Talk:Irelia/@comment-4710042-20120523021817/@comment-123.236.177.19-20120527120847

I'm glad. :) Cheaper, yes, more effective, no. A health pot regens only 10 hp per second for 15 seconds, that's 150 HP regenerated. Philo's Stone regens nearly double that, and it's passive, so you can't really use the Philo Stone up, unlike the health pots. By the time enemy champions have lvl 2 abilities, most of them will be able to dish out more damage to you than you'll be able to heal with health pots alone, so health pots are rarely as good a substitute even though it sounds viable on paper. And that's without counting Philo's mana regen or gp10. As minor as the gp10 might be, it does end up paying for the item after ~13 minutes in the end. So, even though the health pots might cost you about 200 gold lesser or so, but it won't be as effective healing and that gold won't be coming back.

But ofcourse, experimentation is the key and you could try it and see if it works for you. Instead of going Boots/Cloth Armor and health pots, I know some people just directly start with 13 Health Pots instead if they think they'll have a tough lane. I haven't tested the effectiveness of this opening myself so I don't know how effective it is, but as long as you play carefully, I think it might be enough for you to be able to get through early game, and then you can start trading efficently.