The Nashor's vs Lich Bane dilemma

clickhead·11/8/2014, 12:15:29 AM·6 votes·974 views

While I was trying to pick which item to build on my top lane Diana between item 3115 and item 3100 and looking at the item's stats in detail, I realised that both of these items gives stats that are more beneficial to the unique passive of the other item. Let me explain. . . . item 3100 gives a burst of damage every time you use one of your spells. This means that CDR is a huge asset to anyone who wants to build a item 3100 , but sadly, it doesn't give any CDR. On the other hand it gives a pretty high amount of bonus movement speed, at 8%. item 3115 gives you more magic damage on every auto attack and gives you attack speed, allowing you to proc it more often. Since it gives you more damage on every attack, obviously movement speed is an asset to anyone with a item 3115 since you can actually follow someone around and proc it on them alot. item 3115 also gives 20% cdr, which is a ton of CDR for an item that isn't necessarily build by people concerned with CDR. . . . Wouldn't it make more sense if, say, item 3100 didn't give movement speed but gave 10% cdr (or 20%) and item 3115 gave either 0 cdr or 10% but actually gave 5-10% movement speed? Of course the stat values and prices of the items would be reevaluated to take these into account.

10 Comments

Genova Fearbane11/8/2014, 6:21:50 AM5 votes

The problem is that you are forgetting that most champions who use lichbane often require the mobility to escape a dangerous situation after bursting their target. Then most people who buy nashor's often can utilize the CDR but only to a certain extent, preventing the item from becoming somewhat overpowered or a necessity. The idea is to keep the item pool diverse, yet with a certain degree of specification.

Scorpionex11/8/2014, 6:44:07 PM2 votes

if you build both nashors and lb on diana you are free to go all defensive on the rest of your items and still do massive amounts of dmg

Sire Hippington11/8/2014, 5:39:33 AM2 votes

I agree besides one part: cdr IS desired by most champions that use Nashors! It still could give some ms though(and so could stinger then, would explain all the ms on zephyr) Also u really want the MS on lichbane so u can follow up ur spells with an AA, as most spells have more range than ur AAs while mages have rather low ms. Maybe a short ms-buff after spellcast would fit better though...

BuyMeSkinsPls11/8/2014, 12:26:01 AM2 votes

I've always wished that Lich Bane gave CDR, but it's also pretty easy to get CDR through other items/runes. item 3174 item 3158

MattAkhavan11/8/2014, 7:16:36 PM1 votes

If you are split pushing a ton with diana and trying to create pressure nashors is better, but if you are going to be a jungle diana or always want to gank and participate in team fights you are going to want to get lich bane.

NoMonku11/9/2014, 12:23:19 AM1 votes

If you gave lich CDR instead of MS, it would basically be a must buy on almost any non spammy caster. In regards to Diana, get Lich if you really want to get something. On Diana late game you won't really be able to auto much to get much use out of the Nashor damage passive and you'll benefit more from the straight up burst as you are technically a good form of engage for your team. So doing as much damage before you die is very beneficial as in most cases you won't be alive long enough to deal out DPS.

BayAreaBastard11/8/2014, 2:29:49 AM1 votes

dork get a life

Jungle Lux God11/8/2014, 4:49:28 PM1 votes

I think the MS on Lich Bane is there so that you can go in to apply the buffed auto attack much easier than if you couldn't, while Nashor's Tooth indirectly helps sticking to targets to apply the auto attack by giving any abilities that help you stick to targets more uptime, allowing you to use your champion's kit to stick to your targets a lot easier.

Does that mean that Lich Bane shouldn't have CDR or Nashor's Tooth shouldn't have movement speed? Of course not, and I think that those items having those stats would help them out a lot, but I think there is some justification with their current stats.

Narasimha11/8/2014, 5:01:04 PM1 votes

You should probably tell us the rest of your build as well. That can really make a difference. Personally, I don't build either on Diana. I tend to go item 3020, item 3027, item 3157, item 3001, item 3116, and item 3089