I'm starting to think I should keep building health and only Ninja Tabi early on for defense

Samflash3·Feb 22, 2015·1 votes·296 views

Because I can't see the usefulness of an Early sunfire cape/Randuins omen when I still take a ton of damage,

4 Comments

IcyPepperFeb 22, 20151 votes

Sunfire cape is more offensive, only take it when you're ahead or if your champion (Mundo or Shyvanna, for example) synergize with it.

Randuins is the same, since you have to be close to use its active (so it's more for chasing, rather than running).

Some good alternatives are thornmail (for enemies that use aa), frozen heart (ditto), guardian angel, and so on.

Ninja tabi is a great boot for laning, especially in bot lane. However, for early game, you can take item 2041 for excellent in-lane sustain.

Building is a dynamic aspect of the game, not every game will (or should) require the same build. Hell, I even take hexdrinker on Vi when I'm jungling because of that amazing passive.

Samflash3Feb 22, 20151 votes

I'm just looking for a early defense item that doesn't require me sacrificing my early jungle gold and not even do any damage.

IcyPepperFeb 22, 20151 votes

Merc treads or ninja tabi is the way to go, I guess.

67chromeFeb 22, 20151 votes

Because I can't see the usefulness of an Early sunfire cape/Randuins omen when I still take a ton of damage,

%Armor Pen is a late-game stat that needs to be purchased and is only had late-game.

If you stack armor against a pure-phys opponent early game you can prevent them from ever getting to late game status, potentially building a lot of momentum/kills/XP/gold in the earlier phases to help you more than make up for %armor pen hitting hard late. A lot of tanky DPS champions are mostly mid-game carries to begin with - get an item that can help you carry mid game, and you can end the game at mid game.

Also - flat armor pen is hard-countered by armor. Against 15 armor 15 armor pen is 100% armor pen and true damage. Against 100 armor...it isn't. The flat pen on the beat stick is part of what makes that item realleh strong early - get armor to counter it and you can counter it really hard. Also, Brutalizer is the only armor pen item you can get without fully completing a Whisper or Cleaver - which means flat pen is the only pen you have to deal with in early game and probably mid game (I should also note Cleaver's %shred needs to be applied with damage and isn't applied to the damage that applies it - you also need to stack it 4 times for maximum effect, which is less %pen than Whisper).

Anyways - if you need defense early on, and you're playing a champion that wants defense, there's no reason to refrain from armor early.

Late game is a different story.