Is taking sorc shoes over defensive boots a good idea?

StairCasexd·12/4/2017, 9:05:07 PM·2 votes·979 views

^Title I feel like I'm dealing more or less the same damage to squishes and that sorc shoes aren't really worth it.

With armour boots, I get a passive that blocks 10% of AA damage and even negate some lethality (which has saved my life=. With Mr boots, I negate the enemy mids pen and get 30% tenacity too (which has also saved my life).

I've been finding it hard to buy sorc shoes when they mostly likely are just going to get one shot anyway. I feel like I was being noob trapped lol.

7 Comments

k wìx12/4/2017, 10:53:02 PM2 votes

Platinum support main here - it really depends on the game your playing. You should be looking at all sorts of variables before deciding on your boots. As for damage vs defense, that really depends on you and your playstyle. **Building defensive items is never a bad idea. **

Here's a quick and dirty rundown on when you should / should not buy each set of boots:

item 3006 Damage Enhancement for AD / Auto attack based champions. You buy these to enhance your damage output. It's a BAD idea to buy these if the enemy team has a boatload of CC and lockdown.

item 3117 Mobi boots are the most versatile boots in the game. They can help you chase or poke, play to lane pressure, and roam for ganks. If you lack the ability to STICK to your target, or your team lacks control, these can be a BAD idea. **Most players will underestimate the chase potential of these boots. **

item 3009 Essentially the best movement speed boots in the game for in-combat scenarios and extended group teamfights. It's almost never a BAD idea to buy these boots, unless your looking for something else. I think these get overlooked more than they deserve. **They are especially potent against a set of champions with POWERFUL slowing effects like Zilean and Nasus. **

item 3158 Probably the trickiest set of boots. Especially potent with the new Rune System, there are some busted combinations out there that can seriously alter the time frame of your summoner spells. I feel that these get overlooked in favor of the other ones being more desirable.

item 3111 Mercies are the prime choice against AP and CC focused champions. Almost always a good choice, unless they are playing mostly AD focused. Most players will buy these if the enemy team has a very fed AP user. BAD idea if they are rolling an almost full AD team.

item 3047 Tabi are essentially the opposite of Mercies. You want to buy these if they have a lot of AD potential or a fed marksman. BAD idea to buy these if they have an AP-centric team comp.

item 3020 Last but not least, these essentially increase your damage on AP style champions. These are very common, and more damage is always good. It's a BAD idea to buy these if you are getting targeted and feel unsafe in teamfight style scenarios. This really depends on the enemy comp and how easy it is for them to catch you.

Mordepool12/4/2017, 9:45:57 PM1 votes

Same.

Sasogwa12/4/2017, 11:03:32 PM1 votes

weird, I feel like with the buff to them and the removal of flat mr runes, sorc shoes are actually borderline broken overpowered.

LankPants12/5/2017, 1:54:08 AM1 votes

Assuming you're talking about mages, defensive boots outpace Sorcs only when they're in a highly advantageous scenario. If you're VS all AD then Tabi do tend to be better than Sorcs by quite a bit. Mercs are significantly weaker and their use case is less clear, but they can be good into AP+lockdown heavy comps although this use case is much rarer than the one for Tabi.

Sorcs are actually one of the highest damage options avalible to mages, VS a squishy target they can increase your damage by around 10% which makes them amongst the best damage/gold items in the game. Giving up Sorcs is a huge price because of this.

Malix Farwin11/2/2018, 9:55:10 PM1 votes

Feels like a lose lose most of the time for me. Build defense boots and cannot overcome the sheer amount of MR ad champions get with their damage items and build sorc boots and not get enough defense not get to get blown up instantly.

Best Ekko NA11/2/2018, 10:27:31 PM1 votes

Personally there are many thoughts that I process before I purchase boots in any given match. It always starts primarily with the champion that I'm playing, then branches out from there. I mostly play Riven Top, Ekko Mid / Top, Diana Jungle, Nunu Jungle, and Xerath Mid.

Riven:

How likely am I to die in the event the enemy successfully crowd controls me?
How many champions on the other team are primarily focused on auto attacking?

In the event that I don't need either boots, there's a good chance that I'll not buy any. If I simply need more movement speed or CDR then (rarely) I'll purchase Lucidity Boots.

Ekko:

How much all-in potential do I have on the enemy and can I reach them? (If the chances are high, then Sorc Boots)
How long does the enemy's crowd crowd control last? (Mercs obviously if the answer is long)

Rarely will I ever purchase Ninja Tabi on Ekko, the exception might be Top lane against Master Yi or Tryndamere.

Xerath:

Can the enemy reach me? (If the answer is no, Sorc Boots every single time)
From 1. it mostly comes down to AP or AD, if you get hard CC'd as Xerath you're more than likely going to die whether you have Mercs or not. The boot choice is just in hopes of surviving a tad long to deal some extra damage. --

For most ranged mages, you have to think more Xerath mode unless you're playing a champion like Ahri who has a mobile spell to escape with. For a champion such as Ekko, snowballing is more important which makes penetration boots a higher priority. In matches where snowballing appears to have low odds, the other boots become more appealing choices. With Riven, it's more about which Boots increase odds of survival. If you can't live any longer even with the boots, then it's usually better to simply keep building more damage.

Apply this however you will, but these are more or less some of my thought processes when I'm trying to figure out what exactly I would like to build.