DuskBlade of Draakthar Balance suggestion

(TL DR at end) . Now assassins have been out of the meta for a while, especially AD assassins. Recently lethality buffs and a couple lethality item reworks are headline. I think these changes have been largely successful except for one item which we can guess I'm going to talk about. Duskblade. . When riot originally released this item it was supposed to be an equivalent to Infinity Edge for crit based builds. Back then it gave true damage that scaled partially on the amount of lethality that champion has. In similar theme to how IE boosts damage from crit stacking, Duskblade boosted damage from Lethality stacking. They attached the element of surprise (that assassins need to utilise) as part of their interaction as what granted or reset the bonus damage. Like Kha'Zix passive. Initially this brought an increase in asassasins oneshotting especially adcs then an increase in tanks and bruiser tanks who build such that they won't be oneshot (tanky) and encouraged the rise of peel supports (especially LuLu who became the best support for a while primarily because of how hard a counter to assassins her critterfy spell is). ADCs became more about utility provided for other beefier roles but with the increase of beefier champions and builds being chosen, assassins Meta'd out and with their leaving and the tank abundance, hyperscaling adcs came back into the meta. (Assassins were on their way back since if they trade themselves successfully to kill the enemy adc while their adc survives, then their team has the remaining tools to outperform with their adc shredding the enemy tanks while no enemy adc was shredding any tanks) . Regardless, especially with Worlds coming and the flashiness and play potential Assassins bring to the table, riot decided to inject new blood into the lethality itemisation with some small reworks and buffs as mentioned previously. The issue that came to be was how powerful reworked duskblade was. Riot basically turned it into Kha'Zix passive but the proc damage was soo obscene, everyone and their grandma are exploiting it that can benefit from threading in at least 1 auto attack with their physical damaging spells. This is fine sort of except.., that 1 auto attack gave the full benefit of the item just based on level. It didn't emphasize build (nor playstyle) like previously.., it just gave the needed bonus damage free.

. So here's my suggestion. Currently the passive is modelled after Kha'Zix's passive. It has bonus damage on the auto scaling on levels and a slow attached and this is reset by the enemy team losing sight of you. I'd prefer that the proc was modelled after something else. If we consider what an assassin is compared to a fighter we can say they are burst champs that favor brief high burst engagement over consistent extended engagement. There are some exceptions with reset mechanics but for this scenario assume like say vs a bruiser. Remember Talon's old E ? It was a dash which amplified damage for a limited duration. (As a side note, I considered suggesting that mobility be the means to reset the item's proc along with becoming unseen but assassins are not the only champs dashes or equivalent) . My suggestion is that an auto attack with the item does a minimal proc damage (which scales partially on lethality and partially on level) but more importantly amplifies physical incoming damage to the target for the next 2.5 seconds. Damage amplification is not biased towards the assassin's build path, The assassin can build crit if they choose for their burst. Doesn't force Lethality builds even though lethality is encouraged. The emphasis to be that the champion using this item can deal a majority of their damage in a limited window. To further emphasize this the passive can have that Blitzcrank "Overdrive"skill drawback (slowed after speed boost). That after the window of damage increase, damage delivered is reduced for a brief duration. So perhaps 2.5 seconds is too brief but perhaps 4.5 seconds of your damage being amplified by 15% and then reduced by 8% for 1.5 seconds after. . It's weird but the item's identity would be this is what I get if my champ delivers physical damage in brief bursts. Number tuning I'm not as familiar with, I think community brute testing and Riot's Balance team would be better to advise. My suggestion is more on the concept of an item which specifically amplifies physical damage onto a target for a brief duration at the cost of a followed briefer duration of lessened damage to the same target. . As for resetting the passive, I think the passive should apply essentially a debuff which can be reapplied once the duration is complete (to allow for the reduced damage 'cost' period to fully apply) Therefore the proc wouldn't occur from auto attacks UNTIL the prior debuff was complete. The alternative is to refresh the debuff duration with the initial duration of the debuff being the damage is amplified vs that target time and the latter duration of the buff being the damage is reduced period, perhaps the alternative is the most fair and allows the player to utilise the unseen mechanic to partially circumvent the 'cost period' or get off additional proc(s) of damage in a small time window. In either case the debuff can be applied fresh to a new target once 'unseen' conditions are met.

For those who read, I apologise for the format of the argument. I kind of progressed how my thoughts did so that's why you notice i gave a suggestion then shortly afterwards gave a rebalancing of that suggestion.

This is not a complaint as to how unfair the item seems to be. This is merely a suggestion to make it easier to balance by making it more tailored to the gameplay of what I think is its target market, being AD assassin style players.

TL;DR -Duskblade of Draakthar is too free to exploit. Minus the unseen reset mechanic, it gives the full special benefit from just an auto attack. -It's currently modelled after Kha'Zix passive, bonus damage and slow. -I suggested it be modelled after Talon's old E which was a dash that gave %damage amplification -I considered mobility as a way to reset but didn't explore since many classes have mobility. -I "defined" assassins to have a central theme of damage being delivered in brief engagements over consistent damage. -I therefore modified the % physical damage amplification to have a drawback in that after the window of amplification there is a window of reduced damage to emphasize that the item should be used by assassin style gameplay and not just strong broad spectrum. -Lastly, suggested whether the debuff should be allowed full duration before reapplication or whether the debuff should merely be refreshed , and I eventually settled that the latter is more fair.