Why isn't there an item with an armor aura buff?

ValyrianBlade·Feb 12, 2016·2 votes·403 views

Just wondering - we have Aegis which gives allies magic resist. This is great for teamfights when the enemy team is heavy AP, or has an AP assassin that's barely 100-0'ing the squishy champions because they don't need to use gold and an item slot to build a defensive item if the Aegis aura is enough.

However, especially now with the new AD assassin item, why don't we have "team-defensive" armor items? There are a few shields, sure, but they work just as well against AP champions. So is there a good reason for this that I'm not aware of, or can we hope to see an item with a +20 armor aura alongside some base health+armor and perhaps a reasonable active ability?

13 Comments

WukongMainFeb 12, 20161 votes

i feel like it's because armor items are more easily accessible.

there isn't really many MR options.

ValyrianBladeFeb 12, 20161 votes

Magic Resist options:

Abyssal Scepter Aegis of the Legion Athene's Unholy Grail Banner of Command Banshee's Veil Chalice of Harmony Guardian Angel Hexdrinker Locket of the Iron Solari Maw of Malmortius Mercurial Scimitar Mercury's Treads Mikael's Crucible Negatron Cloak Null-Magic Mantle Quicksilver Sash Spectre's Cowl Spirit Visage Wit's End Zz'Rot Portal

That's 20 options. We have MR on each of these items, mixed with:

Magic resist reduction
MR aura
health
CDR
mana regen
magic immune minions
AP
AD
armor
shield passive
shield active
CC cleanse (one on self, one on ally)
increased healing
AS
health regen
MS
spellshield
resurrection passive
zz'rot minions

I'm struggling to see a single thing missing from that list.

Meanwhile for armor: Chain Vest Cloth Armor Dead Man's Plate Frozen Heart Glacial Shroud Guardian Angel Iceborn Gauntlet Ninja Tabi Ohmwrecker Randuin's Omen Raptor Cloak Seeker's Armguard Sunfire Cape Thornmail Warden's Mail Zeke's Harbinger Zhonya's Hourglass Zz'Rot Portal

That's two fewer options at 18. We have:

Health
MS
AS slow
CDR
resurrection passive
MR
Mana regen
Spellblade
Critical strike damage reduction
slow
permanent AOE damage
Auto attack damage reflection
crit / AP bonus
stasis
zz'rot minions

Basically, all of the same stuff. Logically swapping out some spell protection (in the form of cleanses and spellshield) for some AS slow / crit reduction / stasis.

Two things are missing from the armor set though: minion buffs and an aura item. Add two armor items and they're basically the same options (well, actually, the armor items only have Iceborn Gauntlet doubling as an offensive item, there are many MR items that also give offense).

OnegarionFeb 12, 20161 votes

We did. Aegis use to give armor and MR aura. It was deemed to strong and was changed to just MR.

ValyrianBladeFeb 12, 20161 votes

Oh cool, thanks!

Do you know why it was considered too strong? Because it gave both, or too much, or because an armor aura is too strong (e.g. in conjunction with frozen heart?).

They could load the item with mana so that building it alongside frozen heart wasted some stats for example? Or I'm sure they could figure something out if it wasn't simply "too strong to have an armor aura" but more complicated than that.

OnegarionFeb 12, 20161 votes

It was a time when Riot was getting away from a lot of auras. They thought they were too strong, but didn't feel strong. This was about the time sona was starting to get her rework i believe (didn't come out for a long while). Also armor was and still is an easy stat to get. Giving it free on what was a low cost item (cost only 1k to get aegis) and then upgrading it into bulwark gave additional stats. Then you have it as a second item completed for supports (back when only 2 items was the real dream). This made way to letting more support items come through and how we ended up getting the GP items.

I still miss season 3 supporting. Many people hated it, but I loved being able to place 10 wards on the map and have ward wars in lane showed who was winning. A time when there was a true low econ role in the game.

Mysticman89Feb 12, 20161 votes

I think the idea is frozen heart is the ad counterpart, with the reasoning that most ad champs AA as well.

Still with ad casters being kinda beasty of late, a support-y item to help people versus non AA reliant ad would be nice.

ValyrianBladeFeb 12, 20161 votes

I guess this makes sense, but yes with AD casters being prevalent it isn't an option for that.

PhantomGGFeb 12, 20161 votes

For the support mains secretly bribe riot so they dont have to buld both a aura item for armor and mr

ValyrianBladeFeb 12, 20161 votes

Haha :)

They could name the aura's passive the same thing, so that they don't stack if generated from the same champion? You only get half effectiveness from each if you build both?

PhantomGGFeb 12, 20161 votes

I would actually approve of this

MisterHealYoGirlFeb 12, 20161 votes

Most physical damage is single target, while a majority of magic damage is AoE (compare Jinx to Syndra, for example). Spreading armor around just doesn't make as much sense as spreading MR around; it's more efficient for one person to buy a lot of armor and be the target of AD damage. Magic damage is going to splash around, so it's worth it to grab some aura MR for everybody.

ValyrianBladeFeb 12, 20161 votes

The armor point would be true if you could force your enemies to target you tanks...

But since you can't, it always makes sense to give defensive stats to your damage dealers, doesn't it? They are the ones who are going to be targeted with the highest priority, after all. I've never seen Zed ult a tank when a squishy was available...

If anything, it makes sense for a tank to prioritize MR because they'll take a lot as AOE crossfire that's intended for the back line. Meanwhile most AD will hit the backline explicitly so once you've built enough armor to make the enemy no longer interested in attacking you at the start of a fight it seems like a wasted stat?

Of course I'm playing devil's advocate here (armor is still very useful to stack, eventually your squishies will die and often the enemy ADC can't reach your back line safely so they'll target the tank) - but I still think it makes sense to have an armor aura as an option. It doesn't need to be a 120% gold efficiency item that becomes core in every build. Just an item to help deal with your squishies being blown up by AD assassins...

MisterHealYoGirlFeb 12, 20161 votes

I mean, no one is EVER interested in attacking tanks. The point is that you represent too difficult a target to blow up but too dangerous a target to ignore. If you just let Sion have a dance party on top of your ADC, you're gonna have a bad time. Tanks force people to target them because if you just blow past them to get in range to hit their squishies, their squishes are also in range to hit you and the tanks are going to CC you until you die.

It makes sense for backline squishies to have access to armor (I'm still waiting for an armor-defensive AD item, since we have two solid MR-defensive AD items), but armor just isn't great as an aura. Aegis of the Legion is great because your whole team is likely taking magic damage at the same time, so you get a total of 75 MR, but only two or three of your members are taking significant physical damage at a time, so you're only getting about 30-45 armor of benefit. If your ADC is dying, they're better off with a Guardian Angel item or a guardian angel support than with an armor aura.

Then again, I play Janna and Soraka on the Rift, so i'm not the most objective judge of what a support's role in a teamfight is. (Leona takes a more proactive role to peeling, for example).