New Crit ADC Build for New Patch

Ifneth·May 2, 2018·1 votes·3,226 views

Looking at the new items, it seems like the new optimal build for a crit ADC who doesn’t build Essence Reaver will be, broken into 1,100-1,300 gold recalls,

+ +

80 bonus AD, 120% Critical Strike Chance, and 100% Attack speed.

Infinity edge will be a huge powerspike, doubling crit chance from 60 to 120, but its extra BF sword will squeeze ADC’s inventories for a long time until they finish it. What do you think, and what do you think the optimal path might be?

11 Comments

Shukr4nMay 2, 20181 votes

i see no variation with average building, except maybe delaying IE

KhristophorosMay 2, 20181 votes

No you should not delay it that much. Keep in mind that you're still trying to balance AD/AS/Crit to get the most optimal DPS for your gold. If you rush 2 Zeal items and your only AD is from BF sword you aren't buying enough AD.

I think the best build paths will go something like this:

If your only accessible targets have high armor: BF -> Zeal -> IE -> Complete 1st Zeal item -> Zeal -> AD item -> Complete 2nd Zeal item

Otherwise: BF -> Complete 1st Zeal item -> IE -> Zeal -> AD item (BT or w/e) -> Complete 2nd Zeal item

But on a lot of carries it will be better to rush Stormrazor first and then go Zeal -> IE -> finish Zeal item -> etc...

IfnethMay 2, 20181 votes

I see your point about getting the Crit and passive but disagree that this path is best.

Remember that Infinity Edge has a new build path

item 1038 +

and grants no AD for finishing it. Two BF Swords offer all the AD you can buy. Also, spending 1,300 gold to double 20% Critical Strike Chance to 40% isn’t gold efficient. Two pairs of Brawler’s Gloves could buy you that much Crit for 800 gold, and the true-damage-on-crit conversion from Infinity Edge isn’t worth 500 gold until you have more crit and face more armor.

KhristophorosMay 2, 20181 votes

I said you'd go Zeal -> IE for when your only safely accessible targets have a lot of armor. Then the true dmg passive makes it worth it.

But if that isn't the case you should still finish IE when you have a full zeal item so that you gain 30% crit by completing IE. That's like getting the 2nd complete Zeal item... think about it man.

IfnethMay 2, 20181 votes

The true damage passive applies only when you critically strike, meaning that you would get it only 60% of the time, and even then to only 20% of your damage. Also, targets generally will not have “a lot” of armor after one item. Sunfire Cape gives only 60 armor, which would bring a tank to 100 armor once we include their base stats. A 200 damage crit would deal 100 damage without Infinity Edge or 110 with it. That’s not much more damage, and you wouldn’t even get it very often. Also, against targets that haven’t built armor, the passive is worth even less. Infinity Edge is good later in the game, once you have enough Critical Strike Chance and enemies have enough armor.

I have thought about it. For 1,300 gold, I could buy an actual Zeal instead of finishing Infinity Edge. I would lose 10% Critical Strike Chance and the true damage passive, but I would gain at least 25% Attack Speed, 5% movement speed, and be almost halfway to an item granting me a passive I could really use, like longer range, damage reduction, multi-target, or chain lightning. Finishing the item would still be better than finishing Infinity Edge.

KhristophorosMay 3, 20181 votes

The break even point between new IE and old IE is around 100 armor just from testing on practice dummies and observing DPS numbers. It is basically the same on live and PBE, and the dummy has 100 armor, which means that's close enough to the break even point to use it as a rough guide for when you want IE.

IfnethMay 3, 20181 votes

There’s more to consider than damage. Zeal also gets you safety through attack speed and movement speed. And once Zeal were done, finishing its item would still be better, since tanks usually buy magic resistance after armor.

KhristophorosMay 3, 20181 votes

You should make that decision in each individual game. If they didn't buy armor then don't buy IE early. You should actually look at enemy items and ask yourself Who are my priority targets? and Who are my most accessible targets? Ok how much armor do each of them have?

And btw I don't think it's generally good to sit on 2x BF swords for the whole game waiting for IE to become efficient. Instead you should actually just start with Stormrazor unless your champ really can't use it.

IfnethMay 3, 20181 votes

While having the most accessible target be heavily armored makes infinity edge a tempting choice, that’s pretty situational once we consider the popularity of top-lane fighters, who build an armor item at most second. Infinity edge would break even only against a tank who started armor and was already frequently frontlining.

Also, we have to remember that Zeal also increases your damage to tanks, just less efficiently. 25% attack speed is 25% raw DPS. 20% Critical Strike Chance is 20% more, and it synergizes with . Raw damage is also much more efficient against anything that doesn’t already have 100 armor.

Outside the situation you described, where maybe your team is behind, you have to win the next teamfight, and your opponents are stacking armor, I think that waiting to finish infinity edge will be best. Stormrazor is for dueling marksmen rather than crit-carries.

My Waifu VanillaMay 2, 20181 votes

That's fine and all.....until you are forced out of lane before 1300g and are actually screwed. At least you could get a pickaxe before or some longswords if you were someone like Xayah/Jhin/Sivir/Ashe since they typically went ER before IE. Now you died at 1200g? You are just shit out of luck since IE has a GOD AWFUL build path while being the only optimal AD item for crit builds which NEED AD to work since backing for parts to a zeal is absolutely terrible with no AD to back it up.

IfnethMay 2, 20181 votes

Well, you could buy a Vampiric Scepter, since Blade of The Ruined King is a quick one-item powerspike and acceptable defensive item; if things turn around, then you could save the Scepter for a later Bloodthirster or Mercurial Scimitar. Though your powerspike will be delayed by 950 gold in the latter case, giving the enemy lane bully another 10 minutes to snowball, it will still be massive. 100% Crit Chance with 20% on-crit True Damage conversion is nothing to sneeze at.