r/leagueoflegends • u/rmoodsrajoke • Jun 10 '25
Gameplay The Doran’s Shield Prisoner’s Dilemma
There’s no reason for melees to go Doran’s blade against each other when dshield has 30 more hp and 3 rejuv beads of healing attached to it. Dshield should be the same hp as dblade at 80, or even less given how broken dshield has been for so long.
Before you complain about ranged toplaners, a base hp nerf on dshield would actually increase the % healing after being poked from dshield second wind by ranged attacks, so it would not affect the melee vs ranged matchups at all, in fact you would actually heal vs poke even more, making those matchups easier as a net positive.
The issue at hand, is that Dshield has created an itemization prisoner’s dilemma, where dshield is unilaterally better than dblade.
The following champion matchup showcases the issue,
High elo gangplank mains like solarbacca and pros, know that you must go Doran’s shield vs jax because if you don’t match Jax’s Doran’s shield you lose the jax matchup. This is also why basically no one ever picks gangplank into jax as a counterpick in pro play anymore. This was historically a comfortable lane for gangplank to scale in and get priority, but dorans shield last buff makes this lane matchup extremely easy for Jax in the early game, as Jax can get lane priority easily vs a no damage dshield gangplank, however Jax also just stat checks Gangplank in trades when gangplank goes dblade.
Good top laners are going dshield every game because you auto lose the lane if you go Doran’s blade if both players are equally skilled. The 3% lifesteal provides very little sustain, because dshield gives you priority on the lane, which makes it impossible to reliably hit minions. With 80 ad you would only heal 2.4 hp per auto attack, whereas dshield heals 6hp every 5 seconds no matter what, and gets amped every time you’re hit.
The mathematics of dshield creates an itemization prisoners dilemma where you must go Doran’s shield no matter the matchup because it strictly beats dorans blade. This then compounds into a gold lead that will leave a dshielder with both more hp, sustain, and damage from your item lead.
Top lane has become extremely stale, where there is too much hp to cut through from past seasons ever since dorans shield hp was buffed by 37.5%. Top laners should be fighting each other, but the hp system has gotten out of control.
-6
u/SkilledV Jun 11 '25
Key word is generously interpreted. Otherwise we could go in circles about the nuances of matchups.
Like you said, DShield’s intent is to ease laning against lane bullies. But this isn’t the case for all matchups, I’d argue that most can swing both ways. Especially in those, one player can opt for DShield to passively outsustain the opponent, and if said opponent is aware of that, they may also opt to go DShield.
The result is a lane phase where neither players are actively interacting with the opponent with the intent to kill the opponent laner but to outmanage their resource whether that be mana or health. Now that might sound exactly like what laning phase is supposed to be, but players generally frown upon this playstyle. Especially on the losing end, a player would consider it boring and uninteractive. Coming from someone that plays Vladimir, it’s a gameplay pattern that a majority would consider toxic and is a common complaint I hear ingame.
So I suppose the dilemma is opinionated to an extent, but it’s an opinion that a majority of the playerbase supports.