Essence reaver +Brutalizer -Life steal = Item diversity. [@meddler (?)]
Black cleaver recipe is changing, and we all know that Essence Reaver isn't really useful (excepting maybe for Jayce and Ezreal), so I copied another post have an idea: a rework for Essence Reaver including Brutalizer.
We all know that Essence Reaver is just a weaker version of Bloodthirster, and the only way we can make it attractive at its current state is to plainly buff its stats to be better than Bloodthirster. As I'm really bad at explaining things, I will just post my ideas here and you'll figure out why I made it this way:
Wannabe Essence reaver: (Let's call it Shinobu's axe, because I want an item named after me)
Pickaxe (875g) + 475g = 1,350g
+25 attack damage +10% cooldown reduction Passive (unique): Killing a unit restores 6 mana.
There is a reason why the "mini essence reaver" was never pulled to live, and this item solves the problem. Building this you sacrifice flat AD or sustain in exchange for more spamming potential (more mana regeneration and less cooldown).
Essence reaver:
The Brutalizer (1,337g) + Shinobu's axe (1,350g) + 563g = 3,250g
+50 attack damage +20% cooldown reduction Passive (unique): +20 armor penetration Passive (unique): Basic attacks restore mana equal to 3% of the physical damage dealt, increased by 1% per every 1% missing mana (up to 6%).
AD casters usually benefit more from armor penetration than they do from attack damage, since their abilities have higher base damages (obviously) than a basic attack in exchange of less scaling (they usually don't reach 100% bonus AD, but even if they do, they can't critically strike and they don't benefit from attack speed). Cooldown reduction is the ability-version of attack speed. The mana restoration passive... I think it should be more clear and intuitive, so I just changed it to 3-6% from 2-8%.
Just comment below what do you think about it.
Brutalizer +
Vampire Scepter + 963g = 3100g