Gold efficiency is the comparison of an item's purchase price in the in-game shop to the amount of gold that item is actually worth, based on the stats it provides. This is a form of theory-crafting within the game, but it does follow a set of guidelines that allows it to hold merit in usage within the community, and is in fact acknowledged by Riot Games Inc. as a lever for game balance.
Calculating Gold Efficiency
The gold efficiency of an item can be determined by comparing its purchase price to its theoretical price, which is the combined gold value of all the stats bonuses it provides. The value of individual bonuses is determined from reference items. Reference items are basic items whith just one effect that provides a bonus to a single stat. They provide a baseline to determine the gold value of the stat they improve.
The theoretical price of an item seldom takes into account any passive or active effects. However, if an item's passive is "Gain a fraction of stat X as stat Y", and the item itself gives stat X, it is customary to include the bonus to stat Y from the item's passive working on its own stats to calculate its theoretical price (for example, the Manamune).
The gold efficiency of an item is the theoretical price divided by its actual price. An item is gold efficient if its gold efficiency is greater than or equal to 100%. Items which are not gold efficient have a gold deficit, which is the difference between their purchase price and their theoretical price. The gold deficit helps in determining whether it's worth buying an item. It is worth buying the item if its passive and/or active abilities are considered to be worth more than their gold deficit.
The gold values assigned to stats are not measures of the effectiveness of those stats. They are simply base prices meant to be used in determining the theoretical prices of higher-tier items. The goal of this page is to provide a valuation of items by comparing the bonuses they provide to the bonuses provided by a combination of base items with the same total price. For example, comparing an item which provides +20 AD and +20 Armor to an item which provides +20 AD and +20 Armor.
An external tabular analysis of the gold efficiencies of items can be found here. (Outdated)
Base Statistic Prices
One way of deriving a stat's gold value is from the least expensive basic item that provides only that stat.
Champion Statistic | Base Item | Item Cost | Stat Raised | Gold / Stat Bonus |
---|---|---|---|---|
Attack damage | 350 | 10 AD | 35 | |
Ability power | 435 | 20 AP | 21.75 | |
Armor | 300 | 15 Armor | 20 | |
Magic resistance | 450 | 25 MR | 18 | |
Health | 400 | 150 HP | 0 2.666∞ | |
Mana | 350 | 250 MP | 0 1.4 | |
Health regeneration | 150 | 50% HP5 | 0 3 | |
Mana regeneration | 125 | 25% MP5 | 0 5 | |
Critical strike chance | 400 | 10% Crit | 40 | |
Attack speed | 300 | 12% AS | 25 | |
Flat movement speed | 300 | 25 MS | 12 |
Life steal, Lethality, magic penetration, on-hit damage, cooldown reduction, and percent movement speed are not found alone on any item, so their gold values are calculated using the least gold efficient, lowest-tier items available: , , , , and has been generally accepted to be a fair gold value for life steal, armor penetration, magic penetration, on-hit damage, cooldown reduction, and percent movement speed respectively. Spell vamp (on an item) is currently only found on the non-static passive Lifegrip on , making its gold value incalculable.
Champion Statistic | Base Item | Item Cost | Stat Raised | Gold / Stat Bonus |
---|---|---|---|---|
Life steal | 900 | 10% LS 15 AD |
37.5 35 | |
Lethality | 1100 | 10 Lethal 25 AD |
22.5 35 | |
Magic penetration | 1100 | 15 MC Pen 45 MS |
37.333∞ 12 | |
On-hit damage | 1000 | 15 OH Dmg 25% AS |
25 25 | |
Cooldown reduction | 800 | 10% CDR 200 health |
26.666∞ 2.666∞ | |
Percent movement speed | 850 | 5% MS 30 AP |
39.5 21.75 |
Item Statistics
Basic Tier Items
Base Item | Item Cost | AD Value | Gold / AD | Equivalence |
---|---|---|---|---|
350 | 10 | 35 | N/A | |
875 | 25 | 35 | 0% Greater Efficiency | |
1300 | 40 | 32.5 | 7.69% Greater Efficiency |
Base Item | Item Cost | AP Value | Gold / AP | Equivalence |
---|---|---|---|---|
435 | 20 | 21.75 | N/A | |
850 | 40 | 21.25 | 2.35% Greater Efficiency | |
1250 | 60 | 20.833∞ | 4.4% Greater Efficiency |
Base Item | Item Cost | Armor Value | Gold / Armor | Equivalence |
---|---|---|---|---|
300 | 15 | 20 | N/A | |
800 | 40 | 20 | 0% Greater Efficiency |
Base Item | Item Cost | HP Value | Gold / HP | Equivalence |
---|---|---|---|---|
400 | 150 | 2.666∞ | N/A | |
1000 | 380 | 2.63 | 1.46% Greater Efficiency |
Base Item | Item Cost | Crit Value | Gold / Crit | Equivalence |
---|---|---|---|---|
400 | 10% | 40 | N/A | |
800 | 20% | 40 | 0% Greater Efficiency |
Doran's items are meant to be powerful early game, but lose effectiveness in the later stages of the game, as they do not build into the higher-tier items found in the late game. In terms of gold per statistics, however, these are among the most cost efficient items in the shop.
Attack damage, heals 3 life on hit, and grants 1 extra gold per minion kill. Reaching 100 minion kills gives 350 gold and disables the passive
provides 7Using the Basic Items Statistics, the actual value of a 245, making it 54.44% gold efficient. Once 100 minions have been killed, becomes 154.44% gold efficient.
isAttack damage, 80 Health, and 3% Life steal.
provides 8Using the Basic Item Statistics, a 605.833∞, making it 134.63% gold efficient.
is worthAbility power, 60 Health, 50% Mana regeneration, and recovers 4 Mana each time you get a kill.
provides 15- 15 AP × 21.75 gold per AP = 326.25
- 60 HP × 2.666∞ gold per HP = 160
- 50% MP5 × 5 gold per % MP5 = 250
- 4 MP per kill = ??
Using the Basic Items Statistics, the actual value of a 736.25, making it 184.06% gold efficient excluding the passive. Doran's Ring is the most cost-efficient of the Doran's items.
isHealth, 6 Health regeneration, and blocks 8 damage from single target attacks and spells from champions.
provides 80- 80 HP × 2.666∞ gold per HP = 213.333∞
- 6 HP5 × ?? gold per HP5 = ??
- Blocks 8 damage from single target attacks and spells from champions = ??
Using the Basic Items Statistics, the actual value of a 213.333∞, making it 47.41% gold efficient excluding the passives.
isAbility power, 100 Mana, +25% increased healing from potions, and the unique passive Do or Die and Dread, which grants bonus Ability power upon killing or assisting kills, but losing 12 Ability power upon dying.
provides 15 Using the Basic Items Statistics, the actual value of is 466.25, making it 133.21% gold efficient excluding the passives. can reach a gold efficiency of 319.64% at maximum stack of Glory.
Gold-generating items are items that, while being moderately inefficient to start out, boost the gold income of the user independently of obtaining last hits, thus potentially allowing any of them to become gold efficient given enough time. Unlike the Doran's items, these items all have intermediate and legendary-tier upgrades.
Mana regeneration, 5% Cooldown reduction and the unique passive Favor, which grants 4 gold and heals for 5 health whenever a nearby minion dies that the user did not kill.
provides 25%- 25% MP5 × 5 gold per MP5 = 125
- 5% CDR × 26.666∞ gold per CDR = 133.33
- Unique Passive – Favor: Grants 4 and restores 5 health each time a nearby enemy minion dies that you didn't kill (1400 range).
Using the Basic Items Statistics, the actual value of 258.33, without counting the passive, making it 64.58% gold efficient. By counting the passive, you get 4 for every minion death, making the gold efficient after generating 91.67 (~23 minion deaths).
isHealth, 2 gold per 10 seconds, and the unique passive Spoils of War, which grants the user charges which cause melee attacks to execute minions below 195 + (5*level) health, healing you and the nearest allied champion for 40 health and grants them gold equal to the kill.
provides 75- 75 HP × 2.666∞ gold per HP = 200
- 2 Gp10 = +2 gold every 10 seconds
- Unique Passive – Spoils of War: Melee auto-attacks execute minions below 195 + (5*level) health. Killing a minion by any means heals you and the nearest allied champion for 15 health and grants them kill gold. These effects require a nearby allied champion and consume a charge. Recharges every 60 seconds. Max 2 charges.
Using the Basic Items Statistics, the actual value of 200, without counting the passive, making it 50% gold efficient. The becomes gold efficient after granting 150 to allies utilizing the Spoils of War passive.
isAbility power, 25% Mana regeneration, 2 gold per 10 seconds and the unique passive Tribute, which deal 10 additional damage and grant 8 gold whenever the wielder damages an enemy champion or structure.
provides 5- 5 AP × 21.75 gold per AP = 108.75
- 25% MP5 × 5 gold per MP5 = 125
- 2 Gp10 = +2 gold every 10 seconds
- Unique Passive – Tribute: Spells and basic attacks against champions or buildings deal 10 additional damage and grant 8. This can occur up to 3 times every 30 seconds. Killing a minion disables this passive for 12 seconds.
Trivia
- Spell vamp used be a statistic available on items. It was valued at 27.5 per percentage point before it was removed from .
- The former values for Mp5 and Hp5 were 60and 36 respectively. Even though flat Mp5 is nonexistent on the Rift, flat Hp5 is still available on certain items like and .
- An V5.16) the most gold efficient item that all champions can be said to make at least some use of, with a theoretical price of 4954; 412.83% of its purchase price. affecting all five champions on a team was (before
- With the maximum amount of ability power, a grants about 424 ability power, with a theoretical price of 9222; 280% of its purchase price.
- The snowball item begin with very low gold efficiency, but upon reaching maximum stacks have some of the best possible in the game.
- Health regeneration.
- A also has no gold efficiency cap with or .
has no gold efficiency cap with because it infinitely increases his health, which will scale