User blog comment:Leyrann/Why Chalice of Harmony is OP/@comment-63.139.194.254-20120831183043

There are a few reasons why chalice isn't and shouldn't be used by top laners:

For one, a large number of top laners are physical damage dealers, which means your chalice is not going to benefit you in trades and will only be a source of mana. But let's say you're up against double ap or a lane swap: ok you get some damage mitigation and the ability to spam more. What are you losing?

Well, let's look at what a lot of people have suggested: philo stone. It will still give you mana - albeit much less - to sustain your casting, it will give you hp/5, to sustain the enemy's harass, and most importantly, it gives you gp/10. So, you are trading off 30 mr and say 9mp/5 (as an average value) for 15hp/5 and 5gp/10. Now let's do a little math: an additional 9mp/5 means you can cast a 50mp spell every 28s for free. This means your jax can spam one extra leap strike every 36-37 seconds, or an extra full combo every 94-95 seconds. My question to you is: does that really matter? It's the difference between comboing every time the cd comes off and waiting 10-15s between combos, both of which exhibit poor mana control, and are likely to get you very low (hp) just like your opponent, with nothing to sustain your hp (if you get chalice). In other words, you are exchanging more often, but not necessarily more effectively. Meanwhile philo is ticking away in your wallet for free money.

Now consider a champ who wants to be in the face of the enemy laner. Would you rather double dorans or chalice? Now you totally sacrifice your regen from chalice to get 20 AD, 160 HP, and 6% lifesteal. 20 ad and 160 hp at low levels are HUGE, and will let you really brawl with your lane. It definitely gives you an advantage in exchanges, and at the very least should let you push the enemy out of lane and gain a cs advantage by just going for harder engages.

Second, assuming you are not a typical ap, chalice has very limited late game potential. Neither do dorans, but they let you get aggressive. Philo gives you more gold and has a useful upgrade for your typical tanky/anticarry top laner. Even if you don't want the upgrade, by the time you sell it back it will have made you a nice lump of cash, and it gave you all useful stats in the meantime. Chalice only helps you early on if your champ doesn't need damage, defense, or sustain to do their job, or against an ap when you have high mana cost abilities that you will need to use often (ap kog, anivia). It's almost like a tear rush on just about anyone but Ryze. It delays your damage and your tankiness for a minor stat that won't help you trade in lane.

Third, sustaining your mana without items/runes/masteries is not as difficult as you make it out to be. You run out because you are needlessly spamming for little gain, rather than conserving for when it is truly useful. I have had no issues sustaining my mana in top with any top lane mana-based champs I've played: cho, gragas, irelia, jarvan, jax, kayle malph,nid, teemo, trundle, udyr, and wukong. I really don't see the need for so much mp/5 that I would sacrifice (or delay) other useful items like phage, HoG, philo, dorans, chain vest, mercs, hexdrinker, brutalizer, catalyst, sheen, etc, etc.