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Relic Shield outclasses the other gold items

Cameryn Kyre·11/22/2013, 12:24:20 PM·3 votes·990 views

Even some junglers pick it up and go for lane-taxing over actually building as a jungler.

As a support main, I enjoy the gold... but the lack of choice among items is ill received. Especially since if I want either of the other two completed items I basically have to choose to have literally half of my opponent's realistic bonus gold.

Relic shield needs to be nerfed a bit. Or both Coin and Edge need to be buffed.

Proposal: Change Relic Shield to charge every 45s and Targon's Brace adjusted a bit but mostly the same potential gold.

The rest of the item is balanced, but the easy gold gain works out to be 55g/min assuming you don't waste any time (and you have a 30s grace period so... hard to mess it up) and are getting canon creeps.

The best Coin will get you is 24g/min while in lane.

And the Edge is only 12 g/min + harass gold... which is up to 48 extra gold/min but let's be real, you won't be able to abuse it to that degree.

Relic shield is way too much free gold from the start. it's twice as effective as the other two through a pragmatic lens, offers sustain to both lane partners, and some extra durability. The tank item is easily the best... and we all know what happens when tank items are too strong.

Seriously though, nerfing the charges on shield to 45 sec and changing the brace to 30s charge max 3 would balance it perfectly.

TL;DR: Relic Shield offers too much gold. Change it to 45s a charge on Relic Shield, rest of the item line is fine. Alternatively, buff Edge and Coin.

~Cam

7 Comments

eKatSS11/22/2013, 3:45:48 PM1 votes

I watched a couple of high elo streams yesterday, and I must say that 2-1-2 lanes are kind of boring. Sometimes I saw hybrid tops that would sometimes roam or steal jungle camps, but that's it.

I agree with you that the relic shield item is a bit too OP, when compared to the other gold generation items. For sure we'll see a nerf very soon.

NovaSpectre11/22/2013, 6:17:46 PM1 votes

As a up-and-coming support main (not even to level 30 yet, mind you), I find that, while the gold from the shield is nice, its stats usually don't suit my intended role. It may make me more durable, but that's not saying much in light of the mana I'm not getting from the edge; if I can't save my carry because I ran outta mana for the sake of more gold, it isn't worth it.

That being said,I usually only use the coin to build into the medallion, for its active. Otherwise, I prefer the edge or, yes, the shield.

Of course, these are my opinions, and since LoL is largely based around competitive play, maybe some evaluation is in order.

Fulminous Edge11/22/2013, 8:45:26 PM1 votes

I came to post my feedback on Relic shield so i'll give it here where it is already being discussed.

In the few games that I've played this item showed some real power. I played one game as support Thresh and was amazed that by 25-30 minutes I had earned ~1300 gold from the item, not even using it to the fullest due to a lot of roaming after the lane phase.

During the lane phase, my lane partner was a vayne and we were against a Jinx/Soraka comp. They both started with a relic shield and it was quite oppressive. They both made a ton of gold from being able trade farm with the relic, also, Soraka's Heal plus the healing granted by relic shield allowed them to quickly recover after each poke and exchange. I even played a game where a Leona and Elise both went top with relic shields, destroyed the lane and then Elise stayed top while Leona went bot to support the ADC, both did not fall at all behind in gold.

I think the biggest problem with Relic Shield is that it allows the user to CS, although neat it allows for people other than supports to use it which may not be the intention. The new philo stone and kage pick don't grant gold when you CS. I think relic should be the same.

After some brainstorming I had thought of the following change. Since the relic is designed to be used by the tanky/frontline support the effect should promote that playstyle. I thought of this:

"Damage done to and taken by enemy champions grants 3 gold and grants 6 health/5 for 10 seconds, killing a minion disables this effect for 10 seconds"

Numbers are of course just place holders, but the idea is to make the gold generation strictly for support players and to encourage the play style of the frontline support, hitting enemies with spells/CC and absorbing damage for the team/lane partner.

thoughts on this?

Teemo May Care11/23/2013, 11:40:43 AM1 votes

If Riot would like to make sure that certain roles will remain viable, the other items need to be buffed.In addition, Riot should revisit the nerfed jungle items. Jungling feels pretty pointless now that there are ways to generate gold in lane without detracting from the gold earning potential of a (formerly) solo-lane teammate.

Paqi11/25/2013, 6:21:39 PM1 votes

While I do think the Relic Sheild outshines all the other starting gold generating items, it's worth noting that if only one team is using it in lane, that lane's going to be pushed, which makes them more vulnerable to ganks.