Anyone found good use for Spellbinder?

Taliyah Rocks·3/15/2018, 11:40:54 PM·2 votes·2,965 views

Tried it but it feels very lackluster. 100 AP sounds nice on paper, but it takes a hundred spellcasts just to cast it once at maximum power. In laning phase, that's waaayyy too long to stack. It stacks much faster in teamfights, but by that time, the 100 bonus AP really doesn't mean much, especially with all that utility you are trading it for.

Also the four second duration makes it very hard to use efficiently. Maybe if the duration lasted 8-10 seconds instead. Maybe the bonus AP could stay longer since 10 seconds of movement speed boost is too much.

It was created to fill the void left by the old Luden's Echo, but it lacks Luden's flexibility. Old Luden was good for waveclear, poke, burst and bonus ms. The bonus damage is also up very frequently.

Maybe someone really likes that item, or found some deadly combo with it?

12 Comments

Teémò3/15/2018, 11:45:04 PM2 votes

Build it in aram, or vs spam heavy champs like Karthus.

rework trundle3/15/2018, 11:55:22 PM1 votes

Spice POWAH3/15/2018, 11:56:34 PM1 votes

It stacks up pretty quickly while you're just clearing waves and stuff. By the time you can teamfight you'll have a respectable amount of stacks, and you don't really NEED 100 stacks to use the item. Just use it whenever you need/want it.

Tormentula3/16/2018, 12:28:39 AM1 votes

I only see stuff like Veigar build it.

Anything AP that I play I never go that item, for Evelynn I feel more rewarded going item 3100 or item 3135 / item 3089 rather then binder, which doesn't do anything outside of its base stats unless I pop the active mid-fight and actually have a respectable amount of AP to effectively use that active. Figure this, rush an item that gives 100 AP and locks 100 more AP behind an active you have to stack, or rush a pen item so you do more damage to the target via ignoring their resistance.. or going an item that gives 120 AP and automatically gives 40% bonus (so if you have base 200 AP you'll get a total of 120 + (0.4 x 200) = 200 AP.

For the gold on binder, you could have two needlessly large rods (60AP x 2 = 120 AP for 2500g vs. Spellbinder finished: 100 for 2800 gold.) and by the time you would even stack the spell binder for more AP, you could afford the full death cap. Done, all of your spellbinder AP without any short lasting actives that require future stacking. The MS is the only difference but if you pop the active to catch someone, you just lost all the AP in the fight most likely unless you catch and combo in those few seconds.. and in duels it doesn't do much.

IMO its only good for burst mages, like pop it before you R on veigar and you're guaranteed the full damage... build it on an AP jungler, and you either lose it trying to MS buff gank, or the stacking bonus AP active gets wasted when they flash/escape.

Mysticman893/16/2018, 12:31:35 AM1 votes

I saw a spicy predator annie have redonklous roams using it at one point.

Unsure if it's something that'd produce consistent results or if they were just intensely snowballing, but that's been my experience in seeing it and thinking it was actually being meaningfully used.

RenownedWheat423/16/2018, 12:32:14 AM1 votes

I build it on Swain. Pop ult, pop spellbinder, kill everything.

PopcornBunni3/16/2018, 12:35:18 AM1 votes

It's okay on Evelynn. Not super great, but okay. The 10% passive movespeed is the bigger benefit than the spell surge active. Any other AP option is better if you don't benefit greatly from that movespeed.

Micbran3/16/2018, 12:59:24 AM1 votes

It’s good on any AP that likes to just get in there and run someone down. Morde, AP Assassins, Swain.

Taliyah Rocks3/16/2018, 1:20:47 AM1 votes

Buying Spellbinder means that the item will take the spot of another of your core item that would probably synergize better with the rest of your kit. I feel like spellbinder should be an item that helps you snowball (the active pretty much cries "GO FETCH THAT KILL FAST!") But the active cooldown gives it such a huge downtime for what it's worth. Mejai is a much better alternative if you want to snowball, and any other item would be more efficient than spellbinder for a full build.

I feel like the active should be "Gives up to 100AP for 12 seconds, plus up to 30% speed boost that decays over the first four seconds of the active." So you could use the speed boost to catch someone, and then be able to actually use that bonus AP.

YuGiHo3/16/2018, 2:06:01 AM1 votes

i think any time u can buy spell binder there is a better option. it could be a good pick up on ap tear users since they spam spells but they dont have room int their builds for this, most ap champs just dont have the room in their builds for an item that gives no cdr/mana/magic pen. the reward for choosing this over one of their standard items has to be huge or at least reliable and spellbinder is neither.

Im sure its going to be a must buy first item in urf tho.

Tèrminus3/16/2018, 2:11:37 AM1 votes

I find it odd that the tooltip for Spellbinder doesn't even say that it consumes the stacks on activation. That's a pretty important fact to omit.

As for how to make it a more attractive item, I think that scoring champion takedowns while the active is in effect should do something. Either refresh the duration of Spellburst or give bonus charges towards the next activation, something like that.