This goes back to it being an item that sounds good on paper, but isn't so much.  Again - I'm isolating this to morg so we are apples to apples.  Lane phase is typically over by the time you would complete this.  You'd have to sacrifice something to get it in lane where it could have the most swing potential.  Black shields cool down is crap early levels (23 seconds (and late really, outside of 40% cdr... and even then its kind of smeh)).  Also factor in you aren't leveling black shield, so the only bonus you get is whatever cdr you pick up.  So, now you have an item that supports a very short window for the bonus. And provides a buff that you can use every 20 seconds or so (whereas zekes on morg has more uptime even with the charge up and both you and the adc get the benefit of the passive).  

Anyway, it sounds good, but that would be true if you like started the game with the item and the other team did not - then you have a 30 dmg spike for all ins when it would be a major factor.  It's still useful mid game for the adc, but at that point, zekes will outscale it.  Last, late game, if you had 40% cdr, you can cast black shield every 8-9 seconds or so - you are tossing on 30 ad, which is pretty negliglble.  Compare that to having an adc with a bonus 50% crit rate.  (imagine hitting for 200 with ardent + crit spike as they occur vs a very likely 320 or so with zekes).  Last thought - as it does require black shield, you are likely going to have to use that on whatever target needs it - which might not be your adc based on what's going on.  

I wouldn't give up on Zhonya's quite yet.  Some of the top solo queue Morg supp players still seem to build it on her quite often.  And it's still the top build on Champion.GG

http://na.op.gg/summoner/userName=Bigninjahwang

Think you might be taking the pros builds too seriously.  They're the best of the best and will be high rank in SoloQ no matter what, so they can afford to build around the competitive meta to practice what they're going to be playing in tournies/LCS I think.

My understanding of Zeke's is that it is a must buy no matter what if your Marksman has gone 5/0 in lane and is ready to take over the game.  It's a multiplicative item so the difference in its effectiveness varies quite a bit depending on if you're supporting Doublelift, DanKnee, or me.  If you ever get paired up with a Bronze ADC in Teambuilder or have the misfortune to get Kaceytron as your 'ADC' in a Ranked game again, I would guess that building Zeke's would be a mistake in those situations.

Aegis isn't optional some games.  If their AP Mid is fed then you kinda gotta buy it.  But if their Mid is a Lulu that's doing okay, well I'd just say screw it and get started on the Zhonya's.

Also Poke Comps.  Day 2 of Worlds, Flash Wolves vs Coo Tigers.  They had Varus and Nid for the poke, Darius and GP to make countering the poke by engaging problematic (suicide) and Morgana helped with both aspects.  Zhonya's was the choice for them over Aegis and Zeke's.

Black Shield get's leveled second so the cooldown is going to be dropping once you've completed Ardent.  But Ardent is balanced around Sona I think, so I doubt it would really be amazing on anyone with a single target shield with a still relatively high CD compared to Sona's extremely short CD AOE shield...

It doesn't just sound good on paper, it performs quite admirably according to the stats.  Ardent Censer has a 60%+ win rate at all tiers, just above Zeke's, and a 79% win rate on Morg in particular, beating Zeke's handily.  It's not often picked, but it's often a winning pick.  I think you're over-valuing the boost from Zeke's.  It's potentially less damage than the 15% AS late game, both for AD builds and on-hit builds, and the 20% AP for yourself is probably going to add up to less damage than a single AA from your ADC after you've finished your low AP, semi-tanky support item loaded build.

johnny thunder is the LAST game of his promo to plat.  GL!!!

Thanks man!

All tiers?  So Bronze V too?  If so, that would really throw off the statistics.  There is a dark place in EloHell where 4v5's and even 4v4's have their own meta.  Using statistics that poll those games would be slightly suspect I imagine.

But even Champion.GG that only takes into account Plat+ games is crap if you take it too seriously.  Are people buying the item that helps them win?  Or are they just buying the item when they're winning?

Awesome stuff Thunder! 

As for that GP, Soraka/Zilean game of doom I think me not playing mid teemo would of helped and winning before they scaled completely but I don't think any one expected that team to be that hard to deal with. 

Thanks buddy.  The 5th game in the series had a really rough start.  That was some good advice about not giving up that you gave me!  

At all tiers, not all tiers combined, even just challenger games are averaging above a 60% win rate.  Lolking has a breakdown by tier, as well top item picks, unfortunately they do not list items by win percentage, just popularity.

If that were true, the same could be said of Zeke's, which is also a low pick percentage item with a 60%+ win rate.  As it's primarily useful in the laning phase, I don't see it being true for either item beyond a possible early kill advantage in their lane.  Their state at that point shouldn't be that large a factor in who wins, an early game item that pushes 80% is a little too successful to just chalk it up to being ahead.

and a 2nd darius pentakill at worlds.  Nice job, rito!

Been watching/listening to some very high elo thresh coaching.  Lots of good tips - covered a bit on the logic timing of swapping to coin from relic, when to get ruby crystal (guy recommends its much more frequently - I get it once in a blue moon).  Also provided many suggestions on proper warding theory - not just crap like where to ward, but specifically where you need to ward, situations late game where you'd even buy additional green wards to counteract sweeping.  Watched both vids on thresh by lastshadow9.  YOUTUBE

Guess I am diamond 4 again! Better hurry up and get challenjor since TSM is trying out people. 

You better hurry up and get demoted to Diamond 5 again. hue.  

What's the highest you've made it, mr cow.  Diamond 4?

Game 1 skt vs ahq is entertaining at least.  Curious to see how this pans out.  

Anyway, I'm trying to put into practice a bunch of the things I learned from the thresh coaching vids.  Unfortunately for me, a bunch of it is retraining - little things like looking the other direction when trying to hook when possible (makes it more difficult to dodge without the added line of sight visual cue).  More complex things like hyper aggression early game.  Deciding if I'll take the korean approach and actually start with hook - not exactly a fan, but it does create more pressure and zoning potential when you are trying to rush to level 2.  Getting used to the rune page setup change (common setup is the subbing in added AD).  Deciding if I'm going to respec my ranged support mastery setup.  

Top lane ganks - quite a bit of what I've been reading is that its common among good supports to go top or mid after immediately after the 1st back for a gank - this means tons of pressure if you pull if off with the jungler and HOPEFULLY a minimal trade off in cs for bot lane.  That strat typically relies on a mobo boots rush - another thing I don't usually do.

Itemization changes - still trying to rethink by build order/timing. I had been default building the tier 2 gold upgrade.  That gets more dicy as I'm looking to not build FOTM on thresh and instead swap to coin.  Then there's the decision to do a mobo boots rush or not - which 90% of the time means sacrificing an early sightstone and having to get green additional green wards (and you don't get the tier 2 gold upgrade for added income).  This makes the roam mid or top more painful if it fails for you, but it should alleviate pressure on the top laner.

Back to top lane support ganks early  -that seems to be a pretty big theme amongst higher elo players from what I've been watching lately.  Kind of surprising to me as honestly, I've seen early top lane support ganks maybe 10-15 times out of all the league games I've ever played.   Perhaps its more common at higher elos because your top lane teammate is more likely to capitalize on it and and snowball their lane as a result that it offsets the 2-5 cs potentially lost bot lane.  But even that play could turn a bunch.  For instance, last night I made a top lane roam and the jungler popped in making it 3v1 in our favor.  I think we took the turret immediately, but due to the time spent, my adc suffered a bit more.  Still - adc missing some cs and us taking some damage on a bot turret should be worth the kill/tower gained.  

Then there's adapting to the vision game with ruby sightstone and being more proactive with pinks + picking up additional greens late game.  Put all this together and its actually a pretty major rework to how I normally run support.  Anyway, I'll be going through a bit of an adaptation for a bit (meaning I'm likely going to be a bit more sloppy as I try to figure things out).  

One other thing - I think a pretty big adv caused by a top lane support gank - if you get a kill, you likely end tp pressure bot lane or dragon for a bit as well.  

Let me answer why this roam and gank stuff isn't going to work as well in games with the people we play with with a question:

Why do I play Hecarim in almost all of our ranked games?

(Hint: I don't really like Hecarim THAT much)

They key is to look at the map and not do things blindly just because you watched some video of some high ELO guy doing something.  You have to make a good decision based on what is actually happening in the current game, and that might not match up with what you see in the video all the time.  It isn't fun for everybody else when you try and force something when it doesn't make sense.  It's fine, of course, if it does make sense in the given game.

Remember, high ELO games have fundamental differences from our games.  It's not always relevant, but it can be.