I honestly don't get it. You lose like what, 15% crit chance and 10% attack speed? all you get is that one little zap that really doesn't do much damage. There's no way it adds more damage than critting 15% more of the time. It irks me the wrong way when I see people build it on adc's over PD.
Maple Crusader24 votesShiv gives minion wave clear to adcs who lack it.
His Goatliness3 votesI've heard people say that but I don't truly believe that's the only reason. It can't be. Why not get a hurricane then? it's better waveclear than a shiv.
Duke Anax11 votesHurricane has no crit at all. So if you don't need that much clear, Shiv is a better option.
Also Shiv is magic damage, so it hits harder against armored targets.
Krigjer4 votesAlso Shiv is magic damage, so it hits harder against armored targets.
Not to mention, if you have enough attack speed to hit 100 charges frequently in a teamfight, you're adding a lot of extra AoE damage.
Duke Anax1 votesOr even when you can get both Shiv and Hurricane, you get lightning every second auto.
Jungle Lux God15 votesStatikk Shiv has 1% extra movement speed. Trust me, it makes a big difference.
Joking aside, Shiv has a lot going for it over Phantom Dancer:
-lower cost -better build path (has Avarice Blade instead of Cloak of Agility and Dagger) -the lighting passive, which helps clear waves for ADCs who want it.
However, Phantom Dancer also has its own perks:
-extra stats -minion block removal passive
There's enough on both items to justify purchasing either item without making either item the ideal choice for items.
FourVsFive10 votesShiv can crit doing 250 dmg with IE.
His Goatliness3 votesMagic damage, which you have no mpen for.
Silents4293 votesAnd in a lot of cases the enemy has no MR.
NuSix31 votesEveryone has 30 MR, fighters and tank classes have scaling MR that increases with each level. Several good AD items have MR as well. Some MR items are part of a character's core build, and are likely to be purchased even if up against an all AD team.
Silents4292 votesDon't take it literally, People trying to counter you as an ADC are building armor not MR, The shiv allows you to do serious damage to them through the armor. If they build Armor and MR, then you are shit out of luck.
Apollocliptic1 votesNot really, if they're building armour and MR, they are losing out in other stats. It's a similar arguement I heard before. Someone argued, "why bother build MR if the enemy katarina gets void staff" the counter argument "If you DON'T build MR, she doesn't NEED void staff, and can get a MORE powerful item instead" Sometimes your build upsets the ideal build of your opponent, and if you're behind, cheaper items like Shiv, save gold AND help you earn more gold while building it. And the enemy already has their build, so you are opting for a counter build, where you know they haven't bought the MR/AD items
Another note to some of the earlier comments, ADC's WILL have 6% magic pen, and depending on the game or rune set up, will be the same or only a little less than their armour pen anyway, but the enemy will have a LOT more armour than MR, so with moving enemies like Vayne and Lucian, that shiv proc is a huge and regular damage buff, though I often see shiv on Jynx, which is a more arguable choice, as she benefits a lot from PD, it's situational, the items are not a clear cut one if always better, simples
Partholonian1 votesDon't take it literally, People trying to counter you as an ADC are building armor not MR, The shiv allows you to do serious damage to them through the armor. If they build Armor and MR, then you are shit out of luck.
People don't build against one person unless that person has 10+ kills; they build against the team, which probably means they build both, unless your team is 
.
And if they build both, you are not out of luck if you build 
-- then your physical damage can hurt people again. But only your physical damage.
This is why mixed damage ADCs aren't much good right now compared to ones that have all their damage scale with arpen -- and crit, because they didn't nerf 
nearly enough, which is why we're not asking IF you want to build a second crit item, we're only asking WHICH second crit item and the first one is taken completely for granted.
Minions don't build MR though, so shiv's waveclear niche is still OK even though it doesn't benefit from your mandatory armor penetration.
Marthian8 votesWhich isn't necessarily bad. If they have armor but no MR, it will still hurt.
YossarianSensei8 votesIt's cheaper and gives you a better power progression into mid-game. Not everything is about late-game raw stats.
GuileRaven5 votesPhantom Dancer gives better sustained damage, but you may not need that sustained damage if a shiv proc plus 2 hits is enough to kill your target.
NemeBro3 votesPeople get Shiv because it's cheaper and has great wave clear for farming.
Generally speaking though, yeah an ADC should sell their shiv in the super late game for a phantom dancer if they can.
Skia Asteri3 votesIt does do more in the early-mid game (before second big AD item ). Late game it is worse, but it is a better snowball item because it is cheap, gives wave clear, burst, and can nab extra assists from the AoE damage.
Durzaka3 votesAs mentioned, it provides additional waveclear and AoE for ADCs that need it. And it deals magic damage, which helps early/mid game from being brick walled by someone with just some armor.
It also provides more reliable burst.
And lastly, and most importantly, it is cheaper than PD due to having less stats. Meaning you reach that power spike sooner.
There is no doubt PD provides more raw damage, but most of the time SS is the better choice because of the power it lets you get quicker.
BastionKross3 votesPD is the stronger item in terms of raw damage output. Shiv is cheaper and has a better build path.
But personally, the reason I build Shiv over PD is because being able to shoot lightning with my auto attacks is freaking awesome.
Teridax683 votes
is cheaper and burstier, and provides a much more pronounced mid-game spike than 
, on top of pretty good waveclear and poke (the 
in the recipe also makes the item even easier to build). Until recently, there was no real reason to build PD over Shiv unless you were an extremely late game- or DPS-oriented champion like 
, 
or 
(and even then, Shiv still had a lot of advantages over Phantom Dancer). It was only when had 5% crit chance moved to Phantom Dancer that the two evened out more (Shiv's mid-game spike became a little less spikey), though Statikk Shiv is still more than a worthy competitor on a lot of champions.
EndlessSorcerer2 votesPersonally, I prefer getting Phantom Dancer for the increased DPS (and to stop creep block). However, Shiv provides a stronger mid-game (cheaper, initial burst damage), gives a bit of poke and waveclear during sieges, and builds out of a gold generating item (for a little more gold efficiency), so I can understand why some people prefer it.
Though, I can understand why people would get Statikk Shiv over Phantom Dancer on Jinx. The shiv proc can give her an assist on many enemies, which makes it easier for her passive to activate in a team fight.
windwolf7772 votesMeh, will always win for me. I honestly do prefer attack speed over AD, even on champs that excell with AD vs AS like or 
. More movement, ghost, AS, and more crit will win it for me
Kubox2 votesI've been watching a couple streams, it basically comes down to this : Shiv is, in no way, better than PD, but :
-Shiv's cost is much lower. Adc's have a lot of items to buy to reach their true power. Buying Pd puts your build behind, as the stats you get are not valuable enough early/mid game for the 500+ gold it takes.
-IE rush is the meta, but it has a horrible build path. A BF sword is great and all, but it costs a lot of gold. If you're behind or forced to back early, odds are you won't be able to buy it. So you buy a Pickaxe. But then the enemy adc, being ahead, comes back with a BF, and keeps zoning you out of minions, so you back early again, far from 1500 gold. At this point you basically give up your lane phase and just buy an Avarice Blade and farm for late-game (or hang on your gold and hope you don't die or lose out on too many cs, or call for a gank should the opportunity arise)
-Or there's the times where you're actually not getting stomped, and you manage to buy a BF on your fist back. At this point, 2 things may happen: Either you keep stomping lane, and on your next back, you come back with an IE and just kill everyone, either the match-up turns out to be pretty close and you can't finish your IE. Of course you can buy a Pickaxe, but Avarice blade has small advantage in the long run at this point.
See, Shiv is not just 500 gold less. If Avarice Blade made you 200 gold, it's now 700g less. If you made 400, it's now 900g less. The world where you have the perfect amount of money every back so you can go from BF>IE>Zeal>PD is so rare, that most of the time people just go shiv and if they ever get a full build swap it out for PDé
ArkenStorm1 votesUnless you are Draven, in which case you still outdamage the enemy ADC even if you have only a pickaxe and they have bf
LongSh4dows1 votesBecause LIGHTNING!! Makes you feel like a Jedi! :)
Partholonian1 votesI think you mean a Sith.
Stonington1 votesNumber 1 reason, the waveclear.
It's a better early game item due to giving you magic damage too. Along with more burst early game since it does 100-200 damage which is signifcantly at early stages of the game. It's not only cheaper but the build path contains a gold generation item, so it's actually significantly cheaper. Then there's 1% movespeed more, which is negligible.
IndianHippie1 votesIn some cases it is better. At times when you're in a position where you cant hard engage (and hence PD is not as usefull); but you still want some attack speed without sacrificing other states like ad and poke damage. So you build static shyv.
NeoScout1 voteswaveclear, don't tell people how to play the game
Llanite1 votesIn long fight, PD is better but in lane, when you only get to shoot someone once in awhile, with Shiv, it's automatically 125 extra dmg.
High51 votes
Martyrofsand1 votesBurst and Waveclear.
That's what it comes down to when we are talking about PD vs Shiv. Shiv will give you more burst, especially on crits, and you could see this a lot of old Ashe who could store to to 100% crit on her next attack, she would AA with a shiv and that and a squishies health simply vanished because of the damage. It can provide a strong amount of burst in those scenarios that opponents, especially the squishier ones, will have a lot of trouble building against.
That said PD will provide high constant damage over longer fights, which the tank meta favors, so there are plenty of reasons to buy it was well. In the end I'm fine with people building either based on what they want. If the team needs more waveclear or you are someone who could make good use of the additional burst from Shiv then by all means pick it up. If you are someone who needs the higher constant damage to get through tanks then please go for PD, I won't be judging you regardless of which you pick up.
QueenAqua1 voteseh, i get or 
cause of avarice blade (in case you don't know, it gives you a gold boost similar to the support items) and it is usually the last thing i get (to get the most out of gold boost). But, I usually get both PD and Stattik if I get avarice at all. I have specific builds for all my adcs, though i only ever really build avarice and shiv on Ashe, pre-rework when all crit was really the only way to go with her and do well against the typical adcs of Jinx, Caitlyn, and Vayne.
Fadedpf1 votesAdds burst
Adds wave clear
Adds aoe damage
Is good if you took an early to farm
Is good if you are behind and cant afford PD
NoMonku1 votesShiv helps in terms of wave clear and specific champions benefit from it pretty well like 
. Also it has a greedy build path with making so if you buy it, you can farm up a lot of "free" gold from just csing. Also I feel this item is a good choice over PD if you are REALLY far behind. Since it is cheaper it is a better buy if you need immediate power.
jDVL20eCYs1 votesi see it as a test of brain function :)
OyddAWqJ5r1 votesZap is strong early. Zap can crit for 200 randomly as well. Zap can deal 250 once you have IE so it scales along with you to a point.
Zap can waveclear.
Zap is amazing for harass.
But the biggest upside of zap is the fact that it hits 4 champions to grant you an assist if any one of those 4 dies. Free money and for those who have "on kill or assist" passives such as Jinx get their passive proc without really working for it.
So all in all it is far better than Phantom Dancer 9.9 times out of 10.
Hope that clears it up.
refreshes on assists.
And every ADC should have one in the mid-late game.
And this ^
NorthernDruid1 votes refreshes on assists.
And every ADC should have one in the mid-late game.
OyddAWqJ5r1 votesAh yes that too. Ty gentleman.
Reikken1 votessituational both are equally good
Gigahappytown1 votesPhantom dancer is better if you need raw crit and attack speed and more mobility. Shiv is better if you do not have waveclear. If your opinion is any different you are wrong these are facts
djjomon1 votesShiv is cheaper, and builds from a gold generation item. It provides wave clear, and more upfront damage. PD offers more sustained DPS, but if you have only have time to land 2-3 autos in fights, you want Shiv.
AcidDrops1 votesSometimes you cant afford PD so you get it over PD. I always go for PD on adc's when I can afford it when i back
Ryuku Cruxis1 votesGives adcs the ability to siege/defend from siege when their kits otherwise don't let them. It also adds a bit of burst. As I've thought since I starting playing adc, shiv is for bursters like Cokri/Graves/Lucian who still wanna build decent dps, PD if for pure aa adcs who would hurt their dps to use their abilities.
But even for extremely aa reliant adcs, the ability to get damage off without having to get into aa range of an enemy champion isn't something to be snuffed at. It's low and inconsistent damage though, so some people find PD to be better for the raw stats. In a way shiv adds range to your damage, that is EXTREMELY powerful, which is why it's probably so weak and inconsistent compared to the kind of damage adcs can put out.
And if you're lucky and you get a 250 magic damage crit on 4+ people, you just got a free autoattack worth of damage instantly, something 10% attack speed would take 9-12 seconds to do depending on your base. This is probably the main reason people get it.
Drunk Rummate1 votesThe passive damage can crit, it gives waveclear, it has more movespeed, it has a better build path, and it's cheaper (generally about 100-200g gets taken off Avarice price if you build it early, plus it's just cheaper to begin with)
Noski71 votesShiv adds more burst damage and adds more waveclear, while PD adds more sustained damage.
SleepyLionCub1 votesIt's comparable both ways. On certain champions shiv is better, and others pd is better.
TwoD1 votesshiv if you're behind, pd if you're ahead
Celosar1 votesIt makes me sad to see my post get down voted after I used legit math to prove why PD is better even early game.