Why I hate the new Essence Reaver even though it looks awesome

As I look on the new stats of the item, I like having an item with those stats in the game. That part looks cool. However I hate the new essence reaver mainly because it isn't what most people wanted. Most people wanted something like added to the build path and leaving it mostly the same. It was an item that allowed me to restore mana and health as I AAed and gave me a little CDR. I liked it on both ADCs and a few bruisers. The final stats weren't the big deal (even if BT overshined it some), the problem was getting the item finished when you needed mana. You couldn't rush it on most ADCs and even if you did, by the time you were finished, mana wasn't typically an issue.

I mean I'm looking at the stats now and 65AD, 20% crit, and up to 30% cdr is pretty good, I'll admit. However, riot linked the mana to critical strikes and then they dropped the health sustain so this is a completely different item. A lot of people didn't want something completely different for this item. I can't remember anyone telling riot that ER had to be the must buy item for all ADCs.

Even though the new version is better overall even without the passive, it's stuff like this that makes me wonder what's really going on at riot and how much the teams are paying attention to things and how much they are living in fantasy land.

Also, let's be honest about the new version: it doesn't fix the chief complaint of the old one. I'm still getting my mana way too late for the mana part to be a big draw for most champs. So riot ignored the big problem and then they tacked on Crit to encourage people to buy it sooner. Well guess what? In terms of raw damage output, I see IE still being the preferable choice as a first item because bigger crits are better than 10% cdr on most ADCs. Because you don't get the big boost to CDR until you get another crit item and because you don't get your mana earlier to encourage you to buy ER first, I still see IE as being the go-to item for many ADCs. ER feels like a follow up item, but then it's got another problem: ADCs are probably going to want either a zeal item or a sustain item after their IE.

I think that's the fatal flaw of this newer, probably better version of ER. Yes it pushes IE for a slot, but it doesn't give me what I need (sustain) when I need it (early when mana is a bigger problem) which is exactly the same probably as the current version. Let's be honest, you are only going to think about ER for either the mana or CDR. You don't get mana until you've completed the item (and the amount you get will be low, slow, and irregular). Also you don't get the CDR until you've got more crit from another item. I think these things are going to compound to push this item into getting bought later than riot is hoping it would because the core issue is still around: wrong build path.

So if I don't need to rush this item first over an IE on most ADCs, when do I get it? Zeal/sustain comes next. Then comes the other. Don't forget boots. You need armor pen as well. The game is probably going to be over before you need this. If the game lasts to you getting six items, I don't think buying an ER is going to be your biggest issue as a player.

Well what about ranged casters then? Well Ez and urgot are still probably rushing manamune first. I don't play either, do they need a second mana item? Others might get a TF first. Now I could see the new TF into a new ER but I don't see a lot of ADCs going that route. So we are still left where we were before: this is a niche item. I think it'll be great on corki, but that's about it.

And therein lies the problem, it's a radical change but in the end I think it's still the same in terms of being pushed out by other items on your traditional ADC kit.