User blog comment:Care Level/Itemization Holes/@comment-10022923-20130825094030/@comment-9593635-20130828005620

That post was actually helpful!

• "First of all, as stated before, vampiric scepter only gave 10% lifesteal back then, it was broken, so why get back the exact same broken item? I asked because judging by this, you clearly didn't know about past changes to the game."

Adjusted numbers to be more in-line with runes; ought to be fine.

• "What's wrong with CDR appearing out of nowhere? do you have any idea how broken it would be to some casters like vlad, ez, morde, lux to just buy cdr by itself?"

Vlad is the only champ I know on the list that would benefit from early CDR; Lux can't mana, Morde can't go spam-happy until he builds spellvamp (even with SV quints), and I don't play Ez enough to know what prevents him from spamming. No, it wouldn't be extremely significant early on because cooldown is far from the only mitigating factor on spell usability on most champs, with the obvious exception of manaless champs, who would benefit somewhat more. Riven, for example, can use early CDR as a defensive alternative to armor (more E means more frequent negation of harass), which she often won't really "need" through the midgame, though she may need the defense before she can pick up Brutalizer. That, though, is something that should be an avilable option; imho: building appropriate to the situation has been keystone in League, but isn't always viable. Those nonviabilities, when the current situation calls for an item choice that just isn't there, those are the "holes", I think.

All that said, a basic CDR item would be geared more for "Oh I see you have 200 gold leftover after buying that AP tome and you can't afford Codex; want the CDR?"

• "180g worth of % armor pen? so, as a starting item, it could ignore 3 armor? and why would you buy a that cheap item lategame where % armor pen matters when you have the farm and kills to get a more expensive item?"

See the last bit of the above response.

• "There is a thing called power spike, where your power suddenly gets to a way larger level. This is an intended thing, and the reason Last whisper doesn't build out of any armor pen item."

Power spikes are intended? Is that a thing Riot supports, or is that just a consequence of the way things currently are? If it is, in fact, intended, you've a valid point. Otherwise... well, you don't. I don't know Riot's stance on the matter, so I'll leave it at that.

• "Would you just have a 500g cost item that does nothing but give you a zhonya active? You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realise what's wrong with that."

The 500g price tag. If it were 1900g and built out of a Needlessly Large Rod, and then the resulting item combined with Seeker's to form Zhonya's, it would be more acceptable. The reasoning here is that temporary invlunerability is significantly stronger in 1v1 engagements due to its ease of use and the inavailability of alternative targets; it's a feature designed for teamfights.

That's not to say that all Legendary-hallmark traits aren't acceptable in earlier items. A basic item that gave 4% movement speed that built into Zeal and Lich Bane wouldn't break the game. An item with an Icy passive that built into Frozen Mallet wouldn't break the game.

• "Armor pen boots. Do you REALLY think that Renekton, Riven, and Zed need MORE damage accesible this early in the game via the form of boots?"

...at that point in the game, they just build more damage in the form of AD or, alternatively, CDR (which is, incidentally, available in boot form). Having it in Boot form would only allow them to get their 45 MS without sacrificing midgame damage, like, well, every non- AD caster damage-dealer in the game.

• "Rapier. Again, even more so. Do you REALLY think Zed needs more lategame damage?"

That's not the right question; a better one would be something more along the lines of "Why are champs that don't, as a rule, autoattack paying for lifesteal?" If there were an item identical to Bloodthirster except that it gave spellvamp and not lifesteal, it would be wonderfully appropriate for these champs. There isn't. It doesn't make sense. Rapier gives damage instead of LS, but damage isn't the only way to go with that.

•  "Again. There is a reason for QSS to have the active. Expensive? What do you mean by that? 600g? So you mean I can buy two potions to remove 2 CC from me, and by the time I drink my second one, I could've easily just bought a QSS, that comes with the extra benefit of magic resist? This potion would just be a noob trap item that inexperienced players buy."

QSS is 1550g. An ADC can't buy a QSS in lane; MR doesn't matter nearly as much as armor, and electing not to buy a BF sword so that you don't get CCd to your squishy, squishy death isn't a realistic option: if your otherwise-even lane opponent comes into lane with a BF Sword and you come into lane with neither more armor nor more AD, you've lost the lane in that moment. It's largely the same against an AD top: you can't just go B and come back having spent 1550g for Cleanse + (at the moment) useless MR. Paying 300g to prevent a death (you're still forced out of lane, possibly), though, is entirely viable.

• "I'm kinda okay with the sentry ward, altough needs some tweaking."

Tweaking how?

• "Diamond Sightstone is the reason I said ythat there is no way you are an experienced support. You know where this would lead? The two supports buying this item, and almost immediately consuming all charges on the same place as they try to fight over it. One of them place a ward, the other destroys it with his own ward, et cetera. If you think this would make support not suck then I can surely tell you don't main support. It might seem cool from your standpoint, but imagine someone on the other team just nonstop clearing your wards without any significant investment. It would frustrate the hell out of you."

If both supports had a Diamond Sightstone, then supports and ADCs would have to roam out of lane to contest ward placement, which is why I describe it as a mini-objective. As stated elsewhere, the reveal timing should be such that a support can't de-ward on a single charge on their own (except Leona; no way around that). If you don't want to contest a ward placement, then ward in the ideal spots for your lane: Blue generally only needs to ward near drag, and Purple can get away with warding Blue's tri and river near wraiths or, with only one ward, between blue's tri and the river (warding on Purple sucks; Blue achieves far better coverage with one ward) outside of extraordinary circumstances. None of these spots are next to the other team's ideal spots until first tower is long gone, in which case supports can't realistically afford to have someone else present every time they place a ward.

• "The machete is the reason you can't be an experienced jungler. You know what this would encourage? ("Hey, maokai, come gank top pls, this jayce is really kicking my ass." "Shut up noob, I need more stacks for my machete") ("Hey, nasus, I have to b, could you defend my lane a bit?" "lol, are you retarded? I'd lose all my stacks" "YOUR TURRET HAS BEEN DESTROYED")"

Maokai is bad: if he doesn't gank, his stacks aren't valuable because they can't be spent. Conversely, the better option would be to gank as much as realistically possible: if you have 10 stacks and that's enough to buy a ward or something after getting an assist, then that's a ward you didn't have before! Maokai should want that ward, and killing more jungle mobs doesn't let him buy that ward any sooner.

The Nasus concern is more realistic; the stacks lost per minion kill can be decreased to only be a fraction of what's gained per jungle mob, so that defending a turret for a bit is viable, but it should not be viable for laners to pick up ever; that's just a numbers issue, though.

• "Sightstones are meant  to be not powerful. that's why they are blantantly gold inefficient until you place a couple wards. And sorry, I'd rather have my support build locket or shurelya instead of something that gives him ap."

Locket and Reverie don't provide an efficient power boost for long laning phases, depending on who you're playing as. Alternatively, Nami or Sona or someone buying more stats on their sightstone after the rest of their build is done (if ever) wouldn't hurt the game.

• "The purse would be one of those items that are extremely annoying for the enemy, and hurt your lategame just as bad. Why do you think Flask charges are limited to 3? Why do you think Riot made a patch to limit your max potions to 5?"

Limiting max potions was done because of 9-potion starts; I didn't see riot mention anything about 9-potion midgames. Flask charges are limited because they're free. If it annoys the enemy but hurts lategame... that's okay. They're annoyed, now, but they won't be when they're snowballing off of an item that they could afford and you couldn't.

• "It's a bit late, so I won't say the problems for the last one, but even you can clearly see that it is not right."

That bit's not particularly useful.

• "There. I hope this is the insight you wanted, hope it satisfies your needs. Sorry if I offended you, but you are not experienced in the game, and don't understand why certain things are done the way they are."

Much better, actually! Now I've been able to explain my reasoning based on stimulus and I've talked about amending some points where it was clearly called for.