Mikael's Crucible: A Support's Situational Best Friend

Season 3 introduced a number of new items for players. Of those changes supports found a bevy of new item choices, allowing supports to build in different and more focused ways than before. One of the new items is Mikael's Crucible, a legendary item that offers a strong heal and crowd control reduction on cooldown. But is it worth the gold?

Mikael's Crucible

• Cost: 2200 g (920g) with a sell value of 1540 g.

•  +300 Mana
•  +40 Magic Resist
•  +9 Mana Regeneration
•  Unique Passive - Mana Font: Increases your Mana Regen by 1% per 1% Mana you are missing.
•  Unique Active: Removes all stuns, roots, taunts, fears, silences and slows on an ally and heals them for 150 + 15% of their missing health (180 second cooldown).

Mikael's Crucible primarily adds both magic resistance and additional mana/mana regeneration to your champion. The high cost of the item keeps the mana font passive while adding in the active that removes almost all CC while granting a substantial heal based on missing health. With the primary focus of the item focusing on keeping your mana levels high the question remains - When is a good time to buy Mikael's Crucible?

Times To Buy

Mikael's Crucible is good on two types of supports: those that have heal as a mainstay and those that are mana hungry. Soraka definitely falls into the former category though aggressive spellcasting can definitely drain her mana reserves as well. A Mikael's Crucible on Soraka gives her a possibility of four separate heals: one coming from Summoner's Heal, two coming from abilities and one coming from Mikael's. That means in a teamfight you can heal a low-HP carry with Mikael's, heal your AP with your Astral Blessing and then heal the team with your Heal spell and Wish. That amount of HP restoration turns into much more time for your team to put the hurt on the enemy. Throw in the usual Guardian Angels and you have a team that just doesn't seem to die.

Another good time to buy Mikael's Crucible is when you are facing a team that is focusing your carries with crowd control. If your Vayne is 17-0-12 the last thing you want is for her to be chain stunned and focused down just as the fight begins. Mikael's then becomes a powerful tool for helping players avoid bad positioning and getting out of focused crowd control in general. Mikael's can keep your carry free to melt the enemy team after they all blow their cooldowns trying to keep him or her out of commission.

Times to Avoid

Because of the restrictive cost Mikael's is not a must-buy on every support. Supports that focus on crowd control of their own should focus on items hinder the enemy team as it plays more into their strength of disruption and forced position changes.

Blitzcrank and Leona are two supports that could avoid Mikael's in lieu of items like Twin Shadow, Frozen Heart or Shard of True Ice. When you are using these champions you want to ensure that the enemy is taken off-guard from your abilities and items at every turn. While Mikael's may help if a carry gets out of place you want to focus instead on keeping the enemy players out of position. Since both Blitz and Leona can be mana-hungry as well supplement your mana needs with masteries and an early Shurelya's Reverie.

Overall Mikael's Crucible is an excellent new item that supplements a specific need for a team. While it's still finding it's niche along with all the other new items Mikael's cost keeps it out of the must-buy realm for some general game situations. Don't let the cost be completely restrictive to you though - when the team needs the extra heal or the extra freedom from CC then Mikael's is the item to keep your carry (and the rest of your team) in business for the late game.