Doran's Blade vs Doran's Helm: Does Helm Save a Losing Lane?

Patch 26.20

Take Doran's Blade. If the lane looks rough and you're reaching for Doran's Helm, know what it buys: about one more trade before you're in kill range, and a couple of extra seconds in an all-in you were going to lose anyway. It almost never turns that all-in around, and it costs you more all-ins than it saves.

What they do on Patch 26.20

Doran's Blade 450g

• 10 Attack Damage
• 80 Health
• 2.5% Omnivamp

Doran's Helm 450g

• 150 Health
• 8 Armor
• 8 Magic Resist
• Helping Hand: Attacks deal 5 bonus physical damage to minions.

Doran's Shield 450g

• 110 Health
• Enduring Focus: Restore 4 Health every 5 seconds. After taking damage from a champion, restore 40 Health (30 for ranged champions) over 8 seconds.
• Helping Hand: Attacks deal 5 bonus physical damage to minions.

All three cost 450 gold. Next to Blade, Helm trades 10 attack damage and 2.5% omnivamp for 70 more health and 8 each of armor and magic resist. Its passive, Helping Hand, only touches minions, so it doesn't count in a fight with a champion (on a wave it adds 5 damage per attack, half of Blade's extra 10; wave clear isn't simulated here). Shield's Enduring Focus restores up to 40 health over 8 seconds after a champion hits you, or 30 for a ranged champion, on top of its 4 health every 5 seconds.

Does Helm win the all-in you'd lose?

Almost never. Each bar below is every matchup in that lane at one level, split by who wins a fight to the death with each item. The gold sliver is the part Helm rescues. The green one is the part it throws away.

Top lane bruisers, all-ins to the death

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 6

Win with eitherOnly with BladeOnly with HelmLose with eitherCoin flip

Bot lane marksmen, all-ins to the death

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 6

Win with eitherOnly with BladeOnly with HelmLose with eitherCoin flip

I'd expected 70 health and 8 armor to matter more at level 1, where health bars are small. They don't. In a race to the kill, Blade's 10 attack damage wins more close all-ins than Helm's health saves, at every level here, by at least 1.5 to one.

Top lane: where Helm helps a little

Opponent	Blade loses	Helm turns around	Helm lasts longer by	Saved per trade	Trades before kill range Blade / Helm / Shield
Melee AD 25 opponents	289 of 552	7	2.0s	13	4 / 5 / 6
AP 11 opponents	20 of 253	0	3.2s	9	7 / 9 / 21
Tanks 9 opponents	60 of 207	1	1.8s	8	9 / 11 / 21
Ranged AD 2 opponents	11 of 46	0	3.0s	10	5 / 6 / 12

Level 3. Saved per trade is the damage Helm's armor and magic resist stop in one 3-second trade; trades before kill range count how many you take, one every 30 seconds, before your health drops under the opponent's 5-second all-in.

Most of the top lanes Blade loses are against other melee AD champions (289 of 380), and that's where Helm's armor saves the most, 13 damage a trade. Against AP opponents its magic resist saves 9. Both are small next to the health bar itself: after one trade you're sitting on 779 health with Helm and 701 with Blade, and 70 of that gap is Helm's bigger pool before anyone swings.

So Helm's real gift is one more trade. The median goes from 5 trades to 6 before you're in kill range, and only 14% of matchups get two or more.

Bot lane: the same story

Opponent	Blade loses	Helm turns around	Helm lasts longer by	Saved per trade	Trades before kill range Blade / Helm / Shield
Ranged AD 22 opponents	233 of 462	10	1.8s	13	3 / 4 / 4
AP 9 opponents	17 of 198	2	3.9s	11	4 / 5 / 7
Melee 1 opponents	22 of 22	0	0.9s	24	1 / 1 / 1

Most of what beats a marksman in lane is another marksman (233 of 272 lost all-ins at level 3). Helm saves 13 damage a trade there and 11 against the mages. The median again moves by a single trade, 3 to 4. Yasuo is the only melee champion in the bot list, and he puts every marksman here in kill range after one trade with either item.

What Blade gives up

Level 3	Helm saves per trade	Blade deals more per trade	Blade heals per trade	Helm kills slower by	All-ins only Blade wins	All-ins only Helm wins
Top lane bruisers	11	25	5	18%	95	8
Bot lane marksmen	12	28	5	17%	28	12

Blade's 10 attack damage lands on every attack and every ability that scales with it. At level 3 that's about 25 more damage per trade in top and 28 in bot, plus 5 health back from omnivamp. Helm is 17% to 18% slower to kill the same opponent across both lanes and all four levels, which turns into the all-ins in the green slice above.

If sustain is the worry: Doran's Shield

If what scares you is being chipped out of lane, Shield outlasts Helm. It lasts more trades than Helm in 62% of top matchups and 58% of bot ones at level 3, and in top it turns around more lost all-ins than Helm does, 16 to 8 (in bot it's 9 to Helm's 12). That counts Enduring Focus at its full 40 every time, which is the most the file allows. By level 6 the edge has shrunk, to 45% of top matchups and 21% of bot ones.

Your champion, every lane opponent

How these were worked out

Item and champion numbers come from the Patch 26.20 game files. The 23 top laners are the fighters in our standard Top builds (minus the ones Riot tags as tanks first)whose abilities scale with attack damage and whose builds open with it; the 22 bot laners are the marksmen in our Bot builds. Each fights every other champion on its lane's list, which runs to 47 in top and 32 in bot, at levels 1, 2, 3 and 6, holding only the starter, with the ability ranks it has at that level. Opponents hold a default starter for their class: Blade for marksmen and attack damage builds, Doran's Ring for ability power builds, Shield for the rest. That's how the model sets up each lane, and it says nothing about what players actually buy. Every fight opens with abilities ready and is run from eight different attack timings, and an all-in counts as won when you win more than half of them. Both champions stand and fight, so free poke from range and dodged skillshots don't show, and bot lane is one on one without supports. Base health regeneration comes from the champion files; potions aren't counted.