Sunfire cape vs black cleaver?

Mattanderson13·11/29/2016, 2:20:33 AM·2 votes·1,042 views

Ok i'll make this simple, i main tanks in either the jg or the top lane and sometimes supp if i get stuck with it. I normally play rammus, malphite and most often sion which is my main. my build is in this order

sunfire cape boots of swiftness dead mans plate thornmail randiuns omen spirit visage.

i normally do quite well, able to tank the whole enemy team and dish out decent enough damage to 1v1 most champs. I have seen most people in top get the black cleaver as their first item and i always thought sunfire was better for the armor and the passive damage aura.

am i just a noob who doesn't understand the value of black cleaver or is it better to stick with what i've been using?

3 Comments

ValyrianBlade11/29/2016, 2:32:08 AM1 votes

Most people playing the same champions or different champions?

I rush black cleaver in about 90% of my top lane matches as J4. That's the difference though - I'm a fighter who needs some damage on top of tackiness, synergizes well with the amor reduction, and benefits greatly from the CDR. Add in that I'm contributing to the whole team getting through your 350+ amor build, it's an excellent first item.

On Sion/Rammus/Malphite and many others though, Black Cleaver would be a terrible first buy. They're not auto attackers so they can't apply the stacks. They don't need the phage passive to stick to targets. They benefit from CDR but are better off getting it from a frozen heart or something (you may want to fit frozen heart in to that build for Rammus or Sion, and an Iceborn Gauntlet for Malphite, if you find you'd benefit from having some CDR).

When you're capable of forcing an enemy to stand beside you for 10+ seconds and are naturally tanks enough to survive 2+ carries targeting you for that long, going full tank like that is definitely a good build. Sunfire does surprisingly large amounts of AOE damage in team fights if the enemy team isn't focussed on peeling away from you.