PSA: Is your Sightstone gaining you an advantage?

With a , you can place a 3 minute ward every 60 seconds. This means that you can effectively have your maximum 3 wards down at all times, without the need to go back to base that requires. Why then, I hear you ask, do supports still buy the sightstone? Besides the ability to deploy vision instantly without needing to worry about a long cooldown system, there is one major reason: In high elo games, it's rare to see less than two red trinkets on a team. This means that the sightstone allows a team to have a potential 12 free green wards on the map, as opposed to 9, as well as the above mentioned ability to quickly deploy vision around a key objective without the need to worry about trinket charges.

Now, given the virtues of , you may think that it makes for an obvious purchase: well, think again! As any low elo player will tell you, significantly less emphasis is placed of the vision game, and players are less consistent with their use of trinkets. All too often, a low elo trinket spread will look like this by the end of the game: . Furthermore, trinkets tend to be used irregularly, leading to single digit ward counts in 40+ minute games. Why is this relevant? The fewer wards there are on the map, the harder it becomes to get good value with red trinkets! Take into account less than stellar ward locations that you'd rarely bother to check, and often-times you'll end up clearing only 1 or 2 green wards in a game.

Don't take this the wrong way; should not be ignored out of hand in every low elo game. There are always exceptions to the rule, and some teams put much more focus on vision than others, necessitating the classic support vision build. Rather, my point is that you should always think critically before building .

Ask yourself: is the enemy warding frequently? Is my team making good use of their trinkets? Do we have a red trinket already? Is the flexibility provided by sightstone's charge system worth 400 gold worth of stats and an item slot?

In summary, there is fair justification to not purchasing the , especially in the lower leagues. Think critically about whether or not you need one, and don't rage at your friendly support off the cuff for not having one. Look instead at what both your and the enemy's vision control is like first. And, most importantly, use those trinkets, no matter what lane you're in. Every single member of the team is important to the vision game nowadays, no matter what their lane, role, or in game income.