Season 3: Liandry's Torment

Today's we're going to cover an item of some controversy, Liandry's Torment.

Liandry's Torment: (2900g)
70 Ability Power
200 Health
Passive: UNIQUE - Eyes of Pain: 15 Magic Penetration
Passive: UNIQUE - Dealing magical spell damage burns enemies for 5% of their current health as magic damage over 3 seconds. If their movement is impaired, they take double damage from this effect. Multi-target or periodic effects deals 2.5% over 1.5 seconds. 300 max damage vs monsters.

Before we dive into discussion, let's get a few quirky mechanics out of the way.

First, Liandry's periodic damage ticks every half second. This will become important in later discussion.

Second, Liandry's periodic damage does not refresh like Teemo's Toxic Shot or Nautilus' Titan's Wrath, but resets. If you deal damage which would proc Liadry's milliseconds before a tick would have occurred you lose that tick of damage forever.

Third, Liandry's does not proc from on-hit effects. The aforementioned Toxic Shot and Titan's Wrath are good examples of Magic Damage that will not proc Liandry's.

The practical upshot of the first two mechanics is that it is very, very easy to lose ticks of Liandry's damage, especially with colliding periodic damage sources. Even with just one periodic damage ability ticking every second Liandry's will only tick once before it is reset, dramatically reducing its potential damage. Whereas you might have expected nine ticks from Teemo's Noxious Trap, in fact you only get six.

Despite that, Liandry's does appear to have a lot of potential. For one, the damage is independent of ability rank, so running into Rank 1 Nidalee traps will yield the same benefit from Liandry's passive as Rank 5. Liandry's also has Flat Magic Penetration, an extremely valuable stat with Season 3's changes. Finally, it's not lacking on the Ability Power front either. It's expensive, and a lot of its cost goes toward the passive, but as an upgrade to Haunting Guise it seems a worthy item.

Which brings us to the controversy. It's very, very hard for most of the champions that favor Liandry's to discern the value of that passive. As a result there's an ongoing debate as to whether it's worth upgrading Haunting Guise into Liandry's early, or if it should be put off until later, or even if it should be built at all. This is an extremely difficult argument because Liandry's damage is very difficult to math out and account for, not only because of the complicated ways you can lose ticks, but also because its damage depends heavily on how much damage has already been done to a target. It's likely that the debate over Liandry's will continue for some time before anything resembling a consensus is reached.

Overall, however, it's a fairly effective item provided you aren't attempting to burst down an opponent. It also has one of the smoothest build paths of any Ability Power item, as every component is cheap and you never need to dedicate more than two slot at a time toward its construction. Haunting Guise makes for a good early item whether you intend on finishing Liandry's now or later. If you're going to be poking at enemy champions and/or laying traps, Liandry's can be very effective.

Teemo is currently the poster-Yordle for Liandry's due to the minefields of mushrooms he leaves across the map. Because they not only deal damage but slow the half-damage effect for periodic damage is cancelled out. The resulting damage adds up to roughly 5% of a target's current health, which is nothing to sneeze at. While he's currently the king of Liandry's users, Nidalee, Ziggs, and Xerath are other champions that make excellent use of the item.

Liandry's passive may not be as exciting as some of the active abilities we've seen, but it still conforms with Riot's goal to shift itemization away from a cut and dried comparison of stats, and into less objective debates about the merits of utility.

Season 3: Blade of the Ruined King

Today we have an item which isn't new per se, but was never seen on Summoner's Rift before Season 3: Blade of the Ruined King

Blade of the Ruined King: (2900g)
40 Attack Damage
10% Life Steal
Passive: UNIQUE - Your attacks deal 4% of your target's current health in physical damage and heal you for half the amount (120 versus versus minions).
Active: UNIQUE - Drains target champion, dealing 150 (+50% of Attack Damage) physical damage and healing you for the same amount. Additionally you steal 30% of their Movement Speed for 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown. 500 range.

Blade of the Ruined King (BotRK) is an interesting item because it seems to overlap significantly with Bloodthirster. Both give Attack Damage and Life Steal, but BotRK trades a significant chunk of both for passive and active effects of difficult to ascertain value. Why have both on Summoner's Rift?

The answer is survival. The Movement Speed changes in Season 3 dramatically favor situational actives. Even Furor, the Tier 3 Enchant, requires single target attacks for its 12%, decaying boost. BotRK possesses one of these situational actives, useful both for chasing someone in close range or escaping. I'm highlighting it today due to a problem commonly facing AD Carries.

While the current Black Cleaver-laden meta will fade the moment its inevitable nerfs land, several aspects of Season 3, and the game in general, have become plain. Teams that can simply dive your most vulnerable players are powerful even in the face of teams with significant crowd control. One player diving can be stopped, but three or four players who coordinate and avoid unnecessary clustering will demolish your principal damage dealers before they can contribute. Against many teams the glass cannon builds of the past are simply a quick ticket to the afterlife.

BotRK is one tool to help combat this. It's no Flash, Heal, or Exhaust, but still provides a tool for surviving, escaping, and kiting a bruiser or assassin who's jumped you. A full build won't help you if you can't distance yourself from the foes clamoring for your head.

Runaan's Hurricane makes an excellent companion to this item. The additional attacks also proc the full damage of the passive, tripling the potential healing. Combined with Bloodthirster you can very quickly heal any incidental damage from a team fight, or even tank to an extent.

If AD Carry is your forte but the big scary bruisers have been crimping your style lately, BotRK may be the item for you. It's no substitute for good positioning, but it can still make all the difference.

Season 3: Hextech Gunblade

Not all Season 3 items are brand new. Some are mere old favorites that have seen significant changes. Among them is Hextech Gunblade.

Hextech Gunblade: (3400g)
45 Attack Damage
65 Ability Power
10% Life Steal
20% Spell Vamp
Passive: UNIQUE - Reload: Your basic attacks and single target spells against champions reduce the cooldown of this item by 3 seconds.
Active: UNIQUE - Deals 150 + 40% of your Ability Power as magic damage and slows the target champion's Movement Speed by 40% for 2 seconds. 60 second cooldown.

While roughly the same, Gunblade has seen a little reshuffling in stats and costs. It lost 5% Life Steal but costs 200g less, and a little Ability Power was swapped for Attack Damage. While the shifting stats aren't particularly notable, the fact that the Spell Vamp is no longer unique heralds the return of Gunblade stacking (as much of a troll build as that may be).

The exciting changes aren't the stats but the new passive and revamped active. The base damage on the active was halved, but now has a 0.4 Ability Power ratio (breaking even at 375 Ability Power). The effect and duration of the slow were also reduced. All of those nerfs are to compensate for the new passive, Reload. There's no internal cooldown on Reload, and it has the potential to allow for multiple uses in a single teamfight, or repeated uses in lane.

Akali is one of the classic Gunblade champions, and Reload is obviously particularly effective on her. Mark of the Assassin procs Reload twice, once for the cast and once for consuming the Mark, meaning that Akali can easily remove half the cooldown in a single chase. Combined with the Artifacer mastery, Akali can easily reset the cooldown on Gunblade after a single kill.

Simply attacking fast can also do the trick. A champion with 2.0 Attack Speed and nothing else will reset Gunblade within 7-8 seconds. Jax' combination of fast attacks and single target abilities makes him similarly well attuned to this item.

Even if you won't be stacking Ability Power, the ability to potentially reuse the active multiple times in a fight is strong. Because Gunblade is still largely a hybrid item most champions may not find it very interesting or useful, but for those that do the changes are potent and compelling.

Season 3: Seraph's Embrace

Today's item is an upgrade to Archangel's Staff: Seraph's Embrace.

Seraph's Embrace: (Transforms from Archangel's Staff)
1000 Mana
60 Ability Power
10 Mana Regen per 5 seconds
Passive: UNIQUE - Insight: Gain Ability Power equal to 3% of your Maximum Mana.
Active: UNIQUE - Mana Shield: Drains 25% of your current mana to shield yourself for an equal amount for 3 seconds - 120 second cooldown.

Item transformation isn't entirely new to League of Legends. Rengar's Bonetooth Necklace upgrades itself based on a stacked buff, and even changes into Kha'zix' head if you murder the void horror in the right circumstances. This item simply extends the core concept.

Fully stacking the bonus Mana on Archangel's Staff will cause it to transform into Seraph's Embrace. The stats on the two items are nearly identical, save for an additional 10 AP and the active ability. The passive Maximum Mana to Ability Power is unique for both items, so enjoy stacking Archangel's Staves while you still can.

Building Archangel's Staff has long been an indicator of a player's inexperience. The time require for stacking its Mana combined with Tear of the Goddess' complete lack of offensive or defensive potential made it a weak choice. You had to rush Tear to be sure of stacking it, but rushing Tear put you at a severe disadvantage in lane. Even though Archangel's Staff could easily provide in excess of 135 AP late-game, the cost, effort, and ultimate lack of defense were not worth the risk.

Some of these problems have been addressed in Season 3. It is now only necessary to stack 750 Mana, rather than 1000, and the upgrade to Seraph's Embrace provides a very significant defensive shield. Even with half of one's mana spent, Mana Shield can potentially provide a 300 damage shield, almost as good as Barrier

Still, it will take a significant portion of the game to stack the mana. You can't count on the transformation until well into the mid-game, even if you rush Tear. However, at that point it offers a great combination of offense, defense, and mana sustain. Who wouldn't want more AP on a single item than even Deathcap, practically unlimited mana, and a potent shield?

While Singed and Ryze are the obvious champions for this item, I expect many champions for whom Archangel's was previously a mistake will find this a useful item when aiming for a strong mid or late-game.

Season 3: Crystalline Flask

Continuing our Season 3 Item Extravaganza, we have another entirely new item: Crystalline Flask

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.

Season 3: Sightstone

Very few items are going to make it through the Season 3 revamp unscathed, and plenty of new choices will present themselves to players of all roles and skill levels. A number of these altered or alien items are worthy of exclusive examination. From now until Season 3 begins, and possibly even after, I'll be reviewing one of these items every day.

Today's item is the brand new Sightstone.

Sightstone: (700g)
100 Health
Passive: UNIQUE - Ward Refresh: Starts with 4 charges and refill each time you return to the shop.
Active: UNIQUE - Ghost Ward: Consumes a charge to place a Sight Ward. You may have a maximum of 2 wards from this item at once.


The strength of this item should be readily apparent to any support player. For 700g you immediately gain 300g in wards and ~250g in Health. Assuming you place these wards continually, it's effectively an 8gp10 item. With its current sell value of 490g it is actually cheaper to buy this item, place two sets of wards, and sell it than to simply buy and place four wards. Even if they nerf the sell value to 50%, a standard for gp10s, it will still be a mere six minutes before enough wards have been placed for the item to break even in value.

Sightstone's ridiculous cost efficiency is going to have interesting ramifications for more than just support players. At higher rankings it's expected that junglers and mid players will also ward in order to track the enemy jungler and warn of impending ganks or roaming opponents. With two access points by mid, warding can be very costly. Yet, with Sightstone the entire burden can be easily shouldered by one of the two players. Even top can make use of this item, as it's not uncommon for enemy junglers to sneak through the fog of war into the lane brush. Unless you have no intention to ward at all Sightstone is going to be an important item for almost every player on the map.

This incredible utility is likely to get the item nerfed. While dropping 700g at once for a Sightstone can be a little difficult for a support, it will be trivial for anyone else. The theoretical power discrepancy between a champion with Sightstone and one with stronger items of similar cost is limited by the lack of vision forgoing wards provides. Unless one's jungler or mid is inept (which, to be fair, is a common condition in lower rankings) the champion who doesn't purchase Sightstone is the one with a disadvantage.

On top of that, Sightstone actually has an upgrade. For an additional 600g (475g for a Ruby Crystal and 125g for the combine cost) you can acquire a Ruby Sightstone, which increases the Health bonus to 300, charges to 5, and number of simultaneous wards to 3. Supports are likely to be the only ones particularly interested in this upgrade, as only they can afford to be so slot-inefficient.

Sightstone doesn't represent the death of wards entirely. You'll still need to pick up wards at the beginning (unless you think you can hold out for a minute or two with no items whatsoever) at the very least. Pink wards will take on a particular significance given the ability of opponents to ward and reward important locations. Late in the game three wards won't be nearly enough to control the map. Still, the amount of gold spent on wards is likely to decrease drastically thanks to this item.

I'm fairly certain that Riot doesn't want the map lit up like a Christmas Tree, and with the nerf to Oracle's there won't be much preventing such a situation. It takes no special foresight to see that Sightstone will be treasured not only by supports, but by laners sick of roaming mids and jungle ganks. Sightstone will be the equivalent to a fast expansion in StarCraft, only without any significant all-in cheeses that might punish the play.

I fully expect that Riot will be forced to impose some limit on the number of Sightstones in the game. Until then, abuse it all you can when Season 3 begins.

Thought: Mana Regen Itemization

Mana regen itemization is the most worthless in the game. Aside from the barest minimum required to lane or jungle effectively, mana regen is the worst stat on which to spend your hard-earned gold. The cost of mana regen is simply too high for what it actually accomplishes.

Because of LoL's mechanics and practical reality it is almost always better to invest in more damage than to invest in mana regen. Killing an opponent outright is more valuable than having the mana to kill them on the second or third try. This is why mana regen is most commonly built on AP carries who aren't burst-oriented, they can't instagib their opponents anyway. Even then, damage is so critical that despite the potential for Chalice to yield a whopping 35.8 mp5 by itself (approximately 2000g worth of stats) it was very rarely purchased even by attrition champions. Only recently has Chalice become popular, and primarily because it is now the component of a damage item. Mana regen is simply too costly for too little benefit.

Furthermore, mana regen itemization is overly-focused on AP champions and supports. AD champions and bruisers are essentially limited to Manamune, Philo/Reverie, Soul Shroud, Tiamat and perhaps Chalice; two support items, a troll item, an item whose upgrade is for AP champions, and one item actually tailored to the needs of an AD. In short, if you're an AD carry or bruiser you have few, if any, meaningful mana regen options.

It's for these reasons that Riot has been moving away from significant mana costs on AD carries and bruisers. Without building any mana regen at all most recent champion releases for these roles only care about mana in the earliest stages of the game. By the mid or late-game they hardly care unless they completely ignore managing their mana. There simply isn't the itemization to support mana-intensive kits for these champions, and this is the easy solution.

It's not, in my opinion, the "right" solution, but I understand why Riot chose this direction. Giving bruisers meaningful mana costs would dramatically unbalance the game. As it stands bruisers have significant issues becoming tanky enough to survive teamfights while still having enough damage to be relevant. Forcing them to invest in mana regen without careful reblancing would essentially eliminate all but the manaless bruisers as competitive options. Thus, fixing mana regen the "right" way is an incredibly complicated, tricky, and perilous operation. Rather than risk collateral damage Riot went with the simple option.

Still, that leaves us with mana regen itemization in its current, dilapidated state. Athene's Unholy Grail gives me hope that Riot will slowly, and carefully, tweak mana regen to be a more meaningful and investment-worthy stat (at least for APs), but until then it will remain an uninteresting, bland aspect of itemization.

Thought: Item Builds When Fed

Everyone sometimes plays a game where they get kills in one magnificent play after another, resulting in abnormally high volumes of gold. Playing and building as usual in these circumstances is often a mistake, one that both experienced and inexperienced players can make.

Ask almost any player about item builds and you will, in some form or other, be told, "Item builds are not set in stone." Practically every guide will include an Armor or MR item in case the situation demands it. While players are used to thinking about bending and adapting item builds based on team compositions, all too often they fail, even at higher Elos, to consider doing the same based on their gold income.

It's not entirely a mistake to simply complete a standard item build faster. For carries this is often a big enough advantage in and of itself. An AP carry who finishes a Deathcap well before their opponent can terrorize a game, as can an AD carry who finishes a quick Bloodthirster or Infinity Edge. This is a very safe way for a carry to fulfill their role when they are fed.

The potential mistake is much more obvious when playing bruisers, supports, or tanky champions. They tend to avoid building very strong offenses, opting instead for utility or defenses. Sticking to these sorts of builds when fed doesn't press the advantage, and gives your opponents a good chance to recover even if you don't make any bad plays. Changing things up by building offense, or even hybrid offense/defense, instead of tank/utility items can give these champions the ability to carry a game.

Most supports are great examples. Soraka's annoying enough as it is with a standard gp10 build, but with enough gold to finish a Needlessly Large Rod or, heaven help you, a Deathcap suddenly every teamfight is a nightmare where much or all of your AoE damage vanishes the moment she presses R. Taric can become tanky enough to sit in the middle of a teamfight, spamming heals every 3 seconds. A fed Janna can make pushing turrets impossible. By deviating from typical builds in a gold-rich situation, non-carries can carry the game.

Carries can carry harder as well, and not only through "cheesy" stacking items like Sword of the Occult or Mejai's Soulstealer. A Black Cleaver rush can be extremely deadly on a fed AD, as can rushing Haunting Guise on a fed AP. By picking an item that can be abused when flush with gold, even carries can take their gold advantage further.

The bottom line is that many standard builds, when followed religiously, can give floundering opponents the opportunity to regain their footing. "Safe" play is sometimes the same as giving away a lead. By breaking from rote habit to press an advantage, you can push it over the edge and utterly crush your enemies.

Theory: Sustain Items

I am remiss for taking so long to continue the sustain series, but at last I have compiled my thoughts on sustain items.

Sustain items differ from runes in that they lack purity of purpose. While most items only feature one type of sustain, they come with a plethora of other stats that complicate comparisons between them. Choosing sustain items is as much about their other benefits as it about the sustain itself.

Thankfully the various sustain items largely play to the strengths of their sustain type. Hp5 items tend to be focused on defenses because they scale well off each other. Life Steal items always feature attributes which benefit auto-attacking. Spell Vamp items generally feature AP as most champions interested in Spell Vamp have significant AP ratios. While certain choices will often be highly situational, few sustain items are completely useless.

Even though champions tend to clearly favor a specific sustain type, the diversity in what sustain items offer can make choosing between them difficult. As such, here are my thoughts on the major sustain items:

Hp5:

• Philosopher's Stone: A strong sustain item while laning, it turns into the excellent Shurelya's Reverie later in the game. It is likely the most common sustain item in the game. Later in the game it loses effectiveness due to its lack of defensive stats and the overwhelming damage that begins to surface.
• Doran's Shield: Extremely efficient for its cost, this is a good purchase for a harried champion needing a quick mix of defense and safe sustain. It's not a particularly good buy when you aren't at a disadvantage.
• Warmog's Armor: Bought more for its health than its Hp5, and rarely early. While 40 Hp5 is a lot, it pales in comparison to the damage being thrown around. It makes a big difference, however, when the enemy AP carry is out of mana or when another tanky champion is trying to take you down. It has very strong synergy with Force of Nature.
• Force of Nature: Easily provides 60-100 Hp5, depending on your health. Rarely an early buy as it is fairly weak without health, but later in the game it can make tanky champions seem unkillable. Combined with Warmog's you can often exit a teamfight within an inch of death only to return with enough health to clean up at the end.
• Randuin's Omen/Warden's Mail: Few remember that these items even have Hp5. Both are extremely effective for sustaining against AD opponents top lane due to the combination of armor, Hp5, and the passive proc, with bonus health and an active on Randuin's. That Randuin's is also the single best defense against AD carries is a big bonus.
• Locket of the Iron Solari/Emblem of Valor: Essentially a weaker Randuin's. Despite being designed for supports it is rarely bought during the laning phase due to its cost. It isn't a bad purchase later in the game for its active, but ultimately it's a fairly weak sustain item.

 Life Steal:

• Wriggle's Lantern: One of the most cost-efficient items in the game, and easily the second most common sustain item. However, it offers exactly the same sustain as a simple Vampiric Scepter. Because of this it's rarely bought as a second or third item as you're better off building something stronger.
• Doran's Blade: A very common buy for easier last hitting and a little sustain. A couple Doran's Blades provide nearly the same AD as Wriggle's Lantern for roughly half the cost, but at the same time only provide half the sustain. AD carries often prefer a couple of these to Wriggle's; they are effective immediately and help the AD carry rush toward their important items.
• Bloodthirster: Most commonly seen on specific AD carries or very fed bruisers with good AD scaling. The offensive potential of this item is unparalleled by any other Life Steal item. It is also expensive, and loses effectiveness if you frequently die.
• Executioner's Calling: A rare purchase, but extremely potent in lane because it combines sustain with anti-sustain. Many players underestimate the effectiveness of a pseudo-ignite on a 20 second cooldown. It's also a good item to have late-game against burst healing.
• Zeke's Herald: Typically purchased to give someone else sustain, this is a common mid-late game item and rarely seen during laning. Like many other aura items Zeke's is heavily undervalued by the community.
  
• Hextech Gunblade/Bilgewater Cutlass: Unfortunately, Hextech Gunblade gives exactly the same Life Steal as Bilgewater Cutlass, and only five more AD. Any champions interested primarily in Life Steal have little or no reason to upgrade to Gunblade. The lack of an upgrade path generally deters most from building Cutlass.

Spell Vamp:

• Hextech Revolver: A very cheap and efficient source of Spell Vamp, if you can make use of the AP. This is a very common buy on any AP bruiser or manaless AP champion.
• Will of the Ancients: The team oriented upgrade to Hextech Revolver. The personal benefit is somewhat limited, so most champions will hold onto Revolver until team fighting begins in earnest.
• Hextech Gunblade: The highly situational hybrid upgrade to Revolver. Very few champions make good use of this item's mixed attributes. On those that do, however, it's a viable alternative to Will of the Ancients. Gunblade is generally either rushed or saved until last in item builds.

Miscellaneous:

• Spirit Visage: Notable because it increases the effectiveness of all three sustain types by 15%. However, this rarely translates to more than 1-2% Life Steal/Spell Vamp or more than 20 Hp5, even in the late stages of the game. Spirit Visage therefore isn't taken for sustain, but for its synergy with massive self-healing abilities.

You should notice immediately that Spell Vamp has the most limited itemization of all the sustain types. There's no basic Spell Vamp item, and only two finished items to consider. This reflects Spell Vamp's late entry into the game's itemization. All three current Spell Vamp items were added roughly 9 months after launch, and none have been added since. Perhaps more Spell Vamp items will be added in the future, but for now Spell Vamp is significantly harder to obtain than other sustain types.

For Life Steal and Hp5 the variety of choices allows them to be more easily incorporated into a build or role. While not endlessly flexible there's a reasonable option for almost any scenario. Even in the worst case there are cheap, basic items to provide that sustaining edge. Whatever the situation these two types of sustain are readily available.

You may not always buy sustain items, but the difference they can make in a matchup or teamfight is significant. Whether it's in the disorganized chaos of low Elos or the drawn out epic engagements in higher rankings, sustain is a critical factor. Item-centric compositions like double-WotA didn't emerge for no reason.

I've learned from my hubris and will not guarantee when the next and final installment in this series on sustain will come. If I decide to discuss the various types of sustain champions bring to the table in the same detail as I did items it could be some time. Either way, look forward to it.