A Tale of Two Blades - An Idea for Blade of the Ruined King
Or, rather, I should call this "A Tale of A Blade and A Harpoon", but that has not as nice a ring to it.
This item, 
, currently has an issue. That issue is that it is an item that tries to fulfill too many niches.
Its stats - Attack Damage, Attack Speed and Lifesteal - make it an item that is aimed at champions that auto-attack often and thus deal sustained damage. Meaning, Marksmen, Skirmishers and auto-attack focused divers like 
.
The passive effect synergizes with the attack speed and makes the item one of the primary means to combat enemies that stack health without much resistances. This effect is further amplified by the item featuring Lifesteal, as that effect works really well against targets with high health, but low resistances. Overall, the passive is user-agnostic in its intended user group, but should serve as an important tool to keep HP-stacking in check. As such, it synergizes the most with the intended role of Marksmen.
The active effect, on the other hand, is at its strongest in direct duels and scenarios that involve kiting or sticking to targets. Moreover, its damage component serves as a nuke that, in the past, was used by certain assassins to increase the lethality of the assassination pattern. The power of this active is most appreciated by duelists and champions that like to stick to their targets, as well as those do a lot of short-ranged kiting ( ).
In the end, the combined package of stats, passive and active means that the item is overwhelming if all three of the effects are average or better. As a result, Blade of the Ruined King took a lot of nerfs that left it with a husk of its former power and suboptimal for the purpose of countering health stacking champions. This has, in turn, lead to health stacking itself being nerfed more and more. As such, the arguments for splitting the item up into two items have begun to outweigh the arguments against it, in my mind.
Here are now my ideas for the two items that spawned from .
TL;DR: BotRK split into two items, one focused on dueling (new Blade of the Ruined King) and one on countering HP stacking (Freljordian Whaling Harpoon).
Blade of the Ruined King
A gift from the last king of the Blessed Isles to the champion of the Dueling Tournament. Corrupted during the first Harrowing.
Intended users: Skirmishers, Auto-attack focused divers, Markman looking to duel well at the expense of some damage
Price Range: About 3000 gold
Builds from: 
+ 
or 
Stats: Moderate AD, Moderate AS, 10% Lifesteal, 10% CdR. If build with Warhammer, good AD, but no AS in base stats.
Unique Active: Something that helps with dueling. The most bland thing would be current Blade's active. I could also image an effect that gave AS, with it having a greater effect when there is only one enemy in the vicinity. Or something like a Riposte, that damaged the next one to auto-attack you equal to your AD and slowed him/her. Anyone got another good idea?
Freljordian Whaling Harpoon
Made to slay a Krakenwyrm.
Intended users: Auto-attack focused champions who want some extra punch against high HP targets. Especially for high sustained damage dealers who also build crit.
Price Range: About 3500-3700 gold. Supposed to compete with 
in a build, with a bit more emphasis on the offensive aspect than these.
Builds from: Trollbane (new item) + 
Stats: Good AD, Moderate to good AS, 12% Lifesteal (least out of all items it competes with). Not cost-efficient without the passive.
Unique Passive: Wyrmslayer - Deals 7% of target's current HP as a physical damage on-hit. On Critical Strikes, this is increased by 50%. This effect benefits from Lifesteal.
Trollbane
Role: Building component for the Harpoon. Serves as a mid-tier item that can be build reactively to counter HP stacking.
Price: 1600-1800 gold
Builds from: 
+ 
Stats: AD + AS
Unique passive: Wyrmslayer - Deals 3-4% of target's current HP on hit.
Of course, numbers are always up to balancing. This is just the ballpark in which I'd put these numbers.