Does bandit mastery feel underwhelming?

Niaphim·Jan 11, 2017·2 votes·2,424 views

It gives about 400-500 gold (math anyone?) per game at best for supports, and the alternative is dangerous game that heals you for ks kills and assists. I don't like taking bandit on any champion right now, even on enchanters - it doesn't solve the problem of low income, and dangerous game can save my a** in clutch fights in botlane and in team fights mid-late game. What do you think?

9 Comments

Meowing MangoJan 11, 20172 votes

It is supposed to be subtle. You take it on supports who don't build item 3097 .

Milodic MellodiJan 11, 20171 votes

It's also good on Supps who build that. The more gold the better.

SchmidttyGamesJan 11, 20171 votes

As a Support Main, I find it to be a vital supplement to not being able to CS. When combined with Spellthief's, you can pull 11g from a single auto attack early game, and 18 with Frostfang. The additional 1 gold from minion deaths is fairly irrelevant, but they do add up to something over the course of a game.

I think it's in a good spot. Just strong enough to combine well with all 3 gold items but not so strong that everyone wants to abuse it.

NiaphimJan 11, 20171 votes

Thank you for reply. So, this is the logic I used before - add small amonts that end up in a reasonable income. Hovewer, I changed my opinion at some point. IMO, it is the frostfang that does all the job. When I look at numbers, passive and active income on FQC or EotW are both at about 600 gold at a certain point (30 minutes into the game or so), so about 1200 total. This means that with bandit I get 200-300 gold from minions and about 5 times less than from frostfang's on-hit bonus, this gives 400-500 I wrote in the OP in the most optimistic scenario, usually even less. This is why I dislike bandit right now, surviving with that extra heal from DG feels more important even on support.

SchmidttyGamesJan 11, 20171 votes

While I agree that the other is stronger overall, it is necessary for me for one simple reason. If I am going for an Eye, I need to hit 2150 gold as quickly as I can without CSing (Sightstone, T2 Gold Item, Shoes, T3 Gold/SS Combo), and Bandit is a big part of this especially if I am able to AA poke well. 25 AA's is 75 gold (ranged), and that's not a hard number to hit given the number of fights that break out down there. In the first 5 minutes you should also get 50ish gold from passive minions, which ultimately shaves a minute or more off of getting those items early on, performance depending. Those little bits mean a lot when you're counting minutes and gold item charges.

Melee Supports benefit greatly from the 10g per AA, but as we all know, melee Supports are catching a hard shaft in this meta, so not a lot makes them feel better.

Outside of the Support Role, it doesn't hold enough usefulness (except for maybe a melee heavy top laner) to really be exploited heavily. If they buffed it, literally everybody would use it, because we all know how important gold is. That's why I feel that it's in a good place right now. For Supports, it's vital and necessary with their reliance on Gold Items. For everyone else, it's meh.

FantasySniperJan 11, 20171 votes

The pseudo-Favor passive is only worth 2.111 Gp10 at the very most. It's really only worth 50 to 70% of that because you can't expect to stay near minions forever. Most games last only 30 minutes, so that doesn't even pay for consumables like Control Wards and pots, let alone the elixir you almost never buy at 35+ minutes into the game.

The real reason you get it is for the gold-on-hit passive. On average, you should expect to get anywhere from 2.5 to 4 Gp10 out of it. (ranged or melee) This is worth a lot more in comparison, and combined, they can provide quite the pile of coin.

It's still mandatory on (legitimate) supports, so don't worry about it, and just focus on maximizing the usage of the gold-on-hit.