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Why does Luden's give the most AP out of the Lost Chapter upgrades?

iiGazeii·1/20/2019, 5:21:38 PM·2 votes·1,054 views

Mages generally have two options for their first item: Rod of Ages, or a Lost Chapter upgrade. Battlemages like Aurelion Sol, and Swain usually go from RoA because the scaling health and mana is very valuable for sustained damage.

Burst mages and artillery mages usually build a Lost Chapter upgrade because they need the mana sustain from Lost Chapter's passive and the CDR. Burst mages want to chunk people with a combo, and artillery mages want to poke, and Luden's Echo is the best option for both of those things. The extra 100+ damage from the Luden's proc makes both of these types of damage more powerful, and give them better waveclear to boot.

However, Luden's also gives the most AP out of any of the Lost Chapter upgrades. It just seems like the best option in almost every case. Besides a Glacial Augment cheese strat or a specific case like Ryze that scales of the mana from Tear, Luden's dominates the build path for burst and artillery mages.

Wouldn't it be better if the three Lost Chapter upgrades were each situationally equivalent?

3 Comments

Eedat1/20/2019, 5:53:21 PM2 votes

It doesn't. Seraphs does

ModThe Djinn1/20/2019, 5:53:44 PM2 votes

Wouldn't it be better if the three Lost Chapter upgrades were each situationally equivalent?

Not really, given that they're so distinct and have different price points.

  • Luden's is about immediate burst damage and waveclear.
  • Hextech GLP-800 is a utility item with a slow that features a harder-scaling AP nuke than Luden's Echo. While it has less uptime, it's a solid choice, as it offers 10 less AP for an extra 100 + 10% AP damage on the effect. It's also 400 less gold, which needs to be taken into account.
  • Archangel's is about mana sustain and late-game scaling. It doesn't grant as much AP as Lost Chapter, certainly, but it can easily add significantly more in the late-game, as well as offering defensive options Luden's can't match.

So they're all solid choices, but which one you take depends on who you're playing and how you expect the game to go. Luden's being the most situation-neutral choice (i.e. the best pick into an unknown situation for most character, and a solid choice even in non-optimal ones) doesn't necessarily make the other items badly designed or weak.

T2K Baka1/20/2019, 6:39:10 PM1 votes

The real question is why does it have to give mana now, why couldn't it be a manaless item again? [sg-janna]