Can armor items be made more gold efficient? (Or at least slot efficient?)

First a look at the other resistance, Magic Resist: 105% gold efficient 89% on its own, and when the passive is in effect, 102% gold efficient

Then the AD items armor has to build against: 101% gold efficient 115% gold efficient 100+% gold efficient on any target with more than_ 362 current health_ 100% gold efficient 101% 100+% on any champion with above 111 base AD (that is, every single champion that buys it.) 111% following a completed Zeal item (When it's first bought), up to 128% with the second (unfinished) zeal, then down to 122% with two full zeal items 105% 106% 100+% efficient against any target with over 101 armor, which is basically anyone with even a single armor item, and even against some champions' base armor

Even then, Lord Dominik's is 74% gold efficient against a _no armor level 11 _. Its worst case scenario only approaches how bad some of the _best _ armor items get, seen below.

/ 80% gold efficient (These are the most slot efficient armor items, giving 425 health and 60 armor) 75% gold efficient 78% 93% and for the mages out there 96%

Ironically, the only armor items that are gold efficient are 122% when its passive is triggered (61% normally) 115% 124% (with point runner triggered) (95% normally) 121% with point runner (91% normally) 100%

All of which are some combination of completely useless in their stats, horribly slot inefficient, or not effective as armor items (being low-cost support items)

For something like Frozen Heart, for example, to approach slot efficiency granting its single defensive stat, it would need to make up the difference for building it instead of Sunfire or Deadmand's plate. To make up the lost health, the biggest health item in the game seems like a good start: (800 health, 105% gold efficient).

To make Frozen Heart worth its slot to pair with the single biggest health boost, it would need to make Warmog's give an "effective health" of 1870, the same as two Sunfires (850 health x 2.2 armor). That is, Frozen Heart needs to give 134 armor for it to be worth it taking up an item slot over just buying a redundant extra Sunfire or Deadman's plate. That's bearing in mind that these two most slot-efficient armor items are STILL horribly inefficient compared to AD itemization.

Just think about that. An item that granted 134 armor would still be less slot efficient than a single completed AD item.

It's no wonder so many tanks are just saying "fuck it" and going with damage builds because they sure as shit aren't going to be tanking when three completed armor items die in the blink of an eye to a two-item AD build.