t3h best Itamz

By transitive on May 28, 2009 2:32:12 AM from

i'm sure you'll all argue this til the end of time, and please do so, lively debate is good. these are my picks for "best of breed" items for each category. just the most efficient, most effective, best bang for your buck items. the lists aren't ranked in order, my numbering is arbitrary

Consumables:

1) Teleports and Flag Locks - use them to win games. that is all

2) combat mana potions - not every DG can use these effectively, but the ones that can (Sedna, QoT, Erebus) can get HUGE mileage out of these. i've played with some pretty pro Sednas who gulp down these things like Kool Aid between levels 1 and like 8 or 9 (by then they've got real mana regen items and don't need them anymore).

Armor:

1) Banded Armor - probably the best starting item for most DGs. remains useful well into the midgame.

2) Nimoth Chest Guard - the single most efficient armor piece in here, nothing beats the cost effectiveness of this.

Helmets:

1) Scaled Helm - its a good starter. you'll probably hock this and replace it with Vlemish later on, but this one is useful out of the gates.

2) Vlemish Faceguard - the all-star helm, the most efficient and effective one, some DGs can get enough mana with JUST this.

3) Plenor Battlecrown - the best SECOND helm you can get. its kinda terrible unless you've already got a Vlemish, but if you do its great. The Plenor + Vlemish tag team will provide the nearly bottomless mana supply that Sedna and QoT need to stay competitive.

Boots:

1) Boots of Speed - a guilty pleasure really. a major convenience but they suck up an item slot that you'll probably want later. still these are popular and effective. if you can learn to make do without them though its much better.

2) Unbreakable Boots - this is truly great and the most likely upgrade to Banded Armor in the midgame. put together a package of Nimoth Chestguard and Unbreakable Boots to fill most of your basic health+mana needs.

3) Journeyman Treads- its a late game item but one of the good ones. this is nearly an artifact though.

Gloves:

1) Wyrmskin Handguards - this can dominate the early and midgame on the right demigod. kinda luck based due to its random nature but the proc is exceptionally powerful during levels 1-9ish both making it harder for enemies to fight back (attack speed reduction) and harder for them to run (move speed reduction). note, also works against towers and will reduce their firing rate by 15%, very useful for tower pushing.

2) Slayer's Wraps - crits are good. this multiplies with Ashkandor as well for a truly impressive end-game combo. good buy for a heavy auto-attacker in the midgame.

3) Gloves of Fell Darkur - good damage boost but FANTASTIC minion damage bonus. maybe the best non-artifact damage item for generals that use minions.

Trinkets:

1) Wand of Speed - probably better than boots of speed. it gives you a bigger boost for a short time, but usually you only need to be fast for a crucial few seconds. equally valuable is that it sits in an activated item slot so won't conflict with your passive stat boosting items.

2) Narmoth's Ring - one of the best survivability items in the game. great health and regen and the cheapest available source of life leech.

3) Heart of Life - yeah, its fuckin great. don't think anyone will disagree about this pick. some people even think this should be nerfed. its basically like a portable health crystal/potion factory on 30 second cooldown. ridiculous.

Artifacts:

1) Mageslayer - low cost makes it accessible pretty early. very strong offensive boost that can put alot of DGs over the top.

2) Cloak of Flames - another low cost artifact with really good stats. this makes a great upgrade to your Vlemish Faceguard for the mid or late game. great mana stuff with an offensive boost and an extremely useful activation for clearing out those big clusters of creeps that build up at high war scores.

3) Bracelet of Rage - if you can set it up properly this thing will give you and your squad just absolutely world destroying damage for 10 seconds. this is one of the strongest offensive items, though it requires slightly more cunning to use effectively than a purely passive damage booster.

4) Bulwark of Ages - starting to get pricey but this thing is unmatched defense. one of the only items that will allow you to actually survive endgame damage outputs of other DGs with artifacts.

5) Ashkandor - massive crits, massive damage, life drain, even minion damage boost. best passive damage boosting item in the game.

Favor Items:

1) Swift Anklet - for all you speed junkies out there. great for harrassment type builds. very popular for Beast, Sedna, and Regulus.

2) Blood of the Fallen - a really strong health boost that remains relevant throughout the entire game. great for tank type builds.

3) Blade of the Serpent (Assassin Only) - strong stat boosts on top of an awesomely strong activated effect. this can replace the need to buy mana items almost completely for Torchbearer or Regulus.

4) Staff of Renewal (Assassin Only) - -20% cooldown is a very strong effect, better even than a celerity flag. it also stacks with celerity flags so you can use this to get 4 second cooldowns for your Fireballs or 7 second cooldowns for your Power of the Tower.

5) Heaven's Wrath (Assassin Only) - massively enhances early game creep farming which can lead to a big levelling advantage. can also be used to snipe at runners.

6) Ring of Divine Might (General Only) - a very large damage bonus for minion based builds. this can also be used similarly to a Heaven's Wrath to have your minions just blast apart a creep wave and speed up your farming.

7) Cloak of Night (General Only) - its like a better Warpstone combined with a worse Scaled Helm. great item. very versatile and tricky.

+66 Karma | 21 Replies

There is an item better than health potions (that is a consumable).

Sigils of Vitality. The thing costs 500 (a bit pricey), but at level 5 with my UB build, they give me 2000 HP instant-cast, and last more than long enough to retreat. At max level, I'm getting 4000 HP instantly. It's nuts. While they are a bit more expensive than big health potions for the amount of life they heal (unless you are HP stacking) these things are great because of their instant cast-time.

interesting. i'll have to try that. do you keep any health when the effect wears off or does it go back to previous level minus damage sustained?

You actually don't keep the health after it wears off, but 20 seconds is more than enough to run, teleport, or kill somebody (unless you are a slow character way overextended in the enemy base.)

It also can't kill you; when the effect wears off, you are brought to 1 health at minimum (though with Ooze on, you can combine this for a suicide, which due to glitchy mechanics, means no kill, exp, or gold for your enemies. D:)

Basically, the only hassle with it is the 20 second limit, but if you can't win the fight in 20 seconds, you can escape it in that much time (plus if you can't win in 20 seconds, you probably can't win at all.)

Quoting Milskidasith,

reply 1

There is an item better than health potions (that is a consumable).

Sigils of Vitality. The thing costs 500 (a bit pricey), but at level 5 with my UB build, they give me 2000 HP instant-cast, and last more than long enough to retreat. At max level, I'm getting 4000 HP instantly. It's nuts. While they are a bit more expensive than big health potions for the amount of life they heal (unless you are HP stacking) these things are great because of their instant cast-time.

I have never tried these out. You make them sound like a very attractive 'oh shit!' button.

Quoting BigAbboTT,

reply 4

Quoting Milskidasith,
reply 1
There is an item better than health potions (that is a consumable).

Sigils of Vitality. The thing costs 500 (a bit pricey), but at level 5 with my UB build, they give me 2000 HP instant-cast, and last more than long enough to retreat. At max level, I'm getting 4000 HP instantly. It's nuts. While they are a bit more expensive than big health potions for the amount of life they heal (unless you are HP stacking) these things are great because of their instant cast-time.

I have never tried these out. You make them sound like a very attractive 'oh shit!' button.

They are. Essentially, with an instant cast time and 20 seconds of having a half-life character again, you can run... oh, from a bit into enemy territory all the way to your territory freely depending on map size, or just finish a 1v1 fight (while normally seeing you cast a potion means "INTERRUPT!" seeing this means "wasn't he about to di-ACK!" combined with a wand of speed you can escape almost anything, and since the cooldown is only marginally longer than the item lasts (about 5 seconds longer, I think.), you can escape all but the most on the ball snipers with a second cast (they have to fire within 2 seconds of the item going off you, which may be tricky if you get an ally to focus on damaging the Regulus).

No mention of scalemail? This item is so ridiculously cost efficient there should be no excuse for running around with empty item slots not having bought it.

Also, I grow further and further away from the plenor helm. If you had bought 1500 gold's worth the large mana potions instead, getting the plenor second after the vlemish faceguard takes in the range of 15 minutes to pay off. Keep in mind gold is worth more earlier because of the principle of investment. You buy, say, one potion instead of the plenor and you have a 1.15k chunk of gold that can be benefitting you in some way. It's maximised when you buy the potions only as you need them(of course, don't make yourself visit your base more for this). This extra gold's return on investment up until the ~15 minute has to be added to the plenor's true cost. Then, given that you get the plenor later anyway, will you see that ~15+x minute mark after you've bought it? Will it pay off after that? It's only suitable for long games.

You can't really do this in place of the velmish faceguard because you will likely need a helm to even give you enough mana for potions to have full effect, along with something like unbreakable boots. You'll also have the vlemish for a greater length of time, paying itself off. Finally, while having your mana available immediately through potions is powerful, it's also good to have some amount regenerating passively so you can gain mana in combat without cast time - very important when chasing and convenient all-round.

Quoting Lieu-,

reply 6

If you had bought 1500 gold's worth the large mana potions instead, getting the plenor second after the vlemish faceguard takes in the range of 15 minutes to pay off.

Plenor also gives you about 1.5k to your base mana pool, which potions don't.

EDIT: Random helpfulness: Alright, you went and bought a Heart of Life. Good for you. Not only are you gonna be nearly impossable to kill in any fight you can run away from, but you'll have a near-endless supply of mana... right? Once you gain this massive regeneritave tool, you might be tempted to sell off all your useless helms, but be wary- many demigods have very tiny natural mana pools, say, around 1k at level 10. That's a very small tank of gas. So, how do you have the mana to cast extra spells between HoL activations, without wasting your slots? Some items, like Unbreakable Boots and Nature's Reckoning, give you useful effects ontop of large increases to your mana pool.

EDIT2: Oh, and Warlord's Punisher. +30 damage and doesn't take up a passive equipment slot, if you tend to have a use slot open early to mid game. And the "spell" it can cast isn't half bad either.

Re: Scalemail

scalemail is good, i agree, but i didn't include it because i don't find myself ALWAYS wanting it the way i do with Nimoth chestguard. if this list included "situationally great" items i'd definitely include it. there's basically nothing better (for such a low price) against minion using generals.

Re: Plenor Battlecrown

for 1500 gold you can buy 4 robust mana potions, which will restore 15000 mana total, though in practice it won't be that much since you're somewhat likely to overflow on each potion activation. Still, its quite alot, more than you would realistically expect a Plenor Battlecrown to ever restore. If its your second helm and is granting an additional 16 mps it would take 937 seconds (about 15 minutes) to match that. you might match it by the end of the match, but in any reasonable time frame the mana pots are probably more mana restored.

HOWEVER the mana pots do not increase your maximum mana supply. this is the real reason Plenor is a good buy, its the largest increase to max mana you can get from anything before very high end artifacts come into play. the max mana gives you a very big increase to your in combat spell-casting staying power without needing to take a 2 second potion break.

its also got some truly spectacular performance with things that can provide big bursts of mana recovery like Blade of the Serpent (when used with an AoE like Rain of Ice). there are many Torchbearer item builds that use ONLY Plenor Battlecrown just for the max mana and rely on Potions and/or Blade of the Serpent for mana recovery.

still, its debatable. i do find it to be the only other helm i ever buy after the Vlemish though, which is why it made the list.

Transitive, great list! Would have been useful when I was starting out. I think you might want to add worthwhile Citadel upgrades etc to the list. I'm definitely a firm believer of having all slots filled. Therefore, I also have some suggestions on "filler" items.

Gloves of brutality(400), great cheap damage.

Nature's Reckoning(1500), Good damage for rightclick heros. Pretty decent bang for your buck.

Footmen's Sabatons (600): Good cheap boost to stats

ScaleMail(400): Excellent armor boost.

Sigil of Vitality(500): Excellent for higher hp heros. Instant cast+no special effects meaning its a definite ace in the hole. Its a must have on my oak minion build since it also gives +100 hp to minions and makes my tanky oak a major pita to kill. Go into battle with enemies thinking I have 5.5k'ish hp. Right when battle begins, activate Sigil to soak up their entire team's alpha strike(you're at 8.25k hp), giggle when they finally whittle me down to low health. Shield+hol, then use another sigil

Totem of Revelations(50 gold): Super cheap and gives way better vision than stupid flags. Lasts a goodly amount of time and is super useful against silly regulus miners.

Girdle of Giants is a pretty decent item too. It gives great aoe, large hp boost, hp regen, and decent damage. (Mainly used if your team is on defense and they've got big creeps)

Favor item:

Amulet of teleportation: Pretty damn useful on the larger maps. Allows you to have more activateable trinkets. Sigil of Vitality, Cap Locks, Heart of life (my minion oak build for example).

Magical Coin Pouch: Only really useful for premade teams with a pure supporter who plans on buying citadel upgrades + items for teammates. I get it for my QoT for example since she's already a superb famer/pusher with just her skills and can buy stuffz for more item dependent heros.

Poisoned Dagger: Sorta on the fence for this one, but its a superb slow.

Universal gadgets are really good for a quick early kill and will pay off the investment in gold when you get them off. They aren't necessarily must buys but I love to open with them.

Also, when I tested ring of divine might, the knockback effect did not occur with my minions(think I tested shamblers, minotaurs, and archers) so I think the tooltip is wrong.

guys also keep in mind, once you have the huge mana pool bonus from the crown, your mana regen increases.

Ring of Divine might definitely works for oak minions, priest idols. Can't recall mino/archers though. You do know the knockback is an active ability right? ( I made that mistake at first when testing Divine once upon a time) It just makes your minions one hit creeps.

Universal gadgets are great . I don't use them to open fights though(too expensive unless I get a guaranteed kill), they're great for finish a fight since its a suprise 600 burst nuke.

Dvorak,

so youre telling me if i use the ring of divine might, my creeps will one shot even lvl 4 minion idols? If so thats so sex.

Eh? No. You're minions will 1 shot the ai-controlled lower level creeps (Up to priests not sure on pesky angels). I'm pretty sure you have kill idol minions normally. I'll test later tonight because I can't recall :/.

leth,

your mana regen is independent of your total mana pool. regen is a constant, it is not a percentage of your total pool. Plenor Battlecrown will boost regen based on your other regen items (and base regen from DG level) only. this is why its primarily used as a second helm, it provides very low regen bonus unless you've already got a regen bonus. you need about 20 mana per second for Plenor to match what you get from a Vlemish.

on some maps you'll be able to hold (or start with) a +15 mana regen flag so you might just buy the Plenor first to take advantage of the large flag bonus. Leviathan is a good map for this strategy. Exile has a pretty easy to grab mana regen flag as well.

re: Ring of Divine Might

only soldier, archer, priests, and angels can be blown away. they don't have an equal chance to get blown away, its lower for priests and angels than for soldiers and archers. the effect is activated and lasts for 10 seconds. its a very good way to have your minions (works great with Cannoneers in particular) blow away a whole creep wave at once, will clear them in about 2-3 seconds if you've got a few minions out. fantastic way of breaking up the high war score creep clusters that build up around choke points. 10 seconds of Oak spirits blowing away creeps will get rid of EVERYTHING. just as good as a Fire Nova going off.

I notice you Banded Armor over Scale Mail? I don't really agree here. I think though that the items you buy are very dependant on the Favor item you start with. For instance, Banded Armor makes more sense if you picked up the Anklet.

Anyhow, my top 5, excluding the Heart:

5. Nimoth's Chestplate. Early game defense is very important. This item gives both health and armor in big ways, for a reasonable sum.

4. Universal Gadget. By far the most underappreciated, yet awesome, item out there. Used purely aggressively, it gives ANY DG a strong early game direct damage effect, that can catch people completely off guard. Also being able to consume it to heal you OR AN ALLY makes it very very versatile. Great for UB who is often harder to gauge your survivability against, due to his damage over time.

3. Journeyman's Treads. All other speed boost items wish they were the Treads. 15% static, and a massive 50% on trigger... the real kicker here is that when you need it the most (getting pounded on) is when the treads are the most likely to go off.

2. Vlemish Faceguard. Honestly, I feel that one of the big points during the game, where the game advances to the next era of play, is when people can afford this item. Large static boost, large mana per second boost. Many DG's will only need this item for mana regen for the entire game.

1. Slayer's Wraps. Just about the most bang for your buck that you can get. You get two pretty big bonus' to damage, as well as a strong regenerative effect. In lieu of purchasing weaker regen effects early on, saving up for the wraps will let you heal quickly AND dish out strong damage. There are very few DG's I don't buy this for.

Banded Armor is just a better item. it also costs slightly more, so its pretty balanced. Scale Armor is also very good. one of the most efficient items for dealing with damage from towers, creeps, and minions. it didn't make the list only because there's a better item available at the same time. i can't really think of a circumstance where you would by Scale instead of Banded. Scale is also good and its very common to buy it in addition to Banded if you want a strong survivability coming out of the gates.

keep in mind, the list is just THE VERY BEST items. its not every item thats good enough to buy, just the clear standouts. Banded Armor stands out above Scale Armor.

Quoting transitive,

reply 17

for every Demigod at level 1 Banded Armor provides a greater effective health boost then Scale Armor. it also provides regen, which Scale Armor does not, so it increases lane staying power by a much greater amount.

Banded Armor is just a better item. it also costs slightly more, so its pretty balanced. Scale Armor is also very good. one of the most efficient items for dealing with damage from towers, creeps, and minions. it didn't make the list only because there's a better item available at the same time. i can't really think of a circumstance where you would by Scale instead of Banded. Scale is also good and its very common to buy it in addition to Banded if you want a strong survivability coming out of the gates.

keep in mind, the list is just THE VERY BEST items. its not every item thats good enough to buy, just the clear standouts. Banded Armor stands out above Scale Armor.

Buy both. You can always sell stuff later. Scalemail simply provides so much armor for so little cost that you should not be having empty item slots and not buying this unless you are only taking damage from TBs or something. Actually, no, it's worth it just against towers even. Scalemail is a 24% boost against any form of armor-mitigated damage. People should be spamming the cheap items until they can't carry any more, *then* looking towards pricier options. Scalemail just gives a phenominal boost and is dirt cheap.

Also, about using mana potions instead of a plenor. An amazing replacement is unbreakable boots. The 800 mana from them plus the vlemish's boost puts your mana pool large enough to get full benefit from potions. I highly recommend this combo where possible.

hit quote instead of edit

Quoting transitive,

reply 17

It may be true at level 1, for low HP characters especially, but it is not uniformally true for the first 4 or 5 levels. Also 150 gold is a pretty noticeable difference. out of your first 1000. The extra consumeable you may be able to get is often significantly better. Most people have noticed that the Banded armor is slightly better in combat vs the Scale mail, but often don't consider that 150 gold is a good percentage of, say, a health pot, or 60% of a tele scroll. Also, I would argue that the scale mail is much more valuable to have as an addition to other higher end items, and so you don't have the need to sell it off to get the money back (which you would lose more money on).

quoting post

3) Heart of Life - yeah, its fuckin great. don't think anyone will disagree about this pick. some people even think this should be nerfed. its basically like a portable health crystal/potion factory on 30 second cooldown. ridiculous.

...ahem...

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t3h best Itamz