I never buy sight stone as mage support. It's so much more expensive than everybody upgrading their trinkets. I'd rather the team pitch in to buy wards if they want them.
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I got a hate reply... so here's my response:
Someone wanted me to do math. ( Beware of the following section! tl;dr below. )
With the trinket, you have one ward that views the surrounding area for 180sec ( 1min ) and refills every 180sec ( 1min ) and only can have a max of 1.
With upgraded trinket, you can store 2 wards that refill at 60sec ( 1min ) and last 180sec ( 3min ) So it's possible to have three active wards with upgraded trinket. That said:
gp=gold p=people w=wards
( 250gp x 5p ) = 1250gp for ( 3w x 5p ) = 15 possible active wards.
( 800gp x 1p ) = 800gp for ( 3w x 1p + 1w x 4p) = 7 possible active wards.
( 1250gp / 15w ) = 83.33gp per ward
( 800gp / 7w )= 114.3gp per ward.
Upgrading trinkets has an effeciency of 37% in cost per ward versus sightstone!
What does it cost when the support doesn't get sightstone to be back at sightstone level?
Given: 7 possible active wards (cause team never upgrades) for 800gp
You need:
Two people, the support and jg maybe, to upgrade their trinkets.
( 250gp x 2p ) = 500gp for (3w x 2p + 1w x 3p ) = 9 Possible active wards
_See that? I just squeezed out two extra active wards and saved 300gp over sightstone. _
tl;dr **Upgrading Vision Trinkets actually is cost effective per ward. **
Someone will make the argument that they are free, so:
7 wards can monitor the same one spot for ( 7w x 180sec ) = 1260sec ( 21min ).
Cellular Service Provider math says that we pay 800gp for 1260sec ( 21min ) of vision time.
So 800gp means we pay ( 800gp / 1260sec ) = 0.6349gp per second of vision.
There may be times where a single ward may not be up.
15 wards can monitor the same one spot for ( 15w x 180sec ) = 2700sec ( 45min ).
Using Cellular Service Provider math again, we pay 1250gp for 2700sec ( 45min ) of vision time.
So 1250gp means that we pay ( 1250gp / 2700sec ) = 0.4629gp per second of vision.
You have vision to last the whole game!
Upgrading trinkets has an efficiency of 37% in cost per second of vision compared to a sightstone alone!
tl;dr Upgrading Vision Trinkets means more vision time and is still cost effective per second of vision.
Consider the risks of having less than 1800 health at max rank and being and easy champion to chase. Support doesn't roam jg for cs, doesn't switch lanes to gank, support just supports. Support has to roam to ward and stay with carry. It just makes more sense for the team to chip in to the cost and work of warding. More possible vision, less cost per ward, and less danger for the squishiest least damaging person on the team.
Sightstone costs 800gp to build. That equates to 10.66 Vision Wards. A better strategy, if vision is a top priority, is on first recall: 2 vision wards, 1 pink, amplifying tomb/ruby, two health pots and a mana pot. That way I build damage, have something for the late game, have sustain, and still have vision. It just makes more sense for 800gp.
With a maximum of 37% efficiency of upgraded trinkets over a sightstone, it leaves a lot of play room for someone to not get sightstone, get oracles, pink ward, regular wards, or whatever. Consider the number of Active wards of the team with variation; active wards for the team and the effectiveness of them is hard to imagine without some chart or table. There's just too many dimensions when considering active wards, so please just accept that sightstone for vision is not effective and that is the reason for a meaningless +150 health...
No, I'm not a math major either. I'm just a Junior MechE. :/ Just ask me if you want me to do a relation instead of block math.
**Ultimate tl;dr:
Upgrading vision trinkets is 37% more efficient for vision versus a sightstone alone. **
That's how I legit carried games as Janna back in the day. Her global move-speed buff was so good too. Get that Sightstone, Boots of Mobility and Oracle's. Then start cruising through the jungle, baby. Nobody could catch you, so you could single-handedly provide the entire map with vision while also quickly and safely denying the enemy's vision. Best way to solo carry normals ever .
