Certain builds might break the meta, but being able to adapt to the enemy team as the game goes on is what will turn your early CS lead into a snowballing stomp of a game. Learn more about the benefits of smart buying here!
Itemization, or what items you choose to build every game, is one of the most confusing and scary-seeming aspects of League of Legends. Sure, there might be dozens of characters to learn about, but each of them only has four abilities (and they tend to follow similar patterns). Micro and Macro (in-lane and map-wide awareness and decision making) come naturally with experience… but the never-ending expanse of new items, reworked items, tweaked item passives, and potential build paths is something that keeps many people on edge.
Learning the best way to plan for a successful lane phase and late game, regardless of how your early game went, can sometimes be the sole difference between a win and a loss at the end of the day.
Items are what you can buy in the shop (by pressing “P” in your base) to help strengthen your character. There are items for every class, and some naturally lend themselves well to your champion’s kit and role. The best way to capitalize on your lead and keep it is to make sure that you are buying the right kind of items. Poor itemization is a one-way ticket to losing.
Tanks will usually want items that give them Armor/Magic Resist for defense and whatever form of Adaptive Force (Attack Damage/Ability Power) that they use for damage. Assassins will normally focus on getting Lethality and Adaptive Force to take down enemies faster. Mages will be looking for items that give them Ability Power and either add burst damage (for burst mages like Syndra and Xerath, usually) or damage over time (for DoT mages like Malzahar and Brand). Marksmen/ADCs will stick to Attack Speed, Critical Hit Chance, or on-hit effects to shred through the enemy lines. Last but not least, Enchanters (supports that heal and shield instead of dealing damage or tanking) will opt for Healing and Shielding Power boosts and Ability Haste.=
You will usually find that the things you can buy offer more than just what was listed above, and that can be great! Every class has a different role in the game and will have different stat priorities. This does not mean you should completely ignore other stats, but you normally do want to make sure you are trying to fit within your class. Having a Nami build crit might be funny, but your team would benefit a lot more from her being full build with items like Moonstone Renewer and Ardent Censer.
For the most part, you can find out what items you would want to buy based on a couple of easy-to-find tabs in the shop: Recommended and your class’ subpage under All Items. The game will automatically pull you to your class’ page, and you’ll see a screen like this:
Items with stars are items that other players commonly buy while playing your character. However, there are not going to be an order to the recommendations within All Items. To find out what order you’ll want to buy in, you can look at Recommended or online sources like Mobalytics, OP.GG, or U.GG. You can find builds from all ranks and often multiple playstyles on these sites that adjust quickly to item changes and the meta overall.
Counter-building is a key step in making sure your enemy can’t catch up. If you’re building to prevent them from playing their regular game plan, they will have to adapt along with you. Making sure you have items that go against whatever is mechanic your opponents (even outside of your lane) will be spamming will slow their progress more than any CS lead ever could. Not every character or role in a game is regularly able to counter-build. If you find your team in a bind, and one of these three categories are giving you problems, though, see what items you can find!
Tanks are usually found in the front line of teamfights. They have a lot of health and armor, and may have ways of negating damage, evading death, or putting up huge shields. They are the walls that protect their team, and they can run over an entire teamfight if you aren’t careful.
Against characters that stack armor or magic resist, you’ll want to make sure you find items that do armor shredding (Black Cleaver) or provide Armor Penetration (Lord Dominik’s Regards) and/or Magic Penetration (Sorcerer’s Shoes). Items that will do percentage health damage (Liandry’s Anguish and Blade of the Ruined King) are also great if you are playing a champion who can apply it consistently, such as Brand and Vayne.
“Squishy” characters are characters that have low health and are sometimes called “glass cannons” because they do a lot of damage but also die quickly. If you can have enough health to survive their main combo or have ways to crowd control them for a couple seconds, you’re likely to beat them. Burst Mages and Assassins excel against low-HP opponents, since they can deal massive amounts of damage in a matter of (or even sometimes, less than) seconds. The main way to beat burst is with bigger burst, so use any gold lead you might have to build out your damage against assassins and burst mages.
Healing is far from limited to enchanters; you’ll see enemy teams with multiple fighters building lifesteal, toplaners (like Nasus and Aatrox), and even midlaners (like Vladimir) that seem to heal infinitely before Support is even considered. If you have even one of those enemies, and someone who’s looking for a Blade of the Ruined King, Bloodthirster, or any other major source of lifesteal, at least one member of your team should look into getting heal cut, also known as Grievous Wounds. Mages can buy Morellonomicon, physical damage dealers can use either Mortal Reminder or Chempunk Chainsaw. Enchanters also tend to default to Morellonomicon, with the departure of Chemtech Putrifier from Summoner’s Rift
One of the easiest ways to counter-build is by building resistances to the type of damage that the enemy team has the most of. If you’re in a game against a team that builds attack damage only, throwing a Thornmail into your build can pay dividends. There are a few less options against full-magic damage teams, but checking out Force of Nature, Hollow Radiance, or Kaenic Rookern can save you from any mages that tend to not deal in max % health damage. If you have the spare funds, putting an item up early (or as a last item, especially if playing ADC) can give you a huge advantage once teamfights start.
The ideal times to back and buy are when at least one, but ideally both of the following are true: 1) it’s a cannon wave (which prevents pushing) and/or 2) you have the ability to buy a relatively expensive component. Components you’d like to buy generally provide more than just straight stats, unless we’re looking at items like B.F. Sword (1300 gold for 40 AD) or Pickaxe (875 gold for 25 AD). Larger, more expensive components tend to be much more beneficial in lane.
Buying a Lost Chapter (1200 gold for 40 AP, 10 ability haste, and 300 mana + mana regeneration passive on level up) or a Vampire Scythe (900 gold for 15 AD and 7% lifesteal) will allow you a lot more staying power over an Amplifying Tome (400 gold for 20 AP) or Long Sword (350 gold for 10 AD). This also plays into counter-building, when we consider the benefit you’d get from Executioner’s Calling (800 gold for 15 AD and Grievous Wounds to reduce healing) or Oblivion Orb (800 gold for 25 AP and Grievous Wounds) over the Long Sword/Amplifying Tome that build into them. Buying the “small” components is not a bad idea if you have the gold to spare when you’re already backing, but saving your back for buying a half or ⅓ item over the components that make up the ½ and ⅓ items is a much better way to spend your time and gold.
Buying items is something that we all need to do as the game progresses, unless you’re planning on a horribly lost lane. Following the same build every game, though, is usually not a smart move if you’re looking to push past the enemy. Some items will break the meta every season, and being aware of the enemy’s power spikes are important… but watching the bigger picture and seeing what you need to have in order to interrupt their gameplan can give you just enough of a boost to shift your losing lane into a winning lane, or take the enemy’s raid boss and make them just manageable enough. Follow the basic fundamentals of buildcrafting, and you’ll go far!
