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I am annoyed at how worthless essence reaver is compared to the other 80 ad items...

Insanity 101·3/14/2015, 10:35:36 AM·85 votes·7,864 views

Currently essence reaver is supposed to solve mana problems for certain champions.

The problem is, mana is generally an early-mid game problem. Essence reaver's cost CLEARLY states that it is NOT an early-mid game item. And this just annoys me because essense reaver has potential to add some diversity to the incredibly boring ADC build path.

Even champions who seem to be able to use it have no reason to build it over other items.

Can use it, but he prefers to just rush tear because by the time he gets to grab an ER, mana problems are not that much of a problem anymore.

Can rush it, but most people prefer to rush because its just not as effective.

Talon could use it in the early game, but the problem is HE CAN'T GET IT IN THE EARLY GAME.

And there are plenty of more cases like this.

There used to be something called "soul sickle" on PBE but Riot scrapped it. Why? I don't know. It was a nice item, can we please have it back Rito? My suggestion to make ER viable is:

Soul Sickle Builds out of 2 . Has 25 ad, 10% cdr, and a passive that grants 3%-5% of damage dealt as mana for every autoattack and single target ability.

Essence reaver Builds out of Soul Sickle and .

Has 80 ad, 20% cdr, and a passive that grants 5%-8% of damage dealt as mana for every autoattack and single target ability.

Ok this MAAAY be going overboard but do you guys think essense reaver should be buffed in some way or left as it?

145 Comments

JustMyBassCannon3/14/2015, 2:59:16 PM23 votes

Essence Reaver happened after Riot got tired of the "Rush Chalice, never run out of mana" meta that every mage that didn't have mana ratios played.

That said, an item with 80 AD and 10% CDR is useful, particularly since it has both Lifesteal and Mana Vamp. It's niche, but it's useful. Like Manamune/Muramana, it helps a specific set of champions rather than being a universal tool.

A Miss Fortune3/14/2015, 3:26:47 PM12 votes

I am now an ADC main, and I agree that Essence Reaver is useless after early - mid game. The only person I would ever build it on is Sivir after Infinity Edge.

BastionKross3/14/2015, 2:45:37 PM11 votes

[{quoted}](name=Insanity 101,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=OrcgeX3G,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-03-14T10:35:36.668+0000)

There used to be something called "soul sickle" on PBE but Riot scrapped it. Why? I don't know. It was a nice item, can we please have it back Rito?

One word: Pantheon. Pantheon's early game damage from AD plus mana sustain made him a terror. Jayce was the runner up, but he wasn't quite as big of a problem. Surprisingly, Urgot might be too strong if soul sickle existed as well.

Basically, top lane turned into "Does your champion rush a soul sickle? If no, then you're about to have a crappy time." Rather than balance the handful of champs that would abuse the new item, they just scrapped the item.

lojician3/14/2015, 2:35:10 PM9 votes

"Riot why can't I have ungated early game poke to go along with broken sustain from ranged lifesteal? This is so unfair."

I'd prefer jayce and mana gated adcs not faceroll top lane any harder.

Frost the Reaper3/14/2015, 10:37:51 AM7 votes

I use Essence reaver on Jinx a lot of the time. Why? Cause I should really never be out of Fishbones during team fights, but sadly I usually can only fishbones like 12 - 14 times before I run out of mana / Need to start saving mana for my Ult / Zap / Grenades.

Partholonian3/14/2015, 2:25:08 PM7 votes

I don't think it's really a problem with essence reaver, it's a problem with infinity edge. As long as IE is as powerful as it is, any item or champion that doesn't synergize really well with crit is in a bad place. They should open up more builds, but I think nerfing IE has to be the first step.

Rawrful3/15/2015, 1:10:54 AM5 votes

Yarp. Reaver is only viable on Ezreal when you are going CDR build and have 5% masteries, 15% boots, 10% IBG, 10% Reaver. Then you tack in a LW and another blue item and buy the blue trinket and you have the most color coordinated ADC build.

Desmond Law3/15/2015, 12:42:29 AM4 votes

item 1036 + item 1004 = Soul Sickle

Soul Sickle + item 1038 = Essence Reaver

Thresh Outta Fux3/14/2015, 7:58:51 PM3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Insanity 101,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=OrcgeX3G,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-03-14T10:35:36.668+0000) There used to be something called "soul sickle" on PBE but Riot scrapped it. Why? I don't know. It was a nice item, can we please have it back Rito? My suggestion to make ER viable is:

Soul Sickle Builds out of 2 . Has 25 ad, 10% cdr, and a passive that grants 3%-5% of damage dealt as mana for every autoattack and single target ability.

Essence reaver Builds out of Soul Sickle and .

This is all i want. You dont even have to change any of the stats.

Dreadlocks3/14/2015, 2:21:28 PM3 votes

So to be clear then is this item 3134 + item 1038 = item 3508 ?? (2 item 1036 you say) which to me is a bruitilizer?.. Maybe something like + item 3114 = Soul Sickle, and tweek the passive? Just an idea.

YOU BEEN WARNED3/14/2015, 11:54:24 PM3 votes

imo it's biggest weakeness is it's build path.

It should have a smaller piece that grants the mana vamp passive + slight mana regen:

item 3114 + item 1053 = mana vamp item + item 1037 = item 3508 .

It's AD should be reduced to ~65 AD and give it more mana vamp lategame so the small item doesn't become an AD chalice.

ModKnightsKemplar3/14/2015, 10:36:29 PM2 votes

So... I build essence reaver on Varus . Damage for Q, mana for Q, CDR for Q.

Poke for days.

BallisticMouse3/15/2015, 7:20:18 AM2 votes

item 3508 + item 3042

aaronconlin3/15/2015, 12:55:59 AM2 votes

I think Essence Reaver should include item 3114 somewhere in its build path, and include the mana regen passive in the final build

McAllister3/14/2015, 6:04:00 PM2 votes

Once upon a time (5/8/2012, to be precise), they released an ADC named Varus. He's got a bow, and this cool cursed-with--awesome vibe, and he has some interesting theoretical AP or AS/hybrid build options, but in reality, his build option is "why did you pick Varus? Did you misclick Vayne at the last second?" He actually got a buff in the last patch, but we'll see whether or not the community at large cares.

Anyway, whenever I play Varus, I go for a full-AD build ("Legolas" Varus) to take advantage of the bonkers damage on his Q, but his Q's cost gets up to 90 at rank 5. Since I want to A. have more mana to fire arrows and B. have more CDR to fire arrows, I rush Essence Reaver. It works pretty well. Sure, it'd be nice to have the perks of BT, but the 300 gold is actually relevant at that point, and 10% lifesteal is enough.

I don't know the ER itself should be buffed, but it should build out of something with mana vamp. Of course, the problem with that is that a lot of champions would start the mana vamp component and ignore the rest: perhaps the mana vamp component builds out of Pickaxe and has terrible efficiency, but the combine cost is dirt-cheap for ER, to give an incentive to finish.

A Palmtop Tiger3/14/2015, 10:19:03 PM2 votes

TBH you do not replace item 3004 with item 3508 in an ezreal build. You simply replace your lifesteal item of choice either item 3072 or item 3153 with . Not only is the 10% CD more valuable than a shield for Ezreal who is primarily an AD Caster, the mana regen lets him spam Q for free and helps him regain mana used from item 3042 .

TLDR: Ezreal still has some mana problems by using item 3042 and item 3508 helps with that issue. Additionally 10% CDR isnt a bad stat to trade for a shield + 10% lifesteal on certain champs.

mjack333/14/2015, 9:22:54 PM1 votes

Why ADC no get Essence Reaver:

For a basic reference point, an adc build WITH inifinity edge does 1.5x to 2x more damage over time ON AVERAGE than a build without Infinity Edge at most stages of the game. Reguardless of what item you swap for infinity edge, you are just going to do a stupidly higher amount of damage per second with it than without. Thus, for lack of a better alternative or something even close, this item is irreplaceable. It has gold efficiency akin to a fully stacked mejai's soulstealer as far as we are concerned. That is how good it is.

Our build starts with item 3031 as an adc. Because we have this, taking a phantom dancer or a statikk shiv has stupidly high value. Just irreplaceably high value. You kind of really want to / need to take one of them because that's how good they are with infinity edge already in your build. Let's assume we go with Dancer because it's a better single target item.

Our build now has item 3031 item 3046 . We now need to build item 3035 at some point. So that's 3 item spots already gone. (For the love of heaven never play adc without building Last Whisper. The sheer power coming from this item is irreplaceable). Our boots are going to take a 4th spot, because that's just what boots do. Finally, we want to take a 5th, more defensive item that will let us withstand single champ burst (Guardian's Angel, Banshee's Veil, Mercurial Scimitar, etc).

So by this point in time, we have ONE spot left in our build. One spot left to compete for. And the other competitors are item 3087 or item 3046 (whichever you didn't get), item 3153 , and item 3072 . Reguardless of what you pick, the health shred, double the lifesteal, or the sheer extra damage per second is going to be more useful on an adc. This is why they don't build Essence Reaver (Ezreal almost certainly should not).