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Can we get some clarity on why some items are gold efficient and others are not?

Eedat··2 votes·347 views

I'm not quite sure what goes into deciding on why some items are so efficient and others are not. It makes sense when items with strong passives/actives are not very gold efficient from stats and vice versa. But that is far from the case for quite a lot of items.

Please note I'm just going to give a few examples and not touch on every single item in the game. There are more items that fit into each of these categories. Feel free to comment below.

I'm going to start off with a few items I find fall into an acceptable category of strong passive/active, low gold efficiency:

  • item 3153 84% Gold efficient from stats, pretty good passive, pretty good active

  • item 3139 91% Gold efficient, very strong active

  • item 3157 93% Gold efficient, very strong active

  • item 3193 61% Gold efficient, extremely strong passive, extremely strong active

Then there are items in another acceptable category of much weaker passives/actives, but much higher gold efficiency:

  • item 3115 140% Gold efficient, weak passive

  • item 3110 108% Gold efficient, weak passive

But then you get a category that's the best of both worlds:

  • item 3146 121% Gold efficient, great passive, great active

  • item 3165 121% Gold efficient, great passive, GW stuck on for free it seems

  • item 3812 104% Gold efficient, two great passives

Can we get some clarity as to why some items get one or the other while others get both? It really doesnt make a lot of sense to me.

12 Comments

Shadòw2 votes

there is no real "gold efficiency"

the worth of a stat gets determined by the base items of each stat (item 1036 for AD for example)

the value of % mov speed comes from item 3113, a secondary item.

that's why gold efficiency is total BS. it's just comparing items with each other.

but what impact any item Passive/Active or even flat stats have on the game is different depending on the situation of the game.

for example item 3285 gives 10% Movement Speed, which is a LOT and can have huge impact.

item 3285 might have a low Gold Efficiency, but that means nothing.

The actual value of a stat cannot be determined by simply comparing it to the gold value of the base items, so just forget the whole concept of gold efficiency cause it's BS.

Very Hard Engage1 votes

you act like having ludens makes you able to dodge skill shots where you otherwise wouldn't or helps you escape when literally everyone has gap closers/flash for when they want to secure you whenever they feel like it.

from experience, the 10% very rarely makes a difference. 350 ms is enough to escape/react to most skill shots. putting yourself over 400 helps, but its not going to be enough to dodge zed shurikens.

but in comparison nidalee spear/morg bindings are dodgeable sub 340ms.

Shadòw1 votes

10% are a lot thought, it makes a big difference. and yes, you can dodge skillshots clearly better with it and roam faster.

with 350 MS, 10% are 35 MS.

to compare:

item 3009 were once completely broken and build on everyone when they gave 65 Movement speed.

then they were nerfed 2 times, 5 MS each, to 55 MS, and now they are only build on a few champions, and even on them not every time. just to show you what 10MS can do.

but the MS from Ludens is A LOT, and i mean a lot. it's the item that gives you the highest unconditional % movement speed bonus that isn't tied to a active.

especially Mages usually don't have much options to increase their Movement Speed (basically item 3285 and item 3100). that's why the rare items that do have it usually seem to be less gold efficient, but they aren't in reality.

Frikgeek1 votes

Because certain stats are given away for free on completed items which makes them seem much more gold efficient. Stats that might be too strong on a basic item if they were as cheap as they are on completed items like health regen(imagine if the beads were like 50g instead of 150g) or mana regen(same with faerie charm) become much less important by the time you finish your first item so they're stuck onto stuff for basically free.

Hybrid items that provide both AP and AD are naturally undercosted since very few champions need both those stats equally. Even hybrids like Akali, Kayle, or Jax would prefer more AP or more AD.

Usually items with purely offensive stats are less gold efficient to prevent extreme snowballing while items with utility tacked onto them are more gold efficient. Things like mana, CDR, or movement speed are often undersold while AP or AD are never given away 'for free' outside of hybrid items(with 2 exceptions I'll get to later). Items that scale with themselves are also often overpriced to prevent massive powerspikes on completion. That's why botrk is slightly overcosted since its own attack speed scales with its passive and AD.

The exceptions to this rule are the 2 huge damage only items that also scale with themselves, deathcap and infinity edge. They're intentionally extremely powerful because they're basically the incentives to play an autoattacker or a mage. AD casters get more convenient and more efficient items but these 2 big damage items basically make every item built alongside them way more efficient, balancing out mages and autoattackers.

If you had very efficient damage-only items that would work well with IE/Deathcap you would basically break league. Archangel's staff kinda counts but that item requires a lot of time and power investment earlygame to be powerful later. Imagine if everyone could get like 400 AP from 2 items while also solving resource and survivability issues without the weak earlygame you get from going tear.

Very Hard Engage1 votes

item 3285 81% efficient, terrible passive.

i guess its more flat damage than other ap items who offer literally anything else, but this is still a terrible item

DunkinNoobs3 votes

It gives 10% MS to champions who keep themselves safe by kiting enemies. You ever tried to run down an Ori or Ahri with Ludens? Get fucked.

Very Hard Engage1 votes

** so champions with mobility become even more mobile, while the champions who actually need it like veigar/vlad/anivia just get outclassed because its a flat % so its an uneven separation of power**

forcing the item to stay in the dumpster in order to prevent abusers like ahri from going absolutely ham with it.

so in order to prevent that, no one gets to use it

rip DFG.

DunkinNoobs2 votes

I mean, yeah. Mobile champs build MS items to keep their edge. This has always been true. The moment those advantages don't exist, the champ is garbage.

Also, a lot of Vlads and Veigars do build Ludens, as do champs like Ziggs, Xerath, Vel'koz, and Lux. Being fast is just universally useful no matter how fast or slow you were before.

Very Hard Engage1 votes

simply because they cant utilize rylias, liandires, protobelt, glip, but still need raw damage and rab cap/void would be money pits until later, it forces them to buy the item because other items would be even less efficient not utilizing their effects/passives/supplementary stats at all.

lux for example, already has the slow and an innate shield ability, she rarely takes damage as is, making the health a negative stat in comparison to literally anything else.

people dont actively try to purchase ludens, its a relegation from lack of options.

the ms is never going to be a difference between dodging someones skill shot or escaping where you otherwise wouldnt.

DunkinNoobs2 votes

{quoted}

people dont actively try to purchase ludens, its a relegation from lack of options.

the ms is never going to be a difference between dodging someones skill shot or escaping where you otherwise wouldnt.

Oh sweet summer child...

Very Hard Engage1 votes

reaction speed > ms

anyone will tell you this.

unless you are a melee top laner who plays champions with literally no mobility or reasonable expectation of running after targets which is extremely situational and a result of champion choice, not item build and they would out run you anyway.

Escheton1 votes

{quoted}

It gives 10% MS to champions who keep themselves safe by kiting enemies. You ever tried to run down an Ori or Ahri with Ludens? Get fucked.

Bad tone, good point.

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