My personal opinion about sightstone and tracker's knife

So it got me thinking when i was watching some LCS matches, I saw that junglers generally had their trackers knife upgrade on their first back. Now why is it that the jungler already has his trackers knife before bot lane hasn't even gone back? Is that the way Riot intended vision to be.

All champs start with 500G. Let's look at the starting items of junglers vs supports.

Supports Always one of the 3 starter (Tier 1) support items i.e.: - Ancient coin - 350G) - Spellthief's edge (350G) - Relic shield (350G)

Supports generally purchase 1 of these items along with three potions/potion and a control ward. All of these items have extra gold regen (because supports do not farm) on top of having two other bonuses i.e. health regen and CDR, health and CS sharing and finally Ability power and mana regen. These items can be further upgraded to enhance the bonus effects mentioned above.

Junglers (Tier 1) - Hunter's machete (350G) - Hunter's talisman (350G)

Junglers generally purchase 1 of these items along with three potions/refillable potion. Both of these items have extra damage on hit vs monsters, extra XP granted for killing large monsters and extra lifesteal/mana regen in the jungle.

Generally on the jungler's first back, they will be able to upgrade their Tier 1 jungle item to a Tier 2 along with a control ward and switch to a sweeper trinket.

Tier 2 Jungle items Can be one of four upgrades each with their own unique passive benefit. The one we are interested in for this thread is the Tracker's knife Tier 2 upgrade.

Trackers Knife + +300G = (Total cost = 1000G)

+10% Life Steal vs. Monsters +180% Base Mana Regen while in Jungle

UNIQUE Passive - Tooth / Nail: Basic attacks deal 25 bonus damage vs. monsters. Damaging a monster with a spell or attack steals 30 Health over 5 seconds. Killing monsters grants special bonus experience. UNIQUE Active - Warding: Consumes a charge to place a Stealth Ward that reveals the surrounding area for 150 seconds. Holds up to 2 charges which refill upon visiting the shop.

Now assuming that after both the jungler and the support back for the first time and have 800G, the jungler can upgrade their Tier 1 jungle item into a trackers knife for the cost of 650G. That leaves them 150G for control wards and potions. In the case of supports they only have enough for a sightstone.

Comparing the two roles who has come out better in terms of stats when upgrading to a warding item?

Junglers will have:

1. Bonus lifesteal from monsters
2. Bonus mana regen in the jungle
3. 25 extra damage vs monsters
4. 30 health over 5 seconds after attacking a monster with a spell or AA.
5. Bonus XP on killing large monsters
6. 2 refillable ward slots.

The jungler can now help out with vision and switch to a sweeper trinket and clear their jungle faster.

Supports will have:

• Ancient coin line:

1. Bonus Mana regen
2. Bonus CDR
3. Bonus health regen
4. Bonus gold regen
5. Health from sightstone
6. 3 refillable ward slots

• Spellthief's line:

1. Bonus Mana regen
2. Bonus Ability power
3. Bonus gold regen
4. Health from sightstone
5. 3 refillable ward slots

• Relic shield line:

1. Bonus health
2. Bonus health regen
3. Bonus gold regen
4. Health from sightstone
5. 3 refillable ward slots

Supports come to lane with a sightstone and a sweeper trinket.

Comparing the two situations, the jungler might only have 2 wards but is mobile across the map while the support is generally in bot lane with their carry. Once the support places all their wards they have 150 secs before they need to back and refill their wards. The jungler on the other hand can place their two wards and continue farming their jungle/ gank a lane. They can also kill scuttle crabs for extra vision.

Junglers can affect 3 lanes in the form of providing/clearing vision, ganking lanes, or continue to farm. Supports can ward and clear vision around bot lane.

Therefore in my opinion it seems that the trackers knife provides more stats, more map options than a sightstone on a support and is more cost efficient. But it's just my opinion. I could be totally wrong. Let me know what you guys think and thanks for reading the long post.

TLDR Tracker's knife on junglers is more stat efficient and more cost efficient than sightstone on a support in the early game and provides vision for lanes beside bot lane (more map options).