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Essence Reaver suggestion: anti-mage melee AD item.

BluePolarizer··6 votes·613 views

Right now, there are only 3 champ types that actually matter: AP mages, AP tanks and ranged ADCs.

top solo queue win rates are pretty much AP tanks, AP mages and ADCs. Most challenger players are ADC mains. In the LCS, ranged AP tops are dominant and the only AD mid that matters is Zed.

The reason is simple: there is essentially no way to counter itemize for sustained magic damage in the late game. Most AD bruisers cannot actually outdamage tanks late game due to the way itemization and base resistances work while having far inferior utility. The only way to beat APs is to beat them in lane such that they never get to late game (Zed) or to assassinate them before a fight even starts so they have no ability to output their damage (most AD bruisers/assassins). However, late game, they don't need to really put themselves at risk to deal damage. All they need to do is peel for the carry, self peel with Zhonyas and the rest will take care of itself.

That is why every AP assassin has been incredibly toxic when strong: Nidalee, Akali, Fizz, LeBlanc, Kassadin, etc. have been incredibly broken before some of their horrendous number nerfs and banned far more than analogous AD assassins like Zed, Talon and Kha'Zix - they are simply way harder to itemize against.

I suggest an anti-AP item that ADCs do not benefit from (to keep them risky, in exchange for literally being the carry class) while benefitting other AD champs who frankly need help at this point. It also fixes the problem of Essence Reaver being trash and only good on 3 champs.

Essence Reaver Faerie Charm + Hexdrinker + Brutalizer + 333 gold (3300 total)

UNIQUE ACTIVE - Magical Thirst: Deal magic damage to enemy champion equal to 50% of their total AP. Gain that much mana. Excess mana is stored as a mana shield that absorbs damage (90 second cooldown). UNIQUE PASSIVE - Lifeline: Upon taking magic damage that would reduce health below 30%, grants a shield that absorbs 250 magic damage for 5 seconds (90 second cooldown).

+100% base mana regen +55 AD +10% Cooldown Reduction +10 Armor Penetration +35 Magic Resist

11 Comments

Venowolf2 votes

Maw OF Malmowtius is the AD anti magic item...

Volt Cruelerz1 votes

So in what situations would Maw be more useful and when would this be more useful?

Also, lol at three essence reaver threads within an hour.

BluePolarizer1 votes

Maw: surviving burst with a better shield, more MR, better stats, cheaper.

Essence Reaver (new): better active, CDR, mana regen.

Basically, any AD champ that uses mana and needs to assassinate a super fed AP squishy 1v1 uses this well. In particular, Master Yi, Xin Zhao, Jayce, Hecarim, Jax, Irelia and Trundle use this item better than Maw, since they don't need the stat stick of Maw, use mana and benefit from all pieces. Meanwhile, manaless ADs don't benefit nearly as much from the active, usually prefer a bigger stat stick and waste 300 gold worth of stats on a useless item.

The only stat benefit this provides over the components is 5 AD, 5 MR and 50% increased mana regen, meaning it won't be worth it over Maw for the stats alone.

DisasterSola1 votes

... I think that Maw works better. this seems like a ball of stats kind of item. I think, instead, making the passive an actual BURN (2~8% of damage dealt is returned as mana, and reduces the enemy champions mana by the same amount). Make it work on both abilities and spells.

ER is already an AD caster item. Changing it to burn mana would give AD casters who rush it (Like my varus <3) A much better time in mid.

BluePolarizer1 votes

Maw is a pure stat stick. I just don't get how this is a ball of stats when Maw literally offers nothing but stats. People don't really like the idea of mana burn and it is too controversial; in addition, other ppl have thought of that 100x times already. It also does nothing for manaless APs or APs that don't actually care about mana due to low costs.

DisasterSola1 votes

{quoted}

Maw is a pure stat stick. I just don't get how this is a ball of stats when Maw literally offers nothing but stats.

+100% base mana regen +55 AD +10% Cooldown Reduction +10 Armor Penetration +35 Magic Resist

Vs

+60 attack damage +40 magic resistance

BluePolarizer1 votes

and 2 passives, while being cost efficient for stats alone at 75% HP. This isn't cost efficient for stats alone since BF sword + Negatron Cloak + Forbidden Idol is equal stats for 600 gold cheaper.

Vicarious1171 votes

So I like the idea of dealing damage based on the enemies AP, would give AD bruisers a way of actually dealing with them late game for a change, especially since they all get Zhonya's as well :P

But that being said, it being a mana focused item still kind of removes it as an option for MANY of the AD bruisers who would need it. So I'd suggest keeping the idea of damage based on target's AP, or maybe their current mana or something since when they have low mana they're far less useful already, but focus more on AD and tankiness and remove the mana restoration aspect.

Not too mention this item idea is tailored to handling AP mages and tanks late game, late game when mana pools are far less of an issue for AD bruisers and tanks, so focusing on mana restoration is kind of contradictory.

BluePolarizer1 votes

There's just 5 melee ADs that are manaless who actually matter:

  1. Zed - Don't think he needs much more help lol.
  2. Lee Sin - Don't think he needs much more help, and he can still buy this item for the AP nuke alone as his sole damage item if he's going against a heavy AP team.
  3. Rek'Sai - see Lee Sin.
  4. Riven - Doesn't need any help melting APs; her problem isn't nuking them, its actually getting to them.
  5. Gnar - Isn't actually melee.
Vicarious1171 votes

Aatrox , Rengar , Garen , Yasuo , and a few more I'm sure could really use a way to actually do damage to AP tanks or to be able to take out an AP mage before they kill you first, depending on what your champion's main role is.

Sure they can build it anyway, like you can build Triforce on them now if you really want to, but then that leads me to my second point that you ignored.... mana isn't something that really needs any focus for mana using AD champs late game, the stage you're intending this item to be most used for.

BluePolarizer1 votes

the "gain excess mana as a shield" part addresses this, I think. Since late game most mana using ADs are almost always full mana, its essentially a scaling shield that allows you to basically create a ~600 HP difference between you and an AP opponent if you are using mana. It gives mana using ADs a way to almost guarantee favorable trades against an enemy AP in duels.

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