Leona's gold income item?
As a starting Leona (support) player, I've been trying to decide whether to start off with Amulet Coin or Relic Shield. (I know that a lot of pro players take Doran's Shield but I'm not up to that standard yet, so that's not what I'm looking for, at least right now.)
Apparently Relic Shield is more gold efficient as support gold income items go, but since I spend a lot of my time in the bush to be prepared to ambush, I'm not sure if Relic Shield could be well-implemented on Leona or if I'm just playing incorrectly.
And in the end, it's also a question about added health or extra mana regen, and about the final upgrades to the items (I like the cooldown reduction on Talisman).
So my question is, should I be taking Amulet Coin or Relic Shield, and why? Do playstyles determine which I should pick?
Solution 1:
I've been maining Leona as support for quite a while now and I usually pair with a lane partner with strong kill potential. I prefer Ancient Coin between the two for the following reasons:
It allows you to have a consistent gold income just by being near a minion death (usually inside a brush), while Relic Shield requires you to last hit a minion thus exposing your location. I usually prioritize destroying enemy wards to deny them vision and wait for an opportunity to catch the enemy ADC off-guard while inside the brush.
It builds into a Talisman of Ascension which is extremely useful on ambush, team clash, chase or escape. I would normally build Locket of Iron Solari to shield the entire team instead of Face of the Mountain which only shields a single target.
EDIT 1:
Just tried Doran's Shield last night and I think it's a good starting item as well. Doran's Shield just gives you enough tankiness to sustain enemy damage pre 6, that allowed us to play aggressive, managed to pull off good fights and won the lane all the way. I recommend using this on a miser build (GP10 quints and masteries) to make up for your late Ancient Coin or Relic Shield.
Solution 2:
First of all, you should not get too set in your ways with either Ancient Coin or Relic shield. Substantial changes to both build paths have been implemented on the Public Beta Environment, indicating that large changes to the items are likely in the near future.
At the current time, either item is viable. Relic Shield will generally give you and your team more gold. However, the item that it eventually builds into (Face of the Mountain) is generally not considered that useful. Also, you do have to take some care to maximize your gold gains as you want to be last hitting the appropriate minions with your charges (since some give much more gold than others).
On the other hand, Ancient Coin will usually give you less gold. It is easier to use since you don't have to last hit anything. But, the MAJOR benefit is that the final item it builds into (Talisman of Ascension) is considered extremely useful in the endgame for the team speed boost.
For this reason, I see most high level players preferring Ancient Coin over Relic Shield.