FOTM Report: Relic Shield Marksmen With Overheal

Back when Relic Shield was first released, marksmen with Relic Shield was common as a result of the double gold generation and excellent lane sustain provided. However, nerfs came in, marksmen quickly dropped it in favor of the usual Doran Blade starts. Now, with Season 8 runes in full effect, players are starting to pick up the ol' cheese strategy again, this time with more rune synergy than ever before.

Introduction

Back when Relic Shield was first released, marksmen with Relic Shield was common as a result of the double gold generation and excellent lane sustain provided. However, nerfs came in, marksmen quickly dropped it in favor of the usual Doran Blade starts.

Now, with Season 8 runes in full effect, players are starting to pick up the ol' cheese strategy again, this time with more rune synergy than ever before. 

Rune Setup

As you can see from the setup above, applying all these in synergy gives an incredible amount of sustain, resulting in a very difficult to kill marksman.

Who Uses It?

Generally, late-game hyper-carries like Vayne, Kalista and Kog'Maw are running this setup, but it can work for pretty much anyone that's predominantly attack speed-based. Meanwhile, most Miss Fortune and Jhin players still opt for burst damage rune setups to maximize their strengths.

Which Supports Work Best?

In Season 7, players often chose to run relic shield on the marksmen to get ardent censer on their support faster, which still works great with attack speed-based marksmen. As a result, peel-based supports generally do best with hyper-carries, but a double relic shield proc via melee support isn't bad either.

Why Not Triumph?

Triumph used to be the rune of choice for pretty much everyone on that rune tier. However, for marksmen they generally need to survive the initial burst damage rather than snowball through a fight. Getting Triumph may result in the marksman dying before the proc reaches them, even if they get a kill. Overheal is much more reliable and also helps greatly during the laning phase.

Upgrade?

Some people might also be wondering if they should upgrade their relic shield, and if so how far up. Most players agree that getting it to Targon's Brace is optimal as it also grants Shield Battery once it's fully charged, giving you a bigger overshield as well.

Conclusions

The relic shield start on marksmen is incredibly good for late-game marksmen with average to below-average laning phases, and can also make it very easy to farm into late game. Against very heavy poke damage lanes like Sona, players may even opt for Second Wind over Revitalize if they're continuously taking poke damage and they don't have a sustain support.

What do you think about the relic shield start? Cheesy or no? Comment below!