Talk:Thornmail/@comment-4947142-20121113164548/@comment-5517958-20121113233823

my guess is that it encouraged too much defencive play. If you stood under a cap point it became more difficult to push someone with it away from turret. If you try and build up a wave, the person can tank the waves damage, reducing how easily the tower could be pushed. If you try to attack them, you take a little damage from both the tower and the item.

It discurages pushing towers as well. Even if you have a minion wave backing you up, when you are capping turret, the enemy is gonna hit you. Thornmail proc's and now you have instant tower aggro, and the enemy hitting you. Sure the added armor helps with the damage, but it only encourages passive play on this map.

Compare it's play style encouragement to the other two main defencive armor items:

Randuin's: Has a slow and attack speed debuff that (because it is chance based,) makes it more forgiving for the enemy team to harass you under tower, making defencive play much less rewarding.

Randuin's also encourages more agressive play by the user. You still have the original use of heading into the enemy team and popping the active during the teamfight, but the slow and attack speed debuff proc also allows you to more easily escape after failing to take a turret. This gives you more chances to try and capture points, and there is less risk than with a Thornmail.

Frozen Heart:

The attack speed debuff is aways active, attacking or defending making you take less damage no matter what. Doesn't really encourage defencive or agressive play, but the armor, mana, and significant cooldown reduction allow you to take more hits and dish out more spells than otherwise, lending it towards the agressive side.