2012-07-21, 06:34 PM
WillDaSnail Wrote:Well here's the deal:
One great benefit to your build is that with 2x Dorans and Chalice, you're able to stay in lane significantly longer due to the additional mana regen from Chalice. IMO, I think this early-game build is great if you plan to play safe, get as much as farm as possible, make your opponent lose some farm under their tower through tower pushing, and basically win your lane through attrition.
However, one downside is that you'll be delayed building your core items for some time because your first ~2K of you gold goes towards items that allow you to stay in lane longer. Unless you farm up enough to start building your core items in time, there's the possibility you could "fall behind" - in farm and items.
Most mids now will do at least one doran's before building into anything else, and probably an even higher majority goes to double dorans before their first item. After that I'd say the majority of mids split into three groups: The ones that are rushing a deathcap, the ones rushing a zhonyas, and the ones that are rushing wota/dfg/sheen/chalice. So I'd say you're really getting around 1k gold behind, maybe 1.5k gold, and in some cases going about even in items, albeit with different a difference focus than what you're going for. Unless you can back and buy a needlessly large rod or something on your first back, you're going to be trying to keep even with the other mid. And even if you did have that gold, in most cases it's better to get sorcs, doran(s), wards, and pots than it would be to get the large rod immediately.
Anyway, my point was that builds are very rarely big items first these days. You want to keep a steady power curve throughout the game if you can. Having sudden jumps in survivability or damage may feel wonderful, but it can make you weaker at times than going with a few cheaper items. Anivia has the advantage of really good base damage, so you can get away with building damage much later than you would otherwise, but there is a cost. I think that for most people, they need the extra mana from chalice to keep up their farm against the other farming mids, but for some people, like Froggen, they can go damage, full tank, or any number of builds and will be fine because they can farm so efficiently even with a limited mana pool. For those players, going chalice and dorans rings is probably more of a matchup choice than a necessary build option, but for less skilled players, or players who want to use their abilities more often, going chalice and dorans is a solid way to do things.