What If: The three Dirk upgrades were made 'exclusive' and somewhat more specialized?

The Lost Marbles··3 votes·1,116 views

Serrated Dirk

Long Sword x2 (700) + 400 = 1100

+20 Attack Damage

Unique Passive - Brutalizer: +15 Lethality Unique Passive - Seeker: +20 Out-of-Combat Movement Speed

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Youmuu's Ghostblade

Serrated Dirk (1100) + Caulfield's Warhammer (1100) + 800 = 3000

+50 Attack Damage +10% Cooldown Reduction

Unique Passive - Brutalizer: +25 Lethality Unique Passive - Seeker: +35 Out-of-Combat Movement Speed

Unique Active: For the next 6 seconds, ignore unit collision and gain +20% Movement Speed (45 second CD).

The mobility-focused Dirk upgrade. Grants the most out-of-combat movement speed, in addition to its active. I'm surprised the active doesn't already let you ignore unit collision, honestly. It is a GHOSTblade...

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Duskblade of Draktharr

B.F. Sword (1300) + Serrated Dirk (1100) + 700 = 3100

+60 Attack Damage

Unique Passive - Brutalizer: +30 Lethality Unique Passive - Seeker: +25 Out-of-Combat Movement Speed

Unique Passive - Nightstalker: After being unseen for at least 1.5 seconds, gain +10 additional Lethality. This bonus Lethality persists for 2.5 seconds upon entering combat with an enemy champion, then the item goes on a short cooldown (15-5 seconds based on user's Level).

The power-focused Dirk upgrade. Grants the least out-of-combat MS of the upgrades, but has the most AD and innate Lethality, while also gaining even more Lethality for assassinations.

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Edge of Night

Serrated Dirk (1100) + Jaurim's Fist (1200) + 600 = 2900

+300 Health +40 Attack Damage

Unique Passive - Brutalizer: +20 Lethality Unique Passive - Seeker: +25 Out-of-Combat Movement Speed

Unique Active: Channel for 1.5 seconds to gain a spell shield that blocks the next enemy ability within 5 seconds (60 second CD). You may move while channeling, but taking damage will interrupt the channel. If the channel is interrupted, the item is put on a reduced 5 second cooldown.

The durability-inclined Dirk upgrade. Has the least killing power of the upgrades by a significant margin, but trades it for some Health and the spell-shielding active.

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Not perfect, just something I threw together to get the idea out there.

6 Comments

Breaku1 votes

If they were exclusive, they would have to have at least 50 lethality. 20 wouldn't be worth buying most of the time.

The Lost Marbles1 votes

{quoted}

If they were exclusive, they would have to have at least 50 lethality. 20 wouldn't be worth buying most of the time.

Possibly, yeah. Not sure if 50 is too high for one item, but I didn't want to over-tune them out of the gate.

I'm an idea guy, not a game balance guy.

Asayake 5150glow4 votes

{quoted}

If they were exclusive, they would have to have at least 50 lethality. 20 wouldn't be worth buying most of the time.

50 Lethality on a single item is way too strong. That's why combining them is a bad thing - either they are balanced to be a first buy, and only as strong as item 3165 item 3071 item 3068 and then they'd fall off heavily, or they're balanced late game but have the power of a fully stacked item 3041 compared to a item 3285 .

Multiple items allows for more build variation (full Lethality for deleting, 1 or 2 for more damage but taking other stats instead in the other slots), as well as a more balanced amount of Lethality as the game progresses.

The Lost Marbles1 votes

Fiddled with the numbers a bit.

This Duskblade has 50 Lethality in small bursts. 50 Lethality penetrates 40 Armor against a level 9 target (with the current 60% upfront/40% by enemy level formula). Just for a comparison, a level 9 Ezreal with armor yellows has roughly 62 armor.

You're foregoing the movement speed from Ghostblade or EoN's utility by going all-in with Duskblade's power, though, so in a vacuum it seems like a fair trade-off. 50 might still be a bit too high, though, or the window of having the boosted Lethality too generous.

Sir Poodle1 votes

I think exclusive is a bad idea, but I think making a named passive to reduce efficiency could make this idea viable.

What I mean is how one rarely buys both mikaels and athenes, or 2 of the hextech items.

The Lost Marbles1 votes

Adjusted numbers a bit more.

I think 60 AD + situational 40 Lethality is fine for a pure killing item. It doesn't give anything besides that killing power and a bit of movement speed, and you're forfeiting a lot of gold value if you try to build EoN and/or Ghostblade with it.

That sort of trade-off is what I want to emphasize.

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