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  • Oracle's ElixirOracle's Elixir

Support guide

Support economy and practical vision in League Classic

How a Classic support earns and spends gold: the 26.16 income floor, opening packs, the gold-per-10 items with their payback math, the Sightstone-versus-wards decision, the six-slot squeeze and Pink versus Oracle's.

Scope
Classic · Patch 26.19
Updated
2026-09-23
supportgold per 10Philosopher's StoneHeart of GoldSightstonewards
In this guide12 chapters
  1. 01A support's income is 126 gold a minute plus whatever the shop adds
  2. 02Pick an opening that survives the lane first and gathers information second
  3. 03Greed, Wealth, Explorer and Pickpocket are income paid for with mastery points
  4. 04Ancient Coin and Spellthief's do not exist; five items pay gold per 10
  5. 05Do the payback math before buying a gold item, and remember it stops on most upgrades
  6. 06Buy a gold item only for the item it becomes
  7. 07The gold-item argument has three branches, and each has a condition
  8. 08A ward budget per recall: Sightstone replaces 150 gold of wards every shop visit
  9. 09Six slots is the real constraint
  10. 10Pink or Oracle's: 125 gold for one place, 400 gold for yourself
  11. 11The first recall, with prices
  12. 12Warding is a team cost: the player whose income suffers least pays

Chapter 01

A support's income is 126 gold a minute plus whatever the shop adds

From 1:30 every champion earns 10.5 gold per 5 seconds, rising to 11.5 at minute 15 and 13 at minute 25; Patch 26.16 raised that floor while cutting melee and ranged minion gold to 19 and 14. A support who never last-hits lives on that stream, on assists and on the gold passives you buy. Price every purchase against the rate: a 75-gold Sight Ward is 36 seconds of income, Philosopher's Stone is five and a half minutes, Sightstone is six and a third.

  1. 01

    1:30

    Income starts

  2. 02

    Sight Ward · 75

    ≈ 36 seconds

  3. 03

    Philosopher's · 700

    ≈ 5.5 minutes

  4. 04

    Sightstone · 800

    ≈ 6.3 minutes

Chapter 02

Pick an opening that survives the lane first and gathers information second

The budget is 475 gold, or 515 and 550 with Wealth. Faerie Charm plus Rejuvenation Bead costs 360, leaves room for a ward and a potion and turns into Philosopher's Stone for 340 more. Ruby Crystal costs 475, becomes Sightstone or Heart of Gold on the first recall and leaves nothing for consumables. The all-consumables start of four Health Potions, a Mana Potion, a Vision Ward and three Sight Wards costs 525 and only fits with Wealth at rank two. Choose by who is poking whom: sustain components into a poke lane, Ruby into an all-in lane, consumables when the enemy jungler or a stealth champion decides the first five minutes.

  • Faerie Charm + Bead

    360 · becomes Philosopher's Stone

  • Ruby Crystal

    475 · becomes Sightstone or Heart of Gold

  • Consumables

    525 · needs Wealth

Chapter 03

Greed, Wealth, Explorer and Pickpocket are income paid for with mastery points

Greed grants 0.5, 1, 1.5 or 2 gold every 10 seconds over four ranks. Wealth, after Greed is maxed, adds 40 or 75 starting gold. Explorer, after Biscuiteer, starts the game with an Explorer's Ward that lasts 180 seconds. Pickpocket grants 5 gold as a melee or 3 as a ranged champion for each basic attack on an enemy champion, once every 5 seconds. Current players argue both sides: the gold points stack into Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold and pay for extra wards across a long game, while the same points in stats win the lane that decides whether the game gets long. Neither is mandatory; decide by how the lane is expected to go.

  • Greed

    Up to 2 gold per 10 s

  • Wealth

    +40 / 75 starting gold

  • Explorer

    One free 180 s ward

  • Pickpocket

    5 / 3 gold per attack

Chapter 04

Ancient Coin and Spellthief's do not exist; five items pay gold per 10

The Classic shop has no quest item, no support item that hands out free wards and no Ancient Coin, Spellthief's Edge or Relic Shield. Gold comes from five items, four of them components. Philosopher's Stone costs 700 and pays 5 gold per 10 seconds with 7 Health and 9 Mana regeneration per 5. Heart of Gold costs 825, pays 5 per 10 and carries 200 Health. Lucky Pick costs 765, pays 4 per 10 in Classic rather than the Season 3 five, and brings 25 Ability Power. Avarice Blade costs 800, pays 3 per 10 plus 2 gold per unit kill and gives 10% Critical Strike. Shard of True Ice, the 1,600-gold item Lucky Pick becomes, keeps paying 4 per 10 as a finished item. The first two are the support pair; the others belong to builds that use their upgrades.

  • Philosopher's Stone

    700 · 5 per 10 s

  • Heart of Gold

    825 · 5 per 10 s

  • Lucky Pick

    765 · 4 per 10 s

  • Avarice Blade

    800 · 3 per 10 s + 2 per kill

Chapter 05

Do the payback math before buying a gold item, and remember it stops on most upgrades

Five gold per 10 seconds is 30 gold a minute. Philosopher's Stone repays its 700 gold after 23 minutes, Heart of Gold its 825 after 27.5, Lucky Pick its 765 after 32 and Avarice Blade its 800 after 44 before counting kills. Counted against the combine cost alone, because the regeneration or the Health was wanted anyway, Philosopher's Stone repays in 11 minutes and Heart of Gold in 12; the same count gives Lucky Pick 14 and Avarice Blade 22, on components a support does not otherwise need. The passive ends the moment the item becomes Ruby Sightstone, Aegis, Locket, Shurelya's or Mikael's, so the minutes before that upgrade are the whole return; Shard of True Ice is the one upgrade that keeps it.

  • Philosopher's Stone

    23 min · 11 on the combine

  • Heart of Gold

    27.5 min · 12 on the combine

  • Lucky Pick

    32 min · 14 on the combine

  • Avarice Blade

    44 min · 22 on the combine

Chapter 06

Buy a gold item only for the item it becomes

Philosopher's Stone finishes Shurelya's Reverie, Mikael's Crucible, Eleisa's Miracle, Innervating Locket and Ohmwrecker. Heart of Gold finishes Ruby Sightstone, Aegis of the Legion and from there Runic Bulwark; Locket of the Iron Solari, Randuin's Omen and Warmog's Armor take the Heart of Gold directly. Lucky Pick finishes Twin Shadows, Morellonomicon, Will of the Ancients, Ardent Censer and Shard of True Ice, the one finished item that keeps a gold passive. The branch you will not finish is the one you should not start: a Heart of Gold that never becomes Aegis or Ruby Sightstone is 825 gold for 200 Health and a slot.

  • Heart of Gold

    825 · 5 per 10 s

  • Aegis of the Legion

    2,150 · +10 Armor, +15 MR aura

  • Locket

    2,225 · from Heart of Gold

  • Ruby Sightstone

    1,700 · from Heart of Gold

Chapter 07

The gold-item argument has three branches, and each has a condition

Current players disagree, and the disagreement is about conditions rather than facts. The first branch buys Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold, nothing more, and upgrades both. The second buys none: Classic snowballs, early stats decide the lane, and a 700-gold regeneration item is sunk gold if the game ends at 25 minutes. The third buys one gold item, in current practice Philosopher's Stone, then rushes Sightstone and adds Heart of Gold only when it will become Aegis or Ruby Sightstone. Choose the first in a lane you expect to survive quietly, the second when the lane is decided by the first two trades, the third when vision is the job and the game is expected to go long.

  • Two gold items

    Philosopher's + Heart of Gold

  • None

    Stats and Boots first

  • One, then Sightstone

    Philosopher's → Sightstone

Chapter 08

A ward budget per recall: Sightstone replaces 150 gold of wards every shop visit

Sight Wards and Vision Wards stack five to a slot, cost 75 and 125 and last three minutes. Sightstone costs 800, holds three charges, refills on every shop visit and keeps two of its wards alive at once, so each recall with it replaces at least two bought Sight Wards, which is 150 gold or five minutes of a gold item's passive. Before Sightstone, carry at least one ward on every return. Loose wards win in a game expected to end early or when a Vision Ward against stealth matters more than coverage; Sightstone wins in any game that runs past the point where 800 gold of consumables would have been bought anyway.

  1. 01

    Sight Ward

    75 · 5 per slot · 180 s

  2. 02

    Vision Ward

    125 · reveals invisible units

  3. 03

    Sightstone

    800 · 2 live · refills at shop

  4. 04

    Ruby Sightstone

    1,700 · 3 live · consumes Heart of Gold

Chapter 09

Six slots is the real constraint

A support holding Sightstone, Boots, Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold has two slots left, and a stack of Sight Wards and a stack of Vision Wards fill both. There is no slot for a finished item until a gold item is upgraded or a ward stack is emptied. That is why Heart of Gold goes into Aegis or Ruby Sightstone rather than sitting in the inventory, why Boots of Mobility arrive early on a roaming support, and why Oracle's Elixir is attractive: it holds a slot only until it is clicked, while Sightstone and a gold item hold theirs for the rest of the game. The trinket has its own slot and does not count against the six. Decide which slot becomes the first real item before the gold for it exists.

  • Slot 1

    Sightstone

  • Slot 2

    Boots

  • Slot 3

    Philosopher's Stone

  • Slot 4

    Heart of Gold

  • Slot 5

    Sight Wards

  • Slot 6

    Vision Wards

Chapter 10

Pink or Oracle's: 125 gold for one place, 400 gold for yourself

A Vision Ward holds one spot for three minutes, reveals invisible units there and keeps working after you leave; revealing an enemy ward with it pays a share of that ward's kill gold. Oracle's Elixir costs 400, grants detection of nearby invisible units for up to four minutes and walks with you, so one sweep can clear several bushes, but it protects nothing once you leave, and the client does not state whether the effect survives a death. Buy Vision Wards when one place decides the next fight, such as the Dragon pit or the tri-bush against Akali. Buy Oracle's when you move with the team and the enemy support places wards faster than you can pink them.

  • Vision Ward

    125 · fixed · 180 s

  • Oracle's Elixir

    400 · mobile · up to 240 s

  • Red Trinket

    Free · reveals enemy wards · 8 s

Chapter 11

The first recall, with prices

Boots of Speed cost 325. Finishing Philosopher's Stone from Faerie Charm and Bead costs 340. Ruby Crystal costs 475 and becomes Sightstone for 325 more or Heart of Gold for 350 more. Emblem of Valor costs 650 and gives nearby allies 7 Health regeneration per 5. Philosopher's Stone from nothing is 700, Sightstone 800, Heart of Gold 825, Kindlegem 850 and Chalice of Harmony 880. Oracle's Elixir at 400 plus wards is the purchase against a stealth champion. Match the list to the lane: regeneration into poke, Ruby or Heart of Gold into all-ins, Sightstone when the map already needs you, Vision Wards when the enemy has stealth.

  1. Boots

    325

  2. Philosopher's Stone

    700 · 340 to finish

  3. Sightstone

    800

  4. Heart of Gold

    825

Chapter 12

Warding is a team cost: the player whose income suffers least pays

The support buys the most wards because 75 gold costs a support less farm than anyone else, not because the other four are exempt. During the laning phase mid and top cover their own lane and river entrance, the jungler carries a Vision Ward for objectives, and everyone uses the trinket on cooldown. Once the map opens, every player who recalls buys a ward. There is no wards-per-minute quota; the rule is that the person recalling with spare gold places the next ward.

  • Everyone

    Trinket on cooldown

  • Laners

    Own lane and river

  • Jungler

    Objective pits

  • Support

    Repeatable coverage

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