Item Analysis: Seeker's Armguard

The newest item in League of Legends, Seekers armguard is build out of two cloth armors (15 armor and 300 gold each) and an Amplifying Tome (435 g.), with a combine cost of 125 gold, for a total cost of 1160 gold. This video shows how the item is cost effective. I am not going to argue that the item is not cost effective, of this there is no doubt. However, it is the effectiveness of the item that I am not sure of, so lets discuss when to buy this item, who to buy this item on, and why to buy it. Let's get started!

When to buy the item, and on who?

                                                                                                        

Now, I didn't put these two images up here because I think they're pretty. A lot of champions that are on the midlane right now love Mana. In season 3, many champions that were popular in Season 2 are still rather dominant, like Anivia, Karthus, Orianna, and other champions that weren't as popular before are coming back with a vengeance, like Kassadin and Lux. If you notice however, all of these champions are rather mana dependent, getting either a tear, catalyst, or chalice eventually, and getting upgraded later.

So, with this, when does a Seeker's armguard come into the build? Champions like Anivia and Orriana would struggle to keep up in farm without an early chalice, and other champions that like Rod of Ages would be delaying their RoA by buying a seekers armguard, which wouldn't be very stong because RoA's scaling with time. So if you find yourself playing against an AD caster as a champion that struggles with mana problems, you're going to have to make the judgment call as to when you buy your seeker's armguard in conjunction with your mana items.

Seeing as pretty much every champion has a spell or a combination of spells that can clear an entire wave in seconds, you will probably lose farm due to being pushed to tower all game in exchange for the early survivability, or you can go the early mana items like most of us do, but then get potentially facestomped by the enemy AD.In summary, it really depends on the champion on when to get this, you're going to have to make the decision if you want to sacrifice farm for survivability, or vice versa.

On the contrary, manaless champions such as Katarina or Akali would probably benefit from an early Seekers as a replacement for the early Hextech or Haunting Guise which was prominent for quite a while. So, on these champions, it is incredibly beneficial to rush this item when going against someone with most champions who can dish out lots of AD, however, they don't have to worry about a depleting recourse that will make it nearly impossible for them to farm, so theres that.

But why should I even buy this item?

Well, as I already pointed out, the item IS cost efficient, but does that mean we should buy it? Riot released this item due to several complaints from the community, chief among them being that AD casters were too strong due to three reasons:
1. The flask start, now known as the sustain start, made AD casters able to withstand early autoattack harass from the ranged AP counterpart in the first couple of levels, which usually managed to soak up a couple of the 3 health potions that everyone started with. Now though, when someone start with a flask or 9 potions, a couple of potions matters a lot less.
2. Itemization, mainly the black cleaver rework, made AD casters exponentially stronger in season 3, which meant that they were doing a lot more damage then previously, and people weren't sure how to counter them
3.  AD casters were able to build an early hexdrinker if they found they were being bullied too much in lane, which gave them survivability, damage, and a shield. Seems like a decent counteritem. 

Ok, so there, I just summed up half of the posts on /r/leagueoflegends a couple months ago. Anyway, before actually looking at the item, we have to consider a couple of points: Since the Preseason 3 patch came out, we have seen the following nerfs: Black Cleaver twice, Last Whisper, Crystalline Flask, Kha'Zix, Talon, Lee Sin, and Riven. These were four of the most played mid lane AD champions (missing only Pantheon pretty much), and three items that made them very strong. So, since these have all been nerfed, we have actually seen a slow but sure shift of these AD caster champions from midlane back to toplane where they were before the changes, or fading back into the background slowly. 

So, now looking at the seekers armguard, its not terribly impressive. So, now we're doing math! In a recent interview with Complexity's (Former The Brunch Club) mid lane Chuuper that I did, he stated that "To be honest you can just get a giant's belt if you are really worried about getting gibbed by an AD assassin and continue to build ap", so now we are going to test this looking at the survivability. 

We are going to use Kha'Zix's full burst at level 6, assuming his ignite is on cooldown, attack damage reds, attack damage quints, a Brutalizer, and the enemy is isolated. This leaves him with 109 AD and 10% armor penetration. If we consider that Kha can get in 3 autoattacks and land all of his spells (not counting his passive because thats magic damage), Kha's flat damage would be 769 damage without resistances.

Now, if you're IP poor because you really want to buy every champion like me, you may not have an AP and armor page, so seeker's armguard may be your only potential armor. So, lets compare the damage that Kha would be doing with and without seeker's armguard, assuming you're also level 6 and playing Katarina, who is extremely popular currently. 

So, with Seeker's Armguard, you're avoiding somewhere between 78 and 115 damage. Giant's Belt gives you 380 health, for less gold too. However, Giant's Belt doesn't give AP, but builds into a lot more items than Seeker's Armguard, but Seeker's Armguard builds into an incredibly important item, Zhonya's Hourglass. 

This article was meant to inform, and not trying to sway you into either loving or hating this new item, in fact its kind of cool because riot showed they were listening to some of the community's complaints. So, in conclusion, consider when to go this item in conjunction to your mana items when playing champions that need mana to efficiently farm.  Also, a Giant's Belt may actually be just as effective in terms of survivability. So use this knowledge to dominate your enemies on the Fields of Justice! Good luck summoners!