Item Gold Efficiency

Gold efficiency is a derivative heuristic to compare item efficiency based on their stats vs price (gold cost).

Gold efficiency does not have direct gameplay implications, and is a subset of theorycrafting. Gold efficiency is most useful for comparing different items' relative, theoretical values.

The "true" value of an item cannot be easily modeled due to more complex interactions, such as item effects, reducing effects vs Armor and Magic Resistance, synergistic item combinations, or simply how the item interacts with the Heroes in a given game.

Gold Efficiency Formula
Gold efficiency is calculated as the ratio of the item's theoretical gold value to its actual in-game price.

The formula for the gold efficiency of an item (as a percentage) is:

Gold efficiency = (Gold value / Item price) x 100%


 * Gold value is the value of the items' stats based on "reference items", the cheapest items that provide a given stat.
 * If an item has passive or active effects, they are only taken into account if they provide stats with a gold value. For example, if an item's effect added a temporary flat movement speed, the gold value of this effect could be determined because there is a reference value for movement speed.
 * Item price is the completed item cost from the in-game shop.
 * The quotient is multiplied by 100% to convert the result to a percentage.

Basic reference items
The gold values assigned to stats are not measures of the effectiveness of those stats. They are simply base values meant to be used in determining the theoretical value of other items (or effects that are not item-related, such as Dragon buffs or Runes).

A stat's value is derived from the least expensive basic item that provides only that stat:

Secondary stat reference items
Not all stats have basic items that provide only that stat. This includes:
 * Cooldown Reduction
 * Damage Block

Item Statistics
An item can be said to be gold efficient if its gold efficiency is at least 100%. Theoretically, items with less than 100% gold efficient have passive or active effects that are not taken into account when determining their gold value. This then results in a theoretical gold deficit in the item's value; in those cases that is compensated for by the the item's passive or active effects.