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Why Duskblade Is The Most Broken Item In The Game

ZILLAGULA··129 votes·7,317 views

No, this is not another assassin nerf post. It's not about the damage duskblade provides.

What makes duskblade INCREDIBLY broken is the "Nightstalker" passive. No, it's not the damage portion.

The thing is, at the bottom of your screen (above your abilities) when you have duskblade you can see if Nightstalker is up. Let me quote the passive: "After being unseen for at least 1 second, your next basic attack against an enemy champion deals x"

I know alot of people don't know about this, but I've abused it for a while. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'll tell you exactly what's wrong. This passive allows you to go in a bush and you will ALWAYS be able to tell if its warded or not.

If the bush isn't warded, the Nightstalker passive duskblade provides will be at the bottom as per usual.

if it IS warded however, your passive will start fading away. You may not be able to break the ward like you can with the "Blackout" passive, but this means it becomes WAY easier setting up ambushes. You will know where the enemy team has warded the entire game after buying this item.

And yes, this passive is broken. Vision is incredibly powerful but duskblade negates that. Assassins that knows about this interaction are always safe standing in any bush as they can see their Nightstalker passive being up.

72 Comments

flibitydoo100 votes

item 2421 I thought the broken stopwatch was the most broken item because it is the only broken item

It Hertz When IP35 votes

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/000/681/what-you-did-there-i-see-it.thumbnail.jpg

Dr Poro9 votes

Riven Pre6.

Velzard of Koz6 votes

I mean also after 6. Her ult still has it broken, just all three pieces floating. Unless I'm blind.

Kosm1K4 votes

Some of the skins make it look whole, dragonblade in particular

Sirsir3 votes

Arcade has a full, smooth blade

formula5672 votes

lol yup it is the most 'broken' itemitem 2421

Troll for Trump49 votes

"assassin mains hate him!"

Tails901615 votes

"ADC mains love him!"

LordGeovanni2 votes

He is... the most truth busting man on the boards.

TeCoolMage5 votes

"Never be caught in a warded bush again with this one simple trick!"

Troll for Trump1 votes

"What? You thought three wards were too many?"

Alkis923 votes

SHHHHHHhhhhhh, don't let riot know....

Dog of Pavlov2 votes

RIGHT?? I've been using this because I thought I was one of the few clever enough to realize.. but nevermind hahaha

iLBGAMing8 votes

I thought item 3056 was...

LordGeovanni1 votes

100 hp and 10 armor and id love it on fighters and tanks. Would that really be an overpowered Thing.

Fedoran7 votes

Stop giving away our secrets!

Daunt6 votes

Alongside giving all the stats an assassin could want. They just need to remove the item completely and actually balance assassins properly. Same goes with Gunblade.

Ęsdeath1 votes

Seriously? You are trying to say that Gunblade is in the same spot as Duskblade? If Gunblade needs to be nerfed/removed then most of the items (for other classes) also need to go away.

Duskblade deals 65 -320 and 45 - 300 in 1 second intervals (considering you are hidden and it is easily abused by adcs, MF is an exame) while Hextech Gunblade deals 175 - 253 (+30% AP) in 40 seconds intervals (with Luden's it gets increased a bit more; although, luden's get procced by almost anything).

Truth is, the problem is not Duskblade alone (although early game it does its job pretty freaking well), it is its junction with other lethality items that makes it broken because they all bring your armor down to 0 in the blink of an eye and after that you will surely "consume" the full damage of its passive. Not to mention that Gunblade is equally broken to Duskblade ONLY when you are ahead, and Duskblade is broken even if you are behind (not tooooo behind of course, and even then ...).

While with Gunblade, you not only have to wait (although I agree its cooldown should be a bit bigger ... 60-40 seconds (per level) seems fine) to deal damage as it does not provide you any magic penetration whatsoever (to allow its passive to reach its full potential). Its healing, however, is ... meh, Akali is currently the only champ you can actually abuse this massively (although her passive is the thing that helps with this) - Death's Dance healing is way worse (because of the lethality + crit).

All in all I think Hextech is pretty good, and duskblade is genuinely 10 times worse, although Gunblade deals more damage than Duskblade around 156 AP, it still is not constantly getting activated (then we have the vision part). For instance, I managed to proc Duskblade 4 times in a row ... please ...

Daunt1 votes

Seriously? You are trying to say that Gunblade is in the same spot as Duskblade? If Gunblade needs to be nerfed/removed then most of the items (for other classes) also need to go away.

Both of them are cancerous items with horrendous designs that for some reason have a chunk of burst damage attached to them. The first step in properly balancing assassins would be to remove items like that for some that actually offer a niche like movement speed from Yomuu's for example. Other items don't have to go away nor be nerfed, some assassins would simply get tweaked. Also, they are generally too good when compared to other items so they simply MUST be built every game. Woo, so many itemization choices.

Truth is, the problem is not Duskblade alone (although early game it does its job pretty freaking well), it is its junction with other lethality items that makes it broken because they all bring your armor down to 0 in the blink of an eye and after that you will surely "consume" the full damage of its passive. Not to mention that Gunblade is equally broken to Duskblade ONLY when you are ahead, and Duskblade is broken even if you are behind (not tooooo behind of course, and even then ...).

...what? The whole point of Duskblade is the fact that it's so stupidly OP on its own. Other lethality items have nothing to do with it and are actually pretty balanced when you look at them. Duskablade gives all the stats that an assassin could wish for alongside having overloaded passives tied to it. First thing that needs to happen is the removal of CDR on it and the removal of the stupid slow that melees still have for some reason.

While with Gunblade, you not only have to wait (although I agree its cooldown should be a bit bigger ... 60-40 seconds (per level) seems fine) to deal damage as it does not provide you any magic penetration whatsoever (to allow its passive to reach its full potential). Its healing, however, is ... meh, Akali is currently the only champ you can actually abuse this massively (although her passive is the thing that helps with this) - Death's Dance healing is way worse (because of the lethality + crit).

Honestly, you have no idea what you're talking about. Why are you even mentioning magic pen on that item? Gunblade is the same thing as Duskblade. Really good stats alongside overloaded passives. It has an incredibly stupid chunk of burst damage that also applies a slow and it becomes impossible for someone to escape the assassin that's approaching them (which is sorta like the slow on the duskblade as well). The sustain only makes it even less interactive since you have unnecessary healing on champions that shouldn't get so much sustain. Try pairing Gunblade with the new rune, Ravenous Hunter, as see how "meh" the sustain from it is. Also, any champion that takes Gunblade benefits a lot from the sustain, not just Akali.

You should put aside your biased opinion as a Katarina main for a minute and acknowledge the fact that because of these items assassins will never be balanced.

Ęsdeath1 votes

Other lethality items have nothing to do with it

You genuinely claim that getting more lethality (and more damage) is entirely irrelevant towards the damage that duskblade offers - But I guess for you it has no usage whatsoever ... lel?

Honestly, you have no idea what you're talking about. Why are you even mentioning magic pen on that item?

I am saying that unlike Duskblade, Gunblade does not have magic pen to "support" the damage from its active - You know? Magic Resist also affects the overall damage from gunblade's active - But I guess that's also irrelevant to you (just like the lethality from other lethality items supporting duskblade's passive).

You should put aside your biased opinion as a Katarina main for a minute and acknowledge the fact that because of these items assassins will never be balanced.

What? I never mentioned Katarina a single time, I was talking from my perspective bro, I guess you like to ass-pull arguments over here - I guess I am not even going to bother answering the next response since I must agree with you otherwise I am defending "my main". lel?

The Space Cowboy6 votes

Agreed although now they can just make the passive invisible to the player to fix that hack. I also don’t think an item should be able to do 33% of a squishy persons hp but that’s off topic

Emerald Fang2 votes

Yeah I think the damage is also an issue, as well as the hidden ward detection

YuGiHo5 votes

Right, no we just need an ap version with the same passive and then everything will be right in the world

DuskDaUmbreon46 votes

No. Giving out broken things to everyone isn't a solution.

Giving out AP versions of broken AD items is not an answer.

Mokuto Bunshi5 votes

Iv'e known this for quite some time, thing is, I don't play assassins so I never really make use of it. For those who do, this is a OVER POWERED tool.

LordGeovanni1 votes

it was overpowered and used for the same thing before it decayed it just was afte the assassin when in and was running back out.

IdveYsUfSK3 votes

its is an incredibly unhealthy item that is way too cheap. super strong burst along with a passive that tells you if that area is warded or not. you generally can snowball out of control and close the game if you get it early before the enemy can get their core item.

PrinceOfStorms2 votes

Or maybe put Nightstalker on a shared CD with blackout.

MagikarpIsBoss16 votes

Then it would be useless

rtbf761092712 votes

I've always thought that the damage passive shouldnt work while you don't have the nightstalker passive going, and the item should be re-balanced around that

Zed genius2 votes

But being unseen is part of being an assassin. Now you could argue that AP ones don't have a duskblade counterpart, but were it to be implemented it would break the game more

ApexInTheCircle2 votes

I play alot of wukong mid and top, Duskblade is usually the first item I get since it's damage passive mixed with wukong's W makes for a very nice chunk of free damage. That being said, I agree that this is a glitch and needs to be fixed.

Seenan2 votes

Imo, I think it should have been halved for Ranged. Why it's only something like -20 damage from melee to ranged is beyond me. You Vayne ult and Q, you're heading towards 1000+ damage late game, esp if the crit procs, assuming she buys it.

GrReaper961 votes

Ezreal jug breaks this item btw

SithesisLord2 votes

'Member when Duskblade had that passive, but it scaled off of 200% Lethality, was an actual assassin item and was perfectly balanced?

Riot sure doesn´t, because apparently they think current Duskblade is better.

Yosuke Apperu1 votes

Khazix has a passive that's kind of similar, it can be abused in similar ways.

Dengeden1 votes

So what? You still gimped your team by making armor incredibly efficient to itemize and by going for poor waveclear.

z63XnLCMwX1 votes

Incorrect. item 1001 literally almost every champion buys this item.

Shaydrox1 votes

Tbh I would be sorta fine with it if the item didn't give that 320 bonus damage on an autoattack. As a Talon main it feels stupid killing someone even halfway through my combo since I get so much extra free damage for doing so little.....before Duskblade he felt a lot more interesting tbh (this goes for pretty much all ad assassins)

Spoofghoul1 votes

i thought it was Sion leg

Lit Corn1 votes

yeah i totally abuse that tho , i otp zed and ya know you can roam far more easily with that , you know if ennemy has vision or not literally every time even when the passive that disactivates wards is not up ... you get a youmu for the move speed with that and not only you will destroy your ennemy 1v1 ( post level 6 i know few champs that beat zed in a straight up 1v1 in midlane matchup ) and then you push lane insanely fast with one W combo and ... roam again , so you snowball over and over abusing small things adding up together and ... i mean in over 75 game now my win rate is above 65 % and since preseason i played like 10 games and didnt drop a single one because the snowball increases even more in the current meta , not forgeting stopwatch still dropped his bann rate while beeing usable only once and not giving any bonus stats ( also pretty easy to wait he gets out and burst the guy anyway ) so i recommend you to abuse him in solo Q . You can do that too with talon , he has lot of kill potential in lane and is definetly one of the best roamers , tho zed is more versatile so a safer pick imo . But yeah anyway , duskblade really op , insane bonus dmges really early on , no cd but just ennemy has no vision , and you can know 100 % of the time if ennemy has vision or not where you are . And even the moments when they do you just disactivates the wards . You can get so many catches that way ...

Il Conte Eiacula1 votes

I think they have to change the passive from "after being unseen" to "after using stealth or camouflage" to reduce the list of champions that can abuse the item, also, they should get rid of the ward revealing passive, if someone wants to spot a ward, he has to buy the red trinket, or a control ward.

O Fallen Scholar1 votes

dude u cry about marksmen then u cry about this? what's there not to cry about?

4th3t0s3 votes

It's essentially a permanently active item 3341, without the ability to clear the ward

Namitu1 votes

you probably play adcs like you can build deaths dance tabi and ga sit beside your support and they cant do anything

if anything they need to nerf fucking tanks, ezreal and every other adc that is broken, supports item costs, and the game would be greatitem 3812 item 3047 item 3026 item 3156 item 3046 item 3371

LordGeovanni1 votes

its both the damage and what it can be used for

junglerboy161 votes

Yeah this is true, even before they changed how it worked and it only had a crappy damage proc I used it for the vision protection.

You can do the exact same thing with khazix, except unlike duskblade his passive doesn't go away after re-entering vision, which makes duskblade way more powerful in that respect.

Pierce The Veal1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Tejs Forfang,realm=EUNE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=dQRWUbW7,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-11-24T18:12:30.940+0000)

No, this is not another assassin nerf post. It's not about the damage duskblade provides.

What makes duskblade INCREDIBLY broken is the "Nightstalker" passive. No, it's not the damage portion.

The thing is, at the bottom of your screen (above your abilities) when you have duskblade you can see if Nightstalker is up. Let me quote the passive: "After being unseen for at least 1 second, your next basic attack against an enemy champion deals x"

I know alot of people don't know about this, but I've abused it for a while. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'll tell you exactly what's wrong. This passive allows you to go in a bush and you will ALWAYS be able to tell if its warded or not.

If the bush isn't warded, the Nightstalker passive duskblade provides will be at the bottom as per usual.

if it IS warded however, your passive will start fading away. You may not be able to break the ward like you can with the "Blackout" passive, but this means it becomes WAY easier setting up ambushes. You will know where the enemy team has warded the entire game after buying this item.

And yes, this passive is broken. Vision is incredibly powerful but duskblade negates that. Assassins that knows about this interaction are always safe standing in any bush as they can see their Nightstalker passive being up.

Also works with kha'zix passive so there's that. He's been able to do that for a while.

SociopathFriend1 votes

There's a few tricks like that in League, Kat's ult is one of them as IIRC it lights up whether you see the opponent or not.

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