Now That Kog's W Is Getting Reverted, Can Guinsoo's Be Buffed And More On-Hit Items Added?

Kog in his current incarnation makes it really hard for other on-hit centric champions, especially other ADCs, to have a proper on-hit build. This is because the interaction between Kog's W and on-hit effects is so absurdly good that if you were to buff any of these items to be decent on most on-hit champions, the power level of Kog would go through the roof.

Now that Kog's W is going to be reverted ( http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/NZK9A5NP-upcoming-kogmaw-changes ), current weak on-hit items can be buffed and some new items could be added, to make full on-hit builds an actual thing.

First, let's talk about Guinsoo's Rageblade. Guinsoo's has been described as " The Infinity Edge of On-Hit Builds " by a lot of Rioters and now that fantasy may be able to becomee reality, with all the new room to buff and change it.

There are several things that can be done to it and a lot of problems it has atm.

First off, the AP still feels very weird. If it would be an item dedicated to hybrids with on-hits like Kayle or Jax it would make sense, but not as an item that is intended to be " The Infinity Edge of On-Hit Builds ", because Yi for example really does not care about the AP at all. The whole giving on-hit champions weird AP ratios thing could create unexpected balancing issues ( remember AP Trynd / Yi ? ) so the AP could instead just be removed altogether and replaced with attack speed and maybe a dedicated hybrid item could be made to fill the whole hybrid attack speed item niche.

Next up it's the weird fact that you actually lose out on flat attack speed when finishing the item. For the ultimate on-hit item, this is just obviously one of the big factors from keeping it from being exactly that. Even weirder is that it has flat AD and AP values instead of flat attack speed, both are stats that really aren't as important in an on-hit build, unless you're Kayle or Teemo. On top of that, you can't just lose a stat that you paid for, even if you are able to stack it up again.

So this is basically how an effective Guinsoo's could look like some time after patch 6.19, when the Kog'Maw changes go live. Here's the live version for reference: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Guinsoo's_Rageblade

Guinsoo's Rageblade: Build Path: Recurve Bow + Recurve Bow + Dagger + Dagger + 1000 gold = 3600 gold Stats: 60% attack speed Unique Passive: Basic attacks deal an additional 30 magic damage on-hit. Basic attacks grant 10% attack speed for 5 seconds, stacking up to 6 times for a total of 60% attack speed. At 6 stacks, gain Guinsoo's Rage. Unique Passive - Guinsoo's Rage: Every other basic attack will trigger on-hit effects an additional time.

( Extra Note: Recurve Bow would lose the uniqueness of its passive, which would make it able to stack. )

As you can see there wouldn't be a single bit of AP or AD left on it. Instead, there would be much more attack speed and more on-hit damage. It just makes sense for the central on-hit build item to be that way, especially since full attack speed / on hit items are gone ever since Runaan's got its rework to make it a crit item.

Also, 120% attack speed might sound really scary but keep in mind: the gold value of 1% attack speed is much lower than the value of 1 AD or 1 AP. On top of that, you'll still have to stack it up first and it would still cost a whopping 3.6k gold, which makes up for it.

Lastly, Recurve Bow would lose the uniqueness of its passive. Since no one would buy 2 recurve bows before finishing one of the item it builds into anyway atm this really would not be much of a problem - it would also allow the build path of above work without it losing out on that 15 extra on-hit.

Another, probably more controversial thing I thought of is splitting Blade of the Ruined King into two items. I will write down the changes here first and you can look into the explanations later. Again, here's the live version of it ( http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Blade_of_the_Ruined_King ) .

Blade of the Ruined King: Build Path: Recurve Bow + Dagger + Dagger + 1000 gold = 2600 gold Stats: 60% attack speed Unique Passive: Basic attacks deal 15 + 6% of the target's bonus health as true damage on-hit.

Glaive of the Fallen Order: Build Path: Recurve Bow + Bilgewater Cutlass + 500 gold = 3000 gold Stats: 40% attack speed, 25 attack damage Unique Passive: heals for 25% of all on-hit damage dealt. Unique Active: Steals 25% of the target's movement speed for 3 seconds ( 550 range and 90 second cooldown ) .

If we look at what a full on-hit item build would look like, at first you need to look into what other builds have in its stead - for magical defense, AP casters have Abyssal, AD Champions have Maw or Scimitar and on-hit champions have Wit's End; for the high-cost central scaling synergy item, AP casters have Rabadon's, crit champions have IE and ER, Penetration Champions have Black Cleaver, Youmuu's and Duskblade and on-hit champions would have Guinsoo's.

But now let's look at other areas: For sustain, there's Ravenous Hydra for melee AD champions and Bloodthirster for ranged ones, for tanks there's Warmog's, for some AD casters there's Death's Dance, but for AP mages and on-hit champions? There is nothing for them.

AP champions had spellvamp, but after years of balancing Riot came to the conclusion to flat out remove it, at least on items. But this is a topic for another thread.

Instead, take a look at the sustain item an on-hit build would need and how the Glaive of the Fallen Order would do that job. The currently best option, BotRK, fails at doing that properly. As an on-hit champion you don't make much use of the lifesteal because your autohits on their own don't deal enough damage to properly heal you, because of course most of your damage comes from on-hits instead.

GotFO would provide you with a on-hit lifesteal that fixes the issue of that. It would heal you for the damage on-hits of items like Guinsoo's and Wit's End would deal, the damage of abilities like Vayne's Silver Bolts and Q or Kog's W and even things like Sheen deal.

Next up it's the rework idea for the other half of the current identity of BotRK, the tank shredder aspect. Again, AP Casters have Void Staff, AD Casters have Mortal Reminder and Dominik's but on-hit champions have nothing really dedicated to specifically deal with tanks. For that it would get its revamped on-hit. It deals percentage true damage which obviously brings back really scary memories but it's important to note that it's works off bonus HP and not total HP.

Most importantly of all, why remove BotRK in the first place? Well, it has a lot of purposes as an item mixed into it that would be better served as items of their own, like above. It always had a weird history of RIot not really knowing what to do with the thing. First it was mainly used for its amazing active, then for the super strong on-hit and attack speed, other times for the lifesteal combined with attack speed etc. The weird patch history of making one of these aspects stronger and making another one of them weaker shows just how much of an identity crisis this item has. Because of that, especially with all the new options that would be available after that, I think that it's better served being split into two items.

There could be much more on-hit items added or changed. For example, a more balanced version of the Dervish Blade ( http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Dervish_Blade ) could be introduced into Summoner's Rift, or a hybrid on-hit item like i've mentioned before. Would love to see some of your ideas and your opinions on mine, criticism is highly appreciated as long as it's civil and you can tell me exactly why you don't like one of my ideas.

EDIT 1: Thank you guys for all the responses and criticism. Of course I'm not happy to see that some people just really don't like the idea but I guess I'll have to live with that. On the flipside I'm relieved that you stated your opinion in a civil way and that you didn't turn this whole post in a circlejerk.

So let's talk about what you guys posted.

First off it's the new anti-tank BotRK. That is understandably super scary for a lot of people out there, since full tanks are pretty weak right now compared to bruisers in the toplane and in the jungle or utility/AP supps in the botlane. This change would just be another hit in the face for them, as a lot of people think.

After thinking a lot about it it probably has some truth to it. Tanks are partly struggling because of the abundance of %penetration which makes it really easy to kill them, since flat pen applies after %pen which is super strong because of the way diminishing returns work. Tanks atm just fail at being tanky unless they have a lot of damage too, where the annoying bruiser builds like Ekko and Yasuo come in.

I think that is not only a problem of items but rather because of damage creep right now, and how tanks may need a class rework like juggernauts and marksmen did.

Point is, only when tanks are strong and the problems of above have been dealt with, only then should new BotRK really be introduced. Maybe give that item the name of GotFO instead, the other item really seems more like the current BotRK anyway.

Another thing is %HP true damage, because you practically can't build defensively against it. The bonus HP thing eliminates the threat for everyone who doesn't need to build HP but for tanks it can be balanced around. When you look at the history of %HP true damage it was OP for a long time, until Riot played with its numbers over a few patches so that now it's mostly balanced. Everyone remembers the terror that was Vayne's Silver Bolts or Fiora's Vitals but you also have to agree that after some shifting of the numbers they both are in an arguably decent spot now, except for maybe Vayne's low winrate atm, which mostly stems from other problems like laning and things that are not her Silver Bolts.