Warlock's Staff Vs. Book of Thoth - A better start in S5 for Mages! *GIVEAWAY included*

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**GIVEAWAY**

First of all, a big shout out to EmilZy for making this giveaway possible! Make sure to subscribe to his channel, he's an amazing support player who's currently playing for NRG. 

To enter the Giveaway for the Playmaker Ze Zha skin, subscribe to EmilZy's channel at 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5E0CoQOW08RHu2ufDs3HIQ

and comment down below what post you'd like to see next. Winner will get the skin and a new post of his choice <3.

Also there will be more in the future, so stay tuned!

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Warlock's Staff Vs. Book of Thoth

   Most mages start building Warlock's Staff or Book of Thoth(sometimes both) when they begin the game. The end of S4 we saw a lot of Book of Thoth and with the season 5 it is becoming non-existent. Obviously both items provide different stats but revolve around the same purpose of early-late power, with mostly Warlock winning. Today we'll look into both the items and try to figure out when to build what. So this is Astrality here, today comparing Warlock's Staff and Book of Thoth.

Warlock's Staff

Book of Thoth

 

Let's begin with the basics of both the Items

Warlock's Staff                                               

• Cost: 2650
• Base Magical Power: 65
• Base Health: 200
• Base Mana: 400
• PASSIVE: You permanently gain +4 Health and +.5 Magical Power per Stack, and receive 5 Stacks for a god kill and 1 Stack per minion kill. (Max. 100 Stacks).

Book Of Thoth

• Cost: 2650
• Base Magical Power: 100
• Base Mana: 125
• Base Mp5: 15
• PASSIVE: You permanently gain 10 Mana per Stack, and receive 5 Stacks for a god kill and 1 Stack for a minion kill (max. 75 Stacks). Additionally, 3% of your Mana is converted to Magical Power.

Overall stats on both the items

Talking about overall stats on Warlock Staff: 
First of all, we get a base magical power of 65 gaining 200 health and 400 mana upon purchase of 2650g. It takes about 100 stacks to get online, gaining 4 health which means 200 + 4*100 = 600 health and 65 + .5*100 = 105 magical power on completion of stacking. 

Talking about overall stats of Book of Thoth:
First of all, we get 100 base magical power, 125 mana and 15 mp5 upon purchase. It takes about 75 stacks to get online, getting 10 mana per stack - totaling 125 + 10*75 = 875 mana. Also, 3% of 875 is converted to Magical Power =  26.25 adding to the base 100 we get 125.25 power on a fully stacked book.


When to build what?
It takes knowledge of gods and scenarios to completely get the knowledge of when to build what, but talking in basic standard:

Warlock Staff

• Gods with low sustain and no escapes benefit from Warlock more than Book
• Gods which want to do little damage and be more productive healing-wise can stack a Warlock e.g Aphrodite, Ra, Hel
• Players who think their lane opponent can poke them, for example a level 1 Thoth can out clear an Ah Puch and poke him, so health can help in hard match ups  

Book of Thoth

• Gods who require more power scaling and less health, usually gods with good escapes.
• Scylla and Agni can benefit with Book with the right positioning, similarly Janus can make use of this item.

Early game characters can make use of Book of Thoth because both cost the same amount and Book provides 35 more power in cost of health and mana. If you think you can sustain your mana, the early power is tremendous. 

Warlock Staff on the other hand takes a long time to stack but gives less power and more health and mana. Gods like Sobek(Not a mage), Artio and Zhong can build this item in the solo lane against a warrior to stand a better chance at surviving. 

I guess this might just be enough to let you know the basics of when to pick what, I hope you liked this post! Comment down below what you'd like to see next <3.