Out of the Brush: Ardent Censer at Worlds 2017 :: League of Legends (LoL) Forum on MOBAFire

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Beginnings of the Ardent Meta

Ardent Censer Buffs

The most obvious origin of the Ardent Censer meta comes from changes to the item itself. Though Ardent has been around since season 4, it failed to really impact the bot lane meta until this season.

In patch 6.22, received a new effect: on-hit health drain to shielded or healed targets. This was a huge boon for AD carries, as they could sustain themselves with healing from and instead of buying a lifesteal item, freeing up gold for more damage. At this time, was much stronger and a bigger priority for most support players, but that would change as received nerfs and was buffed even more.

Patch 7.2 brought further buffs to the item that would become a staple purchase on supports. Now, with increased stats scaling with level, AD carries with the support of an would significantly outperform opponents that lacked this crucial item. The meta we know today began to take shape, but there would be more role-defining changes to come.

Patch 7.2 - Scaling added to attack speed and health drain buffs

Ancient Coin Buffs

Patch 7.9 brought a full rework to the line of items. Gone were the old passive bonuses just by standing near dying enemy minions. Now, enemy minions had a chance to drop coins on death that restored mana or granted gold. In exchange for the increased risk involved in picking up coins, the potential gains were higher than the old version of the item.

In patch 7.13, the coins were buffed even more, granting significantly more gold than other gold generation items as well as providing unparalleled mana sustain for supports. Supports that built instead of or even would find they could purchase very early in the game. The support that was able to complete their Censer first would enjoy a sudden surge of lane dominance that would only be matched when the opposing support finished theirs. This made a must-have on any support building , and those champions who couldn't take advantage of Censer's benefits were de-prioritized in champion select.

Patch 7.13 - Gold generation and mana restoration buffed.

New Tank Items

New tank items introduced in patch 7.9 brought tank champions to the forefront of the meta. When tanks are strong, AD carries become even more important, as they're often the only ones who can threaten strong tanks late game. Heavy frontliners combined with heal/shield supports and hypercarry AD carries began to dominate champion select.

Patch 7.9 brought a new defensive item that would become very popular on frontline melee champions. improved the longevity of tanks and fighters alike, prolonging their ability to defend their carries and withstand focus from enemy damage threats. This item enabled tanks like , , and to nearly double their effectiveness in fights, making it much more desirable to ban and pick high-scaling AD carries like , and in order to deal with these huge frontliners.

Another defensive item added in patch 7.9 was , which is now the best protection against mages. Mid laners like and along with items like and could efficiently deal with large health pools, but made their job a lot more difficult. Now, tanks had a hard-counter to high-DPS mages, making the AD carry role even more important.

Patch 7.14 helped solidify the strength of tanks in the meta, especially in top lane. is cheap and very effective against anti-tank split-pushing champions like and who usually counter tanks. Buying an early allows tanks to go even in trades and prevent their opponents from healing with lifesteal or other effects. Later, this can be turned into which also works well against enemy ADCs. While this item isn't build every game, as gives better late game durability, it was a major factor in pushing fighters and carries out of the top lane meta in favor of pure tanks.

The Worlds Meta Takes Shape

Supporting the Supports

With 's dominance in full swing, bottom laners began to adapt their early game to take advantage of the Censer power spike as quickly as possible. Some AD carry players began to start with a in order to accelerate their support's gold income. This was the first time since 's release that it was used in meta builds on champions that were not supports (or named ). While this strategy wasn't adopted in every matchup, it was especially common to see from , , and players. Upgrading to Targon's Brace after completing the passive quest also grants the ADC player a shield which gives them a bit more survivability.

Summoner Swap

With support champions like , and taking and building items that increase their healing power like , and , supports began to take instead of or . While this would sacrifice some pressure in the early game, it resulted in much more powerful Heals later in the game.

With supports stealing their signature summoner spell, AD carry players switched to (or occasionally ) for personal protection. Most team compositions included heavy front lines and a strong emphasis on AD carry protection, leaving teams with less need of or to shut down divers. By running , while their supports took , AD carries gained a lot of effective health, making them very difficult to focus and kill in team fights.

Countering the Meta

Picking for Early Strength

Embracing and adapting to meta changes is crucial for success at a world-class level of play, but the teams that are able to innovate and counter traditional meta picks can be even more successful. Edward Gaming (EDG) and World Elite (WE) have been exceptionally successful in week 2 of the Worlds 2017 group stage by adapting their champion selections.

The typical meta setup is 2 frontline champions in top and jungle, a heal/shield support with , a late game hypercarry in bottom lane and a mid laner that usually offers waveclear and mid-game power before the tanks and AD carries take over the game. In order to counter this team setup, teams would have to build a composition to snowball the game before the enemy tanks and AD carries had time to farm up and buy several items. Champions like and excel at snowballing games in this fashion, but there's one AD carry that embodies this approach perfectly.

The key to this strategy was a champion often overlooked in champion select in favor of carries with better scaling. sacrifices a reliable mid and late game for the potential for absolute dominance. Her massive attack range gives her an edge in the early laning phase, especially against the popular scaling hypercarries like and . After laning phase, s allow her to control choke points and areas near enemy towers, making it easy for her team to capitalize on early leads and take objectives.

Non-stop Fighting

In order to execute this strategy, teams would need to take advantage of their opponents' tendency to play patient, slow games by forcing as many fights as possible. Drafting champions with mobility and crowd control like , , , and would give them more opportunities to force fights early, when their opponents are weak, leading to more chances to take down towers and epic monsters. These compositions can still take advantage of the strongest parts of the meta like powerful tanks and -wielding supports, but their focus is shifted to taking down towers early and often.

Note that if the enemy team is able to slow down the pace of the game, they would eventually outscale with superior late-game carries like and , so the aggressive team would need to be decisive and efficient to close out the game before that point. EDG and WE used this strategy with first in the tournament, though Cloud 9 also picked in their game versus AHQ eSports Club, perhaps in an attempt to replicate the success of the Chinese teams.

Below are two games where EDG and WE executed this early pressure strategy, using to create and snowball a lead, taking down towers and closing out the game as quickly as possible.

Further Viewing

For a broader overview of and its place in the meta, check out Dopa/Apdo's video below. While his analysis is from patch 7.9, much of it is still relevant for the Worlds patch. For a little more entertainment, see MagikarpUsedFly's video about 's proliferation across the games in week 1 of Worlds.

[quote=PsiGuard][center][img=/images/news/articles/ootb-2-header.png width=650][/center] [center][size=6][color=#97bbff][b]Beginnings of the Ardent Meta[/b][/color][/size][/center] [size=5][color=#fff]Ardent Censer Buffs[/color][/size] [table width="100%"][tr][td bgcolor="333" height="1px"][/td][/tr][/table] The most obvious origin of the Ardent Censer meta comes from changes to the item itself. Though Ardent has been around since season 4, it failed to really impact the bot lane meta until this season. [table][tr] [td padding=10 width=60][icon=Ardent Censer size=60][/td] [td padding=10]In [url=http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-622-notes#patch-Ardent-Censer]patch 6.22[/url], [[Ardent Censer]] received a new effect: on-hit health drain to shielded or healed targets. This was a huge boon for AD carries, as they could sustain themselves with healing from [[Ardent Censer]] and [[Warlord's Bloodlust]] instead of buying a lifesteal item, freeing up gold for more damage. At this time, [[Redemption]] was much stronger and a bigger priority for most support players, but that would change as [[Redemption]] received nerfs and [[Ardent Censer]] was buffed even more.[/td] [/tr][/table] [columns width=530]Patch 7.2 brought further buffs to the item that would become a staple purchase on supports. Now, with increased stats scaling with level, AD carries with the support of an [[Ardent Censer]] would significantly outperform opponents that lacked this crucial item. The meta we know today began to take shape, but there would be more role-defining changes to come. [nextcol width=15] [nextcol width=355][center][url=https://i.gyazo.com/ccc60e32c3b1ff66ba864a8e0394ca5b.png][img=https://i.gyazo.com/ccc60e32c3b1ff66ba864a8e0394ca5b.png width=355][/url] [size=2][i][url=http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-72-notes#patch-Ardent-Censer]Patch 7.2[/url] - Scaling added to attack speed and health drain buffs[/i][/size][/center] [/columns] [size=5][color=#fff]Ancient Coin Buffs[/color][/size] [table width="100%"][tr][td bgcolor="333" height="1px"][/td][/tr][/table] [table][tr] [td padding=10 width=60][icon=Ancient Coin size=60][/td] [td padding=10][url=http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-79-notes#patch-support-items-and-quests]Patch 7.9[/url] brought a full rework to the [[Ancient Coin]] line of items. Gone were the old passive bonuses just by standing near dying enemy minions. Now, enemy minions had a chance to drop coins on death that restored mana or granted gold. In exchange for the increased risk involved in picking up coins, the potential gains were higher than the old version of the item.[/td] [/tr][/table] [columns width=530]In patch 7.13, the coins were buffed even more, granting significantly more gold than other gold generation items as well as providing unparalleled mana sustain for supports. Supports that built [[Ancient Coin]] instead of [[Spellthief's Edge]] or even [[Relic Shield]] would find they could purchase [[Ardent Censer]] very early in the game. The support that was able to complete their Censer first would enjoy a sudden surge of lane dominance that would only be matched when the opposing support finished theirs. This made [[Ancient Coin]] a must-have on any support building [[Ardent Censer]], and those champions who couldn't take advantage of Censer's benefits were de-prioritized in champion select. [nextcol width=15] [nextcol width=355][center][url=https://i.gyazo.com/b27536dbbfec5bc75670fec82a1730c0.png][img=https://i.gyazo.com/b27536dbbfec5bc75670fec82a1730c0.png width=355][/url] [size=2][i][url=http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-713-notes#patch-Ancient-Coin]Patch 7.13[/url] - Gold generation and mana restoration buffed.[/i][/size][/center] [/columns] [size=5][color=#fff]New Tank Items[/color][/size] [table width="100%"][tr][td bgcolor="333" height="1px"][/td][/tr][/table] New tank items introduced in patch 7.9 brought tank champions to the forefront of the meta. When tanks are strong, AD carries become even more important, as they're often the only ones who can threaten strong tanks late game. Heavy frontliners combined with heal/shield supports and hypercarry AD carries began to dominate champion select. [table][tr] [td padding=10 width=60][icon=Gargoyle Stoneplate size=60][/td] [td padding=10][url=http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-79-notes#patch-new-durability-items]Patch 7.9[/url] brought a new defensive item that would become very popular on frontline melee champions. [[Gargoyle Stoneplate]] improved the longevity of tanks and fighters alike, prolonging their ability to defend their carries and withstand focus from enemy damage threats. This item enabled tanks like [[Cho'Gath]], [[Sejuani]], [[Maokai]] and [[Galio]] to nearly double their effectiveness in fights, making it much more desirable to ban and pick high-scaling AD carries like [[Kog'Maw]], [[Twitch]] and [[Tristana]] in order to deal with these huge frontliners.[/td] [/tr][/table] [table][tr] [td padding=10 width=60][icon=Adaptive Helm size=60][/td] [td padding=10]Another defensive item added in [url=http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-79-notes#patch-new-durability-items]patch 7.9[/url] was [[Adaptive Helm]], which is now the best protection against mages. Mid laners like [[Cassiopeia]] and [[Ryze]] along with items like [[Liandry's Torment]] and [[Void Staff]] could efficiently deal with large health pools, but [[Adaptive Helm]] made their job a lot more difficult. Now, tanks had a hard-counter to high-DPS mages, making the AD carry role even more important.[/td] [/tr][/table] [table][tr] [td padding=10 width=60][icon=Bramble Vest size=60][/td] [td padding=10][url=http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-714-notes#patch-items]Patch 7.14[/url] helped solidify the strength of tanks in the meta, especially in top lane. [[Bramble Vest]] is cheap and very effective against anti-tank split-pushing champions like [[Fiora]] and [[Trundle]] who usually counter tanks. Buying an early [[Bramble Vest]] allows tanks to go even in trades and prevent their opponents from healing with lifesteal or other effects. Later, this can be turned into [[Thornmail]] which also works well against enemy ADCs. While this item isn't build every game, as [[Randuin's Omen]] gives better late game durability, it was a major factor in pushing fighters and carries out of the top lane meta in favor of pure tanks.[/td] [/tr][/table] [center][size=6][color=#97bbff][b]The Worlds Meta Takes Shape[/b][/color][/size][/center] [size=5][color=#fff]Supporting the Supports[/color][/size] [table width="100%"][tr][td bgcolor="333" height="1px"][/td][/tr][/table] [table][tr] [td padding=10 width=60][icon=Relic Shield size=60][/td] [td padding=10]With [[Ardent Censer]]'s dominance in full swing, bottom laners began to adapt their early game to take advantage of the Censer power spike as quickly as possible. Some AD carry players began to start with a [[Relic Shield]] in order to accelerate their support's gold income. This was the first time since [[Relic Shield]]'s release that it was used in meta builds on champions that were not supports (or named [[Mordekaiser]]). While this strategy wasn't adopted in every matchup, it was especially common to see from [[Twitch]], [[Kog'Maw]], [[Xayah]] and [[Varus]] players. Upgrading to [[Targon's Brace]] after completing the passive quest also grants the ADC player a shield which gives them a bit more survivability.[/td] [/tr][/table] [center][img=https://i.imgur.com/Cus93uc.png][/center] [size=5][color=#fff]Summoner Swap[/color][/size] [table width="100%"][tr][td bgcolor="333" height="1px"][/td][/tr][/table] [table][tr] [td padding=10 width=60][icon=Heal size=60][/td] [td padding=10]With support champions like [[Janna]], [[Lulu]] and [[Karma]] taking [[Windspeaker's Blessing]] and building items that increase their healing power like [[Ardent Censer]], [[Redemption]] and [[Mikael's Crucible]], supports began to take [[Heal]] instead of [[Exhaust]] or [[Ignite]]. While this would sacrifice some pressure in the early game, it resulted in much more powerful Heals later in the game.[/td] [/tr][/table] [table][tr] [td padding=10 width=60][icon=Barrier size=60][/td] [td padding=10]With supports stealing their signature summoner spell, AD carry players switched to [[Barrier]] (or occasionally [[Cleanse]]) for personal protection. Most team compositions included heavy front lines and a strong emphasis on AD carry protection, leaving teams with less need of [[Exhaust]] or [[Ignite]] to shut down divers. By running [[Barrier]], while their supports took [[Heal]], AD carries gained a lot of effective health, making them very difficult to focus and kill in team fights.[/td] [/tr][/table] [center][img=https://i.imgur.com/6CYBbWI.png width=700][/center] [center][size=6][color=#97bbff][b]Countering the Meta[/b][/color][/size][/center] [size=5][color=#fff]Picking for Early Strength[/color][/size] [table width="100%"][tr][td bgcolor="333" height="1px"][/td][/tr][/table] Embracing and adapting to meta changes is crucial for success at a world-class level of play, but the teams that are able to innovate and counter traditional meta picks can be even more successful. Edward Gaming (EDG) and World Elite (WE) have been exceptionally successful in week 2 of the Worlds 2017 group stage by adapting their champion selections. The typical meta setup is 2 frontline champions in top and jungle, a heal/shield support with [[Ardent Censer]], a late game hypercarry in bottom lane and a mid laner that usually offers waveclear and mid-game power before the tanks and AD carries take over the game. In order to counter this team setup, teams would have to build a composition to snowball the game before the enemy tanks and AD carries had time to farm up and buy several items. Champions like [[LeBlanc]] and [[Jayce]] excel at snowballing games in this fashion, but there's one AD carry that embodies this approach perfectly. [table][tr] [td padding=10 width=60][icon=Caitlyn size=60][/td] [td padding=10]The key to this strategy was a champion often overlooked in champion select in favor of carries with better scaling. [[Caitlyn]] sacrifices a reliable mid and late game for the potential for absolute dominance. Her massive attack range gives her an edge in the early laning phase, especially against the popular scaling hypercarries like [[Twitch]] and [[Kog'Maw]]. After laning phase, [[Yordle Snap Trap]]s allow her to control choke points and areas near enemy towers, making it easy for her team to capitalize on early leads and take objectives.[/td] [/tr][/table] [size=5][color=#fff]Non-stop Fighting[/color][/size] [table width="100%"][tr][td bgcolor="333" height="1px"][/td][/tr][/table] In order to execute this strategy, teams would need to take advantage of their opponents' tendency to play patient, slow games by forcing as many fights as possible. Drafting champions with mobility and crowd control like [[Jarvan IV]], [[Galio]], [[Maokai]], [[Leblanc]] and [[Sejuani]] would give them more opportunities to force fights early, when their opponents are weak, leading to more chances to take down towers and epic monsters. These compositions can still take advantage of the strongest parts of the meta like powerful tanks and [[Ardent Censer]]-wielding supports, but their focus is shifted to taking down towers early and often. Note that if the enemy team is able to slow down the pace of the game, they would eventually outscale with superior late-game carries like [[Kog'Maw]] and [[Twitch]], so the aggressive team would need to be decisive and efficient to close out the game before that point. EDG and WE used this strategy with [[Caitlyn]] first in the tournament, though Cloud 9 also picked [[Caitlyn]] in their game versus AHQ eSports Club, perhaps in an attempt to replicate the success of the Chinese teams. Below are two games where EDG and WE executed this early pressure strategy, using [[Caitlyn]] to create and snowball a lead, taking down towers and closing out the game as quickly as possible. [table][tr] [td padding=10][embed=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE0ZDnTnCtQ width=430][/td] [td padding=10][embed=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5QqDV0UJ2s width=430][/td] [/tr][/table] [center][size=6][color=#97bbff][b]Further Viewing[/b][/color][/size][/center] For a broader overview of [[Ardent Censer]] and its place in the meta, check out Dopa/Apdo's video below. While his analysis is from patch 7.9, much of it is still relevant for the Worlds patch. For a little more entertainment, see MagikarpUsedFly's video about [[Ardent Censer]]'s proliferation across the games in week 1 of Worlds. [table][tr] [td padding=10][embed=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIOA19X_Qw0 width=430][/td] [td padding=10][embed=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHp95KO8en4 width=430][/td] [/tr][/table][/quote]

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Thanks for the article. I was surprised to see Relic Shield on Kogmaw in group stages, someone pointed out that it helps his support to get Ardent faster. But still, I fail to see how it works - it specifically says "your melee basic attacks", niether Kogmaw nor Twitch has a melee basic attack. Can someone explain this to me?

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Only melee basic attacks will trigger the execute, but any last-hit will trigger the gold share.

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Execute is for melee supports to get last hit on minion- however ADC's already has last hit capabilities so whether having the effect or not doesn't affect too much actually ~ for Ancient Coin 'Medallion'' rushing sups (for highest gold regeneration course) also ADC's are taking Relic as well to have a contribution to sup's treasure to allow him/her to access Ardent ASAP. Also upgraded Relic is giving a nearly 400 HP worth shield, so its a not really that bad however when we consider the offer of durability or it displays a relatively passive early lane and nerfed you know- still shield provides nearly 2k ~ gold at late game which is still quite worthy so if even nerfed.

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