lot of attention a few months back and had quite the hype. It's changed many times through various patches to make it balanced, and I can't say for certain if Riot is happy with it yet, or not. Talisman of Ascension, for me at least, has fallen off quite a bit. Raptor Cloak is a great utility item, but it really is just awkward.. to me at least.

• Alas, Guardian Angel may not be here long. At least, not for tanks. So it's uncertain whether or not this item will even build from Chain Vest in the future. Riot has claimed that the utility of this item's passive is better suited for champs that don't utilize Armor or MR.

• Deadman's Plate is a relatively new item. Riot is also making some changes that tweak the items passive to make Deadman's more about the items utility than brute tank force.

So, back to Chain Vest. I want to amuse a certain idea: the thorns to lifesteal paradox. There are many items with lifesteal, and the effect stacks. There is one item with the thorns effect. Let's amuse the idea of more thorn items.. hear me out. As I noted, Chain Vest doesn't really enhance Cloth Armor, it merely upgrades it. My theory is that the issues with items that build off Chain Vest can be fixed by changing Chain Vest first, and fixing the builds accordingly. Here's my concept:

• Thorn Vest Cost: 1,000 Gold +40 Armor Unique Passive- Thorns: Redirects damage equal to 10% of Armor + 2.5% Damage Received in magic damage to attackers.

As a Unique Passive, certain builds will carry over the Thorns enchantment to retain the Unique Passive; while others will alter the enchantment into a new effect, so that Thorns can be obtained again.

• Thornmail, for example, would retain the Thorns enchantment, and could add the effect Grievous Wounds to it while increasing the cost of the item to that of a respectable 3rd Tier item.

• And Sunfire Cape, for example, would combine Thorns and Immolate; as an example: whenever struck by an enemy, Sunfire Cape emits fire that damages enemies in an AOE. This idea actually tackles Riot's current issues with Immolate, as it would only trigger upon being attacked. Also, this is enchantment would be its own, so that items with Thorns or Immolate will still apply.

Anyways- I think the solution to a lot of this lies with Chain Vest. We don't really see this problem with other Cloth Armor builds. So let's focus on Chain Vest. Or, dare I say, Thorn Vest.