Licbane: the return of the now lesser seen item.

bear with me, this thread is a bit lengthy. Sorry no TL DR for now. I will cover both lich bane and its potential new sidekick Rageblade. (Much like botrk & trinity force are best of pals). There's a world of possibilities that open up if lich bane could life steal.

First let me quickly jot down the lich bane modification I have in mind:

Auto attack after spell cast (sheen/spellblade proc) does 100% base ad + 25 ap as magic damage.

Now here comes the kicker: the portion of the damage that scales with your ad can life steal despite being magic damage. Similar to nidalee's q. in other words as much as from ice born gauntlet. I'm increasing the item's base ap up to 100 (from 80). that way it works nicely on both champions who don't use lifesteal but wish to get more out of their deathcap giving their spells more dmg. and thanks to the lifesteal it doubles as a good way to give hybrid bruiser champions who lean more on the ap side a way to benefit from it.

Think fizz for example. Fizz will keep his identity as an ap champion first with a side of ad. As opposed to suddenly becoming an ad champion with a side of ap. I think fizz is a good example of the current state of lichbane and rageblade's iniability to meet these's champions demands to match that of the botrk/tf combo.

What I find nice about this is lichbane will now be better as a standalone item much like trinity force is. Since it doesn't so much rely on having other ap items to be as affective.

As such the three sheen items would share more in common than before but their variations will still lean in favor of certain champions. On some champions they would become more or less interchangeable as is the current case with iceborn gauntlet and trinitfy force. But for the most part the optimum build for each champion will stay the same. And as is the current case with IBG & TF, will be more situational.

• Now onto Rageblade's: This change to LB would coincide nicely with a buff to Rageblade (this item has long awaited its turn to shine as its been completely eclipsed by botrk).

I covered this pretty extensively in my post here: Essentially... First change would be to remove surge's cooldown. When below 50% health passive (surge) is always up. If above 50% health surge can only stay up if you hit a target within 3 seconds. This makes it more reliable. Its cost/price point will be a bit higher to account for these buffs of course. Looking at around 3050 gold total. Second: Give its spell vamp portion 20% this can be in two form. Either in the current format and only come up along with surge. Or by giving 10% spellvamp and 5% lifesteal upfront with the rest when surge is triggered.

The flat sustain would be enough to sustain during laning phase. Also Great for jungling often all you need is 5% lifesteal to sustain the jungle. And with surge your sustain will remain consistent despite getting debuffed by morellonomicon. ***** see footnotes regarding whether 20%spellvamp is overpowered.

• Implications/Applications Like I said the possibilities are endless Lets look at a few examples: only scratch the surface

*Diana: Gunblade wits end lich bane could become core on diana Even though she does not scale with ad the investment in additional ad through gunblade is minimal/majority of the item is geared for ap champions. and it still scale with her passive's attack speed boost. As well as from wits end's attack speed buff. Diana top anyone?

*Kassadin: Timely with the new changes to kass and morde. Remember kassadin can spellvamp 100% off his nether blade. Now that his ult range was nerfed, he may require him to become a bit more durable and benefit from spellvamp. This would combine nicely with lichbane.

*Akali: I think rageblade would become the new defacto item for her. And as such might benefit more from trinityt force. Rageblade, tf, rylais, could be core, likely followed by zhonias and spirit visage. Sorc boots.

*Shyvana: (in shyvana's case mostly just benefits from rageblade) WitsEnd Rageblade and Frozen Mallet rest tank.

*Imagine nasus and udyr being able to benefit from souleater/turtle stance's lifesteal with lichbane. Phoenixdyr would be nice. And Nasus scales nicely with Ap. On shen rageblade/lichbane might also be worth while. Anyways the list goes on. Think fizz, poppy, evelyn, mordekaiser... In fact I covered most champions here:

*****more on whether 20%spell is op. I think rageblade should take on the form of a dedicated sustain item, since item slots are too significant such that getting two life steal items can be detrimental to your overall build. Especially in this case since you want to be tanky enough that below 50% you wont get bursted (thank god for the removal of dfg). If this ends up being too strong in PBE. I would suggest making the 20% spellvamp portion a unique passive that cannot stack with other lifesteal items. Similar to bloodthirsters not being stackable. So its more a question of which sustain item should you pick for your needs. Either gunblade or rageblade but not both.

I posted this on reedit too:https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/2x5pl6/lichbane_the_return_of_the_now_lesser_seen_item/