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Why do mana potions only restore 100 mana when healing potions restore 150 health?

Nameless Voice·Feb 8, 2015·62 votes·3,908 views

I just got to thinking how champions who rely a lot on mana always have such a weak early game against manaless or low-mana champions, because the latter can just buy so many healing potions that they can recover from the harass until the mana-using champion runs out of mana.

Harassment spells are usually quite mana-inefficient at rank 1 (with near a 1:1 damage/ratio), getting more efficient at rank 2 (level 3), where they tend to be closer to a 1.5:1 ratio. In the mean time, most of these spells are skillshots that can be missed or dodged.

So, it costs at least one mana potion to do one healing potion's worth of damage early game. In the mean time, the mana potion is less reliable and means that the buyer has one less healing potion of their own.

Shouldn't mana potions, which are a higher-risk strategy than just buying healing potions, have a corresponding higher reward when played properly?

33 Comments

Sailor MintFeb 8, 201517 votes

Unless you are building mana, you'll always have more health than mana.

FrikgeekFeb 9, 20156 votes

Ryze

Take this pot and stick it.... somwhere safe.

GigglingAngelFeb 9, 20154 votes

RIot seems to like mana-less champs more than champs who require mana. A lot more.

JunkοFeb 8, 20153 votes

Because it would make champions like Nidalee way stronger than they need to be

PickleBabahFeb 8, 20153 votes

It would at least make it a more reasonable choice than a health pot if the values were just even. Of course, you'd have more health than mana, but you actually use your mana in contrast to your health. (as a mana champion)

WyvernEggFeb 9, 20153 votes

Because health =/= mana.

That's like asking why car fuel cost $8 a gallon when bananas cost $1 per banana.

Silents429Feb 8, 20152 votes

It is unneeded.

You have more health then you do mana anyway.

Gear KittyFeb 8, 20152 votes

Because that mana could also be used to heal you and allies.

Tis a nice dayFeb 8, 20154 votes

An example for your case: Alistar's roar costs 40 mana lvl 1 and heals him for 60 hp and half that for allies. It only gets more efficient as the heal is leveled up.

Hence why I buy 2 mana pots instead of hp pots if I'm not afraid of heavy pre-lvl 3 combat.

PhifeFeb 8, 20152 votes

because your mana doesn't lower when you are hit.

xGvPxFeb 9, 20152 votes

'Cause Zed master race.

UiruFeb 9, 20152 votes

Because fuck mana and fuck the champions who use it, and especially fuck the champions who rely on it.

If you aren't playing energy and/or resourceless champs you're playing the game wrong. ~Uiru

JC DarkOmenFeb 9, 20152 votes

because most champs have a much higher health pool than mana pool

instead of looking at the numbers, let's look at percentages for a random champ. Annie has 512 hp and 334 mana. mana pots restore about 30% of her mana, and health pots restore about 29% of her hp

KhristophorosFeb 8, 20151 votes

I always get 5 mana pots and 5 health pots on my first back when I play a mana hungry ADC and it's really effective. I think buffing them would make them OP.

Like you said, abilities become more mana efficient as you rank them up, so mana pots become very efficient at level 6 or so.

Nameless VoiceFeb 8, 20153 votes

They do, but I'm talking about the time before your first back here, which is usually up to around level 6. Also, most spells get more expensive as you rank them, so 100 mana isn't much mid-late game.

LytebulbFeb 8, 201528 votes

{quoted}

I always get 5 mana pots and 5 health pots on my first back when I play a mana hungry ADC and it's really effective. I think buffing them would make them OP.

Like you said, abilities become more mana efficient as you rank them up, so mana pots become very efficient at level 6 or so.

That's really not good... So much money wasted.

youngjake93Feb 10, 20151 votes

{quoted}

That's really not good... So much money wasted.

I've watched Wildturtl play Corki and he keeps 5 mana pots in his inventory quite frequently and just spam chugs them. It obviously works for him... Good enough to get 20+ kills as #1 rank in Challenger.

The SoulforgedFeb 9, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I always get 5 mana pots and 5 health pots on my first back when I play a mana hungry ADC and it's really effective. I think buffing them would make them OP.

Like you said, abilities become more mana efficient as you rank them up, so mana pots become very efficient at level 6 or so.

I prefer my start on poppy of flask and 5 biscuits.

Baron Von BanginFeb 8, 20151 votes

Because mana pots used to cost 40 gold duhhhh...

Wait.

SupakaFeb 8, 20151 votes

It's about the value of 150 health as adverse to what you can do with 100 mana.

I can heal 100 mana with MANY abilities in excess of 150 health.

If you buff mana, there would be no sense buying health pots on champs that have sustain.

Valhalla RisingFeb 8, 20151 votes

lol I was thinking this exact same thing for past few days, I feel like mana and health are almost equal in value depending on the champion, and the potions should be as well.

concerning healing abilities, they are cooldowns.

junglerboy16Feb 9, 20151 votes

Really, I just wish they cost 5 gold less than they do right now so I could do a item 2041 + item 2003 x2+ item 2004 x2 instead of just + x2+

BallisticMouseFeb 9, 20151 votes

Because you have more health than you do mana?

the Anarchit3chtFeb 9, 20151 votes

mana pools are much smaller than health pools and are typically used to press an attack while health pots are used to survive an attack. When you get hit you're going to need more health back than you would mana for landing an attack.

TotalJerkFeb 9, 20151 votes

Because mana potions fall off much, much later.

SammystormFeb 9, 20151 votes

great observation actually.

ZazushaFeb 9, 20151 votes

base mana regen is higher then base hp regen across the board i believe

ShoujuFeb 9, 20151 votes

The same reason that resistances and health are cheaper than damage stats, one is for offense, one is for defense. You have to make your attacks count, the other one is just surviving.

Nameless VoiceFeb 9, 20151 votes

But your attacks don't really count when they cost more than it costs your opponent to erase them.

If you are playing a mana-using champion and find yourself up against someone with a lot of healing potions, or worse still, the dreaded flask+healpots start, you know that you will never be able hurt them enough to matter before you run out of mana, effectively forcing a farming lane. If your enemy happens to be resourceless, that's also a farming lane that you are going to lose because they can farm for free and you cannot.

Also add that Riot have said that they prefer aggression in their games, because it is more interesting than everyone just playing safe and just farming.

ZoofFeb 9, 20151 votes

The main reason I can think of is that health is a constant that anyone can work with, 150 health is 150 health then some resistance factoring which anyone can do, even Satan can build armour to increase that effective health.

Mana is useful based on Mana cost. Lux e costs a lot of Mana compared to Darius q and this is for a reason. The reason Mana pots can't be so strong is similar to why spell vamp is weak, because abuse cases exist and will be abused.

PikaCHU567Feb 9, 20151 votes

Masterie to change Mana Pots to a type of Cookie? :o

LlaniteFeb 9, 20151 votes

Because abilities cost 50 mana and hit for 100? 100 mana should do 200 dmg, hence HP pot should heal 150.

Miku Lv101Feb 10, 20151 votes

Because mana, in the same amount does you more good than health. Figure that you can heal more than 1 health per mana spent by casting a healing spell. Now consider how useful that is and how often you want to do it. It should seem that mana pots give you about as much more usefulness as health pots do.

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