Talk:Crest of the Ancient Golem/@comment-4499945-20120320153152/@comment-88.186.19.90-20120321150256

The original aim of the buff is to give you an advantage but not severely hamper the opponent. Whoever had the blue buff could simply ignore mana restrictions with a decent mana pool and spam almost eternally. It also made laning particularly hard because spell harass from a blue buffed opponent was constant, meaning that if you couldn't have the blue buff yourself, you were bound to be very behind on farming by the end of the buff.

Now, crest of the ancient golem eases mana concerns, but it doesn't alleviate it completely, and although you have an advantage in lane with it, you still have to play intelligently to gain a complete advantage.