I'm trying to test some things out with my quintessences. I've been running AD quints for like ever. I kinda wanna tryout HP or movement speed quints on my AD Ezreal. How bad is sacrificing my AD early game going to be?
I run Armor Pen Reds, Mana Regen/Flat Armor yellows, and MR/Mana Regen blues.
ArPen Quints are better than AD quints. AD is an easily acquired stat, whereas ArPen is pretty hard to come by. Ezreal's AD scaling isn't crazy enough for AD quints to really shine (unlike say old pantheon who had crazy scaling on HSS{even then I still ran ArPen though, again, just because of how hard ArPen is to come by and how easily you can make up for AD quints}). Really the only time I run AD quints is when I notice that a jungle path keeps leaving creeps with like 2 hp, then I just throw a single AD quint in to trim the number of attacks needed to kill that creep by 1.
Some people swear by movespeed, others think it's a waste, I think they are what you make of them. Movespeed quints are hard to use but they can be really strong if you have a good sense of spacing and zoning (for instance, TL EzPzLmnSqz runs MS quints on ranged carries and is easily one of the best laning carries I've ever seen).
Flat HP Regen > Flat HP right now. No one's being particularly talkative about this, but all the people who have compared the numbers know this is the case. That aside, you shouldn't be getting hit often enough with Ezreal for them to be really worthwhile IMHO. Same reason I just double up on mana regen rather than using MRes/Armor on Ez, I just don't really get hit very much.
@Mogwai, Really... Banshee's on Amumu? Didn't think Banshee's was all that great on true tanks. I would assume FoN would be better later game, or even Abyssal Scepter.
Banshee's is just straight up the best item in the game. Even on a "true tank" or whatever, having that bubble makes it that much harder for the opposing team to catch you out of position or stop you from initiating properly. Not to mention that that extra mana is a godsend when you have to start giving up blue to your AP carry.
Abyssal is one of the worst items in the game btw. Most situations where people used to buy it, it has been replaced by void staff and amumu is no different IMO. I mean, yea, sure, it has some MR on it, but really if you want MR you want Banshees and once you have that, you want FoN, Abyssal is just an item for poorly formed teams with too much Magic Damage playing against teams that don't recognize this and build enough MR that -20 isn't going to do a whole hell of a lot. It's the same problem that Starks as IMO, except even more so because at least starks increases pushing, dragon and baron speeds significantly.
Having a Void Staff as your 3rd major item is very intelligent on Amumu though IMHO. I run void staff 3rd on all Magic damage heavy tanks like Singed, Amumu, Malphite, Maokai, etc to keep my damage relevant throughout the game. I mean, I guess it's not always 3rd, the timing depends on the MR timings on the other team, but I'm just saying that since these characters rely on high base damage numbers, the 40% pen is simply the best way to keep their damage output high.
But I already have armor pen reds. I'm pretty sure too much armor pen isn't always a good thing.
Too much Armor Pen is a waste but it's pretty ****ing impossible to get too much... Like, with reds + quints, you hit 25 ArPen. Most characters, even mages and ranged DPS running 0 defensive and no armor runes, will have 25 or more armor by level 6, and having overkill for the first few levels isn't really that bad, especially when it becomes more and more valuable as they get their early levels. And especially with how popular cloth + 5 pots has become, it's just becoming rarer and rarer that you can justify not running the full ArPen rune setup.
Two questions:
Mogwai, why should Irelia open with cloth + 5 pots (other then staying power, so I guess what is that cloth being built into?) I've been opening with...saph crystal and a hp pot I think.
Also, I'm finally starting to get runes, I was thinking a defensive set can only HELP every champ I play, so what should I be grabbing? Was going to get flat health quints and that's as far as I got lulz.
cloth will build into HoG or GA (GA always for me, but some people still have a Randuin's fetish). Lane staying is really all you need with Irelia, your goal is to sit there until level 6, ult the wave at level 6 and then back and buy off of your absurdly high CS and nothing does this better than cloth armor. Literally the worst thing that can happen to irelia in a game is her being forced by bluepill before level 6, so just don't put yourself in a position where that can happen, open with 5 pots.
standard tanky runepage atm is Flat HP regen Quints, Armor Seals and MRes Glyphs. Marks are whatever Penetration stat helps you best or Attack speed if you're jungling or your character scales well off of AS (irelia, kog). Dodge seals are perferable if you run dodge masteries, but most setups only run 7-9 in the defensive tree for Strength of Spirit, so they're usually not worth it, but if you run 21 in defensive or run 9 on a non-mana user, dodge seals are perferable because of nimbleness and their later game scaling.
So you don't think the benefits of greater healing and stronger shields really pay off? I guess I'll take your word for it since you're better. Gold quints are super expensive though 
@Spife: Flat m resist are very good for early game; scaling m resist don't catch up til level 13, iirc. Flat armor is as well. Dodge is good for late game (or at least they used to be, not sure about now).
it's about opportunity cost. stronger shields and heals and awkward CC nukes are certainly better than weaker ones, but that's farm that your carry could be getting to turn into items that would scale with their abilities for a much higher net effect than all that farm turning into AP on you does.
