Ok so first off I recently watched the item/ LoL-discussion between LS x xPetu. Pretty long video (3hrs) but somewhere in there they talk about the new Doran's items. Doran's Helm in particular.
I think Doran's bow could actually be interesting to look at if you play AD TF because TF also has a higher AS-ratio (meaning he gets more value out of AS than other champs) but that's not what I want to talk about.
I don't really have much of a point with this post. I really just want to discuss Doran's Helm on TF.
It might seem counterintuitive because the item looks like it's made for tanks and TF obviously isn't but I would ask you to keep an open mind.
There are basically 2 points of discussion:
The cheater recall
In the video LS/ xPetu talked about Dark Seal + Refillable start into a 450~ gold early recall to buy Helm for AP champs that don't really need mana. Now I would argue TF, thanks to his blue card, is a perfect candidate for this.
You could probably also do this with Doran's Ring to simply make sure you're as strong as possible for your first ult while still saving 100 gold by just not having to buy your first 2 pots.
edit: I just realized by putting both points together, so if you run JoaT while attempting the cheater recall. If you can hold out to 750 gold, Boots + Helm (+ Dark Seal) get you to a very quick 5 JoaT stacks. That's probably a great spike to hit before your first ult.Doran's Helm as Jack of all Trades glue
Now if you play JoaT with the regular RoA -> Lich -> RFC build you know that Merc's give you 10 JoaT-stacks naturally. If you got a bit of OCD like me that just tickles your brain the right way.
However in games where you don't build Merc's you just can't really get there. I think if you build Sorc's (with it's %Pen Tier3 stack) you get there too but if you build utility TF that's not really your boot of choice. So a lot of times you just hover outside of the 10 stack range.
Doran's Helm changes that! With Doran's Helm you can literally build any boots you want because you get the 2 stacks you used to need from your boots from Helm now. Now that's great because TF really likes both Swifties and Ionian's. They are also just cheaper. All of that doesn't even consider the Armor + MR just being good on TF who already builds HP/ HP-regen in RoA. There is a reason Unflinching is a good rune.
You would basically get roughly the AP of Doran's Ring (15 from JoaT) while also gaining 20 HP and more importantly the resistances. You essentially only lose out on the mana-regen.
Those are just 2 trains of thought I'm currently contemplating.
I was wonering if other TF players thought this is viable or if I'm just getting too cute with my TF builds again.
edit 2: I realized you can do the same for Naafiri if you're interested.
edit 3: Changed the numbers. For some reason I thought Helm was 400 gold. mb.