Lono's Mask Viable?

Tank Nox? Lono's Mask? One is proven, the other... not so much.

Maybe they work together?

(I say yes). Proof? Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/6ZVYRUszfzs

That was one of my first thoughts when I heard about Lono's Mask. I've developed a strong love for Nox, and with her non-standard potential as Support, I've tried it.

I will say...although the concept is great, I feel that it doesn't bring out the best in her potential in a Support role. Can it work? Sure. All matchups are different, and you can make things work sometimes.

Before I get into the rest, hope you don't mind some friendly criticism on that match. Do you realize your build overcapped CDR by 20%? You had:

• Mage's Blessing (10%)
• Lono's Mask
• Shoes of Focus (+10%, total 20%)
• Oni Hunter's Garb
• Breastplate of Valor (+20%, total 40%, max cap)
• Chronos' Pendant (+20%, total 60%, 20% overcapped)

Other than that consideration, I do feel high CDR is 100% essential.

But here are the reasons I feel you're best avoiding the use of Lono's Mask.

• Damage: Nox isn't the most damaging teamfight god (she's not Zeus, or Discordia, or Anubis, or whatever). However, she can still output good burst against individual gods, especially with her ult as a finisher (on a retreating, low health enemy), or anytime you can connect your 2-1 combo. Even as a dedicated "tank," many of the standard Guardians or Warriors can still deal enough damage to help a fight with their base damage. Lono's Mask really does hurt whatever potential you might still have, especially when dedicating your build to more of a support function where you're not getting many offensive items.
  
  
• Focus: here's where Lono's Mask can have a good effect. If you see an enemy Nox, what are your first instincts? For me, it's 1) bait that silence, 2) dodge that Shadow Lock, and 3) kill her. As a mage, she should often be a main target. If people don't pay attention to the fact you picked up Lono's or are also getting other protection items (being supporty...supportie? XD), it can definitely help take focus away from your teammates. But if they DO pay attention, they may stop focusing you as much when they realize they're not doing nearly as much damage to you as they should.
  
  
• Range: Question: why do most normal Supports (Guards & Warriors) have to build tanky? Answer: they have to get in close, and they expect to take damage. Dedicating Nox as Support doesn't have to be that way. She can utilize her abilities from distance, and she's got a very nice escape. In a pinch, if you need to get in the way of a fight to protect your teammates, then yes, having protections or pure damage mitigations are nice...but actively looking to absorb damage shouldn't be what you aim to do. Your best use IMO is to be able to lock down enemies for teammates to focus, or disrupt enemies to peel (lock) and prevent ability use (silence).

As such, I feel her best itemization when going for that role should focus less on personal damage absorption, but rather utility and offensive support. This doesn't mean that she shouldn't build some defense items, but that when she does so, she should build items that also help her teammates.

Depending on mode and situation, here are the items I feel are valuable. There will be repeats based on category.

• Protection auras: Sovereignty, Heartward Amulet, Gauntlet of Thebes
  
  
• CDR considerations: Breastplate of Valor, Chronos' Pendant, Genji's Guard, Mantle of Discord, Pythagorem's Piece, Shoes of Focus, Shogun's Kusari, Spirit Robe. Due to the great added CDR passive on Chronos, I would suggest trying to get that instead of Breastplate of Valor if you can make it work. If you really need the physical protections, BoV will do fine.
  
  
• Utility / Counter: Midgardian Mail / Witchblade (desperate cases), Pestilence, Pythagorem's Piece, Spear of the Magus, Void Stone. In the case of Spear, only consider if you've got another mage on your team and they don't get it themselves. Your setup with Shadow Lock will quickly build stacks and allow follow-up burst from the other mage to deal high damage. In the case of Void, it's not optimal because utilizing it means you'll need to be within 55 units, but it's better than nothing, and when it's utilized, it'll increase your damage and your teammates damage a bit, while also giving you those protections...only get Void if facing 2 magical, and again, you've got another magical on your team.

Thoughts?

Is Oni Hunter's Garb any good?

As a selfish item, it can be. It provides that damage mitigation (situationally) that goes along with Lono's Mask's mitigation. Since it has a max of 3 stacks, it can be suitable for Joust, but as I'm suggesting Nox be played in a support role, she doesn't really want to be in the middle of a fight like that. But in building Lono's Mask, then yeah, I can see it further helping survivability when playing as an in-your-face support. And there were 2 magical enemies, so it's a fit of sorts. It does overcap CC reduction in that combo though, but that's not a big deal.

I know this is kind of a tangent, but what do you think of the masks in general? I've never seen anyone really build them in any of my games.

I honestly don't think they're very viable right now. Lono's, as you know, is to allow typically squishy gods to act as tanks. But it's hard to replace tanks with their inherently better tank stats, and their kits are often better suited and designed to be that way. With Lono's, you're sort of trying to force a square peg in a round hole or whatever, and as you can tell from above, I just don't think the payoff is worth it, at least in most cases.

Bumba's Mask is an interesting one and might have some specific use, but it will require planning and teamwork for best use, and is really only applicable to maybe early game jungle dominance.

Rangda's Mask just doesn't add up for the payoff. It's meant for you to be able to be more aggressive, but if you're going to make masks make you pay something for the benefits, shouldn't they be more even? 25% more damage taken...so...shouldn't it be 25% more damage dealt? Instead, we see only 15% more ability damage, and 20% more basic attack damage.

Takes a Kali with a get out of jail free ult to make the risk worth it, in my opinion. And the rest of the stats...15 pen and 35 physical power (or 70 magical) is very average.

At this point, I just feel that the masks were conceived with good intent, but saw immediate backlash due to poor understanding (hence the immediate changes before 5.13 actually went live). Just not all that great right now, and I'm not sure what would make them better.

So I like to build Lono's on my Nox because I like being the in your face support/tank. What I also like about it is people see a Nox running at them, and they proceed to dump all of their abilities on me, allowing for my carries to free cast. Lono's and Oni's (an item that I absolutely love BTW, and I think Bacchus, Kuenzbo, and other tanks like that should always consider it in combination with Spirits robe for a free 21% mitigation during Spirit Robes passive) allows me to be that bait.

As for that build, I typically build Rod of Tauti instead of Chronos in that second to last spot, but if I recall, I wanted to get out quickly from that last back and couldn't finish Rod. If the game went even longer, I would have sold CD boots for Pen boots.

I actually feel like Lono's has the most use of all the masks, because I feel the others are so much worse, and even Lono's has very limited uses.

Lono's absolutely has the most potential of all the masks, at least for general use.

I can understand why you like Lono's, with the strategy you employ. When you can get the enemies to do that, it can definitely be effective and safer for your teammates.

I guess my route is a bit more traditional...hybrid between full tank and standard mage...and is riskier, because I need to make sure I'm hitting my combos and timing my abilities correctly. If I don't, my whole team is at bigger risk. But I feel it does come with better potential payoff. I don't have to rely on the enemy to actually focus me (which, if they don't focus you, you're not getting the use out of Lono's and other mitigation things), and my potential to help team damage overall is better.