Boards›Gameplay

Rethinking 'mana issues'

Nicholas Furious·10/2/2014, 3:35:32 PM·2 votes·817 views

This discussion stems mostly out of my love-hate relationship with the item Essence Reaver, which I know is a hot discussion of its own, but is not the focus of this post. The focus of this post comes from the idea that there are - in fact - no such thing as not having 'mana issues'.

Here's the setup for the theory: Starting at one end of the spectrum a champion could have no mana and no regen - no abilities Next, a champion could have mana and no regen - use a set limited amount of abilities, but no more Third, a champion has regen, but slow regen - use an infinite amount of abilities over a very long period of time Fourth and beyond, the champion has more and more regen - use an infinite amount of abilities over ever-shorter periods of time Last, full mana all the time - URF mode, baby

So here is my point - many people argue that because X champion doesn't have mana issues, that they don't need to buy Y mana regen item (in my case, this is directly referring to items like Essence Reaver or Athenes). But this only assumes that once you bought Y item that your playstyle would remain the same.

My argument is that even if you feel X champion doesn't have mana problems (barring those that literally don't use mana), you might only be speaking from the perspective of the playstyle you are using currently, and that more mana regen could open up new possibilities for how you approach that character.

Of course there are going to be optimal playstyles for particular characters, but I feel a lot of alternative playstyles are dismissed too quickly. We might be undervaluing mana regen on items like Essence Reaver or Athenes. How scary could a Lucian be who never stops Q'ing and W'ing or, alternatively, never has to leave lane?

I think there are a lot of possibilities to be examined in this discussion if we can grow beyond what a champ feels right now vs what a champ has the potential to be, and this extends beyond just a simple 'mana issue' discussion.

1 Comments

ModThe Djinn10/2/2014, 5:20:49 PM1 votes

I think this post is largely misguided. Itemizing for mana is only a good idea if the mana gained allows you to get a GREATER benefit than other options.

For someone like a mage (low cooldowns on at least 1-2 abilities, and damage focused in those abilities) mana becomes incredibly important, as it controls your ability to contribute meaningfully both to the laning phase and to fights. For a Marksman, however, your damage comes primarily from your auto-attacks. Unless a mana item allows you to EXCEED that damage by a meaningful and/or reliable amount, it will always be a lesser choice. A similar thing is true for tanks: Athene's might be nice, but only if your mana pool is actually likely to be a concern in a fight or in the laning phase, and your raw bulk means that you can often survive simply by being impossible to dislodge from lane.

Your argument might be true if it were always optimal to use an ability the MOMENT it comes off cooldown, but that's basically never true, so mana isn't actually that major an issue on many characters.