Tear of the Goddess

Tear of the Goddess is the stacking Mana item in League of Legends: 240 Mana for 400 gold in patch 26.22, plus Manaflow, which adds 3 maximum Mana each time you land an ability (doubled against champions) up to a cap of 360 bonus Mana. It builds into four items, Archangel’s Staff, Manamune, Winter’s Approach and Whispering Circlet, each of which keeps stacking and transforms into a stronger form once it hits the cap.

What does Tear of the Goddess do?

It gives you 240 Mana and then grows. Manaflow holds up to 4 charges that come back one every 8 seconds, and each charge spent on a landed ability adds 3 maximum Mana, twice that if the ability hit a champion, until the bonus reaches 360.

There is also Helping Hand, 5 bonus physical damage on attacks against minions, which exists because Tear users tend to have weak early auto attacks and need the help to last hit. The design is a bet on time: a 400 gold item that is weak on the day you buy it and strong twenty minutes later, which makes it one of the few purchases in the game where the player who buys it is accepting a worse lane in exchange for a better late game. How long does the stacking take? It depends entirely on how often you cast and whom you hit, which is why Ezreal and Cassiopeia, who throw spells constantly, finish it much sooner than a mage who saves everything for fights (a jungler who spams abilities on camps gets there too, but only the single-charge rate).

Is it gold efficient?

Not at purchase: 60%. 240 Mana is worth 240 gold at 1 gold per point, so you are paying 160 gold for the two passives.

At full stacks the picture flips, since 360 bonus Mana is worth that much again in gold and the finished items convert the Mana into damage, Health or healing on top. Thing is, the efficiency only arrives for players who actually use the item, and a Tear that sits at half stacks at thirty minutes was a bad buy. The sell price is 280 gold, which almost nobody collects, because by the time you need the slot the Tear has become something else (usually around the twenty minute mark, give or take). Patience pays.

What does the Tear build into?

Four items, one for each class that wants a large Mana pool:

• Archangel’s Staff for mages, becoming Seraph’s Embrace at full stacks.
• Manamune for physical damage casters, becoming Muramana.
• Winter’s Approach for tanks, becoming Fimbulwinter.
• Whispering Circlet for enchanters, becoming Diadem of Songs, new in patch 26.1.

So the Tear itself is only the first step, and honestly the decision to buy one is really the decision to build one of those four, since a Tear with no plan is 400 gold of Mana and not much else. The stacks carry over when you upgrade, which is the reason to buy the Tear early and the finished item late. The LoL items database lists all four with current prices.

Who buys it?

Champions who run out of Mana in long fights and have a way to spend a huge pool later: Ezreal, Kai'Sa in some builds, Jayce and Varus toward Manamune; Cassiopeia, Ryze, Anivia, Kassadin and Seraphine toward Archangel’s; Singed, Sion and Skarner toward Winter’s Approach; and from patch 26.1, enchanters like Sona and Karma toward Whispering Circlet. Who skips it? Anyone without Mana, obviously, and burst champions whose fights are over before the pool matters. Put simply, the Tear is for casters who want to keep casting at minute thirty, not for the ones who want to win at minute eight. A good test is to ask whether your champion has ever been out of Mana in a fight that mattered; if the answer is every game, the item is for you, and if you cannot remember the last time, it is not.

How has Tear of the Goddess changed over the patches?

A great deal, across fifteen recorded entries. The item has been in the data since 2013 or earlier, and the big turns are these:

• Patch 5.22: Cost 720 → 750 gold.
• Patch 6.9: Base Mana Regen removed.
• Patch 8.9: Cost 750 → 850 gold.
• Patch 10.23: Cost 850 → 400 gold, Mana 250 → 150, the item rebuilt as a cheap basic component.
• Patch 10.24: Mana 150 → 240, one patch later.
• Patches 7.21 to 25.S1.3: Nine effect text changes as Manaflow was rewritten.

Funny enough, the 10.23 version with 150 Mana lasted exactly two weeks before Riot gave most of the Mana back, and the item has held its current shape since. For what it’s worth, the drop from 850 to 400 gold in 10.23 is the change that made the first-recall Tear a routine buy rather than a sacrifice.

When should you buy it?

On the first recall, or in the opening purchase on champions like Ezreal and Cassiopeia whose whole build revolves around it. Every minute of delay is a minute of stacks lost, and a Tear bought at fifteen minutes transforms around the time the game ends. The usual pattern is Tear plus a Long Sword or Amplifying Tome on the first back, then the real first item, then the Tear upgrade second or third once the stacks are well along. Not sure whether your champion is a Tear user at all? The guide to LoL roles covers which mid laners and marksmen scale this way, and Tear of the Goddess is the first item in the builds of most of them.

FAQ

How much does Tear of the Goddess cost?

400 gold in patch 26.22. It sells for 280 gold.

What stats does it give?

240 Mana, plus up to 360 bonus maximum Mana from Manaflow stacks.

How does Manaflow stack?

Landing an ability spends a charge and grants 3 maximum Mana, or double that against champions. It holds 4 charges and regains one every 8 seconds.

What does it build into?

Archangel’s Staff, Manamune, Winter’s Approach and Whispering Circlet.

Do the stacks carry over when you upgrade?

Yes. The bonus Mana you have built up stays on the finished item and continues stacking toward its transformation.