Items and the best stuff to use

Items Guide

AD
First things first, I'll start with the top tier items that you will see in everyday games because of their significance.

- Atma's Impaler, +45 Armor, +18% Critical Strike Chance, Unique Passive: Gain Attack Damage equal to 2% of your Maximum Health.

Made from Chain Vest, Cloak of Agility. Overall cost 2355, recipe cost 825.

This is the key component in most tanky builds because in the current meta, lots of health early on helps with snowballing successfully. This is typically built after your first big Health item for the large amount of AD it'll contribute. I typically buy this after I build Warmogs and Phage, starting with Chain Vest.

- Frozen Mallet, +700 Health, +20 Attack Damage, Unique Passive: Your basic attacks slow your target's Movement Speed by 40% for 2.5 seconds, 30% for ranged attacks.

Made from Phage, Giant's Belt. Overall cost 3250, recipe cost 825.

This is usually bought in late game, I tend to purchase it earlier but it works off better starting with Warmogs/Phage than Frozen Mallet, Atma's and then pieces for Warmogs. Since the component of Phage has a 25% chance to do a reduced effect of Frozen Mallet, it's still a very valuable buy for most melee AD champions. The overall cost is 250 higher than Warmogs and the other branch is Trinity Force.

- Hexdrinker, +35 Attack Damage, +30 Magic Resist, Unique Passive: If you would take damage that would leave you at less than 30% health, you first gain a shield that absorbs 300 magic damage for 4 seconds.

Made from two Long Swords and Null Magic Mantle. Overall cost 1800, recipe cost 570.

It doesn't seem like much, but this item is absolutely amazing in the proper situations. Riven is the first champion that comes to mind that makes amazing use of this item just because she scales so amazingly well with AD. This is a great counter item instead of Wriggles to pick up if your laning opponent is an AP carry, but remember to first pick up triple Doran's Blades first on most champions to negate the loss of Wriggles.

- Infinity Edge, +80 Attack Damage, +25% Critical Strike Chance. Unique Passive: Your critical strikes now deal 250% damage instead of 200%.

Made from B.F. Sword, Pickaxe, Cloak of Agility. Overall cost 3830, recipe cost 375.

Staple purchase for every Ranged AD carry. The math looks the same in theory for Berserker Greaves, double Dorans Blades, Zeal and Infinity Edge as it does for triple Dorans, Berserker Greaves, Phantom Dancer, Wriggles, but that doesn't allot for the critical strike variance. If you want spikier damage with higher AD then this is your purchase, otherwise prioritze wriggles/PD.

- Last Whisper, +40 Attack Damage, Unique Passive: +40% Armor Penetration.

Made from Pickaxe, Longsword. Overall cost 2290, recipe cost 900.

This is yet another staple item for Ranged AD carries, but also works very well on most bruisers that don't need the extra bulk or defensive items. With the proper talents, it provides up to 46% Armor Penetration (it's multiplicative not additive unfortunately) and this item shines the brightest when any enemy goes above 100 Armor. It's counter pick is in the never buy list, The Black Cleaver which is absolutely terrible and a complete pub stomp item that is countered by a Chain Vest. This is typically boughten after the first Phantom Dancer for Ranged AD and a final item for Melee ADs.

- The Bloodthirster, +60 Attack Damage, +15% Lifesteal. Passive: Gain bonus +1 Attack Damage and +0.25% Life Steal per kill. Bonuses cap at +40 Attack Damage and +10% Life Steal. All bonuses are lost upon death.

Made from B.F. Sword, Vampiric Scepter. Overall cost 3000, recipe cost 900.

First things first, this is a priority buy on Bruisers. This is a late game buy on AD Carries in general (melee or ranged). It might seem counterintuitive, but the fact that it requires feeding is detrimental if you ever die, so buying this before Infinity Edge will set you back because you aren't bulky and can't always prevent that death.

This is typically a late game purchase for most champions other than Riven unless you're dominating your lane against an AP carry and have a vampiric scepter sitting around anyways. For all intents and purposes, the defense and luck proc on Wriggle makes it an overall better purchase until your stats are high enough that it wont matter and you have the bulk to protect your precious stacks. There isn't a +10/+2.5 every time you get a kill or an assist like the Warmogs has, which is probably what makes this item such a weak purchase.

- Trinity Force, +30 Attack Damage, +30 Ability Power, +30% Attack Speed, +15% Critical Strike Chance, 12% Movement Speed, 250 Health, 250 Mana. Unique Passive: Your basic attacks have a 25% chance to slow your target's Movement Speed by 35% for 2.5 seconds. Unique Passive: After using an ability, your next basic attack deals bonus physical damage equal to 150% of your base attack damage (2 second cooldown). Does not stack with Sheen or Lichbane.

Made from Zeal, Sheen and Phage. Overall cost 4070, recipe cost 300.

This is a very specialty item. Champions that time their attacks well benefit with it, such as Lee Sin, he can pretty much activate the unique passive at every cooldown interval. Other champions that benefit from it are champions that have Mana Constraints, but it's not always the optimal purchase. Pick this up typically if an ally has a Frozen Mallet and you built into a Phage for early game dominance.

Also as a note, no item based slow stacks. The strongest effect takes dominance. The slows do however stack with skill affects. What this means is that if your tank with randuins is getting hit, while you hit with trinity force, your mage is casting at the target with Rylai's and your friend is hitting them with Frozen Mallet while Nasus is activating Wither, it'd be Frozen Mallet's 45% movement speed slow combined with Nasus' Wither slow, and as far as I remember it's multiplicative and not additive.

- Wriggle's Lantern, +23 Attack Damage, +30 Armor, +15% Life Steal. Unique Passive: Your basic attacks against minions and monsters have a 20% chance to deal 425 bonus magic damage. Unique Active: Places an invisible Sight Ward that reveals the surrounding area for 3 minutes with a 3 minute cooldown.

Made from Madred's Razors, Vampiric Scepter. Overall cost 1600, Recipe cost 150

This item's significance is that it's a lot like a Doran's Blade, it has a large amount of stats with an amazingly useful active as well as a passive that makes clearing map objectives much easier. The passive effect has no internal cooldown, so if you're luck streaking you can see it proc twice on the same target with double strikes.

This item loses a lot of utility if you're laning against a primary magic damage dealer, in which triple Dorans is more significant, otherwise up to double vampiric scepters for sustain in lane and farm wars ensue.

Wriggles will typically last you until very late game when you replace it with The Bloodthirster, which seems kind of counterintuitive because you've already been fed through minions and now you need 40 more? I tend to keep this until the end of the game because that 30 armor doesn't seem like much, but it all adds up.

- Youmuu's Ghostblade, +30 Attack Damage, +15% Critical Strike Chance. Unique Passive: +15% Cooldown Reduction. Unique Passive: +20 Armor Penetration. Unique Active: You gain 20% Movement Speed and 50% Attack Speed for 4 seconds. Melee basic attacks increase the duration by 2 seconds up to a maximum duration of 8 seconds with a 60 second cooldown.

Made from Avarice Blade and The Brutalizer. Overall cost 2687, recipe cost 600.

This item's significance.. I just don't know where to begin. Some champions love this item and most champions that build into The Brutalizer for the AD and CDR don't benefit as much from the auto attack aspect. This is definitely a core item for champions such as Nocturne, where he greatly benefits from all stats. However on Riven or Renekton who build into The Brutalizer, they could care less about the active proc, yes it's a lot of attack speed for a short duration each minute, but is it really worth paying an extra 1357g when you can't make use of the other stats?

For champions like Shyvana jungling, I just can't find the use of this item with the addition of Ionic Spark, which is a pretty weak AS item but has a nice proc for destroying passive minion waves. Overall there are better picks in all categories, don't buy this item until you've completed the rest of your kit.

Second tier items, meaning they're not fully built up.
- Madred's Razors, +15 Attack Damage, +23 Armor. Unique Passive: Your basic attacks have a 20% chance to deal 300 bonus magic damage to monsters or minions.

This item is made from Cloth Armor and Long Sword. Overall cost is 1000, recipe cost is 285.

This item is built primarily for Wriggle's Lantern. In some extremely rare cases (see: pure HP stacking without magic resist) it's acceptable to build a Madred's Bloodrazor, but those moments are few and far between.

- Phage, +225 Health, +18 Attack Damage. Unique Passive: Your basic attacks have a 25% chance to slow your target's Movement Speed by 30% for 2.5 seconds.

Made from Ruby Crystal, Long Sword. Overall cost 1315, recipe cost 415.

This item is amazing. It has a good amount of health as well as some AD and a passive effect that will make most opponents play passively since if they get caught out with that slow they're wrecked.

- The Brutalizer, +25 Attack Damage. Unique Passive: +10% Cooldown Reduction. Unique Passive: +15 Armor Penetration.

Made from two Long Swords. Overall cost 1337, recipe cost 507.

This item's significance has greatly dwindled before season 2, where the ultra tanky meta began. This used to have a huge significance for champions such as Riven and Renekton because it provided them a boost to their melee damage through ArP and CDR which let them spam their skills more often.

I don't typically build into it anymore because I can't justify buying Ionian Boots on a bruiser, and even then the overall effect from Triple Dorans or Wriggles/Phage offers more lane dominance.

Base AD items
- Doran's Blade, +100 Health, +10 Attack Damage, +3% Life Steal. Cost 475.

This item is amazing. It provides amazing stat per gold ratios and is purely early game dominance. This is also only a good starting item on Ranged AD carries, whereas Melee carries will want to focus on boots or cloth armor initially. The biggest downfall to Doran's Blade as an initial purchase is that it doesn't allow you to start with health potions, which are very important.

- B.F. Sword, +45 Attack Damage. Cost 1650.

This item is a key component in Infinity Edge and The Bloodthirster. That's it's significance. If you want to build an IE or BT, get this item as your primary AD purchase. It provides a large amount of AD in a single item slot.

- Long Sword, +10 Attack Damage, cost 415.

This item builds into a lot of items. Items of significance are Phage, Last Whisper, Hexdrinker and Wriggle's Lantern (indirectly). It's also key components in The Brutalizer and Sword of the Occult. It also builds into Tiamat but you'll never buy that item since it's such a gimmick item.

- Pickaxe, +25 Attack Damage, cost 975.

This item is most importantly used for Infinity Edge and Last Whisper. If you get sent back early and bought a zeal and can't afford the BF sword, pick this up to give yourself at least a little bit of fighting power. Otherwise buy this as the key component to Last Whisper. It also builds into Guinsoo's Rageblade, Madred's Bloodrazor and Bilgewater Cutlas, which are specialty items so don't concern yourself with them unless you're Akali or Jax.

AP
We're about to get streamlined with this stuff. In future updates to the guide I might add specific costs other than just sheer opinions of items, but it's all in game and occassionally prices are adjusted.

- Abyssal Scepter, this is mostly a specialty item. It provides Magic Resistance (AP Tanks prefer Force of Nature unless they have built in sustain) and an aura that chunks off 20 Magic Resist from enemy champions, while providing not a terrible amount of AP.

It's not really worth it unless no enemies are building Magic Resist, in which case this is better when paired with Sorceror's Shoes and Haunting Guise, otherwise skip it on any champion other than Galio, since this is part of his core kit. Void staff is better in most scenarios.

- Archangel Staff, another specialty item. The only champion that absolutely needs this item (at least Tear of the Goddess) is Ryze. He's the only champion that can get an early Tear without falling off in mid game, with another clear exception of possibly being Anivia, only because she farms with her ultimate.

This item however should not ever be made before Rabadon's Deathcap, the overall AP that it adds is less important than Rabadons, Void Staff and to a lesser extent Zhonya's.

- Deathfire Grasp, this item isn't a priority on many champions unless you aim to have more than 500 AP. It provides CDR, decent AP and some MP5, but it's primarily used for it's active which deals 30%+3%/100AP or an enemy champion's maximum health as magic damage once per minute. Key item for Veigar and LeBlanc, less effective otherwise. Always get this after Rabadon's, starting with Kage's Lucky Pick.

- Haunting Guise, specialty item that is only effective when paired with Sorceror's Shoes and Abyssal Scepter. It allows you to do true damage with all three pieces to a large majority of enemy champions that don't build MR, otherwise if any enemy champion has over 150 MR build Void Staff instead.

- Lich Bane, very late game item except for a few champions like Twisted Fate and Akali, where it's core after Rabadon's Deathcap or Rylai's respectively. It's super significant because it makes your next basic attack deal 100% of your ability power as physical damage. Also it provides a decent amount of mana, low amount of Magic Resist and 7% movement speed which is always welcome.

- Mejai's Soulstealer, very hard item to judge when and when not to buy. If you can keep at least 6 stacks, it's worth purchasing, otherwise it's wasted early gold. It has a low cost, and every time you kill an enemy champion you gain 2 stacks of ap, capping at 20. Every assist is worth 1 stack, and every time you die you lose 33% of your stacks, rounded up. Additionally at 20 stacks, you get 15% CDR. This is a key item for champions such as LeBlanc that snowball very hard.

- Rabadon's Deathcap, this is a key component to almost every mage. Aim to get this by 20 minutes on most champions if not the following item. It provides an amazingly high amount of AP as well as increasing your overall AP by 30%. Very worth for any AP user.

- Rod of Ages, this is a core item on any champion that has severe mana issues, such as Ziggs as a great example. His overall mana pool isn't large enough to keep him topped off even with Blue Buff, and once you get this item it pretty much nullifies that situation. It has a 10 minute ramp up time and can't be hastened by champion kills, which is unfortunate. It's real significance is a large chunk of Health and Mana.

- Rylai's Crystal Scepter, it's a weaker form of Frozen Mallet's slow that applies with damaging skills instead of basic attacks. It's effectiveness is cut in half for skills that are either AoE by nature or have a cooldown less than 3 seconds. It provides a large amount of Health as well as AP, so it's a very good first purchase or second purchase after WotA.

- Void Staff, this provides a good amount of AP as well as reducing your target's Magic Resistance by 40% (46% with talents). This is best purchased when the enemy team has any champion above 150 MR, and best purchased after Rabadon's Deathcap.

- Will of the Ancients, this item is best in pairs, as stated in the basic section about Auras, it has a somewhat weak base effect of +50 Ability Power, but it's Aura is +30 AP and 20% Spell Vamp, which means that if two people on your team get this, you both gain 110 AP and 40% Spell Vamp from each person investing 2100 gold into it.

- Zhonya's Hourglass, this item is a staple for most mages because it provides a huge amount of AP with Armor and an activation that makes you immune to all damage for a short duration. This is essentially a counter to CC, Bruisers and Ranged AD carries.

- Sheen, if you get this as a mage you're planning to build it into Lich Bane, otherwise Trinity Force for a melee carry. After using a skill, your next basic attack deals 100% of your base Attack Damage. Not an amazing early game purchase unless you need the mana on it, which you probably shouldn't.

- Kage's Lucky Pick, best boughten after Rabadon's Deathcap if you really want Deathfire Grasp, don't sit on it for the 15 minutes it takes to pay for itself, just start with this item for a very minor gold income.

- Hextech Revolver, key component in Will of the Ancients, very low cost for a decent amount of Spell Vamp and AP. If you're a champion that builds WotA first, rush this for lane sustain.

- Fiendish Codex, key component in Deathfire Grasp and Morello's Evil tome, provides a small amount of ap, cdr and mp5, purchase if you need those stats or just build straight into DFG after Kage's Lucky pick.

- Amplifying Tome, necessary item in a lot of mage builds. It's a somewhat decent starting item, but only on Vladimir. Otherwise get it when you go back to base if you're rushing a Hextech Revolver or Mejai's Soulstealer.

- Blasting Wand, this is priority 3, where it falls behind Needlessly Large Rod or Catalyst the Protector if you're building into Rabadons or Rod of Ages first. The only time you can justify buying it is if you bought all of your Doran's Rings and can't afford Needlessly Large Rod, or get a doran's ring or two and save for Catalyst.

- Doran's Ring, most mages want 2 or 3 of these for sustain in lane as well as bulk. Champion such as Cassiopeia can keep 5 stacks of deadly cadence up with just her q and 3 Doran's Rings, Gragas tends to even out, so on and so forth. Always try to get 2, get 3 if you're losing your lane.

- Needlessly Large Rod, it's the big freakin sword of mages. It's a priority buy if the first time you go back you can afford it because of the amazingly high amount of ability power it adds. It builds into Rabadon's Deathcap and Zhonya's Hourglass.

HP
- Aegis of the Legion, budgeto itemo supremo. It's fairly obvious that I can't speak spanish, but even more obvious that this item is amazing. It's low cost and provides a great amount of health and defensive stats. It also provides a tradeable aura for other champions, it's best for Supports and Junglers without Wriggles to prioritize this purchase.

- Catalyst the Protector, you get this item early on if you rush Rod of Ages, or in the case of Ryze Banshee's Veil. It's a late game purchase for Banshee's Veil otherwise. It's significance is that it provides a good chunk of Health and Mana and gives you almost twice a health potion and mana potion's effect whenever you level.

- Giant's Belt, this is significant for many reasons, but primarily it's a key component in Warmog's armor. Less importantly it's a key component in Frozen Mallet, Rylai's and Sunfire Cape.

- Heart of Gold, this builds into Randuin's Omen or the locket of the iron solari, which I don't care for. It's a GP10 that provides health and is built from a Ruby Crystal. Previously it was built from a Ruby Crystal and Cloth Armor and provided both health and armor, but alas, no more.

- Ionic Spark, this item is great or terrible. With it being moved to Summoner's Rift as well as Dominion, if you're a champion that profits from Attack Speed, such as Shyvana, it's a better choice than Youmuu's because the speed bonus is always present, as well as adding health and a proc that clears camps and minion waves in a matter of seconds. In the case of other champions, it's less than desirable.

- Kindlegem, key component for Spirit Visage and Shurelya's Reverie. Built from Ruby Crystal, provides a low amount of health and cooldown reduction. Only buy it if you build into either of the above.

- Leviathan, snowball item. It's amazing when fully stacked, but kind of hard to fully stack. It stacks health per champion kill and assist, get it at your own risk.

- Locket of the Iron Solari, this was part one of ruining Stark's Fervor, they added this as an alternate item for support champions to build into other than Randuin's Omen, which I felt was a great choice in late game none the less. It provides a barrier which isn't too terrible as well as an aura for Armor and hp5. Not a terrible item.

- Ruby Crystal, key component in, most importantly, phage and warmog's armor. Most bruisers build phage early, and if you get sent back early and can afford two ruby crystals, do it. It's almost as strong as Giant's Belt for two inventory spaces, then later you can buy a giant's belt and the only backdraw is one extra inventory space which could be used for a Chain Vest, but if you got sent back early you would have bought a chain vest anyways in most situations.

- Shurelya's Reverie, absolutely amazing item in every respect. You should try to have two on the team at all times, your support and jungler are the best respective choices. It provides a massive speed boost to all nearby allies, great for initiating, escaping and cutting off enemies.

- Soul Shroud, specialty item. Other budget items are more imperative since this is almost exclusively a support champion item. It provides AoE MP5 and CDR so it's a great pick, just hard for champions to want to purchase it.

- Warmog's Armor, one of the most commonly seen items. It provides a massive amount of health, which stacks to even more health and a decent amount of hp5. An early game Warmogs makes it so your opponents no longer target you and adds a nice chunk of attack damage when combined with Atma's Impaler. Great all around and only costs 3000g.

AR
- Chain Vest, one of the most common items purchased for bruisers and tanks. It builds into Sunfire Cape, Warden's Mail, Glacial Shroud, Guardian Angel, Atma's Impaler and not much more! It provides a good amount of armor for only 700 gold.

- Cloth Armor, the baby form of Chain Vest. It's used primarily in Wriggle's Lantern and Ninja Tabi, as well as Frozen Heart, Randuin's Omen and a lot more I wont get into. It's a common starting item for Junglers for one of many reasons, mostly because it's built into Aegis of the Legion or Wriggles.

- Doran's Shield, I have a love/hate relationship with this item, it can give you what you need when soloing a duo lane early one, otherwise it's only best when taken when you burn through too many potions and need the hp5 for the low budget and the armor isn't wasted.

- Emblem of Valor, key component in Locket of the Iron Solari and Zeke's herald, provides a low amount of health and armor and hp5 in an aura.

- Frozen Heart, amazingly nice high armor item built from the following item. It provides mana, cdr and an aura for enemies that reduces their attack speed by 20%, which I'm fairly sure is based off of base attack speed and not overall. Great counter to champions that aim for attack speed.

- Glacial Shroud, it provides a decent amount of armor, mana and cdr. It's great for a lot of champions by demolishing their limited mana pool while giving them much desired CDR which most tanks want. Great early game purchase.

- Guardian Angel, I hate this item personally, it's used primarily as a "dont hit this target" sign because it'll revive you after you die. Pretty simple, but it doesn't give you enough health to keep you alive, so it's a very random second chance. Most of the time your enemies wont focus you first if you have this, even though it removes you from the fight for about 5 seconds that they can wait to get an easy kill on you or focus on another.

- Ninja Tabi, love these boots. They're the cheapest pair of level 2 boots to get, give a great amount of armor and are a counter to on-next-hit champions because of their new passive. Previously they gave 12% dodge, then dodge was phased out of the game as a stackable stat, and now they reduce all basic attack damage by 10% aside from turret shots. Heavy counter to Nasus, Riven, etc. etc.

- Randuin's Omen, this is a great initiation item. If you get hit with it, it slows attackers 25% of the time. It has an active that slows all nearby enemy targets, as with my favorite example. Jungle malphite pops shurelya's, ultimates in, pops Randuins then his E and voila, everything is slowed to oblivion and an easy upper hand. Has a large amount of HP, HP5 and Armor.

- Sunfire Cape, situational item, best used on junglers, former must buy on off-tanks since it provides 35 magic damage to everything nearby per second. It's specific recipe costs 825~ gold and is built from Chain Vest and giant's belt, so is 825 gold worth 35 magic damage per second, +5 armor and +20 health?

- Warden's Mail, this is great earlier on if you intend to build a randuin's. it slows attackers movement speed when they hit you and provides a decent amount of hp5.

MR
- Banshee's Veil, for most carries this item is a direct counter to Karthus, otherwise it's a decent tanky item for some champions that want the mana without devoting to Rod of Ages or Frozen Heart, it doesn't add a great amount of utility beyond that.

- Chalice of Harmony, this is a great early game item to counter an ap carry if you're mana dependant. I find it works amazingly well when paired with Spirit Visage. Very low budget with great utility.

- Force of Nature, biggest magic resist item in the game, restores 1% of your maximum health per second and most importantly it gives you increased movement speed. Great sustain for champions without sustain built in.

- Hexdrinker, specialty item for snowballing on enemy ap laners. It provides MR and AD with a spell shield if you get chunked, best paired with QSS for undeiably powerful early game tankiness towards ap carries.

- Mercury Treads, very standard boots because of the Tenacity. It's greatly one of the only viable Tenacity items in the game. It's either an early game buy if you're laning against a CC threat or a late game purchase when you sell your Sorceror's Shoes or Ninja Tabi for late game utility.

- Quicksilver Sash, very low budget item that works like how Cleanse used to work, removing all debuffs on your champion. It doesn't reduce incoming disables like Cleanse does, but it removes more.

- Spirit Visage, health, CDR and Magic Resistance while increasing all of the health generating abilities value by 15%. Great item for champions with powerful sustain while making them tanky as well.

- Wit's End, this item is either amazing or sub par. I find it works best on bruisers beacuse it adds a large amount of Magic Resist (see: not that much) as long as you attack. It has a lot of attack speed on it and deals bonus damage on hit for only 2000 gold. If you can afford to sit there and attack something buy it early, otherwise after Warmogs if at all. Some champions prefer Force of Nature instead.

Other important buys

- Phantom Dancer, this is an amazing item on Ranged AD carries, who by default have horrible speed and want to stack Attack Speed and Critical Strike chance to maximize their damage output potential. This is best built after Berserker Greaves and Infinity Edge on ranged ADs, otherwise it can be rushed on champions like Tryndamere.

- Zeal, core item for Phantom Dancer and Trinity Force. I find the stat per gold ratios are too low to rush it to hold onto it for too long for either items. Provides movement speed which is great early on for 1200~ gold.

- Berserker Greaves, liability dps item, if you don't get focused they're a great lower cost set of boots that increase your DPS. Only buy them on Ranged ADs or melee carries that can get out of dodge like tryndamere.

- Boots of Mobility, roaming boots. Gives +5 Enhanced Movement Speed when out of combat and for 5 seconds, highest movement speed above boots of swiftness which are never buys. Best on AP mids that have a lot of scaling or high damage output so they can gank lanes easier. Second cheapest upgraded boots, overall provides something like 130 movement speed.

- Ionian Boots, not great boots unless you severely need CDR, in which case they're fine. Not for bruiser lanes that it doesn't directly enhance your durability, in some cases it can be better for repeatable sustain like in vlad's transfusion case.

- Boots of Speed, base boots. Most of the time it's a liability to not start with these, enhanced movement speed level 1 increases your speed by 50, every level beyond that is 20 movement speed per.

- Sorceror's Shoes, general go to boots for mages, provides a lot of early lane power because most mages don't gain magic resist per level. Sell these after you get a Void Staff and get Mercury Treads or Ionian Boots if the enemy team has absolutely no CC.

- Cloak of Agility, provides critical strike chance, most important components for Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer. Don't ever build cloak and dagger. It's bad, if you really need Tenacity it's always Mercury Treads.

- Dagger, attack speed for a low cost. Not a great starting item but builds into Zeal, Berserker Greaves and of course Phantom Dancer directly. I don't like buying it in it's single piece except for rare setups, such as jungle Irelia for the earlier sustain through AS.

- Health Potions, they were nerfed in season 2, where they restore 150 health over a short duration. It's very hard to not start with these as anything but a Ranged AD. It's too strong in early game and doesn't become "worthless" until about level 12.

- Mana Potions, they're nice in early game and then become worthless. In most games you'll only buy one.

- Elixir of Agility, provides attack speed and critical strike chance based on level for 4 minutes, doesn't get lost upon death. All elixirs cost 250g.

- Elixir of Brilliance, provides AP and more importantly up to 10% Cooldown Reduction for 4 minutes and doesn't get lost upon death.

- Elixir of Fortitude, provides AD and some health based on level for 4 minutes and doesn't get lost upon death.

- Oracle's Elixir, the only elixir that costs 400g and doesn't have a max duration. It provides sight of nearby stealthed and invisible units, it's lost upon death.

- Executioner's Calling, this is a specialty item. It gives Critical Strike chance as well as Lifesteal, and deals very low magic damage over time on all basic attacks which doesn't stack up but increases the duration. It's active is grievous wounds with a very short cooldown, it's great for going in and activating but requires too much micromanaging, I'd be happier if it applied it on it's own to champions with basic attacks and had an internal cooldown.

- Faerie Charm, provides low mp5 and builds into Philosopher's stone most importantly, up into Soul Shroud less importantly.

- Regrowth Pendant, provides 15hp5 and builds into Philosopher's stone as well as Warmogs armor, don't buy it in pieces for warmogs and you'll master it's use. Not an amazing starting item but it works on some champions.

- Philosopher's Stone, HP5, MP5 and GP10 and builds into Shurelya's Reverie. Don't ever build it into Eleisa's Miracle, those suck. Shurelya's is amazing.

- Meki Pendant, low mp5 item, builds into Tear of the Goddess and Chalice.

- Recurve Bow, attack speed item that builds into Wit's End most importantly, less importantly Ionian Spark and Madred's Bloodrazor.

- Tear of the Goddess, great item for removing mana issues, but it's a lot of potentially wasted gold if you can't delay the game late enough to purchase all the other key components. It builds into Archangel Staff and Manamune, which each increase AP and AD based on max mana respectively.

- Vampiric Scepter, 12% lifesteal for 450g, can't complain at all.


What to never buy

* Tiamat, Black Cleaver, etc. etc.
These are mostly gimmick items. Tiamat is terrible in every situation besides Critplank, and even then you can only profit if the enemy team is huddled together.

The Black Cleaver has amazing potential for pubstomping, where enemy teams don't understand the importance of picking up armor items so you'll always do true damage, but Last Whisper is a much more reliable item overall.

Thornmail, it isn't bad but it's very specialty. It's only good against Ranged AD carries that have absolutely no investment into Magic Resistance, and even then Quicksilver Sash is very standard for any Ranged AD carry. This item isn't terrible it's just extremely useless, especially seeing how Frozen Heart's 20% attack speed debuff seems to lower base speed and not bonus speed.

Malady, it's an extreme specialty item with champions such as Orianna if you're going for an AP/AS carry because of her passive. There are old Teemo builds that revolve around this and the following item, but they're worthless.

Nashor's Tooth, again another extreme specialty item. Just about the only champion that can make use of it is Warwick, and he prefers Ionian Spark and Wit's End anyways.

Hextech Gunblade, yet another extreme specialty item. Since spell vamp was made unique passive, this is no longer the go to item for most champions because it's pretty useless overall. It either delays snowballing or doesn't add enough power for the cost. Skip this.

Morello's Evil Tome, the inferior version of Deathfire Grasp, you get slightly more AP and CDR with a slight bit of MP5, but you don't get the active that deals 30+% of your enemies max health as magic damage, and this also doesn't build from Kage's Lucky Pick which isn't a terrible GP10.

Moonflair Spellblade, this isn't that bad of an item, but for all intents and purposes if you're a mage and want this, you buy void staff, sell your sorceror's shoes and purchase Mercury Treads if you want tenacity.

Manamune, this is another extreme specialty item. Just about the only champion I'd use it on is Yorick, but as with Tear of the Goddess the ramp up time is way too long and it doesn't provide infinite mana until about +700 mana on it. It also doesn't have more MP5 than Tear, so that aspect is wasted. Even on Yorick, I prefer playing like The Rain Man with his anti-mid Yorick that builds Chalice. The only champion that I can think of that gains an extreme benefit from it is Blitzcrank as a kill lane support.

GP10, is it worth it?

* Are you Support? Yes.
* Are you Jungling without Wriggles? Yes.
* Are you Jungling with Wriggles? No.
* Are you anything else? Generally no.
* Are you losing your lane and typically build into the advanced items anyways? Yes.

For all intents and purposes, sinking 800+ gold into a GP10 is a huge loss in lane. While you bought your Philosopher's Stone, your enemy just picked up two more Dorans items and is now hurting you and zoning you. Surprise surprise, you lost so much CS for having that very slight disadvantage in the first 15 minutes that the GP10s paid for themselves but they added very little to your capabilities. Long since gone are the days of double or triple old Heart of Gold which had armor on it.

Generally your support will grab GP10s because they take between 0-12 creep score throughout the entire game. This is how the support works, they support you in lane and need those gp10 items to fund wards and budget items.

The reason to get Philosopher's Stone in the jungle is because you'll need to start donating Blue to your AP mid and need a bit of mana regen to keep up with clear speeds, otherwise you become a liability without super effective ganks. If you build into Wriggles in the Jungle then you shouldn't get GP10s because you'll be making them too late to matter or delaying your Wriggles which speeds up your clear speed and allows for more time to Counter Jungle and Gank.