League of Legends: ADCs Starting Relic Shield is Fine as an "Occasional Thing"

A new strategy has swept the bot lane in League of Legends where ADCs are starting with a Relic [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

League of Legends Tristana
(Photo: Riot Games)

A new strategy has swept the bot lane in League of Legends where ADCs are starting with a Relic Shield to funnel gold into their supports, but while it's fine to see every now and then, there are concerns that it might point towards an itemization issue.

The Relic Shield start goes hand and hand with the dominance of the Ardent Censer item, a support option that's likely going to be seen in every single game that players participate in. It can be built on tanks later on to proc the effects off of Stoneborn Pact, but it's almost always seen in supports' builds thanks to a quickened gold income from ADCs who start with a Relic Shield.

Riot Meddler was asked about the popularity of the strategy when he brought up the Worlds competition in a recent Gameplay Thoughts post. The innovative early-game move has been seen several times during the professional matches, and one commenter suggested that might not be such a great thing.

"As an occasional thing to help supports hit a particular power spike I think it's a really cool use of the item system," Meddler said. "If it's quite common however it likely suggests some element of support itemization is out of line, in terms of how much power it offers early game, if marksmen should consistently be opting out of offensive itemization for themselves to get extra gold to their support. That certainly seems like the case here, given how impactful getting Ardent first in lane tends to be."

Riot Maple Nectar offered another perspective on the Relic Shield purchase in a separate thread that was created to bring attention to what the poster called "Relic Shield abuse." The Rioter said that the decision to buy Relic Shield early on speaks to lane synergy and is an interesting strategy.

"Generally speaking I'm quite happy with the relic shield purchase some people having been opting into as an ADC," Maple Nectar said. If the issue is them using it to get Ardent Censer faster and that's your gripe, that's a bit of a different problem, but the idea that the ADC can make that choice with quite the substantial early game tradeoffs is actually really interesting. For once the ADC is actually doing something FOR the support (I know with Ardent it also helps them), but it makes a cooler narrative of the ADC and Support working together to get an advantage over their lane opponents."

For now, it seems that the Relic Shield strategy is here to stay, but Riot appears to be keeping an eye on it to see if it gets out of hand.

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