With the addition of Adaptive Helm and changes made to Abyssal Scepter in patch 7.9 as well as the changes made to Spirit Visage in the 7.10 patch, it may be hard to determine which MR and Health item will fit your kit. Since all three items have similar base stats of 300+ Health, 50+ MR, 100% base health regen, and 10% cooldown reduction, finding the right item for the right occasion may be difficult.

Spirit Visage

Spirit Visage will have a couple changes to it with patch 7.10 such as raising its health from 425 to 450; however, its MR decreased from 60 to 55 and its health regeneration from 200% to 100%. Spirit Visage’s passive also got a buff in patch 7.9 increasing all healing done to the champion from 25% to 30%. This buff plus the 100% base health regen of the item grants a total of 160% health regen which is great for out of combat stats allowing you to lane longer and stay in fights for longer.

Since Spirit Visage’s passive affects all health restoration such as life steal, spell vamp, and health regen, it is great on front line champions or champions with life steal or spell vamp in their kits such as Vladimir, Warwick, and Maokai. Spirit Visage still builds out of Kindlegem, Spectre’s Cowl + 800 Gold. Although Spirit Visage was the MR item used most by tanks, with the nerf of its health regen, the other items look like viable options.

Adaptive Helm

Adaptive Helm was the new item introduced in patch 7.9. Its base stats are 300 health, 55 MR, 100% base health regen, and 10% cooldown reduction. It is very similar to Spirit Visage; however, it has 150 less health while still having the same MR, cooldown reduction, and health regen. What makes Adaptive Helm different is its unique passive which allows the user to take 15% less damage for 4 seconds from the same ability cast on you. This item is very effective against champions with spammable abilities such as Cassiopia, Ryze and Evelyn. One thing to note is that this effect does not work against damage over time abilities such as Fizz’s W or Teemo’s poison. To me this is a very situational item as its passive will only work on a handful of champions. Adaptive Helm is built from Spectre’s Cowl, Null-Magic Mantle, Rejuv Bead + 1000 gold. This build path takes 3 item slots + 1000 gold which to me feels very awkward if you are building it 3rd or 4th item as it will take up a lot of item slots.

Abyssal Scepter

Abyssal Scepter had a major change in patch 7.9, instead of being an AP/MR item it switched to a Health/MR item. Its new stats are 300 Health, 65 MR, 100% health regen, and 10% cooldown reduction. Although it switched to a tank item from AP, it kept the same passive as before. Its passive debuffs nearby enemy champions so they take 10% more magic damage. I believe this is a very situational item like Adaptive Helm, as you should use this if your team is AP heavy. The more AP champions you have, the more your team will benefit since AD champions will not gain anything from its passive.

Overview

Overall I think that Spirit Visage will continue to be the main MR/Health item for tanks. However, because of its recent changes, I believe the other items will be very beneficial in certain circumstances. Here is when I think you should build each:

Spirit Visage