While I don't feel it so much on Summoner's Rift (because EVERY aspect of SR moves at a snail's pace compared to Dominion), I often feel like I'm wasting time not spending my gold while I save up the 1,600g for a NLR or BFSword.
Generally I guess it's because I want better stats NOW, for the fight I know is going to break out any second. Yeah I want a deathcap, but I can also spend that gold piecemeal purchasing or upgrading smaller items. I just can't get over the few minutes of wasted potential of over 1k gold waiting to be spent.

I guess this explains my fondness for items like Trinity Force. While the completed item is considerably expensive, each component is cheap, and it gives me a sense of slowly upgrading over time rather than in one huge chunk after a long period of stasis.

Personally, I'd HAPPILY pay extra gold in the long run to not have to spend so much time getting to 1.6k without any improvement. By this I mean an optional recipe to build into a NLR or BFG.

A Needlessly Large Rod costs 1,600g.
What if we had the option to buy a Blasting Rod (860g) and an Amplifying Tome (435g) and shove them together for a cost of, say, 505g to create a Needlessly Large Rod?
That's 1,800g, 200 more than just buying an NLR flat out. And even though it's 200 gold I'm throwing to the wind, it still feels like an attractive option.
Naturally, we should still be able to buy a NLR flat out. Sometimes you're on fire out there and you don't get a CHANCE to spend until you have over 2k gold weighing you down. This would just be an alternative. You could do similar with a Pickaxe and a Long Sword for a BFS.

Food for thought, at least. What do you guys think?

Yes, I feel exactly the same.

Considering NLR costs 1600 and a Brutilizer costs 1337, where the AD will be ramping up to the Brut and seeing a huge increase in damage once they hit the 1337, we'll still be waiting to buy our high priced prerequisite.

Not sure I like the combining idea. It would be weird to have two different costs for the same item.

I would suggest you think about diversifying your build – there’s always your generic build and then adjusting to the situation. If your build is so scripted that you buy this item next at this time than I would have to say it’s too rigid. Saying you’re waiting on a really expensive item makes me think of a kid who’s complaining about being bored on Summer Vacation.

You can [almost] always improve when you get back to base. Maybe your desire is to get your IE next, but with only 500 gold you invest in some armor – it might not be your highest need but it’s a need none the less. You can have the other problem too, say your team won top and held off a few waves before b’ing back and now you have 2000 gold. Now you have an option to buy a B.F. Sword early and go pure offense instead your customary balanced offense/defense build.

Oh, and choosing to wait is just as valid as adjusting your build, either way you want to avoid a broken build.

Well that's exactly my point. 9 times out of 10, I choose not to wait and build something else. The time spent saving so rarely feels worth it to me.

I actually think it's one of the reasons AD casters/triforce users do so well on Dom. Both are able to advance their builds 1 small expenditure at a time. Where as anyone wanting an IE or Deathcap is in for a long haul before they feel like they are getting effective.

AP users that scale well with Mpen are in the same class. It's easy for them to pick up Sorc shoes, Haunting Guise and Abyssal, and be extremely dangerous while never having to save up for that NLR.

Actually, it's for that reason I often don't save up for the NLR, and avoid Rabadon's. Though, I also tend to build my casters much tankier on Dominion with a heavy CDR focus.

It wasn't that long ago that 2x Blasting Rod = 1 NLR. They did away with that when Rabadon's was created, and it was unfortunate.

While you can build most of IE 900g at a time, you're going to have to save up 1650g at some point for the Best Friend Sword. That is considered part of the cost and iirc it is a conscious design choice by Riot.

If they were to remove that part of the cost and simply use two Pickaxes or two Blasting Wands in the recipe instead, they would have to nerf these items because now all you have to do is stack Blasting Wands and eventually you're going to be able to mash them into a Rabadon's.

What if NLR was an upgrade to a single Blasting Wand? 740g cost

its sort of a funny catch 22- if you want to buy the expensive items that allow you to run rampant, you have to be good enough to not need them to earn the gold to buy them.


I'm ok with it, balances it out a bit, but it definitely makes the learning curve a LOT steeper. Perhaps an item like you suggested, but not the NLR. Save the BFS and NLR for those that want to save and spend that much, but give a lower tiered item that can be combo'd from other items but with slightly less stats.