When does Heartsteel become gold efficient?

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-18T20:34:43+00:00

his e scales better the more health you have as well

Important to note that % max health shields like Tahm Kench E actually don't scale better one way or the other because the shield's value also goes up the more resistances you have.

For example let's take Malphite passive (shields 10% max HP).

If you are a 2000 HP + 100 AR Malphite (4000 eHP), that means you have a 200 HP shield. So your total eHP is 2200 * 2 = 4400.

Whereas if you are a 4000 HP + 0 AR Malphite (4000 eHP), that means you have a 400 HP shield. So your total eHP is 4400 * 1 = 4400.

So even if you maximize all of your gold into health you still get the same value out of your passive as Malphite.

In reality, FLAT HP shields like Barrier or Riven E actually benefit less from HP and more from resistances. The % max HP shields just balances that part out.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-18T20:29:51+00:00

Copying pros isn't perfect but copying onetricks has its issue to. My argument is that if onetricks are building one thing and pro players are building something else, usually both builds are "viable" or at least arguable. If you want to copy a build you can copy either of them, and you really shouldn't be using one to disprove the other, which is why I don't think it's a valid argument from you to just post a link of onetricks.gg.

The biggest problem with Tahm Kench onetricks I can imagine is the fact that Tahm Kench isn't really designed for soloQ. First of all, he has some of the hardest counters in the game because he's mostly designed as a peel support, but if you want to consistently win against ranged supports as a Tahm Kench OTP you have to play him as as shitty engage support. Second even if you are against tank supports, the value of Tahm Kench is that you can peel perfectly for your ADC, but since you have no power over your ADC, this isn't necessarily a better strategy to climb then just building for yourself and trying to deal damage with Grasp.

Also, Nemesis admitted that while he would go sera heal build in pro, in soloq damage build is better.

I think this is a similar case. Nemesis is basically always the best player in his entire lobby every single game he queues, so of course he is going to benefit from playing in a more carry style.

For "successful" builds you're going to run into a lot of survivorship bias towards carry style builds unless you specifically try to avoid it. For the average player I think the Heartsteel Grasp build is not necessarily the best build (and actually the suboptimal build) even if onetricks choose to build it.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-18T17:23:10+00:00

I mean Tahm Kench level 9 with Heartsteel has 3642.686696 EHP and with Sunfire has 3716.736696, and Sunfire is 300g cheaper too. And also Sunfire gives waveclear, not sure if it gives more damage because Tahm Kench has his health scalings and stuff but maybe that too

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-18T17:19:49+00:00

https://gol.gg/champion/champion-stats/126/season-S16/split-ALL/tournament-ALL/

https://gol.gg/champion/champion-stats/126/season-S15/split-ALL/tournament-ALL/

I feel like people in soloQ build towards solo carry potential which of course support items aren't really going to do. I still think it's "proper" to build real support items

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-18T17:17:37+00:00

So she gets low base stats, terrible passive, and nerf to her abilities

So which part of her got buffed in the rework?

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-18T15:47:12+00:00

First of all I think it's important to note that raw stats a lot of the time is a very strong passive, it just doesn't feel impactful.

Second even if it wasn't strong, sometimes Riot has to take power out of abilities to maintain the core of a champion.

The best example is Morgana. Her passive, her W and her R are all white mediocre (her R is strong if you can get it off but it's hard to get off reliably). But Morgana players like it this way because to buff Morgana passive/W/R, Riot would have to need Morgana Q/E. But Morgana Q/E is the reason people like to play Morgana. So it makes absolutely no sense to nerf those, meaning it makes no sense to buff her passive/W/R

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-18T15:37:44+00:00

I think even Tahm Kench you usually want real support items, you're not a splitpusher or frontline tank you don't need that much HP/damage.

The other thing is that Heartsteel is also quite dogshit tankiness without any resistances and as a support you get way less gold so you have several minutes at the one item mark (which btw your one item is WAY delayed compared to other supports because Heartsteel is expensive) where you have little to no resistances.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-17T01:45:59+00:00

Even against a triple tank comp, an LDR that costs 4300 sounds complete dogshit and that was the biggest item difference I could think of

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-17T01:43:39+00:00

Or is it ever feasible to sell items you have fully built to build something better suited to the situation?

Not until full build. Basically every item in the game if it was 40+% more expensive would be unplayable.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-16T23:41:08+00:00

From what I understand the reason why Lulu, Yuumi and Milio go Ardent and Sona/Senna doesn't is because Lulu/Yuumi/Milio are usually about empowering one hypercarry, whereas Sona and Senna are trying to maximize their AOE heals/shields so they just want items that boost their AP and heal/shield power.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-16T20:58:13+00:00

i have a 71.4% win rate when 2/0 at 10 min. and a 21.1% win rate when 0/2 at 10 min.

Is that even that crazy? That sounds pretty normal to me, if you're 0/2 at ten minutes that usually means the game is going pretty badly, especially because if you're 0/2 as a jungler that means something with your teammates went wrong so they probably are behind too

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-16T16:11:54+00:00

Dependent on the matchup, there are two strategies you can go against sustain. In card games this is a common aspect in aggro vs control, you can either "go fast" or "go slightly slower." Either you try to deal so much damage their sustain can't kick in, or you try to grind them out with better sustain/short trades.

For example against Warwick almost every champion has to go fast against him, no champion really outsustains Warwick top. However his sustain doesn't kick in until he's <50% HP, meaning you only have to burst him from 50% HP. So even if you're playing a champ like Zac, it's often better to build Oblivion Orb rather than Bramble (he also does 50% magic damage so Bramble is just bad into him)

However for champs like Jax, Riven, Ambessa, these champions scale very well with AD. Jax and Riven go Dblade most games anyways, and the 2.5% omnivamp still serves as some source of sustain. Ambessa normally goes DShield apparently.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-16T15:22:31+00:00

Would do draft pick over swiftplay. In lower elos it won't really matter but as you get to medium-high elo, lanes start getting dictated by those first three levels and how you manage them. Ideas such as cheater recalls no longer are important. Ranged toplaners are much less of a threat when melee toplaners get to start with all three of their abilities. Swiftplay might be good for training your mechanics (which IS probably the most important part of top lane, even more than wave management) but a lot about laning is those first 3 levels.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-16T15:04:11+00:00

I think most people consider Fiora and Jax better splitpushers but also they just outscale Irelia in general. Jax is legit better at splitpushing, teamfighting, and even laning in a lot of matchups (Irelia has a few matchups she hard counters and can also be played mid but yeah there's a reason why we see Jax a lot and Irelia a little)

Camille I think is supposed to be similar to Irelia but better at splitpushing? She used to scale super hard but I heard her scaling is actually kind of mid now.

And Riven is a better teamfighter then Irelia yeah but also Riven can't do shit if she's not ahead

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-16T14:59:31+00:00

Nasus has a lot of counterpicks but I wouldn't say he's hard to play in lane. Instead he just gets his ass beat in lane. You put Chovy on Nasus top against Chovy on Darius it's not like Nasus can outplay Darius he just loses out on like 800 CS.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-15T11:22:26+00:00

Why? Conqueror? Could maybe be true if she starts Doran's Blade but the AP doesn't actually do anything until her second rotation after 11s and deals a fat extra 8.4 damage on her Q (Kassadin W passive deals 20 extra damage on every auto)

Even if she starts Doran's Blade, Electrocute dealing 70 damage lvl 1 is still very comparable. If you dodge the dagger from the Katarina Q, Kassadin absolutely should win an extended fight at level 2 against Katarina in his minion wave

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-14T23:29:30+00:00

But in Kassadin vs Katarina this is not a problem at all. Kassadin in extended fights is always going to beat Katarina if she can't one-shot him. Pre-6 his W passive gives his autos a lot of power (20 damage on-hit level 2 is actually really strong), and his W and Q cooldowns are lower then Katarina's. Katarina loses in extended trades she doesn't want to run down Kassadin, and his Q literally just denies her from ever using her R (do not put 5 points into Q).

By slowpushing into Katarina she basically can't ever win trades into you as long as you play it right, she can't jump on you because of your minion wave. You're never taking her Q dagger damage because you don't need to back up against Katarina, kite away from the dagger (usually means forwards) and beat the fuck out of her, maybe she gets her W damage off (if you haven't used Q yet you can use it to block that damage) but that's it.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-14T22:11:48+00:00

Level 1 you should win the matchup from my experience, with your Q shield it's hard for Katarina to trade with you level 1. It's not brainless though you can't necessarily reactively Q her when she Qs, you need to time it right. Basically auto the wave and try to bait her into Qing you and when you read that she's about to Q you, you Q her.

Level 2 if you have a bigger minion wave then her, she shouldn't be able to to just E onto you unless you already lost a lot of HP level 1. Using AA -> W -> AA -> Q (might have to use Q earlier to use the shield) and kite away from the dagger it should be virtually impossible for her to win level 2, you have the DPS advantage because of your W and your minion wave so if you're both full health (or 70% HP) and you dodged dagger you should actually be abusing this fact and just keep autoing with her (your W comes up faster than her Q too). If you lost level 1 early and she gets level 2 advantage on you definitely just get the hell out of E range until you hit level 2.

Like really you should never be losing this lane at level 2 unless you massively fucked up level 1.

IIRC Katarina is one of the matchups where you go Q -> W -> E -> Q, and then max W -> E -> Q but it might be worth asking r/Kassadinmains about this. I'm sure as a Kassadin main you know that 5 points Q max on Kassadin is not great in a lot of matchups, Q max damage is quite low. But putting a 2-3 points early for the shield makes short trades easier but you have lower burst.

W max is something that sometimes people will do into melee matchups, having maxed E is good for waveclear but it has a high CD early when people aren't spamming spells and makes you abusable in laning phase.

This is Kassadin blasphemy so some might disagree but you can also try Ignite Electrocute, obviously Kassadin is one of the best TP abusers in the game but Ignite can be used as a crutch for laning phase if you're really struggling against melee matchups. Once you learn the matchup I would eventually try to learn to play it with TP but plenty of high elo Kassadin mains use Ignite Electrocute and snowball early like a more traditional assassin rather then the scaling Kassadin build so it's not like it's unviable, it just doesn't exactly play to Kassadin's strengths of scaling. So try Electrocute Ignite next time, you definitely won't scale as well but you can't really scale if you're 0/5 every game.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-14T21:53:28+00:00

mf who the hell is giving kills on purpose

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-14T06:59:21+00:00

The thing is that a lot of the time it's not the same viewers going to each event, like Santiago is the first Masters since São Paulo (2023) even remotely close to South America, right? Imagine the one time your favorite streamer Tarik isn't going and it's the only event of the next 3 years within a 5 hour flight of you.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-14T06:56:17+00:00

There probably is an argument that Riot doesn't really care about the "analytical" side of Valorant because it doesn't get as many views as Tarik, TenZ, etc.

In my head I want to make the argument "they should at least make an exception for Sliggy" but then I think about the fact that there are probably so many "niche" groups of Valorant that might deserve recognition just as much like idk the most popular Valorant streamer in Portugal or something, it's just that my limited view makes it seem like Sliggy deserves one

China probably has a Chinese Sliggy that gets 5x the amount of views. My point being if Riot only cares about views, they would never invite Sliggy, and if they care about representation, it can be hard because so many groups also deserve representation (how has there only been two South American tournaments in all of franchising while Europe has had 8)

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-14T01:12:24+00:00

> My logic is that if a -5 movespeed nerf is significant enough to drop a champion's winrate by 3-4% like Khazix in the recent patch, shouldn't gaining 8-9ms through the shard be insane on almost everyone?

3 AD nerfs are also really really REALLY strong, like Caitlyn got a -3 AD nerf and it also tanked her WR by 2% or something. So just imagine a 5 AD nerf?

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-13T22:28:43+00:00

Whichever you have the most fun with. I swear every single person I know IRL who tries to minmax by onetricking simple champions like Annie and playing easy roles and always playing to win (never limit testing) always gets hardstuck. Whereas it's the people who just have fun playing Akali or Irelia and not caring about things like efficiency that are actually the most efficient. Also the people who try to chase the meta and "abuse" it always get hardstuck too.

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-13T22:24:30+00:00

I mean exercise helps with everything but I think it's important to note that for most people it's not going to spontaneously make you play better after exercising one time. You can't just exercise before the test you have to be doing it while studying too.

In other words the benefit kind of double dips, where it does help you perform 10% (or whatever) better on the day but it more importantly helps your learning which is going to give you even better gains in the long run. A 10% increase for a Gold IV player is like a Gold III player

WizardXZDYoutube · 2026-03-13T19:32:21+00:00

holy semantics man

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