Thoughts on Black Cleaver

Blue Collar Bear··6 votes·1,077 views

So, I decided to go play a game as Rengar using the new BC. I decided not to buy any other armor penetration items just to see how it would go. I also only built Hydra to apply the debuff a bit better. My goal was to be able to assassinate a carry and still be able to survive and help out with the other three tanks in the game. Needless to say, it was pretty damn funny when I had 4k health and enough damage to assassinate a carry whilst diving to start a fight.

21 Comments

Critmaster Garen4 votes

its awesome. i feel like i can itemize more heavy into offense on garen again.

i had a conversation with marine revenge, where he said that the new cleaver wont be as good to assassinate squishies. but since it gives so much cdr, i can now swap item 3065 for item 3156 very easily and end up with a lot of ad and resilience in fights. if i want to.

right now, running garen with item 3143 item 3071 item 3031 item 3156 item 1001 item 3142 with 21/9/0 masteries and variations depending on the enemy team, gives him a ton of duelling power while making him tanky enough to survive a fight.

you can really take a dump on carries and mages with this, and duel most bruisers and assassins.

those extra 10% cdr on cleaver really free up some build options for him.

Blue Collar Bear1 votes

I also follow MarineRevenge's orthodox on how to play Garen. He is correct that it won't be as good, since the flat armor penetration was great at getting to squishies while also being great at shredding armor on tanks. To shred as much armor that the old BC would have (including flat), the target would need 200 armor. However, I think the Rage passive is going to be awesome at helping Garen stick. Personally, I think Shiv might be better than Ghostblade, but that's just me.

Holy hell.... Since Garen gets so many extra stats, Black Cleaver and Randuin's would put him at about 3k health whilst your other items keep you dealing damage.

Critmaster Garen1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Fluffysaurus Rex,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=8FEL6ENX,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2015-04-29T22:00:52.820+0000)

I also follow MarineRevenge's orthodox on how to play Garen. He is correct that it won't be as good, since the flat armor penetration was great at getting to squishies while also being great at shredding armor on tanks. To shred as much armor that the old BC would have (including flat), the target would need 200 armor. However, I think the Rage passive is going to be awesome at helping Garen stick. Personally, I think Shiv might be better than Ghostblade, but that's just me.

Holy hell.... Since Garen gets so many extra stats, Black Cleaver and Randuin's would put him at about 3k health whilst your other items keep you dealing damage.

in the end its a matter of taste. but there are multiple reasons why i prefer ghostblade.

  • early brutalizer is still viable for him. you can sit on it and build other items, then finish ghostblade later
  • perfect stat combination with ad, cdr, armor pen, critical strike chance its every single offensive stat garen wants
  • the active does not only give him an extra burst of movement speed, which is incredibly important on a champ with otherwise low mobility, but it also allows to bridge his cooldowns for a q + spin, ghostblade active, into q + spin chain. basically the attack speed buff allows him to keep going and be threatening when he doesnt outright get his target with q + spin in kill range for his ult.

against generally squishy teams however, shiv can be a good choice. mainly because of the additional shiv proc on his q, which gives gim a bit of extra upfront damage.

what i dont like about it, is that you have to partially depend on luck, to get a shiv crit.

Blue Collar Bear1 votes

Brutalizer rush is still good on him. I agree with that. I just like having the constant extra movespeed, since he can break cc.

I think Ghostblade will probably become the norm for Garen, since it fills in his need for early game armor penetration.

Jungle Lux God2 votes

I am personally excited to also test out the new Black Cleaver myself. I don't play a whole lot of champions who use it, but I do have fun trying out items after they either get released (like Luden's Echo) or reworked (Ohmwrecker was actually fun to try out, especially after Cinderhulk was released), even if they aren't too ideal on the champs I play.

I like how you only build Black Cleaver for armor penetration instead of trying to stack armor penetration from the likes of Brutalizer and Last Whisper. The best way to test an item out is to test it in the ideal situation in where it would be good, and a build that only relied on the armor shred on Cleaver instead of other forms of armor penetration would be the best way to try it out.

Blue Collar Bear1 votes

I built Luden's Echo on jungle Alistar once...

Yeah! Because of the way armor reduction applies before armor penetration, it's most beneficial to only utilize one or the other in terms of LW vs BC. I was doing just fine assassinating the enemy Twitch in my game, so I didn't see the need for another DPS item.

There are a few champions that I am excited to try the item out on: Gnar. Hecarim. Garen. Hecarim. AD Alistar. Skarner.

I did try it on Sion, and I must say that BC + Frozen Mallet is easily my favorite combo now.

N3mO061 votes

Pls can you tell me your build?

Blue Collar Bear1 votes

Sure thing! Here is the match history link.

I was going to finish it off with a Frozen Mallet, since we were having huge issues with Tryndamere splitting and we weren't able to lock down anyone with Lulu there. Despite the fact that I only had two offensive items and 9/21 masteries, I still had near on-par damage with both ADCs.

N3mO061 votes

[{quoted}](name=Fluffysaurus Rex,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=8FEL6ENX,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2015-04-29T19:49:48.112+0000)

Sure thing! Here is the match history link.

I was going to finish it off with a Frozen Mallet, since we were having huge issues with Tryndamere splitting and we weren't able to lock down anyone with Lulu there. Despite the fact that I only had two offensive items and 9/21 masteries, I still had near on-par damage with both ADCs.

ty m8, you was very kind ^^. I'll try it

Variks the Loyal1 votes

Hmm. I wonder how well your build would translate to the jungle.

Maybe Warrior, Cleaver, Hydra, Merc/Tabi/ Visage, Randuins?

Blue Collar Bear1 votes

My build was just testing how the new Black Cleaver worked. This is not a build I'd probably run in a ranked match.

If I were to play a similar build in the jungle, I would probably use a build like yours. However, I would go for Cinderhulk. The reason why I say take Cinderhulk over Warrior is because tanks will eventually outscale you as Rengar, and my build goal was to have enough damage to assassinate carries whilst still being able to survive and help out in the aftermath. It's clear that Black Cleaver and Hydra is all that's needed, even without the offensive tree.

Although, I play Rengar differently than most. Play what works for you!

Variks the Loyal2 votes

I prefer Bruiser Rengar too, and you have a point. The health from BC would stack nicely with Cinderhulk.

This requires testing.

Blue Collar Bear1 votes

A build that I would probably run as tank Rengar jungle:

Cinderhulk - Black Cleaver - Frozen Mallet - Randuin's - Spirit Visage - Boots

I'm hopping into a game now to test it.

Lt Cuddles1 votes

Bruiser Rengar? I...I think I love you, Fluffy~ summoner 31

Blue Collar Bear2 votes

Thank you!

I feel like tank/bruiser Rengar is the same principle as assassin. You just dive the enemy carry and stick to them until they're dead. It forces your opponents to take their resources and peel / kill you. Lately, I don't really feel that I even need Last Whisper to kill things.

Lt Cuddles1 votes

Exactly, I hope to one day rise to your skill with this new cleaver and play style, Fluff-senpai. ≧ u≦

Blue Collar Bear2 votes

I am by no means a good player. I don't claim to be, but I appreciate the compliment.

Play what you love! You'll be happier playing the game that way!

Lt Cuddles1 votes

So humble too!

What Is Smite1 votes

I feel that With the New Black Cleaver You will never be able to outrun Darius Now, Passive + Cleaver MS boost too stronk. His passive gives him 5 flat MS for each target applied with bleed stacks this includes minions, So tell me now how you can outrun this bloodthirsty man?

Blue Collar Bear2 votes

I.... am afraid.

Lt Cuddles1 votes

I don't, I just stack hp and headbutt the shit out of him. Volibear Sion Nautilus Trundle Chogath Garen DrMundo :^)

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