League-of-legends – Is Ardent Censer still viable during late game

Playing other champions really gives you a feel for how to handle situations. It is important to know what your champion is capapable of and what they are capable of. I can offer some tips though.

1. Watch your map: This one is the most important, always watch your map. When more than one person is missing on the enemy team you should be moving to a safe position. Make sure you know where your enemies are or where they were heading last seen. Keep the map scouted and when 3+ people are missing you should be trying to bunch up aswell. If theres 3 or more people missing and you're pushing a lane deep then most likely they are coming to kill you.

2. Know your role: If you're the tank, be the tank. Protect your squishies, stay close to them and protect them. They are usually your carries and thats how you will win the teamfights. Rally your team, don't be afraid to boss them around. "All push mid" "Group up". Late game power is all yours as the tank, you engage, you chose where and when to engage and where to push. Without you your team is pretty useless. If you're the carry, stick to the tank farm within moderation and keep an eye on the map. You're who they're disappearing to come kill. Stick to the brush when teamfights engage so they can't come in and just ice you and run away. Don't reveal yourself till some spells have been cast and they have already begun focusing another less squishy player. If you're support, keep the tank alive and watch your squishys.

3. Don't wander: If its late game and you're all level 18 its time to be a team, move together, stay close. Don't over extend and wandering also involves watching the maps. If the enemy team is pushed into their base and fending off super mionons go steal their camps, but just always farm in moderation and never over extend.

4. Know your enemy: Once again coming back to knowing the champions. If you're the tank and the majority of the enemy team damage dealers are ability power then stack magic resist, if you're a carry and a majority of the enemies are tanky high health grab a madreds and tear them down. Don't trust mobafire 100%. No build is gaurenteed every time. I say this all the time, LoL is dynamic and should be played as such. Build your build around the enemy team and what your team needs from you.

Also a side-note worth mentioning, once you can buy tier 3 runes build some pages for your favorite champions. Try to make ambiguous pages that can apply to for example all AD carries or all tanks. Some good purchase starting points are armor seals, armor pen marks, and magic pen marks. You can use them for basically any character.

You list primarily tanky supports, who were hit the hardest with the removal of Heart of Gold. This leaves two other GP/10 items: Philosopher's Stone and Kage's Lucky Pick. I ignored Avarice Blade as I don't feel it compliments the support role.

A Philo stone can build into Shurelya's Reverie, Eleisa's Miracle, or Ohmwrecker. Shurelya's is still a great support item, and Eleisa's reduces the cooldowns of the summoner spells Heal, Clarity, and Clairvoyance. It can also free an inventory spot if purchased early enough! Ohmwrecker is outshined by both items, and I don't recommend buying it on a support.

Kage's Lucky Pick turns into Shard of True Ice, Twin Shadows, Morellonomicon, or Will of the Ancients. The first two are most viable on a support, and the Shard continues to provide GP/10.

So a lot of things affect whether GP/10 is still viable.

For a Philo Stone:

• Did you take Heal or Clairvoyance?
• Do you need extra sustain?
• Does your team need a Shurelya's? Is anyone else buying one?

For Kage's Lucky Pick:

• Does your champion benefit from extra AP?
• Do you need additional CC?

Another new item is the Sightstone. For an investment of 950 gold, you can place up to 2 wards at a time, with each ward lasting 3 minutes. The Sightstone holds 4 wards total and refills when you return to base. This breaks down to 50 gold/minute, and starts saving money after 19 minutes (assuming you immediately place wards when available). It also provides +180 health, making it a strong choice for tanky supports.

Previously, GP/10 items were essential to compensate for the cost of wards. This is largely mitigated with the usage of a Sightstone, freeing money for other items.

A Philosopher's Stone costs 700 gold and pays for itself in 23.33 minutes. Kage's Lucky Pick costs 765 and pays for itself in 25.5 minutes. These times are halved if you sell the item. Because it takes so long to make money from GP/10 items, it's best to buy them as early as possible.

Compare this to the gold granted from kills/assists. A champion who hasn't been killed is worth 300 gold, and 50% of that for an assist. The more times a champion is killed, the less money the kill rewards, with a minimum of 15 gold.

Since 2 GP/10 items provide 60 gold/minute, you have to get a 150 gold assist every 2.5 minutes for assists to equal GP/10 items. You can get an additional 5 GP/10 from Quints and masteries, resulting in 90 gold/minute and needing an assist every 1.66 minutes.

The new pick-pocket mastery offers an additional avenue to generate gold. Unfortunately, this isn't very viable on melee supports.

While supports are no longer required to get GP/10 items to support expensive ward-buying habits, these GP/10 items are still cost-efficient for longer games AND they upgrade into items that are very useful for most supports.

Ultimately, the decision to buy GP/10 items comes down to play-style and preferences. If you prefer to play aggressively and need extra stats to stay alive, skip GP items. If you're trying to maximize gold gained, GP/10 is still the better choice (unless you can get an assist every 1.6 minutes!).

tl;dr: GP/10 is still very viable, especially since those items build into new support-focused items. However, it's no longer a necessity since the Sightstone makes warding much cheaper.