Ideas for Thornmail

Hey! I heard you guys are looking for some ideas to make thornmail a bit better. At it's core, thornmail should be a counter to heavy auto attack champions. Of course, if you are a heavy auto attacker such as yi or caitlyn, it sucks if there is an item that tanks could build to counter you hard, with no outplay possible. It's a tough balance, but I think the best way to deal with it is to have a stacking debuff when you hit an enemy with thornmail. much like braums passive.

For example, if you hit someone with thornmail 5 times within 4 seconds of each hit you'll either:

-Take a bunch of burst damage -Get slowed for X seconds -Get stunned briefly (.5 seconds) -Take damage and grievous wounds

You could also just put a stacking debuff on the character, maybe they take an extra 2% damage per stack up to 5 stacks (1% up to 10?). Maybe both, have it stack a bleed (based on damage done or armor or something), and at 5 stacks it bursts the bleed and does all the remaining damage.

You could also have it the other way around. Put a stacking buff on the tank with the thornmail. After they get hit X times, a ring of blades explodes from them, dealing damage and causing grievous wounds for X seconds. Or maybe slowing all enemies, or cause a debuff that increases the damage enemies take.

All in all, thornmail should be a counter to heavy auto attackers, but it should also be a fairly offensive item. Remember, you are getting 0 tankiness vs mages with this item. At least randuins has health, so it's increasing your tankiness in general as well as countering something specific. You shouldn't be building it every game, but much like the adaptive helm, it should be saved for certain matchups.

Having a stacking debuff also means as an auto attack heavy champ you can outplay it by not focusing too much fire on one target. You can still help kill that tanky rammus with a couple autos, but you can't just spam his face or you'll suffer the consequences.

I hope this at least puts some ideas out there! All feedback is welcome!