At the beginning of a game on Summoner's Rift, if you're playing the support role, you almost always buy a gold income item, 4 potions (mainly 4 cookies or 3 cookies and 1 mana potion) and obviously a yellow trinket for a little bit of ward coverage. That part is fairly simple but, in detail, what do you really want as your gold generation item? Usually, there wasn't any debate. If you're playing a ranged champion, you take Spellthief's Edge. If you're playing a melee champion, you take Relic Shield (with the exception of Thresh). However, in the 5.10 patch, Ancient Coin got buffed and thus became viable again. In recent LCS matches, Team Dignitas's very own Alan "KiWiKiD" Nguyen bought Ancient Coin on Morgana, one of the most proficient users of Spellthief's Edge with her Tormented Soil (W).

That's just one example of how Ancient Coin has risen from the ashes. For a long time, the other two gold generation items gave too much of a lane advantage with the battle stats that they offer, eventually making Ancient Coin fall out of favor. Ironically, Ancient Coin's unique passive, Favor, brought it back in favor. It now gives 3 gold per nearby minion death instead of 2 and consequently it's upgraded form, Nomad's Medallion, grants 4 gold per nearby minion instead of 3. In the pure mathematics of it, in the first 4 minion waves, considering your AD carry doesn't miss a CS and you have the mastery Scavenger in the utility tree, you now gain 100 gold instead of 75. The patch also increased the range of this unique passive by 300 units and more sustain overall with its other passive effects (mana regeneration and health per nearby minion death). Yet, the most important buff is the Talisman of Ascension's active. The cooldown is now 40 seconds instead of 60 seconds, a speed boost that has a speedy cooldown is something either very dangerous when initiating or lifesaving when disengaging. Hence, the dilemma is now reopened.

Champion

Even with the changes stated above, the champion pool for the users of Relic Shield is somewhat unaffected. Generally speaking, melee supports such as Leona, Taric, Braum and Nautilus will opt for it since executing a minion is an easy way to have some sustain during the laning phase (40 health per minion kill) and there's the additional 75 health (or even more when upgraded later on) to help build up some tankiness. Alistar, Blitzcrank and Thresh usually fall in this category too but the active of the Talisman of Ascension is very tempting, especially to land a key Pulverize (Q), a key Rocket Grab (Q) or a key Death Sentence (Q). Besides, in the later stages of the game, Alistar can equip himself with other items to get tankier and ultimately his Unbreakable Will (R) is more than enough to provide him a lengthy lifespan. Thresh generally buys a Relic Shield to have more health in the late game when upgrading it into a Face of the Mountain, thus having a sufficient window for more than one spell rotation, and more sustain during the laning phase when killing a minion with the Spoils of War stacks. Since Thresh is ranged, it's important not to miss those precious minion kills and communicate with your AD carry which minion you intend on taking.

As for Spellthief's Edge and Ancient Coin, the champion pools are practically the same.

Basically, the choice will moreover depend on...

Playstyle

To put it simply, Ancient Coin is the low risk gold generation item and Spellthief's Edge is its high risk counterpart. The risk largely depends on the matchup in the bottom lane. For example, if I'm playing Karma and the opposing support is Blitzcrank, I would probably play with an Ancient Coin just to be safe. Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab (Q) has a higher range than my Inner Flame (Q) and if I try to snare him with my Focused Resolve (W), which has a short range, the Great Steam Golem would probably be able to Power Fist (E) me and then pull me in. In most cases, the aggressive approach in such a lane doesn't really favor Karma so I would be less inclined in harassing my opponent. That's the key element to a Spellthief's Edge user. Harassment. Not the type where you get reported at the end of a game, nor the one that could get you in a police station, the one that optimizes your purchase of this high risk and high reward gold income.

 
Images courtesy of lolking.net

Basically, as seen above, when you have stacks of Tribute, your attacks and spells have 10 additional damage, that's equivalent to a Long Sword, and it gives you money for it. It takes 10 seconds for a stack of Tribute to charge up. Considering that minion waves spawn every 30 seconds, that's really good in the laning phase. Again, you have to be able to land that offense. In my example of Karma against Blitzcrank, indeed, you could still buy a Spellthief's Edge as Karma, thereby poke down Blitzcrank if you're confident in your dodging skills and your ability to punish him while his Rocket Grab is on cooldown. After all, it's a melee champion against a ranged champion. Use your range!

Team Composition

The support players that think about the team compositions on both sides when buying their gold generation item are the support players that think further than their lane and their own champion. Simply put, they are the ones that care the most about the win. Let's make things clear, almost nobody completes the Spellthief's Edge line. I rarely see a Frost Queen's Claim. Since this item line is mainly lane focused, by the time you do have enough gold to build the second upgrade, the laning phase is probably over already. Thus, other item priorities come into play. For example, in Nami's basic build, once you have your Sightstone, your Mobility Boots and your Spellthief's Edge, you'll probably focus on a Mikael's Crucible or an Aegis of the Legion next and simply leave your gold income item sit in your inventory. A Mikael's Crucible/an Aegis of the Legion is always useful, way more useful than the Frost Queen's Claim linear approach. Its active skill, Arctic Embrace, is mainly used to disengage a charging enemy team because it's somewhat inefficient to use it when chasing an enemy. Since that's the case, why not opt for a Talisman of Ascension?

I often see support players start off with Spellthief's Edge for a solid laning phase. Then, once the skirmishes and the rotations are the main focus of the game, they sell it off to build the Ancient Coin item line. By the way, Spellthief's Edge has a high gold efficiency so do not fear the sale of it and worry about if it's "worth". Furthermore, regarding the Talisman of Ascension, it provides the same disengage as Frost Queen's Claim but it can also be used to engage. That versatility in its use, plus a very small cooldown of 40 seconds, is what makes the Ancient Coin's big brother a more useful item overall. It's important to analyse these aspects when considering the team compositions. It's very common nowadays to see in the professional scene a Maokai and a Sivir in the same team. The reason is that Maokai has a very simple yet effective lockdown with his Twisted Advance (W) but he often lacks the mobility to carry out the task at hand. That's where Sivir's On The Hunt (R) comes into play, providing the mobility her teammates lack. Now with intervals of 40 seconds between each use of its active, Talisman of Ascension can collaborate in the same way, but at a much more hectic pace, providing the missing movement speed a team will most likely need.

As for the Relic Shield line, Face of the Mountain truly shines when there's an opposing assassin. The shield from its unique active, Deadly Phalanx, can save lives. If your carry can survive the "all-in" burst from an assassin thanks to your shield, that can draw the line between winning a team fight or losing it. In these circumstances, stay close to your carries to make sure you're in range to provide the shield. On a side note, the damage from the explosion of Deadly Phalanx scales better with attack damage (100% of the target's AD) than ability power (30% of the target's AP). With that being said, in those split-second decisions, try to consider such details.

Summary

- Ancient Coin : safe laning phase, considerable gold income, versatile active skill
- Relic Shield : sustain during laning phase, strong laning phase, considerable gold income, tankiness
- Spellthief's Edge : very strong laning phase, possibility of very considerable gold income, linear active skill

Gold generation items do seem like a discreet aspect in League of Legends but every detail counts. Hopefully, this information was useful and can guide you to more wins. Stay tuned for more on www.team-dignitas.net!