Underused Items: Shard of True Ice/Mana Manipulator

Hello all!

In this edition of Underused Items, I would like to talk about Shard of True, and it's component, Mana Manipulator.

So let's start with Mana Manipulator, and start with it's stats.

Unique Aura - Mana Warp: Nearby allied champions gain +5 mana regeneration per 5 seconds. (1100 range)
Item cost 300g (120g)
5 mana regeneration = 300g
                    total potential gold efficiency = 1500g

If you just look at gold efficiency, then you would notice that this is probably the most gold efficient item in all of League of Legends. So, why is it then that this is such an unpopular item?

Well, first of all this is clearly a support item, and mana regeneration is definitely an early game stat to build. So this item would be built for the early game. So it's actual gold efficiency if bought early is 600g (300 for the support and 300 for the adc). Well, 600 gold efficiency is definitely not bad, but how much do you really need this mana? Sure, some supports can be a little mana hungry early game, so that's good for you, but ad carries who play properly generally do not run out of mana, or by the time they do, it's time for them to return to base anyways.

So the first problem is that you really aren't getting what you need to get out of these stats as it stands anyways. Then of course there is the other problem that this item shares with some of the other items I have talked about. There is an opportunity cost for buying this item. If you buy it, then you are not buying wards, or you are not putting gold towards another support item. Are the benefits from this item really worth it to delay or not get some additional gold income, some cooldown reduction, or a different aura or buff for your team? Most players say no, it is not. So, this item is rarely bought.

How to fix it? Well, I really don't think a support is going to pay much for that little mana regen unless something else comes with it. The only way I could see to make this item better is to make it cost more, build out of maybe two faerie charms again, and add on something like a gold/10 passive, or some other useful effect. However, I am not convinced that this would be healthy or even then useful in the game. All in all, I am not sure that this item should exist in League of Legends, as it seems to me to be more of a noob trap than anything.


Now let's move on to what I really wanted to talk about, Shard of True Ice! Again we start with the stats.

+45 ability power
Unique Aura: Mana Warp - Nearby allied champions gain 5 mana regen per 5 seconds.
Unique Passive: Lucky Shadow - Gain an additional 4 gold every 10 seconds.
Unique Active: Surrounds an ally with a blizzard for 4 seconds that slows nearby enemy movement speed by 30%. 60 second cooldown.
Shard of True Ice is gold efficient with two ally champions nearby.
Alternatively, the active must have at least a value of 321g for  Shard of True Ice to be gold efficient.
Alternatively, the item must be held for 803 seconds (13 minutes and 4 seconds), including time spent holding it's predecessor  Kage's Lucky Pick, for its passive to make  Shard of True Ice gold efficient.

Gold efficiency wise, this item is really easy to make gold efficient. It even has a pretty nice active on it to boot. So why is it that this item is rarely bought? After all, Kage's lucky pick is an item bought in nearly every game on summoner's rift, and this is the one item in the game that allows you to actually keep your gold/10 bonus!

Well, first of all as mentioned above, mana manipulator is not good, and so a large part of this item is by default made not good because of that. Second of all, this item is missing stats that supports generally want, such as cooldown reduction, and defensive stats/auras. So again, the big problem is that the item has too large of an opportunity cost.

Why get Shard of True Ice when I can get a Shurelia's Reverie that gives me HP, CDR, and a really nice active that benefits my whole team? Not to mention that Kindlegem is a much better item to build along the way than mana manipulator is. Also keep in mind that this is just one possible scenario. Instead of Shurelias, maybe your team needs a locket, or maybe you need a lot more wards, or perhaps what you need is an oracles elixir to always be up to help with map control. Whichever thing it is that you need, it is keeping you from buying shard of true ice.

One last problem that I have noticed is that this item's active is best cast on a front line tank or bruiser or maybe a fighter, but as a support your job is to protect the AD carry, so you are kind of supporting the wrong person. Again, another opportunity cost, though perhaps in the right team composition a worthwhile cost.

Unlike mana manipulator, I think that there is some real hope for this item. It would require reworking a few stats, but I think that it could become a good item, at least it the right niche. So what has to be done? Well first of all I think we need to get rid of Mana Manipulator building into it, and get rid of the whole mana aura stat. Next, we need to add in a stat that people would want. There are a few potential ways we could go here. The simplest is to just add in a kindlegem and make Shard have health and cdr as stats. Considering if you are buying this item, someone else on your team probably has an aegis already and you don't want to conflict with that aura, this is probably the best way to go. It eliminates one of the opportunity costs completely, which is what I believe is hurting this item so much.

Now, in addition to this change, the total cost of the item will of course have to go up, but you can now build the much more useful kindlegem along the way as well, which any support would appreciate. Now the issue is identifying when this item is useful to you. Well, it depends on your team composition a lot, but it will work best when you have front line champions that really need to stick onto their targets. Tryndamere is a good example; another is Udyr. Then you use the active on that champion, and bam they can stick to targets much easier for a few seconds, and hopefully slow down some assailants charging at your adc along the way. Keep in mind though that there is still the opportunity cost of gaining a different items passive/active/aura, or map control in order to get this item, so it would still only need to be bought when in the right situation.

So in conclusion, I don't see much hope for mana manipulator being more than a noob trap, but I do see hope for Shard of True Ice if it replaces mana manipulator from it's recipie.

Until Next Time!
"Flesh freezes so easily."
-Rikukun