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Ardent censer

A little Peepo·6/27/2016, 2:44:59 PM·1 votes·1,258 views

I have mixed feelings about this item in general and although I know they will buff the item I still feel that the item will still be generally underwhelming if anything.

  1. Athenes just seems like a much better buy even after the changes to censer. Simply because athenes scales with level and stays relevant throughout the entire game.

  2. Athenes tends to give you 10% more cdr, magic resist and a much more useful passive if anything.

  3. They both are worth the same price (I belive both are 2200?)

Although the changes to censer will make it more gold efficient, I feel that the passive is still weak. I felt censer was just so much better before when it gave 30% attack speed. I'm not saying censer sucks but 15% attack speed really isn't much and 30 on hit magic damage doesn't really seem to appealing unless you are playing sona who can stack that passive with her Q. Even after the changes I still feel that athenes will generally still be the better buy since the heal on athenes is just too good to pass honestly, especially over 15% attack speed.

One change that would benefit censer would be if the passive scaled with levels, sort of like athenes does. Making it scale up to 30% attack speed would actually make the item a better buy.

Over all I feel that you would still end up getting more for your buck with athenes over censer even with the bonus to shields and heals. Athenes would just add more to your healing potential as it and give you sustain on non sustain supports (karma, janna, lulu) even now I feel censer is only good on a select few champions (soraka, sona) but even then I feel that they could probably benefit A LOT more with athenes over censer.

I also feel that athenes is censers counter part since athenes gives defensive utility where as censer gives offensive utility. Over all I guess you could build both but that would be too much mana regeneration you don't really need since 1 item should be enough. I'm not too found of giving censer an increase in healing and shielding since I feel that should be athenes department.

What do you guys think? Do you guys like this item? Do you think the changes to censer are appropriate if anything? Do you pick up athenes or censer?

13 Comments

The Last Ballad6/28/2016, 12:41:35 AM3 votes

If you get Athens on Soraka instead of Censer, you do not know what her strengths are. At all.

And unless you are an aggressive Janna(Like, bot-Annie-with-her-stun-up agressive), your heals via Athens will be little.

Athens belongs on a pokey support that has a shield or a heal(Karma, Morgana, and even Nami could work), Censer belongs on those who can spam heals or shields(Janna can keep her shield up 24/7 with 45% cdr, Soraka) and focus on taking towers(tristana benefits from Censer a lot)

GaleWinUnleashed6/27/2016, 3:56:04 PM2 votes

Censer actually does scale as the game goes on. As your target builds more attack speed or damage, the additional attack speed and on-hit damage from Censer is more beneficial.

https://i.imgur.com/1HvNiEO.png?noredirect

SwiftKitten886/28/2016, 12:44:14 AM2 votes

not goign to lie, item 3504 during a teamfight withLux shield hitting all teammates.. is pretty gamechanging

Bodhizapha6/27/2016, 3:27:50 PM1 votes

I am a sona main...I build athenes over censer....before I knew better i did build censer. Because I thought censer shielded...maybe I was confused back then...or maybe it was changed, and I never knew.

Fashion Mage6/27/2016, 7:55:31 PM1 votes

Censer seems like a really nice support item for AP casters due to the relatively large amount of AP on top of the 15% extra healing/shielding. Seems like a must-buy for healers and shielders imo, namely Soraka and Janna.

MunchCrunchLunch6/27/2016, 7:49:20 PM1 votes

there is 0 reason to get it unless your team has a kog maw.

Zielmann6/27/2016, 3:53:45 PM1 votes

I'm split on the change, myself. I think they could position it in a different enough place that it'll make Censer a more attractive buy on the more traditional supports (Janna, Nami, Soraka... maybe Sona) than Athene's. My only hesitation about the changes is that the increased AP with reduced mana regen seems counter to what the item is really built for. The percentage increase to shields/heals effectively does the same thing as the increased AP, so it's a bit redundant. These champs generally want more mana regen than AP, which is part of why Athene's is the more useful option right now, even with Censer's current amount of mana regen.

I feel like the key differentiation should lie in the passive on Athene's. In theory, yes, Athene's could work out to be more protection overall (the heal can wind up being a fair bit more than you gain with the percent increase from Censer). However, for Athene's to really be useful, the carrier has to deal sufficient damage to enemy champions between each heal or shield for that advantage to kick in. Janna, Nami, and Soraka aren't going to be dealing enough damage before needing to heal or shield something to make the Athene's passive out-do the bonus percent from Censer. Sona has the potential to get enough damage out to get more stacks on Athene's, but she'll be healing often enough that she'll get more out of the percent increase over time as well. The things Athene's should really be intended for are more like Orianna, Karma, and Lux. Supports or utility mages with longer CD shields and the ability to do enough damage to rack up the Athene's stacks.

Also, looking closer at the changes, a key component missing from the discussion is Crucible. I feel like what the addition of the heal/shield increase really does is make Crucible the competing item with Athene's, and I think it makes it vastly more attractive for those traditional types of supports now (kinda excited about it now that I read it). On top of that the bonus to heals/shields is NOT unique. So you could feasibly go for a huge healing/shielding build with both Crucible and Censer.

With that combo, A max rank Janna shield's base value would jump from 240 to 350 (375 if their carry takes Runic Armor), and that doesn't count any AP scaling at all (which would effectively be even higher than her 70% ratio, as the extra shield from the AP is also increased by all those items). With not much AP, Janna could be knocking on the door to a 500HP shield.

Gibberwatt6/27/2016, 4:49:02 PM1 votes

I feel like ardent censer is at the stage where morrellicum was before the mage rework - It's got a lot of random stats that aren't really strong in a particular way, but just kind of give a meh buff to a few aspects of a champ