Thoughts on Thornmail: It could definitely be implemented better
Thornmail is one of those items I have a hate/hate relationship with. I hate how it's the ONLY thing stopping 5-physical compositions, and I hate how its counterplay is both bad and confusing. People first think "get lifesteal", but they're wrong; you build magic resist to counter Thornmail. Couple that with Thornmail having awful stats for cost, while basically creating an instant-lose scenario for the ones facing it, and it's easy to see why the item borders on toxic territory.
Having seen some new stuff for S5, though, has given me some ideas on how Thornmail could be altered.
Note that these are mutally exclusive, so they don't mix together.
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Change Thornmail to deal its damage to the attacker over time, but at a higher percentage. This way, if you're hovering at low health, Thornmail won't instantly kill you for critting someone.
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Change Thornmail's effect from a passive to an active, one that gives the Thorns effect for a limited time, but at a MUCH higher potency. This creates windows of timing for the attacker to exploit, and enables more power.
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Change Thornmail entirely to have an active effect that works akin to Odyn's Veil, which builds up in power/damage according to how much damage the wielder takes.
If anyone's got other ideas, I'm open to them. But don't just jump on any hate bandwagons.
, and even when playing squishies, that beautiful 
is the only thing that saves me and allows me to carry my team out of the pit they dug themselves in.
