The Gold Value of Active Items

Summoner's Rift includes 11 items (excluding consumables and Wriggle's) with an active ability. A table of all the active ability items on Summoner's Rift is given below, along with a description of the item's active ability.

Item	Item Ability
Bilgewater Cutlass	Target champion suffers 150 magic damage and is slowed by 50% for 3 seconds. 60 second cooldown and 400 range
Deathfire Grasp	Deals magic damage to target champion equal to 25% of their current health (+4% per 100 ability power) with a minimum of 200 damage. 1 minute cooldown. (750 range)
Executioner's Calling	Inflicts target enemy champion with Grievous Wound, causing 50% reduced healing and regeneration for 8 seconds (20 second cooldown).
Hextech Gunblade	Unique: Deals 300 magic damage and slows the target champion by 50% for 3 seconds (700 range). 60 second cooldown.
Locket of the Iron Solari	Unique: Shield yourself and nearby allies for 5 seconds, absorbing up to 50 (+10 per level) damage. 60 second cooldown. (600 range)
Quicksilver Sash	Unique: Removes all debuffs from your champion. 90 second cooldown.
Randuin's Omen	Unique: Slows movement speed and attack speed of surrounding units by 35% for 1 seconds + 0.5 seconds for every 100 armor and magic resistance. 60 second cooldown. (500 Range)
Shurelya's Reverie	Unique: Nearby champions gain 40% movement speed for 3 seconds (60 second cooldown). (600 range)
Youmuu's Ghostblade	Unique: Gain +50% attack speed and +20% movement speed for 4 seconds. Attacking enemies with melee basic attacks increases the duration by 2 seconds to a maximum of 8 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
Zhonya's Hourglass	Unique: Places your champion into stasis for 2 seconds, rendering you invulnerable and untargetable but unable to take any actions. 90 second cooldown.
Morello's Evil Tome	Unique: Inflicts target enemy champion with Grievous Wound, causing 50% reduced healing and regeneration for 8 seconds(20 second cooldown). (750 range).

Many of these items are known almost exclusively by their active abilities and the signature combos certain champions can execute with them. For example, Morgana's flash-ult-Zhonya's can decimate an entire team, Veigar's DFG-QR-maniacal laugh combo destroys almost any carry, and every support in the game rushes Shurelya's for the active's incredible utility or initiating and disengaging from team fights. But just how much are these item actives worth?

In order to calculate the value of the actives, I had to first calculate the gold value of each stat in the game. This information is given in the table below.

Stat	Item	Stat Quantity	Price	Price/Pt
AD	Long Sword	10	415	41.5
	Pickaxe	25	975	39
	BF Sword	45	1650	36.67
Lifesteal	Vampiric Scepter	10	450	45
AP	Amplifying Tome	20	435	21.75
	Blasting Wand	40	860	21.5
	Needlessly Large Rod	80	1600	20
Health	Ruby Crystal	180	475	2.64
	Giant's Belt	430	1110	2.58
CDR*	Kindlegem	10	322	32.22
	Glacial Shroud	15	-25	-1.67
Mana	Sapphire Crystal	200	400	2
Armor	Cloth Armor	18	300	16.67
	Chain Vest	45	700	15.56
Crit	Brawler's Gloves	8	400	50
	Cloak of Agility	18	830	46.11
Spell Vamp*	Hextech Revolver	12	340	28.33
Health Regen	Rejuvenation Bead	8	250	31.25
	Regrowth Pendant	15	435	29
Magic Resist	Null Magic Mantle	24	400	16.67
	Negatron Cloak	48	740	15.42
Mana Regen	Faerie Charm	3	180	60
	Meki Pendant	7	390	55.71
Armor Pen*	Brutalizer	15	42	2.8

*Approximate

There are a few important notes about the stat values I calculated. Firstly, my values for Cool Down Reduction, Armor Penetration, and Spell Vamp are all estimates because there are no items that give only these stats. CDR in particular I found difficult because the price of CDR varies wildly among items when the other stats are accounted for. For my calculations, I settled on the Kindlegem, which gives a price of 32 gold for each % of Cool Down Reduction. If you object to this method of calculating CDR value, please e-mail me and I will do my best to delete the e-mail and promptly forget about it.

Secondly, you will notice that, for many stats, there is a small range of value. For example, depending on whether you buy a Long Sword, a Pickaxe, or a BF Sword, you may be paying anywhere from about 37 to 42 gold per point of AD. In calculating the value of AD in active-ability items, therefore, I used the value that corresponded best to the amount of AD the item gives.

For example, if an item gave +30 AD, I would calculate each point of AD as worth 39 gold (like the pickaxe), but if an item gave +50 AD I would calculate each point of AD as worth 36.7 gold (like the BF sword). Next, I subtracted the value of the item's stats from the item's total cost. The result was the value of the item's active, as shown in the table below:

Item	Price	Stats	Stat Value	Additional Value¹	Active Price
Bilgewater Cutlass	1825	AD, Lifesteal	2040	0	-215
Deathfire Grasp²	2600	AP, CDR	2303	30x	397-30x
Executioner's Calling	1350	Crit, Lifesteal	1560	200	-410
Hextech Gunblade	3625	AD, Lifesteal, AP, Spellvamp	4307	0	-682
Locket of the Iron Solari³	2225	Armor, HP, HP Regen	1375	653	197-30x
QSS	1640	MR	740	0	900
Randuin's Omen	3075	Armor, HP, HP Regen, CDR	2977	500	-402-30x
Shurelya's Reverie	2200	HP, HP Regen, Mana Regen, CDR	3065	0	-865-30x
Youmuu's Ghostblade	2687	AD, Crit, ArPen, CDR	2403	400	-116
Zhonya's Hourglass	3100	Armor, AP	2778	0	322
Morello's Evil Tome	2330	AP, CDR, Mana Regen	2925	0	-595

¹The Additional Value column gives the estimated additional worth of an item outside of its stats. Auras, item passives, and building out of a GP5 item all add to the additional value. For auras and passives, I was forced to estimate a value, which may or may not be accurate.

² x = time in minutes GP5 item was owned before upgrading. I used this convention for every item that builds out of a GP5.

³In calculating the additional value of the Locket of the Iron Solari, I assumed that an average of 1.5 champions (including the item holder) would be able to use the health regen aura at any given time.

As the table shows, the majority of active ability items are very cost efficient, to the point that most of the items would very cost efficient even without the active ability. This means that the majority of items listed are excellent choices IF your champion can use all of the stats the item offers.

Four of the items in the table also build out of GP5 items, meaning that they are even more cost efficient than their price and stats would otherwise suggest. I will take a moment to evaluate the four items that are not cost efficient without their actives, in order to determine whether the active ability makes the item worth buying.

1. Deathfire Grasp: Active Price = 397-30*(time in minutes Kage's Lucky Pick was owned)
Active Ability: Deals magic damage to target champion equal to 25% of their current health (+4% per 100 ability power) with a minimum of 200 damage. 1 minute cooldown. (750 range)

DFG is an enormous scaling AP nuke on a moderate cooldown. It is absolutely worth the price on a burst AP caster, especially in the mid-late game.

2. Locket of the Iron Solari: Active Price = 197-30*(time in minutes HoG was owned)
Active Ability: Unique: Shield yourself and nearby allies for 5 seconds, absorbing up to 50 (+10 per level) damage. 60 second cooldown. (600 range)

In my opinion, this is a very situational pick at best. If the enemy team is focusing a single teammate properly, this item shields the target from 230 damage at max level. That's about one autoattack from the AD carry. The Locket is most likely built by the support as a second or even third item, which means that it won't make an appearance until the late game.

At this point, HP Regen is not a particularly useful stat either, as the laning phase is over and champions will typically either be at full health or in the middle of a teamfight. It can be effective against very disorganized teams, but otherwise I think there are better options.

3. Quicksilver Sash: Active Price = 900
Active Ability: Unique: Removes all debuffs from your champion. 90 second cooldown. QSS has been nerfed several times in the last few patches, and I think it is a very niche item now. If you're a carry who is consistently dying from being CC'd and you have a lot of spare gold, QSS might be worth it, although even then I would argue that GA is probably a better pick.

If your team isn't protecting you and/or you are dying enough to make this a worthwhile investment, your team is probably already losing. I think QSS is especially unlikely to be useful in lower level play. The active is a reactionary ability. Most CC lasts around 1-2 seconds, so you need to have lightning reflexes for the active to even be helpful when you're CC'd.

Offensive actives (Zhonya's, DFG, etc.) are much easier to use because the player himself can plan in advance when to use it, and will therefore be prepared to pop the active at just the right time.

4. Zhonya's Hourglass: Active Price = 322
Active Ability:Unique: Places your champion into stasis for 2 seconds, rendering you invulnerable and untargetable but unable to take any actions. 90 second cooldown. Zhonya's is almost mandatory for certain champions whose damage output/cc relies on being in the midst of the enemy team.

Morgana is the most infamous Zhonya's user, but it's also very strong on Karthus, Kennen, and Fiddlesticks. On AP champions that can happily unload their combo from a distance, however, Zhonya's becomes significantly less useful, because both the active and the armor stat are all but worthless.