Talk:Ryze/@comment-24082016-20170605181339/@comment-4091261-20170606023531

That's fairly easy to answer. It's because you don't lose the Eternity passive for any iteration.

By itself, is like an item a hardcore tank like  and  would buy. It grants a moderate amount of sustain potential for both and  alongside the raw versions. The combination of these things at it's slightly below gold effiicient standard means that the purchase of means getting enough raw  and  to make sure one has enough of both when necessary.

is an item obtained in matters of sufficiency rather than desire. It is obtained to eliminate existing issues rather than amplifying potential values. In that regard, tends to not be enough to make impact on its own. In the end it is still 92.73% efficient when looking at the raw and.

The true value comes in how far it is pushed. If the champion spends 30 mana every five seconds, it matches on average when  is obtained. Taking 26 damage every five seconds matches on average. These items alongside the gains of the raw stats easily surpasses gold efficient standards.

Since Eternity lasts for eternity if one never sells the, then looking at what all upgrades offers is quite easy to understand.
 * is the blatantly obvious stat stick. The raw stats eventually add up to well beyond efficiency, becoming the value of the item itself. It's almost saying that instead of paying with money, one is paying with time.
 * is just over the gold efficient range, but it also has the Frost Bolt active. Given the way Frost Bolt works, it can double as a waveclearing tool and a boost in damage output in teamfights. It might be difficult to understand how valuable the damage is, but it becomes easier to think about if you multiply it by its potential. Like if it were to hit 5 champions, it would deal 500-1000 magic damage. For waveclear, that number becomes much larger with a multiplier that could stretch to even 20. When looking at this way, the potential AOE impact far surpasses something like.
 * is the only objectively gold inefficient item of the trio. The reason is because the item from start to finish is purposed like a tank's item. The allows tanks to confidently charge in and do full combos over and over again. The  is the foundation of tanks reliance on being healthy. So instead of making mediocre gains,  goes for giga-impact to be valuable at the moment of usage at the cost of its efficiency.