Sanguine Blade review and suggestion

The new item, Sanguine Blade, seems... bad? Currently the best users of it would be AD junglers, and AD assassins - and both of them would need a strong reason to build it. The item is very cost inefficient, to the point that the passive has to be active to be efficient. It's biggest competitors are Blade of the Ruined King and Bloodthirster and I do not know why I would pick Sanguine Blade over them. The conditional passive seems like it is a "Noob Trap" item. I feel like the item, even as designed for assassins, is bad for assassins. Although, specific AD junglers do really well with it, Trundle, Nocturne, Shaco, Lee Sin use it very well. This makes it a niche item at best, which is ok, but does league really need another Sword of the Divine, Frozen Heart, or Atma's Impaler? Besides that, the item itself promotes having poor vision, the item is MORE likely to work when you don't have wards! To a lesser extent it also punishes people whom use this item with champions that provide true sight, champions like Twisted Fate, Caitlyn, and Zyra are counter-productive to sanguine blade. This item has the makings of an item that is either gonna be Overpowered or Overwhelmingly mediocre.

Having said all this, I like the idea of the item, but I suggest a change. I'll state the current stats and effect for people looking at this in the future. This is what the item was at the time of writing this: Stats: +50 attack damage, +15% life steal Passives: Unique: +10 Lethality (6.22 − 10 (based on level) armor penetration) Unique – Blood Pursuit: While near one or fewer visible enemy champions gain 8 lethality and 20% − 80% (based on level) bonus attack speed, decaying over 3 seconds if other enemy champions get too close.

My suggestion is the following: Stats: +50 attack damage, +15% life steal Passives: Unique: +10 Lethality (6.22 − 10 (based on level) armor penetration) Unique – Blood Pursuit: While dealing damage to an enemy champion that can't see an allied champion apply a damage-over-time effect for 3 seconds that deals a total of 10-30% of their missing health (based on level) as bonus physical damage, which is removed when they are near and can see 1 or more allied champions.

Note: The 10-30% missing health physical damage can be tuned to make it balanced, if it isn't already. The number of enemies the enemy sees could be made to 1, (along with removal going up to 2) so the effect happens when they take damage in a 1v1 fight, making it viable on most champions that likes duels.

it's a bit complicated so let me give an example. Zed goes in and death mark's an enemy. Zed then teleports back to one of his shadow clones, leaving the target all alone without being able to see an enemy. Then his death mark pops, dealing damage to an enemy champion that can't see an allied champion. This applies the Damage over time effect, hopefully finishing them off.

My suggestion makes the Sanguine Blade promote good vision, allowing the enemy to remove the buff from over a wall if you get close enough to the wall and can see an enemy on the other side of it. It also allows many champions use it as an option, still keeping the focus on AD assassins and ADCs.

So champions that could use this item effectively increases to: Champions that: Can apply nearsightedness (nocturne, graves, quinn) Can damage enemies from the fog of war (World ultimates or long skill shots, Ezreal, Jinx, Varus, Kai'sa, Corki, Jayce, Miss Fortune, Urgot, Gangplank, Illaoi, Jhin) Can escape and deal damage to an enemy (Zed, Lee sin, Wukong, Tryndamere, Lucian, Ezreal, Nautilus, Shyvana) Can remove them selves from vision: Stealth, Camouflage, or some cases of Vanish (Twitch, Shaco, Master Yi, Wukong, Rengar, Teemo, Akali, Qiyana, Vayne, Kha'Zix) Can deal damage to an enemy in a bush, while the champion is in a bush, without revealing themselves (Any AD champion with a Skill Shot: Dr. Mundo, Ezreal, Caitlyn, Sion, etc.) Can deal damage via a trap (Teemo, Nidalee, Shaco, Jhin) Can deal damage over time (Darius, Talon, Trundle, Twitch, Udyr, Teemo, Gangplank, Nautilus, Shyvana) Can deal damage after death besides using a method not already listed (Kog'Maw)

Damage over time might be an issue and should perhaps not work with the effect. Ignite should definitely not work with it from the start, but other DoTs would continuously apply the burn, and that might still be an issue. Darius' DoT last 5 seconds, and Twitch's lasts 6 seconds, that means at level 18 twitch will deal 90% of their missing health as bonus physical damage over a period of 9 seconds. My suggestion would be similar to how Liandry's Torment effects AP champions. The best user of liandry's passive 4 second dot (Malzahar, Teemo, and Nidalee), can deal up to 17.5% of target's maximum health. It's definitely plausible to make it so sanguine blade only applies the burn on the last tick of damage that the dot deals.

What do you guys think? suggestions? improvements? maybe i gave you an idea for an even better effect, share it! :P