Gold efficiency

The Gold efficiency of an item tells you how much stats it provides for its price (gold cost). This is a theoretical value with no direct game impact, used mainly to compare items.

A base gold value for each stat has to be defined in order to calculate gold efficiency. This is a form of "theory-crafting" because gold value is not a part of the game's rules; the number has to be derived from the prices of in-game items (see below).

Gold efficiency is then the ratio of the item's theoretical gold value to its actual in-game price.

In general the theoretical gold efficiency is most useful for comparing items' relative, theoretical values. The "real" value of an item during an actual game is influenced by many other factors that are not easily modeled (in terms of gold or otherwise).

Calculating Gold Efficiency

The formula for the gold efficiency of an item (as a percentage figure) is simple:

$ \pagecolor{Black}\color{White}{\rm Gold\ efficiency}={{\rm Gold\ value} \over {\rm Item\ price}} \times 100 $

The difficulty is in determining the gold value given the stats on the item. It is done by using the price of "reference items" (see next section).

If the item has passive or active effects they are only taken into account if they provide stats with a gold value (e.g. if an item's effect added a temporary flat movement speed, the gold value of this effect could be determined, because there is a reference value for movement speed). See the next section for how the base gold value of various stats is derived from "reference items".

The item price is simply the price from the in-game shop.

Since gold efficiency is usually given as a percentage value, we have to multiply the ratio by 100.

An item is said to be gold efficient if its gold efficiency is at least 100%. Usually, items that are less than 100% gold efficient have other (passive or active) effects that are not taken into account when determining their gold value. This then results in a theoretical gold deficit in the item's value; in those cases, the items passive or active effects usually make up for the deficit.

Base Statistic Prices

The gold values assigned to stats are not measures of the effectiveness of those stats. They are simply base values meant to be used in determining the theoretical value of other items (or effects that are not item-related, such as Dragon buffs or Runes).

A stat's gold value is derived from the least expensive basic item that provides only that stat:

Champion Statistic	Base Item	Item Cost	Stat Raised	Gold / Stat Bonus
Attack damage	Long Sword	350	10 AD	35
Ability power	Amplifying Tome	435	20 AP	21.75
Armor	Cloth Armor	300	15 Armor	20
Magic resistance	Null-Magic Mantle	450	25 MR	18
Health	Ruby Crystal	400	150 HP	0 2.6
Mana	Sapphire Crystal	350	250 MP	0 1.4
Health regeneration	Rejuvenation Bead	150	50% HP5	0 3
Mana regeneration	Faerie Charm	125	25% MP5	0 5
Critical strike chance	Brawler's Gloves	400	10% Crit	40
Attack speed	Dagger	300	12% AS	25
Flat movement speed	Boots of Speed	300	25 MS	12

Life steal, lethality, magic penetration, on-hit damage, cooldown reduction, percent movement speed, and heal and shield power are not found isolated on any single item, so their gold values are calculated using the least expensive items that provide the stat: Vampiric Scepter, Serrated Dirk, Sorcerer's Shoes, Recurve Bow, Kindlegem, Aether Wisp and Forbidden Idol for each of the aforementioned stats respectively. Spell vamp (on an item) is currently only found on the non-static passive Lifegrip on Maw of Malmortius, making its gold value incalculable.

Champion Statistic	Base Item	Item Cost	Stat Raised	Gold / Stat Bonus
Life steal	Vampiric Scepter	900	10% LS 15 AD	37.5 35
Lethality	Serrated Dirk	1100	10 Lethal 25 AD	22.5 35
Magic penetration	Sorcerer's Shoes	1100	18 MC Pen 45 MS	31.1 12
On-hit damage	Recurve Bow	1000	15 OH Dmg 25% AS	25 25
Cooldown reduction	Kindlegem	800	10% CDR 200 HP	26.6 2.6
Percent movement speed	Aether Wisp	850	5% MS 30 AP	39.5 21.75
Heal and shield power	Forbidden Idol	800	5% HS Power 50% Base MP5 10% CDR	56.6 5 26.6

Item Statistics

Basic Tier Items

Base Item	Item Cost	AD Value	Gold / AD	Long Sword Equivalence
Long Sword	350	10	35	N/A
Pickaxe	875	25	35	0% Greater Efficiency
B. F. Sword	1300	40	32.5	7.69% Greater Efficiency

Base Item	Item Cost	AP Value	Gold / AP	Amplifying Tome Equivalence
Amplifying Tome	435	20	21.75	N/A
Blasting Wand	850	40	21.25	2.35% Greater Efficiency
Needlessly Large Rod	1250	60	20.833∞	4.4% Greater Efficiency

Base Item	Item Cost	Armor Value	Gold/ Armor	Cloth Armor Equivalence
Cloth Armor	300	15	20	N/A
Chain Vest	800	40	20	0% Greater Efficiency

Base Item	Item Cost	MR Value	Gold / MR	Null-Magic Mantle Equivalence
Null-Magic Mantle	450	25	18	N/A
Negatron Cloak	720	40	18	0% Greater Efficiency

Base Item	Item Cost	HP Value	Gold / HP	Ruby Crystal Equivalence
Ruby Crystal	400	150	2.666∞	N/A
Giant's Belt	1000	380	2.63	1.46% Greater Efficiency

Base Item	Item Cost	MP Value	Gold / MP	Sapphire Crystal Equivalence
Sapphire Crystal	350	250	1.4	N/A

Base Item	Item Cost	Hp5 Value	Gold / Hp5	Rejuvenation Bead Equivalence
Rejuvenation Bead	150	50%	3	N/A

Base Item	Item Cost	Mp5 Value	Gold / Mp5	Faerie Charm Equivalence
Faerie Charm	125	25%	5	N/A

Base Item	Item Cost	Crit Value	Gold / Crit chance	Brawler's Gloves Equivalence
Brawler's Gloves	400	10%	40	N/A

Base Item	Item Cost	AS Value	Gold / % AS	Dagger Equivalence
Dagger	300	12%	25	N/A

Trivia

• Spell vamp used be a statistic available on items. It was valued at 27.5 per percentage point before it was removed from Hextech Revolver. It is still available through Maw of Malmortius' passive.
• The former values for MP5 and HP5 were 60 and 36 respectively. Flat MP5 is available on Doran's Ring, and flat HP5 is still available on items like Warmog's Armor and Doran's Shield.
• With the maximum amount of ability power, a Rabadon's Deathcap grants about 424 ability power, with a theoretical price of 9222; 280% of its purchase price.
• The snowball item Mejai's Soulstealer begins with a very low gold efficiency, but upon reaching maximum stacks has one of the best possible in the game.
  • Mejai's Soulstealer has a theoretical price of 3828.75 when fully stacked; 273.48% of its purchase price.
• Warmog's Armor has no gold efficiency cap with Sion's Soul Furnace or Cho'Gath's Feast because they infinitely increase their health, which will scale Health regeneration.
  • A Rabadon's Deathcap also has no gold efficiency cap with Thresh's Damnation or Veigar's Phenomenal Evil Power.