Preface
A lot of the times I see people struggling with understanding itemization choices at all stages of the game, even at higher mmr’s such as Diamond. Itemization is a crucial part of the strategical component of the game, and is requires you to be both proactive and reactive depending on enemy item choices and champion selections.
Items
Quicksilver Sash: An absolute necessity against certain champions if you’re playing ADC, you don’t have the luxury of buying an hourglass nor do you have the luxury of stalling in a team fight. Against Warwick, Poppy, Zed, Malzahar, Nasus you should be looking to purchase this as your defensive item after two offensive items. Generally after IE and Shiv/PD you’ll want it against these threats that you can’t really kite out or ignore. Banshees Veil isn’t a suitable option because all of these champions (Other than WW) have a very easy time dispelling it with secondary spells. I would purchase a QSS against a WW just as caution since anything breaking your BV allows him to walk up and ulti you, your support isn’t always available to peel for you so sometimes you need to take things into your own hands. As a bonus, this upgrades into Mercurial Scimitar once you’ve the money the spare so it’s a decent chunk of damage to make it slot efficient.
Zhonya’s Hourglass: Very useful item both offensively and defensively as it can allow you to make a strong initiation then allow your team to back you up, or stall out certain effects or powerful moves such as Malphite’s Unstoppable Force or Zed’s Death Mark. As a general rule of thumb, Seekers Armguard + Tear is the build path you want for mid laners when you’re playing against an AD assassin such as Zed or Talon, once you’ve gained seraphs embrace you have a large shield to boot.
Last Whisper / Void Staff: These items receive a special place here as many either build them far too early or far too late. If your opponents aren’t building much armour and you need lifesteal, then instead of a LW you now have all the components of a Blood Thirster finished (BF Sword and Vamp are same amount of gold as LW roughly), and only need 900 gold for the recipe. Void Staff could also be a large chunk of gold as well that could be spent towards an Hourglass or a Death Cap, both of which are very large power spikes when finished for AP casters. That being said, if the enemy front line is building up significant amounts of resist (120+) and you can’t ignore them or leave them for last, then a penetration item is due. If you see several chain vests or negatron cloaks picked up all of the sudden, then consider it as well.
Blood Thirster / Blade of the Ruined King: Another choice ADC’s usually need to make when itemizing for life steal. If your opponent has a bruiser or tank that you really need to get out of your face, then Blade may be what you need to improve your ability to kite. If your opponent is stacking health then Blade is usually a good choice aswell. On the other hand, Blood Thirster is very strong for champions with good AD scaling (Lucian/Corki) and provides a strong shield that helps mitigate potential burst/poke damage.
Chalice / Tear of the Goddess: I feel like this shouldn’t need to be said, but if your opponents aren’t dealing any magic damage, then blue buff + Tear is more than enough to keep your mana woes away. Athenes has had it’s AP reduced and really is only optimal as an item when you can make usage of the magic resistance on top of everything else. Tear grants you a very large power spike when finished and an all purpose shield to help deal with burst damage.
Boots: Woaw, what could be so hard here? It’s just boots right? Early game, boots aren’t really necessary for anyone that isn’t a jungler or has plans on roaming to other lanes. There are some cases where having boots can really make the difference in dodging specific skill shots in lane from champions such as Syndra, but in most cases that 350 gold on your first two backs can really be spent towards something to maximise the efficiency you have in a fight. Boots offer no combat stats until upgraded into their 2nd tier, which is a significant investment in the first 15 minutes of the game.
Frozen Heart: A lot of people undervalue this item and prefer Randuins over it. The cool down reduction is not to be underestimated, as is the attack speed slow aura, and Frozen Heart remains one of the most cost efficient items in the game. The build path is spread out nicely so you can purchase components easily, and also helps out with the mana pool of some champions that may need it. Often if I feel like I have a large amount of health and I could really use the cool down, I’d prefer the Frozen Heart over Randuins.
Statik Shiv / Phantom Dancer: The only times I would prefer a Phantom Dancer is if kiting is of utmost importance to me. Shiv helps with wave clear and adds to burst damage as well, is cheaper to build and has an Avarice Blade in it’s components (Bonus!).
Morellonomicon: Vastly underrated item IMO, very useful against sustain champions such as Swain/Vlad and provides a lot of cool down and AP very efficiently. This is good to build on supports and mid laners, I prefer to include it in a Tear/Armguard build to ensure I have a nice bit of AP for mid game while I’m still scaling up.
Ending thoughts
Many underestimate how crucial your item build can be to the outcome of the game, but all the gold in the world is nothing to your champion if you cannot use it well. Knowing what kind of power spikes you want to aim for in the game and what to avoid from you opponents is a crucial component of playing well. This honestly barely covers some of the options you may have, as I don’t talk too much about decisions you need to make on your first back. Hopefully however it’s covered some of the more useful items people have difficulty deciding when best to buy.
-Louis on League
Louis On League 