FOTM Report: Stopwatch Meta

 Lately, players have made a huge shift towards picking up the Perfect Timing rune under the Inspiration tree over Biscuit Delivery or Hextech Flashtraption. It's also available as a secondary perk,  which means that you don't need to pick an Inspiration keystone to use it.

It's certainly fun, but is it that valuable or is it just a niche item? Let's take a look at what it provides...

Introduction

Lately, players have made a huge shift towards picking up the Perfect Timing rune under the Inspiration tree over Biscuit Delivery or Hextech Flashtraption. It's also available as a secondary perk,  which means that you don't need to pick an Inspiration keystone to use it. 

It's certainly fun, but is it that valuable or is it just a niche item? Let's take a look at what it provides...

Overview

PASSIVE: Receive a Stopwatch item Replica Stopwatch at 6 minutes. The Replica Stopwatch is identical to the Stopwatch, except it has only half the value and so costs Gold 300 more to upgrade. A cosmetic, Commencing Stopwatch, occupies one of your item slots before this time.

Additionally, reduces the cooldown of Guardian Angel's passive as well as the active effects of Gargoyle Stoneplate, Wooglet's Witchcap, and Zhonya's Hourglass by 15%.

Advantages

Best Inspiration Rune on Tier

As a raw gold advantage, it's 300 gold worth of items towards Guardian Angel, Zhonya's Hourglass, or Gargoyle Stoneplate and a 15% cooldown on the same items. 

In comparison, the Biscuit Delivery skill isn't very valuable as a result of the Relic Shield meta, which provides enough sustain without the biscuits. Meanwhile, Hextech is really only useful on engage type supports like Blitzcrank, Alistar, or Leona with questionable necessity.

Extra Summoner Spell

It's no replacement for Flash, Heal, or Exhaust, but having it up essentially negates the potential of a dive. As a result, checking the enemy laner items for a stopwatch is necessary knowledge to execute an all-in without ending in tragedy.

Damage Negation

Early in the game, spell cooldowns are especially high. As a result, if you can dodge something big like Alistar's headbutt + pulverize, it can completely turn the tide of a skirmish. Meanwhile, if you save it until mid-game, you may be able to dodge something even stronger, like a Zed or Veigar ultimate.

Disadvantages

Reduced Rune Options

In order to pick up Stopwatch, you need to run down the Inspiration tree on either your primary or secondary options. If you're a marksman, you're likely going down the Precision primary. Going Stopwatch takes away your ability to pick up Sorcery for bonus damage or Domination for extra sustain.

Weaker Late Game

In relation to the above, Domination or Sorcery does provide better late game rune options than the Inspiration tree. As a result, as champions start to get closer in gold totals, the advantage you receive from having a one time item use is reduced.

Specific Timing Use

Similar to buying Zhonya's Hourglass, some players using Stopwatch may just be delaying an inevitable death. It's important not to use it when you're all alone with no summoners and three people on top of you. Holding enemy champions in your lane for an extra 2.5 seconds isn't exactly much of an advantage gained.

Conclusions

Perfect Timing is really an awesome single rune choice by itself, and it's almost definitely better than Biscuit or Hextech if you're planning on building one of the three items Stopwatch builds into later in the game. However, make sure to use it correctly or you might just end up wasting the rune. If you're prone to doing that, then Biscuit Delivery may still be the best use of the slot.

Thoughts on Stopwatch and Perfect Timing? Comment below!