Guinsoo's Rageblade?

Penta Penguin··2 votes·463 views

Reading another thread, I started thinking about this item and hybrid characters, and who might want to build this. I would like to talk about this item and if it's viable, and where it fits in a build.

Hextech Gunblade seems to really heavily out-class this item. Champions that could build Guinsoo will probably think about Hextech first. The only plus that Guinsoo's has on this is attack speed, but still requires you to stack it up 8 times, and/or be at a life deficit.

It has less AD than Hextech, less AP than Hextech even AFTER stacking to 8. It offers LESS Spellvamp than Hextech even though it's heavily conditional, needing to be under 50% HP. I'm not sure if this item fares better for Lifestealing due to the less AD but more (potential) Attack Speed.

And finally, Hextech seals the deal with an active ability that not only adds an extra scaling nuke, but offers a fucking slow for utility.

Champions building Hextech aren't going to want to also build the Guinsoo's. Doubling up on all of these stats like this doesn't seem worth it. You have 4 slots left and 3 of them are probably going to be a 120 AP item, Void Staff, Survivability. And then, why not put +120 more AP in the 4th slot, or an item that more favorably provides survivability?

So this item is very niche, a weaker Gunblade for champions who would like attack-speed, and have a pattern of play that gives them the time to stack it up. So who's gonna buy it?

1) Diana?

She's kind of like Akali, but works a bit differently. She gets large bursts of AP damage every 3 attacks, and will want to proc this as much as possible. With a Knockback and Slow, she has gripping power and doesn't need Hextech's active slow. With a Shield, she has battle sustain that makes every point of HP and resistances worth more and gives her a better chance of sticking in a fight below 50% HP, or making up for the loss of up-front health steal.

However, because she's a mana user and has important cooldowns (long range poke that also resets her Ulti, crowd control E), new item choices open up to her like Lich Bane, Nashor's and Morello's, that Akali wouldn't fully benefit from or care about. Lichbane adds more power to your attack-attack, making up for the need to proc your passive faster and Rageblade's AD. Lichbane (again) offers MORE AP than the fully-stacked Rageblade... AND MORE MOVEMENT SPEED FOR UTILITY. So now your only plus is some health steal that will only maybe benefit you in duels, or if you have free reign in a team-fight (lol).

My Verdict: No

2) Evelynn?

Her Ulti wants her to start the fights to get rid of 15 / 20 / 25% HP off the bat, and then proceed to tear up enemies with E and spamming Q. Having maximum AP right at the start isn't as important, because you're dealing %HP damage and the max AP might only scale to an extra 1% anyway.

The Q spam and her innate attack speed on E means that she'll stack up the Rageblade quickly. Her W and Ulti slow makes up for the slow on Hextech's Active, and W can give her much better chances of escape if she wants to play a dangerous game under 50% HP. Depending on how many target she ults, she gets a shield to make up for the loss of upfront Healthsteal. Her innate Attack Speed increases potential Lifestealing later if she drops below half health, possibly making up for the loss of 10% Spellvamp (under 50%).

My Verdict: Maybe

  1. Kayle?

Her cooldowns are even more important than Diana's, and is a more intensive mana user as she wants to always be throwing out Q's and W's. However... Looking at her scaling, she has impressive AD scaling. You could maybe build her full AD with Essence Reaver first buy and Guinsoo's second (She even makes it into the "Marksman attack range" with E up), or she might be the one "true" hybrid champion that wants to build both Hextech and Rageblade.

My Verdict: Maybe

5 Comments

junglerboy162 votes

Max basically owns the copyright to Rageblade. It synergies with every aspect of his kit to a T, and he utilizes every aspect of it perfectly (spell vamp, lifesteal, AS, AD, AP, they're all great on him). I buy it literally every time I play Jax because of how good it is on him, especially if I can get it early.

Rand0mH3r0X2 votes

All season 1 champs benefit from Guinsoo's Rageblade. summoner 31

item 3124

Amumu Ashe Annie Blitzcrank Chogath Evelynn Gangplank Garen Janna Jax Kayle Just to name a few.

That item was made for early characters like Jax, Teemo, or Pre-Update Yi. They required AS, AP and AD. And yes, Ryze can stack pretty hard with rageblade and it makes him sustainably effective if you entomb your enemy, dodge their abilities and take another 200-300 damage in auto attack alone. Annie has a long range and gets the bonus easy with rageblade. What if you can't hang around cause you might die from another caster? 12% spell vamp and Lifesteal help keep you in the fight till you're done.

Newer champions like Vel or Yasuo don't really benefit because they don't rely on AS, and can do without extra AP or AD depending on champion.

I say to leave it because I use it a lot on hybrids. It's not an item for Diana or Akali because they're not reliant on sustained attacks on their enemy. Rageblade is just not a caster's item.

Just try it on a new champion though, like Naut, Skarner, or Rek'Sai. It's a squishy item but it makes up for it when you get to half-health and you get the lifesteal/spellvamp boost to add to any that you already have.

Penta Penguin1 votes

I have no idea why you would build this on Amumu, Ashe, etc. Are you talking about the way the game was back in S1?

NorthernDruid2 votes

The main problem with rageblade, is that champions who want it will do just as well with Nashor's Tooth or BotRK. Nashor's for AS+AP+on-hit and BotRK for and ad counterpart with lifesteal (espcially now that the lifesteal on it is buffed so absurdly).

Rageblade on the other hand, offers only conditional AS and conditional lifesteal+spellvamp. and most of it's AP is also conditional.

It's primary advantage is that it's cheaper. it's 600 gold below BotRK and 800 gold below Gunblade. However it's only 320 gold below Nashor's tooth.

That's 2-3 price levels. (The way i personally consider pricing levels on a 3-500 inrement basis anyway).

So Ragebladelet's you hit the full spike there earlier, and pays the price for being harder to build than the items it compares to.

It also does suffer a lot from lack of unconditional sustain.

I'd love to see it upgraded in price closer to 2800-3000 gold, coupled with moving the lifesteal spellvamp and extra AS away from it's unique passive, and giving it a light Spirit Visage effect while below 50% (like current but with with 5% SA passive instead of the now "unbundled" lifesteal+spellvamp+AS.

It's a great item, but unless you're really really hybriding, you're probably better off with Nashor's tooth, because it gives you that 15% AP scaling on-hit as well.

Penta Penguin2 votes

I think this item;

-Have higher AP than Hextech at full stacks -15% or 20% Lifesteal below 50% -Needs a more interesting build-path

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