Relic Shield Insight and Tips
Konduit goes in-depth on the play patterns, design principles, and strategy behind the Relic Shield item path.
Sup y'all, Konduit here. Today I'm going to talk about an item near and dear to supports - the Relic Shield. Its upgrade path, combat stats, and unique passive management are arguably the most complex and nuanced of the three gold generation items. As a contrast to this relative difficulty, the relic shield path holds some very unique strengths that the other two gold generation items simply fall short in. Without further ado, let's jump right into it.
The Relic Shield is the gold generation item designed primarily for melee supports (the notable exception to this rule is Thresh, who can take either the Nomad's Coin or Relic Shield situationally) - as we'll soon see, the mechanics of the item have been tuned to facilitate a melee support's play patterns. When it was first introduced, the Relic Shield's unique passive, i.e. executing low health minions, triggered for both ranged and melee champions; however, this was (very correctly) deemed to be too strong, and the execution portion of the unique passive was removed for ranged champions, though the shared heal was preserved. To better understand the gameplay behind using the relic shield, I'm going to throw some general theory at you; afterwards, I'll drop some tips on how to optimally use the item.
Relic Shield, Targon's Brace, and Face of the Mountain - a unique item path for melee supports.
One of the fundamental gameplay patterns every champion has to make in lane is trading health for CS. When you move to grab a last hit on a lane minion, for a brief period of time, you are generally much more vulnerable to attack. This vulnerability is expressed in a couple different ways: for one, you're using your basic attack on a minion rather than holding it to harass or threaten to harass your lane opponent. Secondly, you're typically putting yourself in a predictable, immobile, and comparatively dangerous position by moving up for a last hit in the first place!
For melee champions, the first consideration pales in importance compared to the second. Particularly in a melee vs. ranged matchup, you're heavily exposing yourself to harass by moving up to CS. Skillshot spells become much easier to land (as you're very honestly moving forward to grab a last hit), targeted abilities are nearly guarented as you're voluntarily stepping within their range, and finally taking a beating from autoattacks becomes a very real consideration. This is the clearest example of the fundamental tradeoff we discussed: health for CS. Against an attentive and aware opponent who's keeping track of how low minions on BOTH sides are getting, you'll be susceptible to some harass and punishment when you look to pick up last hits. This goes for EVERY matchup, whether you're ranged or melee (notice how experienced players will typically go for harass when their opponent is trying to CS), but it's certainly much more of a concern for melees.
Thresh is unique in that he often takes the Relic Shield path as a ranged champion. His empowered autoattacks help secure CS, similar to the execute.
The health/CS tradeoff and vulnerability was certainly kept in mind during the design of the Relic Shield. Last hitting rewards you with health - presumably because you are knowingly exposing yourself to harass when you step into closer range to pick up a last hit. This mechanic allows you to stay healthy in the duo lane even through the neccessity of exposing yourself to potential punishment.
Where the Relic really starts to take off is in situations in which you are ahead; when your lane opponents are playing far back/safe, your Relic Shield charges will be used purely for sustain after trades, instead of merely negating the damage you would be taking after going for the last hit in the first place. The offensive cushion (and even defensive, as we'll see) it provides for both you and your teammate is unrivaled among the support items.
That's all for the theory, let's get into the practical stuff. Below are a few tips I've compiled in my experience as a support player - take a look over 'em:
- When you first arrive into lane, it's often a good idea to push hard such that you pick up level 2 first (or to deny a level 2 all in from your predictably aggressive lane opponents). Aggressively proccing your Relic Shield charges on the first wave - even though you won't get the health benefit - may be valuable here.
As Leona, your lvl 2 all-in is one of the strongest in the game. Aggressively push the wave with the help of Relic Shield procs to set up your lvl 2!
- On the flipside, you can bait out a cooldown/mana expenditure, and then use your charges to get the full heal value at the start of the laning phase. You'll be at full health, and whoever's harassed you will be down a CD and mana.
- As you know, cannon creeps grant gold equal to 3~ or so normal creeps. Prioritize those as heavily as possible when spending your charges.
- If you proc one or two charges early, (when you arrive into lane), you will have another charge ready in time for the first cannon minion.
- After the first cannon minion, if possible, hold on to your next available charge until the next (second) cannon minion. If you use the charge as soon as it comes up, you won't have a second up in time for the next cannon creep. This whole pattern of saving charges repeats until you upgrade to Targon's Brace.
- For your reference - Relic Shield generates a charge every 1 minute, holding a maximum of 2. Targon's Brace generates 1 every 30 seconds, max 3. Face of the Mountain holds 4 max, generating a new charge every 30 seconds.
- From this information, we can see that Targon's is very close in gold generation to Face of the Mountain. Don't feel pressured to upgrade asap to increase your gold income, the two items are fairly similar in that regard. If your team needs an Aegis, or Frozen Heart, etc., prioritize those items first, and pick up Face of the Mountain later on.
These little guys are the boon as well as the bane of Relic Shield users. Priortize them, but don't take too much damage trying to secure them.
- In soloqueue, and even in a premade, be sure to let your lane partner know you're going for a cannon minion - coordinate. I've found in soloqueue that pinging the seige minion communicates your intentions sufficiently.
- Sometimes, you may want to hold on to your charges even though your teammate is at low health. If your lane partner has lifesteal, it can be a good idea to let him/her get value from the lifesteal and save your charges for when they're really needed. If your opponents are super chunked after a trade and aren't looking to finish your lane partner off, you can let the lifesteal do some work. Save your charges for a burst heal when you feel your lane partner will need the health ASAP. This is some really paper-thin optimization though - if you at all feel your teammate is in danger, it's rarely the wrong move to use your charges.
- On the flipside, against a support using targons, closely pay attention to the health values of your own minions - look to punish them when they go in for a last hit, as discussed above.
- In particular, really try to mess with them over the cannon creep wave. People will prioritize it so heavily (honestly, quite understandably) that they'll eat heavy harass just to secure it. You can even stage/plan an all-in during a cannon minion wave.
- Again reversing viewpoints, really watch out for potential harass as you go in to last hit. By planning out and recognizing safe opportunities to spend a charge, you'll find that you get positive sustain value from the heal rather than just breaking even because of harass, or even losing out on health. By means of your positioning and even ability usage (if it's too dangerous to get in autoattack range), seek to minimize the amount of punishment you take when securing last hits.
That's all for today, I hope you enjoyed the article. Special thanks to Infiniteri who introduced me to the concept of trading health for CS, inspiring this piece. If you'd like to discuss anything League, have comments/feedback on this article, or just want to say hi, feel free to tweet me @k0nduit (with a zero instead of an 'o') and I'll get back to you.
Until next time.
konduit
Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!
