Doran’s Helm

Starter item · Patch 26.21 · numbers from Riot's Data Dragon files, refreshed every patch

Total cost450 g

Sells for180 g

Gold efficiency160%

Doran’s Helm stats

+150 Health
+8 Armor
+8 Magic Resist

Passive and active effects

Passive: Helping Hand: Attacks deal 5 bonus physical damage to minions.

Effect text as written in Riot's game data; for scaling effects, the in-game shop tooltip shows the exact numbers that match your current stats and level.

Gold efficiency

Stat	Amount	Gold per point	Gold value
Health	150	2.67 g	400 g
Armor	8	20 g	160 g
Magic Resist	8	20 g	160 g
Total stat value			720 g

Gold efficiency = stat value ÷ item cost = 720 ÷ 450 = 160%. The gold per point comes from basic items of the same patch (for example, Long Sword: 35 g per Attack Damage). Passives and actives are not counted.

Doran’s Helm patch history

Patch	Change
26.13	Armor: 10 → 8; Health: 140 → 150; Magic Resist: 10 → 8
26.10	Health: 110 → 140
26.9	Added to the game data

We compare cost and stats patch by patch in Riot's Data Dragon files. "Effect text changed" means the passive or active wording changed in that patch.

Doran’s Helm is the tank starting item in League of Legends, added in patch 26.9: 150 Health, 8 Armor and 8 Magic Resist for 450 gold in patch 26.21, plus the Helping Hand passive that adds 5 bonus physical damage to attacks on minions. No damage, no sustain, no upgrade path; it is pure durability for champions who plan to stand in front.

What does Doran’s Helm give you?

Toughness, plenty of it, cheaply. 150 Health is a Ruby Crystal’s worth, and the 8 Armor and 8 Magic Resist on top cover both damage types at once, so the Helm works in any matchup without you having to guess what the enemy will build.

What you give up is everything else. Doran’s Shield heals you back from poke, Doran’s Blade adds damage, and the Helm does neither, so a Helm user loses every extended trade on raw numbers and wins only by surviving the all-in that was supposed to kill them. Helping Hand softens the farming problem: 5 extra damage on minions means a tank with weak base Attack Damage can still last hit under tower. Is that enough for a champion who wants to trade? No, and that is the point: the item is for champions who want to not die, not for champions who want to win lane (Ornn, Sion, Cho'Gath, Malphite, the usual suspects).

Is Doran’s Helm gold efficient?

Extremely: 160%, before the passive. The Health is worth 400 gold at 2.67 gold per point, the Armor 160 gold and the Magic Resist 160 gold, for 720 gold of stats on a 450 gold item.

That is the highest figure of any Doran’s item. As always with starting items, the 180 gold sell price keeps that discount honest: the stats are a loan you repay when you sell. Honestly, the more telling comparison is with Doran’s Shield, which gives less raw Health but heals, and for a melee tank facing a ranged poke champion the Shield’s regen still tends to be worth more than the Helm’s resistances over a full laning phase.

Who should start with it?

Tanks in melee matchups where the danger is a burst all-in rather than slow poke: Ornn into Darius, Sion into Renekton, Malphite into Jax, and most tank supports who are not taking the support item for some reason. Junglers never take it, and marksmen have no use for it.

Who should skip it? Anyone facing a ranged top laner, where the Shield heals and the Helm does not, and any tank whose first item needs a specific component so badly that a Cloth Armor or a Ruby Crystal start saves a recall. Thing is, the item is only a few patches old, and players are still sorting out the matchups where it beats the Shield, so the list above is a starting point rather than a settled rule. Early days.

How has Doran’s Helm changed over the patches?

Twice in its first few weeks, which is normal for a new item:

Patch 26.10: Health 110 → 140, one patch after release.
Patch 26.13: Health raised again to the current 150, Armor and Magic Resist trimmed from 10 to 8 each.

So Riot has moved the item toward Health and away from resistances, which makes it a little less matchup-specific. Funny enough, most tank items have gone the other way lately (less Health, more resistances). Both changes sit in the table above, and the LoL items database has the matching entries for the other Doran’s items.

When should you sell it?

At full build, like every Doran’s item, and only when you need the sixth slot. 150 Health and a few points of each resistance keep mattering on a tank for the whole game, and the 180 gold you get back buys nothing worth having. For what it’s worth, the Helm is probably the Doran’s item that stays in inventories the longest, since tanks are the last players to run out of slots. If you are still working out whether your champion belongs to the group that starts tanky, the guide to LoL roles covers what top lane tanks are built to do, and Doran’s Helm is the newest first step on that path.