Why is Liandry never as popular of Ruined King?

BotRK is a massive Multi tool nightmare. Liandry's is a Tank shreding item that doesn't scale well. While Blade of the Ruin King scales Scarily well with Attack speed. BotRK also grant's life steal which make's it a really good dueling item. And it has a slow active on top of that, that make it hard to escape the enemy. Basically everything You could possibly want for an ADC or AS bruiser.

The only champs that can make good use of Liandry's (with or without a slow) I would argue, is actually DoT effects. Since those DoT effect will refresh it's timer. allowing them do shred a lot of damage in a fire and forget style. (for example, Teemo shrooms)

Because the only limit on BotRK's health shredding is attack speed, while Liandry's doesn't stack or improve by your own stats and requires time. Something like Evelynn's Q or Cass's E would destroy just like a Vayne with BotRK if Liandry's did X% each spell instead of a slow non-stacking burn.

because ad champions are op as fuck

Imagine if they changed Botrk % dmg into a dot. evil grin

Liandry's just isn't compatible with burst mages. BOTRK works as long as you're attacking but Liandry's requires a hit and run playstyle, otherwise you don't make use of it. Most mages want to delete a target in about a second so unless you're playing someone who likes to poke but not really all-in, Liandry's isn't great.

Also, the requirement for its target to be movement-impaired for it to deal the full damage is very limiting, requiring a lot of mages to combo it with Rylai's for it to really work out. It's just an incredibly niche item that only really works on mages who are DOT-centric and can easily and consistently apply crowd control. BOTRK is infinitely better because it gives you everything you could possibly want on an AD item outside of crit chance and to top it off there's no conditions whatsoever on it. You just attack and it works.

Liandry's isn't bad but it's niche. Blade of the Ruined King is broken as hell.

Blade of the ruined king's % health is instant every hit, liandrys is a lower percent over time on spell casts, meaning you need to have someone who isnt a burst mage to utilize the full use of the shred, but who isnt a dps mage that uses a lot of spells super quickly which would waste a lot of the liandry proc

Because A) it's stats used to be extremely underwhelming; 50 AP for a 2900 gold item wasn't worth the upgrade from haunting guise in most cases, and other items increased a mages effective life (Zhonyas, Abyssal) or damage (Luden's, Void Staff, Deathcap, any 80 AP item). B) It's %current health is lower (6% to Ruined King's 8%), it's % current health is over time (over 3 seconds to Ruined's instant, and doing more damage just refreshes it), and it's %current health weakens itself before its even finished (due to the burn, it does 2% current health, 1.96%, and 1.92%. Not a large drop, but noticeable).

While Liandrys was sometimes bought, it was requied that your champion also buy Rylai's (so the slow would make Liandry's burn better) or have perma slows in their kit.

On another note, Ruined King is also a much higher tier item and provides %current health on hit, a %max hp and movement speed steal active, and great AS + decent lifesteal making it great as either a marksmen item (Vayne, Kog'Maw) or a stand alone damage item (Shyvana, Warwick, Shen, Jax, etc.).

BotRK is a very strong item even without the %hp damage. 40% AS and 40AD isn't weak. On top of the active and decent lifesteal. The %hp damage is very nice as well. BT holds it's ground vs it because of the shield, higher sustain and AD for AD casters. BotRk might be the stronger basic item item, but a Graves will want the higher AD for his abilities.

Liandry's doesn't have this effiency with other items. It's not something you can just sub into your normal set. You have to take something out to fit it in unless your someone like Brand who builds it almost every game.

To me that's always my first though when building Liandry's. "What can I take out to get it?" Or "What can I build later so I can get this sooner?"

Liandry's is a niche item in almost every case. BotRK is a common item that can fill a niche roll if needed.

Not that I find this a bad thing in general. Just because two items fill the same roll on two different play styles doesn't mean they have to also be the same rarity.

Because burst mages don't need DOT where as most ADC's are made for sustain damage (which BORTK provides). ADC's are also more likely to have to deal with tanks and bortk helps with that.

because botrk offers a complete packet of ad, as, lifesteal and the %chealth dmg and adds a broken active on-top, while liandries adds a strange combo of flatpen (good vs squsies) and a mediocre dot vs tanks...so with botrk you get an instant powerspike that scales very well, while with liandries you mostly enhance your poke a little and that´s it.

Because the item is a touch awkward except on certain champs like Cass or Rumble and such that have poison and burn already.

It has too much health (not that hp is bad) and not enough ap, which puts it in an awkward place for the basic Ziggs type mage, and it isn't cheap for any of what it does.

its a really good item at the moment. I go it as second item on lots of mages like oriana, velkoz, lux, brand,

i love: on squishy and rather good base damage mages

liandry's won't work on burst mages, but some dot mages get it (teemo, amumu, brand, fizz). on the other hand, botrk is great on every adc.

I tend to like the combo on Jng Nidalee since she gets her mana sustain from ruinglaive and the HP makes her more of an AP bruiser, which tends to fit better into the team comp as a jngler. With making your spear apply a slow means that if you catch a lone enemy and hit them with a spear, you're pretty much guaranteed a kill or assist; likewise, it allows you to pick off a weakened enemy from a group. also works well with her poke and run tactics during a siege or for team fights. Finally, if push comes to shove and you need to fill a tank\support role building locket\banner\abyssal and frozen heart really round out her build while allowing you to still provide decent poke and a heal+AS buff

would be able to use ?

From what i can see, Botrk not only gives you added sustain but shreds more for AD then liadrys does for AP. In order for it to become more popular for ap it would have to be similar. Even if the effects were doubled it still wouldn't be as popular as botrk.

cause liandriels is a far more niche item. For BotrK, the only question you ask your self: 'do i want all and everything?' if yes, take it. It gives ad, As, lifesteal, a really powerfull on-hit that uses lifesteal, and a very strong active. As soon as your primary damage source are AAs, BotrK is a strong item for you giving you all you ever want.

Liandry'S however, does only give ap, flat pen and the dot. The problem: most champions that want flat pen and ap usually are very burst-centered, just that if you open the fight by bursting the enemy for 50%+ of his health, the current health damage suddenly is pretty bad.

Liandry's is either for dot-tanks that slowly burn down their enemies like Amumu, and on spammy pokemages that want to slowly wear enemies down from fullhealth to ~50% befor a fight starts. Just that champs like amumu would prefer more tank stats on it, and pokechamps usually don't make to much use out off flat pen, as their poke mostly gets bodyblocked by the fronline, so %pen is a higher priority.

Blade of the runed king has an amazing active. Liandrys doesn't. Also bork passive does a bit more damage and has a minimum value while liandrys does not. Liandry's is actually strong right now after the buff, but bork does way more as a 1 item wonder and having a slow + ms boost + 15% hp dmg active plus providing sustain is worth way more than the 200 gold difference

meanwhile