Understanding the Gold Per 10 Items in League
An overview of why players build the 'Eye' items in League.
On their release the Gold items in League, these being Relic Shield, Ancient Coin and Spellthief's Edge, were taken pretty well, an interesting new approach to the Bot lane was enjoyable for all of those who played around this time. Their build path led to some pretty interesting new items. Face of the Mountain was useful for keeping your AD alive, whilst Frost Queen's Claim and Talisman of the Ascension was provided some useful utility. They became staples of the Support build path until recently when the new 'Eye' items were introduced. Mixing the second stage of a Gold item and combining that with the Sightstone that all supports should build led to some interesting developments and questions. Was the lack of utility worth the extra space? Were the 'Eye' items efficient enough to replace their counter parts. At first glance, no. They were not taken so well as first hoped when they were introduced at the start of season 6 and many like minded players left them aside, preferring their old build paths. However, they have become the new staple and many players find themselves building these items. The difference is that both the final item of either FoM or FQC and the 'Eye' items are still viable. No long was one ruling over the support build path, both items were useful in their own way, but many players are still left confused as to when to buy these said items. This guide will hopefully explain some of the examples of when to buy these items.
Relic Shield
Favoured by Tank Supports such as Leona, Braum, Alistar and so on, Relic shield provides the user with 75 health and 2g per 10. It has been a tricky item due to its unique passive, which hasn't always been adopted by the Bot Lane. This passive allows players to last hit minions, providing any lane partners with a small heal and the kill gold and credit. Duo bruisers both Bot and Top took this item into play and saw the increase in gold as useful for those cheese strategies that we love to try. Building the item to its final form of Face of the Mountain used to provide much needed help for you AD Carry, granting a shield for 10% of the players health. Along with this useful active, it also provides the user with CDR and health regen, so overall it looks to be better than its Equinox counterpart, which only provides 50 more health in return for an increase in CDR and the loss of the Spoils of War Passive that was previously mentioned. Here is where the difference is split. Most professional players seem to buy the Eye of the Equinox, however, most normal SoloQ players tend to buy the Face Item. Both items seem to have a decent win rate, of around 52-55%, however, when we look at the popularity of the items. We find that Face of the Mountain is bought around 8% in game, whereas Eye of the Equinox is bought around 4% of the time.
This is made more interesting when we look at the division that these items are bought at. EotE maintains a pretty consistent buy rate throughout all ranks, however, FotM drops in buy percentage at the higher ranks. One only has to look at professional play to see its importance. Personally, I think this comes down to one main reason, vision.
Vision has and is one of the most important aspects of LoL. It's important can be seen in with the popularity of these items. In higher elo games, vision is more important so being able to have 4 wards ready rather than 3 is much more important. In lower elo, ADC's tend to die more, and many players like to stick to a more traditional build path, rather than deviate from what they know. This leads to FotM being purchased more, along with the need to keep the ADC alive longer. It can be seen that Higher Elo players prefer the free space the EotE brings. Personally, it depends on the game you have, I find that often when playing a tanky support, you may be the only the tank on the team and as such you should try to purchase EotE so as to ensure that your carries don't get caught and so you have more space for another tankier item.
Ancient Coin
Ancient Coin is the item for those supports who like to sit back, poke and basically live in lane. The Mana Regen linked with the Early CDR means that any support can safely stay in lane whilst keeping their wallets fat due to passive from this item. Favor grants the player 4 gold and 5 health for each enemy minion that the player didn't kill, so it's perfect for those farm heavy lanes. Favoured on sustain supports like Janna and Soraka, AC is the most useful in terms of its overall Gold income. When looking at the build path, you have the two items, Eye of the Oasis, and Talisman of the Ascension. Much like FotM, TotA seems like the superb pick. It provides good sustain with Health and Mana Regen, a decent amount of Armor (45) and CDR. Obviously the most useful aspect of it is the active, granting near-by allies 40% movement speed for 3 seconds. Despite being a poor man's Righteous Glory, the active is extremely useful and the stats seem to back it up as the superior path. It's difficult to gage an understanding of this item, due to the fact that it simply isn't built much as much as the other item's that are being talked about. Put roughly, AC is the least popular of all the items for supports, but nevertheless, I will go over the advantages and disadvantages.
When understanding this item it's important to understand the meta. As of now (6.15) the Support role has drifted to a more healer/peeler roll, rather than a tank heavy role. You could argue that the lack of interest in this item is going against the previous statement, but looking at the highest win rates of this patch, we see an increase in healing supports. Therefore, it's important to understand the useful of this item through the lens of these types of supports.
Firstly, we will look at Talisman of the Ascension. The stats for Talisman are useful for a support and their team with the active. It can be a useful engage and a perfect item for escaping any unwanted team fights. The stats are useful for squishy supports, granting them Armor and CDR, along with the Regen it seems the most useful item. However it falls under the same issue as FotM. The need for vision means that EotO is the most popular item. Personally, due to the nature of the active, its useful is outlived. When it was around, the active was extremely useful, but with the increase in mobile champions, the active doesn't have the impact it once had in seasons gone. The need for vision overweighs the need for mobility in the current season and as such, EotO is often the superior item to buy.
Spellthief's Edge
The go-to item for poke supports and Mid lane rejects. SE allows players to receive Gold for damaging enemy players with abilities and AA's. Favoured by Supports such as Sona, Lulu, Karma, Annie, Morgana and Nami. Spellthief's is useful for the aggressive style of play and as mentioned in the previous section, is actually preferred by Supports who don't benefit from Relic Shield more. This build path is more easy to understand and doesn't require a lot of explaining, but for the sake of this guide, I will go over the path's anyway.
Frost Queen's Claim is the final form of SE. It's active sends out two 'ghosts' to the nearest enemy champions, slowing them for 40% movement speed for 2 to 5 seconds. At first it seems like a useful bit of CC. If you look at the details, for FQC to be efficient, it needs to deny or secure a kill it should be made worth it. However this is where the strengths of the item wear off. With the increase in mobility in the current meta, linked with the CC from provided from both teams, FQC doesn't live up to its name. Eye of the Watcher's provide similar, if not better stats than its counterpart. Once again, the mention of the ability to have more wards is important to note, once again.
When looking at the popularity of the item, it follows a similar trend to that of Relic Shield, where the higher the Elo, the less popular FQC is and the more popular EotW becomes. The path of using EotW ensures that you can buy a more useful item that is more useful that the active of FQC. Most poke Supports tend to build some AP, and the ability to free up a space for a cheeky AP item is more useful than the active of FQC. Overall, whilst the active is useful, it's not as powerful as gaining another item and the CC is not as strong as first perceived.
Hopefully this has explained some of the issues that players face when understanding these items. There are benefits to all of the items talked about and whilst some are seen to be stronger than others, it always depends on game to game. Some games you will find the Eye items more useful. In other games, the final GP10 items will suit you best, Whilst this guide hopeful has cleared up some of the questions you have over these items, it should always fall on you to understand your own build path. No two games are the same and understanding what to build in every game is important to become a better League of Legends player.
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