Crystalline Flask: (225g)
Passive: Starts with 3 charges and refills each time you stop by your shop.
Active: Consumes a charge to restore 100 health and 40 mana over 10 seconds.
There is a stage in player development where they learn the importance of potions, and how purchasing them liberally can turn the tide in difficult lanes or break a stalemate. A potion used in combat can be the difference between glorious victory and ignominious defeat. However, few players mentally track just how much gold they spend on potions. It's not until they realize they are an item or two behind their opponent that the potential cost of their drinking habit catches up to them.
Crystalline Flask serves as an efficient solution to this problem, so efficient that Riot very quickly nerfed its sell value. Flask's three charges are equivalent to two health potions and one mana potion, and recharge for free every time you recall. Flask effectively breaks even with just one use, and only gets better from there.
Starting with Flask is, in short, something of a no-brainer. It's cheap, so much so you can add a Rejuvenation Bead or Faerie Charm (both of which are immensely more useful than before) and still have enough gold for two regular potions (or a ward and a potion with the Wealth mastery).
Flask is also an excellent item for level 1 skirmishes. If two teams clash, but one bought Flasks while the other bought potions, the Flask team will generally procure an advantage so long as they stay even on kills. By forcing the opposing team to use potions, while making use of their own free refills, the Flask team earns a small, but important edge.
Using the Wealth mastery it's actually possible to start Flask + Cloth Armor/Hunter's Machete, allowing even junglers to make use of the item. However, this opening is incredibly dangerous for many junglers, and essentially impossible for most of the rest. Unless your team is giving you incredible amounts of help on your first buff camp, don't try this unless you're someone with very, very high sustain (e.g. Warwick, Nunu, Udyr etc.).
One final, notable aspect of Flask is that it can be used at the same time as regular potions. Both act as 10 Health per second for their duration, resulting in a potential 20 Health per second. The Total Biscuit of Rejuvenation can overlap the other two as well. In early levels that could easily be the difference between dying to Ignite, and living with a sliver of health.
Crystalline Flask is going to be a useful, cheap purchase for everyone, save for the rare case where zero sustain is necessary at all (and even then). There are simply far too many factors in its favor, and practically nothing bad to say about it. As a result, you can expect to see a lot of Flasks come Season 3.
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