Theory: Gold Values

In your travels through Runeterra you may at some point have encountered strange phrases such as "item efficiency", "cost-efficiency", or "gold value". Theorycrafting gurus expound on these strange, mystifying terms, claiming that they indicate one item or mastery is secretly overpowered. There's a method to the madness, and madness to the methods.

The basic concept of an attribute's gold value is straightforward. All you need to do is take a basic item and divide its gold cost by its attribute. Voila, now you know that 1 Attack Damage is worth 20 gold, and 1 Ability Power is worth 21.75 gold. Simple, obvious, and useful.

Theorycrafters use these values to determine what items are cost-efficient. An item is cost-efficient when the sum of the value of its attributes is equal to or greater than the cost. It's fairly straightforward math once you have the gold values for all attributes.

The problem, referred to previously as "madness", is that we don't have gold values for all attributes. A significant number of attributes don't have any basic items on which to base their gold values. Cooldown Reduction, Life Steal, Spell Vamp, Penetration, Movement Speed and others are only found through upgrading items and other special cases. As a result, the only data points we have to work with are the combine/upgrade costs of items.

Unfortunately, combine costs have essentially nothing to do with the value of the stats gained. You need only look as far as Trinity Force for this to become self-evident. Its combine cost is a ridiculously small 3 gold, yet it gains 5 Ability Power, 10 Attack Damage, 12% Attack Speed, 50 Health and more. The value of the stats I listed alone is 880 gold, not to mention the nebulous value of the Movement Speed and item passives. Upon closer examination, all item combine costs are just as devoid of meaning.

This presents a problem for theorycrafters as the gold values of roughly half of all attributes cannot be determined. Many theorycrafters try anyway, but the results are mere conjecture. Do we base the value of Cooldown Reduction off of Kindlegem, putting the value of 1% Cooldown Reduction at 32.23 gold? Or do we base it off of Glacial Shroud, giving us -6 gold? With Fiendish Codex and Stinger giving us values of 16.75 gold and 45 gold per 1% Cooldown Reduction respectively, it should be immediately obvious that there's simply no way to assign a meaningful gold value to these sorts of attributes.

Some theorycrafters lack the conviction to admit it, but it is essentially impossible for us to have a complete picture of cost-efficiency. Without an incontrovertible method of determining gold values for advanced attributes most items can't be fully assessed. The best we can do is see how close an item comes to being cost-efficient before making a personal judgement as to whether the remaining attributes are worth the difference.

Theory: Tryndamere and Ability Power

Tryndamere is a champion designed to carry, and like many such champions the issue has historically been getting to the point where he may do so. While he has some sustain from his Bloodlust, it has the fatal flaw of being largely based on his ability to melee, last-hit, and crit. When zoned by some of the more abusive top laners the sustain from Bloodlust is not substantial enough to guarantee Tryndamere's development.

That is, unless you start the game with a crapton of Ability Power.

The Setup:

Runes: Flat AP Quints/Glyphs, Flat AD or Crit % Marks, Armor Seals
Masteries: 21/9/0
Starting Item: Amplifying Tome + 1 Potion
Summoner Spells: Ignite, and Flash/Cleanse

By starting the game with 51.56 Ability Power, Tryndamere abuses the 1.5 ratio on his Bloodlust and the 1.0 ratio on his Spinning Slash to greatly increase both his sustain and his offense. Not only does the base healing on Bloodlust increase from a mere 30 to a whopping 107.34 (more than tripling its value) but the damage on his Spinning Slash increases by 51.56. This is a recipe for winning trades and lanes.

The idea isn't to continue building Ability Power, but to simply abuse this sustain and damage advantage to secure Tryndamere's farm and potential. Once its item slot is needed for something else Amplifying Tome can be sold for 305g, a net loss of a mere 130g. Amplifying Tome makes up for that loss in less than four minutes, assuming you would have spent that gold on potions.

Unconventional as this idea may seem, it actually isn't all that new. Back when Tryndamere was reworked (patch 122, a year and a half ago) this setup became popular as a means to deal with the even more contentious and exclusive top lane of the time. It, and Tryndamere, fell out of favor due to nerfs to Gunblade (which was better than Bloodthirster at the time) and the introduction of new abusive top lanes (i.e. Talon and Riven).

Because every champion who forced Tryndamere out of lane since that time has received nerfs, it appears the time is right to abuse a champion whose ridiculous sustain potential has snuck under the radar.

Theory: How to Build Defensively

At some point we're all faced with a game where the threat of being instantaneously eliminated by a burst assassin is high. They may not be in your lane, but sooner or later you're going to teamfight and they'll be coming for you. Death seems inevitable.

In Season 2 the answer to this problem was Guardian Angel. Its strong defenses and incredibly useful passive made it ideal for surviving burst or protracted fights. In Season 3 it is no longer a complete solution. The combination of nerfs to the item itself and buffs to assassins, bruisers, and their itemization has made Guardian Angel ineffective on its own.

To survive now requires more thought, care, and attention paid to the circumstances of the game. Before I regale you with math, here are three simple rules for survival:

• Health is the most effective defense in the early-game.
• Armor/Magic Resistance are best when you already have a lot of Health or very significant sustain.
• If you can only afford to build one defensive item, it should be Warmog's Armor.

To understand the first rule let's examine a fairly simple scenario. You are level 9 with 1100 Health and 47 Magic Resistance, facing a threatening LeBlanc. You also have 1000 gold. To calculate the raw damage your opponent needs to kill you (Effective Health) we use the following equation:

Effective Health = Health * (1 + (Magic Resistance or Armor)/100)

To defend against LeBlanc there are three potential options: Giant's Belt, Negatron Cloak, or Null-Magic Mantle + Ruby Crystal. In our given scenario these work out like so:


(1100 + 400 [Giant's Belt]) * (1 + 47 / 100) = 2205 Effective Health
1100 * (1 + (47 + 45 [Negatron]) / 100) = 2112 Effective Health
(1100 + 180 [Ruby Crystal]) * (1 + 47 + 20 [Null-Magic Mantle] / 100) = 2138 Effective Health

The values are close, but Giant's Belt has the edge. It's slightly less cost-efficient than Negatron Cloak in this case, but at the same time it provides survivability against both physical and magic damage. Unless the only threat to you is that LeBlanc, Giant's Belt is the more versatile, sound purchase.

The second rule comes into effect as the health gains from leveling (or purchases) skew the math more toward Armor/Magic Resistance. Consider a level 16 champion with 1700 Health:

(1700 + 400 [Giant's Belt]) * (1 + 47 / 100) = 3087 Effective Health
1700 * (1 + (47 + 45 [Negatron]) / 100) = 3264 Effective Health
(1700 + 180 [Ruby Crystal]) * (1 + 47 + 20 [Null-Magic Mantle] / 100) = 3140 Effective Health

Because another 600 Health was gained through leveling Magic Resistance became a much stronger defensive option. Health still defends against all damage types, but if you're only worried about one type then the Negatron Cloak is definitively better.

You can think about sustain in a similar fashion. In a protracted laning situation sustain is equivalent to Health, save when you're at full Health. Armor/Magic Resistance will thus scale the value of your sustain just as they would Health. High sustain champions are therefore better off with Armor/Magic Resistance, provided they can survive the burst and hang around to heal back up.

Regarding the third rule, it's generally best to have at least two defensive items. Health and Armor/Magic Resistance increase each other's effectiveness the more of each you have, but it's difficult to get significant amounts of each from a single item. Two items can easily double your survivability or more.

However, when you can't afford the item slots Warmog's Armor is the single simplest and most effective option. It grants 1000 Health in addition to significant Health Regeneration, and while your opponents can cut into Armor and Magic Resistance with Penetration, they can't reduce your Maximum Health. Combined with runes, masteries, defensive steroids, and aura items on allies, Warmog's is the best one stop shop for survivability.

Season 3 and all its changes are still causing huge ripples, but one of the persistent waves is a much greater emphasis on champions who can afford to build tankier. Tank Katarina is seeing play, Warmog's and Frozen Mallet are appearing on AD carries, and even assassins are buying defense. The days of pure glass cannon builds are quite possibly over.

Theory: Donating to Junglers

It is currently normal, even expected, that junglers will donate their Wraiths and even the rest of their jungle to the lanes as the game goes on. This is because it's generally assumed that the lanes, not the jungler, will carry the game later. However, it's mathematically possible, and even practical, for a jungler to achieve or exceed solo lane levels of farm by reversing this relationship.

The math is pretty simple. A jungle clear of the small camps is worth 154g and 441exp before scaling and can be done approximately once a minute. Two creep waves, one minute's worth, are worth 228g and 529exp before scaling (and without siege minions). Donating as few as four creeps to a passing jungler is enough for them to surpass both the gold and exp potential of a solo lane who nails every last-hit. Even if we take into account scaling this remains true throughout a game.

First and foremost this illustrates the importance of coordinating recalls with your jungler. Even if you are only going to miss a handful of creeps while you are gone, having the jungler there to collect them boosts a jungler significantly. More often it's the case that many creeps will be missed, and giving them all to the jungler is enormous. Junglers like Nocturne, Udyr, or Shyvana, who thrive on farm, go from decent to powerful if they can cover for lanes.

But simply covering lanes isn't the point of discussing this topic. Rather, the point is to suggest that instead of having a farm-dependent champion top or mid and a tanky/support jungler feeding them jungle farm, it's entirely possible, even safer, to have a tanky/support champion top or mid feeding a farm-dependent jungler lane farm.

There are many tanky/support champions perfectly capable of holding their own in a lane, but who don't make quite as good use of the farm as a carry. Having them roam or recall frequently to allow their jungler to quickly clear a creep wave before returning to the jungle has the potential to provide the carry with more farm than any solo lane save those rare cases mid where it's safe to clear both Wraith camps repeatedly.

The big advantage to this strategy is that it's very hard to counter directly. So long as the relevant jungle entrances are warded or the nearby lanes keep tabs on their opponents, the jungler is perfectly safe even if their jungle is warded. Only an extremely concerted counter-jungling effort could threaten the farming jungler, and only at great risk. It's really the easiest way to guarantee a given champion will be farmed.

The disadvantage is that it's much easier to track a roaming mid or top lane than it is a roaming jungler. With the jungler tied up in farming, and conspicuously mid or top when their ally is absent, there will generally be fewer ganks or at least far more predictable ones. This can be offset in various ways, but in general the lanes will have to be significantly more self-sufficient than normal.

At the same time, having Smite on a carry is awkward. It's not impossible to work around, and there is the potential to have some shenanigans with Smite on your mid champion, but it is a difficult adjustment that teams will have to deal with.

Ultimately, however, this is the best alternative to the current meta I'm aware of. As it stands junglers are almost always tanky, while carries in the lanes take their farm. Many underused champions might see the light of day again if we reverse this relationship.

Theory: Sustain Champions (S-Z)

It's the final installment of my overview of sustain. If nothing else this will serve as fodder for retrospectives when two or so years from now I feel like looking back at the way things once were. The game is always changing, but it's still worthwhile to stop and take stock from time to time.

Shen's sustain is extremely flexible. Leveled first it is a simultaneous harass, sustain, and last-hitting tool. That Shen is an energy champion means he can spam it indefinitely, either to whittle down his opponent or mark targets so he can heal himself. Later in the game the heal is largely forgotten, but can still be notable when his team is focusing a target.

Skarner's sustain ability is largely considered his worst. While the heal can be notable when leveled, Skarner's priorities lie in his other abilities. By the time he gets around to leveling his sustain it's no longer worth mentioning.

Sona was the queen of sustain when she was released, and though she's received many nerfs since she's still one of the few supports with a viable spell for sustaining allies. Because her heal is inefficient unless both she and her ally need healing Sona tends to be picked primarily for her harass and offensive buffs. Still, her ability to sustain and defend when all else fails is a big part of what makes her viable.

Soraka is synonymous with sustain. Even though it's been repeatedly nerfed her heal is still one of the first abilities to come to mind when the word "sustain" enters a discussion. Soraka essentially is sustain, her kit is designed to do little else. Despite having few other strengths Soraka's sustain alone is enough to get her banned in tournaments.

Swain is the only sustain champion who has no sustain outside of his ultimate. However, Swain is still known for his sustain because of just how powerful that ultimate is. The three birds that constantly damage opponents during his ultimate also heal him for significant amounts, giving him incredible sustain in lane and durability in team fights. That it has barely any cooldown is just icing on the cake. A Swain with Blue buff is essentially invincible unless ignited or focused down.

Taric is known more for his laning offense and auras than his sustain. However, his heal remains a crucial part of his kit as a frontline support. Taric's heal will always heal him for at least as much as it heals an ally, and can be used with increased effectiveness on himself if necessary. It's this self-sustain, combined with his strong armor, that allows Taric to keep threatening his opponents with his stun.

Trundle has one of the most interesting, yet only mildly effective, sustain passives in the game. He gains a % of the maximum health of any enemy unit that dies in his presence, including minions, champions, and monsters. He doesn't even have to be the one killing them, he only has to be nearby. In a teamfight where multiple enemies with thousands of health die, Trundle can easily heal for hundreds of health. In the lane the constant stream of dying minions provides effective Hp5 for Trundle. However, the values are never high enough for Trundle's sustain to be that strong without items to supplement it.

Tryndamere's sustain ability simultaneously grants him healing and offense. Each rank in the ability gives him AD that scales with how much health he's lost, and healing that scales with how much Fury he's accrued. It can be used without any Fury whatsoever as well, a fact which encouraged many Tryndamere players to actually use AP runes and items for laning sustain. Tryndamere uses his sustain to survive until he has farmed enough to carry his team.

Udyr uses his sustain to bully his lane opponents or emerge from the jungle a full health, tanky monster. The combination of a shield with both Life Steal and mana regeneration is extremely potent, allowing him to survive the killer offense of many top lane champions even with nominal ranks in the ability. It's this ability which gives him so much mid-game tankiness.

Vladimir has been nerfed numerous times, in part because of his strong offensive sustain. Though many of his abilities cost health, his principal ability and nuke costs nothing, rapidly reduces in cooldown, and most importantly heals. As a result Vladimir must be shut down early or else he quickly becomes abusive. That he also has a strong late-game makes him a double threat.

Warwick's combination of a sustain passive and nuke make him extremely difficult to wrest out of a lane. Unlike Vladimir his nuke at least costs mana, potentially limiting him against another sustaining opponent. Still, so long as it's safe for him to auto-attack minions he can still heal for substantial amounts without spending mana. This makes him very strong against attrition lanes and in the jungle.

Xin Zhao's passive heals him every third auto-attack. It's ideal for jungling, and gives him mana free sustain while laning. Unfortunately Xin Zhao's poor late-game scaling and lack of escapes makes it hard for him to convert his sustain into an advantage for his team.

Yorick is the poster-child for abusive sustain. His ranged harass is highly spammable, heals him, spawns a ghoul for extra damage and healing, and even reduces the damage he takes. Diving into him results in a flurry of angry ghouls and minions. Because of his laning strength Yorick is an ideal champion for shutting down opponents or playing 1v2.

That's all of them. I wasn't able to go quite into the level of detail I wanted, but such are the limits of this sort of format. Hopefully this exercise has been informative and not too dry.

Theory: Sustain Champions (I-R)

Without further ado, the second installment of the sustain champion analysis.

Irelia, like Dr. Mundo, is one of the few champions with two forms of sustain. The "better nerf Irelia" meme came about in part because of this. Despite many nerfs she remains a threat if allowed to farm, and her sustain tools are still potent. Maxing her W first makes it hard to trade with her except in short bursts, as any prolonged engagement favors her true damage and passive healing. Once she has her ultimate she can heal for very significant amounts off of creep waves, and the cooldown is short enough to do so every other wave. She may not be quite the monster she once was, but her sustain and carry potential still make her strong.

Karma remains the outcast support for a number of reasons, and her iffy sustain is one of them. While Q's healing has incredible potential late-game, it's extremely weak early on when champion health pools are low. Combined with mana costs and a dependency on Mantra, Karma has significant problems sustaining either herself or an ally.

Kayle is not known for her sustain, but her heal is still an important part of her kit. It is what allows her to emerge from her first jungle clear with full health, and provides her a notable edge in laning. However, Kayle rarely maxes this first or even second unless she's behind and forced to fall back on a pure support role.

Lee Sin has the most incredibly multipurpose sustain ability in the game. Not only does his W provide Life Steal and Spell Vamp, but also provides a shield, an escape/gap closer, and an Armor bonus. Because both his Q and E can be extremely effective even at low ranks, Lee Sin can easily invest in W against tough lane opponents. Lee Sin won't max W first in the jungle, but between his W and his E he has few sustain problems even before Wriggle's.

Maokai's passive gives him the sustain he needs to survive both the jungle and teamfights. While healing for 7% of maximum health every few spell casts may not seem like much, over the course of a clear or skirmish it can add up to a lot of health. Combined with his ultimate he becomes deceptively tanky even with only a handful of items.

Master Yi's sustain ability is unique in that no other sustain ability restricts the champion so completely. While Fiddlestick's Drain is similar it still serves an offensive purpose. However, this does not make the ability weak. If uninterrupted Master Yi can heal for incredible amounts, and is nearly impossible to kill while channeling. However, the ability's long cooldown means it must be used carefully; any interruption puts Master Yi at a potentially deadly disadvantage.

Morgana is an infamous sustain champion. Her passive gives her Spell Vamp which scales with her level, and she only needs to cast one spell to clear a creep wave. This combination allows her to absorb harass and farm indefinitely, using her Black Shield to escape any gank attempts. Morgana wins her lanes both by attrition and by being a huge teamfight threat later in the game. Few AP champions enjoy laning against her.

Nasus has the only passive in the game which grants Life Steal, but still requires significant help from items in order to lane. While starting with more Life Steal than a Vampiric Scepter sounds amazing, Nasus has conflicted priorities between his desire to last-hit with Q and his need to sustain by auto-attacking. Ultimately his passive puts him ahead in his strong matchups, but does little to help him against his counters.

Nidalee's heal is notable in that it is the only heal which doubles as an offensive steroid. As a result, most of her early laning harass is actually from auto-attacks. The heal itself has been nerfed a number of times, but is still strong and a part of what makes Nidalee so difficult to pin down and kill.

Nocturne's passive is almost exclusively designed for jungling. In a laning situation it will sustain him, but inevitably pushes the lane as well. While it scales with Attack Speed Nocturne does not go out of his way to itemize around his passive; it's simply too situational outside of jungling. For jungling, however, it gives him the sustain and damage needed to clear quickly and safely throughout the game.

Nunu's Consume was legendary in the old jungle for its counter-jungling potential. Today it's simply a situational sustain tool. Most of the time Nunu's priorities will be on maxing his W and E as those provide far better support, ganking, and teamfight utility. However, AP Nunu is practically impossible to kill in lane without outside interference because of his combination of harass and healing.

Olaf is another infamous sustain champion. Whether maxing his Q or E first Olaf has incredible offensive potential which enhances his Life Steal/Spell Vamp combination. Because it can be so dangerous to stand near Olaf it's easy for him to auto-attack creeps and heal. Olaf is a clear case where a little sustain combined with another strong point can lead to an extremely strong lane.

Renekton abuses opponents in lane by dashing to them, stunning them, and then healing for a significant amount off both them and their minions with his Q as he walks/dashes away. With no mana costs worth mentioning, Renekton can sustain himself so long as he can safely Q his opponent and/or their minions. While there's a cap, it hardly matters when the ability has only an 8 second cooldown.

We're nearing the end of the overview/analysis of sustain champions. Many of these champions could easily be worthy of their own dedicated posts detailing how their sustain interacts with their other abilities to make them strong. That's sadly out of scope for this style of post, but hopefully there's some good information to glean regardless.

Theory: Sustain Champions (A-H)

Today I'll be covering the first 13 out of 39 notable sustain champions. There's more to say about some than others, so don't be surprised when one champion gets multiple paragraphs while another only gets a few lines.

Ahri's passive is a complicated place to start, but is fairly simple in practice. Every ability she uses generates up to 3 charges based on the number of targets she hits, and at 9 charges her next ability gains 35% Spell Vamp. Practically speaking this means Ahri has bonus Spell Vamp on every fourth ability cast.

At first this might seem weak, but the condition is there to make up for the passive's high value and usability. It's quick and easy for Ahri to hit an entire creep wave with her Q, and her W is considered a single-target ability for the purposes of Spell Vamp. 35% is also a very large amount of Spell Vamp, especially during the crucial early game. Ahri's passive, when used properly, is a large part of what makes her strong in lane and in team fights.

Akali's passive grants her 8% Spell Vamp upon reaching 9.5 bonus AD, and an additional 1% for every 6 AD thereafter. Typically Akali players use Flat AD Marks to activate this part of her passive, as buying AD items on an AP assassin is extremely inefficient.

While 8% Spell Vamp isn't a lot, Akali's infinite energy allows her to spam her abilities and reap the healing rewards. Her damage is also primarily single-target, meaning she doesn't suffer the AoE Spell Vamp penalty. Because her sustain and resources are both free she can trade unfavorably with opponents and still end up ahead in the long run.

Alistar is better known for his crowd control, but his healing spell is a very important part of his kit. It's an incredibly efficient self-heal and critical to mitigating the damage that Alistar inevitably takes as a jungler or frontline support. That his heal also heals allies and doubles as a pushing tool is icing on the cake.

Cho'gath is the first champion whose passive sustain is predicated upon last-hitting. With perfect last-hitting he can heal for as much as 200 health per creep wave even at level 1. The scaling of this passive is weak, but that high base value makes Cho'gath practically immovable during the laning phase.

However, Cho'gath's early-game offensive potential is fairly limited in many matchups, and his late-game is primarily about disruption. Despite being a defensive fortress he's a rare pick because he can't suppress or outscale most opponents.

Dr. Mundo is one of the few champions who can be said to have two forms of sustain. His passive provides him with significant Hp5, and his ultimate is on a surprisingly low cooldown. The longer the game goes on the better Mundo's sustain gets, up to a fairly ridiculous point if you ever complete his trifecta of Warmog's Armor, Force of Nature, and Spirit Visage.

Fiddlesticks' Drain is so potent he can sustain himself with only one or two ranks in the ability. It is also one of the few sustain abilities which can be interrupted by CC or movement. This makes Drain a very binary ability; if uninterrupted Fiddlesticks can be extremely hard to kill, but if there's CC on the field he can easily die while waiting on his cooldown to return.

Fiora's passive is clearly designed for lane trading and sustain, but it's very weak. At 7+Level healing over 6 seconds the edge granted by this ability is very small. Even four stacks, obtained by attacking a champion, will only grant 100 total healing at level 18. In the end it's nothing to write home about.

Galio is well known for being a counter to AP champions, and a large part of that is his Bulwark. Bulwark turns the incidental damage from minions into significant healing, up to five times the tooltip value depending on how many hits he takes. With just a single rank and a little MR/AP Galio can heal for hundreds of health. This makes him a monster of attrition, and his high base mana regen allows him to perpetually farm with or without blue buff.

Gangplank has the infamous CC breaking oranges for his sustain. The dual-purpose of this ability makes it a double-edged sword; spamming it for sustain leaves Gangplank vulnerable to CC. However, leveling this first is a well known stopgap tactic when facing an unfavorable lane. With 360 healing at rank 5, Gangplank can survive almost any lane.

Garen's passive is a significant contributor to his love of bushes. Because he must avoid taking damage in order to prevent his Hp5 passive from dropping, bushes are an extremely safe place for him to hide. So long as it's active Garen's passive is far stronger than Mundo's, but in practice even bushes can't keep Garen's passive up consistently. In the end Garen isn't known for his sustain, but for his signature battlecry.

Gragas is often forgotten amongst the sustain champions; few people even realize that's what his passive does. While 2% of his maximum health in healing when he uses abilities seems weak, it adds up quickly when he has blue buff. Combined with the innate damage reduction from his W, Gragas can be difficult to push out of lane.

Hecarim's Spirit of Dread is perhaps the most interesting sustain ability in the game. All damage done to champions within the area of affect heals Hecarim for a %. The cap on healing from minions and monsters is there to prevent abuse, as otherwise the ability would effectively be 30% free Life Steal and Spell Vamp. Still, it functions that way when fighting champions, making Hecarim incredibly hard to kill in duels or teamfights. While it shouldn't be leveled first when jungling, laning Hecarims often grab it first to play aggressively and crush their opponents.

Heimerdinger is perhaps the most dubious mention on the entire list. While the 10-25 Hp5 his passive grants to him and any nearby allies does count as sustain, he has no way to capitalize on it. Like Fiora, it's a slight advantage and better than nothing, but does little to amplify Heimerdinger's strengths or compensate for his weaknesses.

Tomorrow the analysis will continue with letters I through R. This is going to take some time, so bear with me.

Theory: Sustain Champions (Preface)

There's a lot to cover on the subject of sustain champions. More than a third of all champions have an ability or passive which gives them sustain. The sheer number and variety of sustain abilities, combined with how they interact with their specific champions, makes tackling this subject a monstrous undertaking.

Champions also feature a different sustain type not seen on runes or items, healing. Most healing abilities are on-demand, making them much more flexible than other forms of sustain. Combined with AP ratios and CDR, healing abilities can scale powerfully into the late game. Healing can also often useable on allies, something no other form of sustain can do. Healing is one of the final pieces of the sustain puzzle, and I'll discuss it further as we examine more closely the nature of sustain on champions.

Despite my insistence that sustain is a critical asset for any champion, the astute will have realized from some of my earlier statements that the majority of champions have none. Many of the champions with sustain only have it in small amounts or must wait for their ultimates. Strong sustain is actually fairly rare on champions, and even champions who possess it typically have to sacrifice damage or other utility to level it. While good sustain is a significant boon to a champion, it is neither sufficient nor necessary for a champion to be viable.

It is the ability to capitalize on sustain which sets champions apart. The champions best known for their sustain are those who can convert their sustain advantage into a greater advantage for their team. Laning champions either use sustain to go on the offensive, whittling down their opponent in successive trades before going for the kill, or to play defensively, holding out until their champion's superior late-game carries their team. It's similar for junglers, gankers want to maintain high health so they can gank anywhere, anytime without a second thought, while farmers need sustain to be safe within their own jungle. Without specialties, strengths, and opportunities to apply them, sustain is little more than a convenience.

There are so many champions to cover that forcing them all into one post wouldn't give them the attention they deserve. As such I'll be splitting it up into three or four additional posts, sorted alphabetically. Apologies to Yorick fans, but you won't get my thoughts on him for a number of days.

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.

Theory: Sustain Runes

Continuing with the topic of sustain, today I'll be examining sustain runes.

Up until recently there were actually very limited options for sustain runes. You either used flat Hp5 Quints or you didn't use sustain runes at all. The alternatives, flat Hp5 Seals/Glyphs and scaling Hp5 Quints, were too inefficient and ineffective to be serious options. It took the addition of Life Steal and Spell Vamp Quints to give players a reason to consider the possibilities of sustain runes again.

Before comparing sustain runes against one another, it's important to remember that they are also in competition with other rune types as well. To use sustain runes is to sacrifice potential offense, defense, or another form of utility. Though I'll be examining sustain runes only in the context of their peers, always keep in mind the opportunity costs of your choices.

Of the sustain runes, flat Hp5 rune are the safest option. A full set of flat Hp5 Quints heal for as much as a potion every minute and a half, a substantial amount during the early game. They are also effective in many situations where Life Steal and Spell Vamp are not, such as while hiding under a tower or camping brush. Overall flat Hp5 is stronger than its peers early on, but loses effectiveness as the game progresses.

Life Steal and Spell Vamp are not as safe as flat Hp5, but provide significant benefits later. For a laner these runes are risky because their early healing is half that of flat Hp5 unless you are in a position to auto-attack or spam spells, and drops to nothing if you get zoned. For a jungler flat Hp5 becomes more effective the moment you do anything outside of farm. However, Life Steal and Spell Vamp quickly outscale flat Hp5 as your damage increases, and their immediate returns are better during skirmishes and fights. Offense-oriented champions favor these runes for their mid and late-game power.

As examples, here are some situations where I use each type of rune:

• Flat Hp5: I typically use these when jungling Dr. Mundo. They allow me to start Boots and 3 potions and still gank. Flat Hp5 is preferable to Spell Vamp and Life Steal because it already heals slightly more than them while clearing the jungle, but also heals while traveling to lanes to gank or ward.
• Life Steal: These are my go to runes when I have to play an AD carry with a non-sustain support, especially when I'm against a lane which is likely to push and force me to auto-attack minions. I'll even start with a Doran's Blade, giving me a total of 12% Life Steal at the very outset. When simply last-hitting heals you for as much as a potion every minute it's not the end of the world to lane without them.
• Spell Vamp: Obviously I use them when playing jungle Akali for fun, but they're also useful on AP champions who can freely spam their spells (typically but not always resourceless champions). When I'm on a champion who's going to be running Revolver or WotA later, these are a prime choice for me.

Runes are only one part of the picture, but an important part. They can replace or augment other forms of sustain, and should always be considered when sustain is a concern. We'll touch on another facet tomorrow as the examination of sustain continues.

Theory: Sustain

Sustain is a critical issue for both laners and junglers, and over the next few days I'm going to be looking at this facet of the game in-depth. Today I'll be discussing why sustain itself is so important.

At a fundamental level the ability to maintain or recover health is extremely valuable regardless of role or team position. As a player's health level decreases their options and opportunities shrink until they're forced to return to base or risk death. Sustain keeps players in the field and battle-ready, allowing them to continue farming and exerting their presence.

While not the be all and end all of laning, a gap in sustain is a clear advantage. The champion with more sustain will often come out ahead not by winning damage trades but by recovering significantly more health afterward. Many lanes revolve around weathering the damage of an opponent until they've exhausted their resources, then forcing them into a position where they must either cede huge amounts of farm or risk dying. Sustain also pressures an opponent by placing a timer on any damage they do, if they don't apply more damage soon their previous efforts will be made worthless. Out-sustaining an opponent can easily lead to victory in lane.

For a jungler sustain is incredibly important. Maintaining a high health-level directly translates into stronger presence and jungle control. A jungler whose health drops low can't repel invasions, gank, counter-gank, hold lanes, or even ward without putting themselves in danger. Junglers with enough sustain to fully heal simply by clearing the jungle can become omnipresent monsters, constantly applying pressure everywhere without a need to rest. A jungler without sustain is essentially worthless.

In summary, sustain is so valuable because it it is an enabler; sustain directly translates into additional farm, advantages, and opportunities. Even after countless nerfs to champions and items which have or provide sustain, it remains one of the most important factors in deciding the early phase of the game. Keep this in mind as we examine sustain over the next couple of days.

Meta: Swapping AP and AD

The current lane setups have largely been set in stone for months, leading many players to declare the meta stale. While arguably the game hasn't been this multidimensional in its history, there are many alternatives to the current lanes which have yet to be fully explored. For the benefit of those players tired of the current lanes, here's an idea.

Swap your AP and AD carries.

Before we dive too far into this, let me emphasize that this idea has yet to be fully explored. This may not be the transformative idea players are looking for, or it may. It is, however, a different setup that has the potential to be competitive.

This idea is exactly as stated, place your ranged AD mid instead of bottom, and your AP carry bottom instead of mid. Pick an AD who scales well with levels (e.g. Ezreal, Corki) and an AP who scales well with farm (e.g. Cassiopeia, Veigar), and you're good to go. At face value it's a very simple idea, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes.

First and foremost, there are many AP champions who are weak against AD, such as Kassadin and Morgana. Though the threat of burst damage is always there, the AD carry can abuse their auto-attack range and their ability to push lanes without using mana to put the AP carry in an awkward position. In addition, Life Steal is cheaper, more readily available, and more effective than Spell Vamp. With the right matchup an AD can dominate an AP opponent.

These weaknesses get turned upside down bottom lane. Using auto-attacks to sustain is dangerous for the AD because the lane is much longer. Auto-attack harass is more dangerous and less effective due to the presence of an enemy support. Meanwhile, the high burst damage of the AP is a huge benefit for ganks and skirmishes. In the bottom lane it's the AD carry who is typically weak against the AP carry.

Blue buff is the most obviously hitch in this strategy. If you're on blue team you almost certainly need Soraka to support your AP. Thankfully on purple team Blue buff is readily accessible even from bottom lane. For this reason this team composition heavily favors purple team.

Again, this is not a tried and tested setup. It is, however, different and something to try if you're tired of playing with the same lane setup. Just be careful with your picks, give it a whirl, and see if this breaks your meta-boredom.

Theory: Rune Pages

Rune pages are a luxury, and as with many luxuries they bring benefits to those who can afford them. A player with twenty rune pages has an obvious advantage over one with just two rune pages. The reason for this is intuitive; being able to carefully tailor a rune page to the specific needs of a champion greatly increases their effectiveness.

Building a rune page is something of an art. While most pages aren't "wrong" per se, finding the right rune page can make or break champions, match ups, and item builds. This takes time, effort, attention to detail, and most of all purpose.

Rune pages should focus on the following purposes or goals as they relate to a particular champion:

1. Avoiding awkward or costly itemization.
2. Shoring up a critical weakness.
3. Maximizing a strength/abuse case.
4. Countering a specific champion/match up.

All of these goals and purposes are primarily early-mid game concerns. While runes are still useful later in the game, their relative effectiveness drops as champions gain levels and items. The advantages of a late game rune page are so minuscule, and the early game cost so high, that it isn't remotely worthwhile to build or use one.

The best rune pages tend to address multiple purposes in an elegant way or take one purpose to an extreme. An good example of both is the pure Armor rune page.

For jungle Nautilus a pure Armor rune page serves multiple purposes. It improves his jungling speed (#2), increases his sustain (#2), and allows him to use more advantageous starting items (#1). The best alternatives might barely surpass the pure Armor rune page in speed, but only at the cost of sustain and starting item selection.

The pure Armor rune page can also be used against champions with absolutely obnoxious harass or early kill potential such as Pantheon, Yorick, or Garen. By going all in on defense it becomes possible to survive the early abuse of these match ups without needing a specific champion to counter them. This is an extreme measure, but more effective than being shut out of the game.

Not all rune pages will push champions over critical thresholds or apply in a multitude of situations, but that doesn't mean the effort is wasted. The further you progress as a player the more you'll encounter matches where lanes and skirmishes are won on razor-thin margins. The right rune page can change whether it's you or your opponent who walks away from kill with infuriatingly low health. It may take time, but the more you think about and experiment with rune pages the better you'll become at building them.

Theory: Rushing Level 6

There are a number of junglers for whom hitting level 6 is a gigantic turning point. Whether they gain ganking utility, mobility, or sheer strength the acquisition of their ultimates pushes them into a whole new level of power.

Hitting level 6 as a jungler, however, has never been more difficult. It used to be that a wide array of junglers could easily hit level 6 as soon as 6:20 game time. Post-remake a jungler is lucky if they can hit level 6 at 7:30, with times such as 8:30 being much more common. For this reason junglers who are almost wholly reliant on their ultimates for their early game effectiveness, such as Warwick, have become unpopular.

That said, in the new jungle it is possible for a jungler to hit level 6 by 6:30 game time or sooner, faster than even a solo lane. For this to happen two conditions must be met. First, you must successfully gank a solo lane after finishing your first clear. Second, your ally must recall and cede all exp/farm in the lane. Only in these conditions, or those far more favorable, can this be done.

At the end of a clear (Wolves -> Blue -> Wraiths -> Wolves -> Red -> Wraiths -> Golems) a jungler will have obtained a total of ~1320 exp, more than enough for level 4. Successfully ganking a solo lane, who should also be level 4, will yield ~230 exp for both the jungler and their ally. If the ally recalls at this point the jungler will easily have two waves they can clear, netting a total of ~530 exp. At this point if the jungler clears their small camps once more, worth ~440 exp, they'll hit level 6.

This situation can happen unintentionally, such as when your laning ally is too weak following a successful gank to keep laning. However, I suggest the possibility of intentionally ceding the lane to a jungler with a strong level 6, even if the laner might otherwise be able to keep farming.

In this scenario the sacrifice made by the solo lane is outweighed by the team-wide advantage of having a stronger jungler, especially in the case of the isolated top lane. Giving Warwick, Nocturne, Skarner, Hecarim et al their strong ganking ultimates early allows them to apply huge amounts of pressure across the map. The sacrificing lane is already ahead thanks to their kill/assist, and because their laning opponent is dead they won't fall behind on farm in the meantime. It's still a sacrifice, but in this situation I suggest it is a worthy one.

There are other ways to do it, but they are either much rarer situations or require a sacrifice where your lane is actively put at a disadvantage. While you can attempt to use your advantage to remedy that, it's a much greater risk and far more difficult to accomplish intentionally.

In conclusion, I strongly believe there's a place for ceding lanes to junglers just as they often cede their own camps to their lanes. Teams already practice this in more mundane forms through the covering of lanes. Advanced applications, such as the one I've outlined, are simply the next step.