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Real Talk: Wit's End & Why You Should Take It

MasterofSFL·4/24/2015, 12:31:16 AM·5 votes·5,282 views

I see this almost every day, a Jungler, a Top, an AutoAttacker champion who's Melee, who wants to be tanky, who wants to deal damage, who wants to be the beefiest bastard he can be...And they take item 3153.

And I have to ask myself...Why? Why do you all do this to yourselves and your team? Why do you choose this incredibly useless item (For a Bruiser, for a Squishy Destroyer) over Wit's End? It's baffling, it's incredibly mind numbing. It's so stupid I can barely contain myself evertime I see it. Even when matched against a team FULL OF SQUISHIES I still see you all choose this item over Wit's End.

Why?

item 3091 gives Every Stat an AutoAttacking Brusier wants: Damage, Resistance, Attack Speed, Pen. Most AA Bruisers (Which Include: Shyvana Volibear Udyr Warwick) Deal some form of Alternative Magic Damage (Be it in the Form of On-Hit or AoE), which Wit's End complements greatly. If you take Gold into Consideration, the Item gives you 100% Gold efficiency (2,600g) at full stacks, which is not including it's passive Reduction or Damage that gives Roughly a BF sword in Damage plus Pen that all Equals out to Roughly 2.3k in additional Gold, making this item almost a 2 for 1 buy. Then, if you go further, it releases an entire Slot for other Items, a slot that BotRK would force you to make up with higher costing Items to make up for it's lack of Resistant Stats.

And best of all Wit's End Doesn't force you to commit to AD centered items. It gives you Pen for your already Magic Dealing abilities, It deals magic damage itself and utilizes all it's stats neatly, while BotRK is essentially useless without additional AD items. It has no Pen, Countered by Armor, it's LF is pretty nonexistent at 10% and only 25 AD (And most champions not reaching past 100 at lvl18).

Champions Such as DrMundo Jax Nocturne Irelia all can effectively utilize Wit's End as an alternative MR and Damage Item, all of them being AA centered, all of them being Melee, all of them being Bruisers if needed. Yet, Generic Builds are abound for 3 of those 4 that incorporate BotRK simply because of it's Passive On-hit, AS stat.

To put it simple, Wit's End is Superior to BotRK on most Melee's who aren't Carries (Ala MasterYi Fiora). I implore you all, whenever you are doing any Build that is not Glass, to just take a minute and think: Can I get more Mileage out of Wit's End over BotRK? Chances are the answer is a resounding YES.

28 Comments

JustMyBassCannon4/24/2015, 12:40:04 AM11 votes

First reason; Blade of the Ruined King has sustain, and Wit's End does not. Simply put, it's offense and defense at the same time, and bruisers scale with offense and defense about equally. While WIt's End also does this, it's specialized for magic defense, not overall.

Second reason; BotRK has much higher damage output. Between having some AD for scaling ratios and dealing 8% of current HP (which beats Wit's End's proc if the target has more than 500 HP), it's pretty much always dealing more damage, even with the AS difference (+10% AS increases attack rate by <0.1 attacks per second on anyone).

Third reason; The active grants a lot of sticking power plus burst damage. 10% of HP, and it steals MS from the target, making it impossible for most targets to outrun you.

I agree that Wit's End is a nice item. But BotRK before Wit's End is totally justifiable.

BluePolarizer4/24/2015, 12:38:14 AM7 votes

A few things:

BoRK scales, wits end doesn't. BoRK has a better build path because it includes Cutlass. BoRK gives jungle sustain for junglers. Most of all, BoRK has an active slow.

BoRK also doesn't require Arpen to work well, it just works better with Arpen. Most champs that take BoRK don't take Arpen (since they scale off of attack speed mostly and have existing on-hits) and most champs that take Arpen (AD carries) don't take BoRK. Even against a target at 500 HP, BoRK deals 65 damage (25 AD + 40 from active). At 500 HP, most players at the time you take BoRK are considered almost dead. Even with 100 armor, BoRK deals 32.5 damage at 500 HP, which is almost as good as Wits End until you forget that most champs at mid-game have 1500-2500 HP.

Jungle Lux God4/24/2015, 1:45:38 AM2 votes

There is a lot that Blade of the Ruined King gives bruisers that they need that Wit's End doesn't give.

For one thing, Blade of the Ruined King provides sticking power that Wit's End doesn't have. There is no CC or movement speed buffs on Wit's End, but there is on BotRK's active, so if you want to stick to your targets better BotRK is the better item. And all of the champions you listed would really like to stick to targets better.

Another thing is that BotRK scales better. Since Blade of the Ruined King has % current health damage and Wit's End deals a flat amount of damage Blade of the Ruined King will scale better into the late game because of that extra damage, as everyone is getting extra health, and everyone is going to start getting some kind of magic resistance in some form.

Blade of the Ruined King's sustain provides comparable survivability to Wit's End. Because BotRK has the lifesteal and Wit's End has so much of its defensive value dependent on its stacking magic resistance and its base magic resistance, the defensive values on both items are very similar. This also doesn't include the fact that Wit's End has no defensive value against a team comp with low magic damage, but Blade has defensive value against a heavy AP comp.

One last thing: Blade of the Ruined King doesn't have a bad build path. For the record, having a Recurve Bow in your recipe on live basically means that the item you are building out of it needs to be really good on the champ you are playing as or else you just shelved 900 gold that basically does nothing. For the record, the last time we actually would regularly see a Recurve Bow item was when Runaan's Hurricane made Kalista absolutely broken, and she doesn't buy it now because she won't have enough damage, and there are no champs that are strong enough with Wit's End for Recurve Bow to not be a bad pickup for later. This problem won't be so bad if the Recurve Bow changes on the PBE go through (builds out of 2 daggers and deals 10 physical damage on hit), but until then Wit's End won't be usable.

Rebonack4/24/2015, 2:58:26 AM1 votes

Everyone here seems to be forgetting that Wit's amps magic damage against your target for your whole team.

Twenty five MR shred is a pretty big deal against a soft target.

Slayer15574/24/2015, 4:46:21 AM1 votes

I want to take it, but I'm having a hard time justifying it over Bork on Shyvana . And I really can't afford to take two damage items (Bork + Wits End). If I can figure out how to do it, I would really love to, though. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this.

InSingedWeTrust4/24/2015, 4:56:22 AM1 votes

Damn, Witt's got rekt in this thread.

Delioth4/24/2015, 6:27:28 AM1 votes

It fits nicely into my Kayle's build.

item 3085 item 3115 item 3091 item 3071 item 3153 And then either item 3006 or a deathcap or something. item 3089 's nice.

Shred all of the defenses!

Daedalus8714/24/2015, 7:26:44 AM1 votes

Wit's End: +50% AS +30 MR +42 Magic Damage on hit up to 25 MR shred and gain

BotRK: +40% AS +10% Life steal +25 AD +8% current health on hit 10% maximum health active + slow/boost

The 10% AS is negligible. The 30 MR will be ignored by pretty much every assassin. The sustain on BotRK is rather nice. The slow is also pretty freaking nice.

As far as damage goes, lets assume the enemy has 3000 health 200 armor and 100 MR (seems like reasonable bruiser stats). The average health from 3000 to 0 is 1500. 8% of 1500 is 120. Then ad in the 25 damage and it boosts your attack damage to 145 damage, I'm going to call it 150 for nice numbers. Then comes in the 200 armor for a 66% damage reduction for 50 damage. So BotRK makes your average AA do 50 more damage, while healing you for 5 and that's not even touching on the slow. Wit's End reduces their MR to 75 for a 44% damage reduction. Again for nice numbers, I'm going to call this a 40% reduction. So wit's end does approximately 24 damage on hit. And that's not considering the fact that a lot of champs buying BotRK one or the other do have AD scaling.

So again, BotRK does roughly twice the damage of Wit's End and it steals MS, while providing sustain. Really, you have to be a sustained magic dealer champion against a sustained magic damage team in order for Wit's End to be better than BotRK.

MAZZ1M04/25/2015, 7:30:03 PM1 votes

item 3153 And I have to ask myself...Why? Why do you all do this to yourselves and your team? Why do you choose this incredibly useless item?

http://24.media.tumblr.com/09c78ab6d39ca12c344d185f370710dd/tumblr_mx3r72ouy81sm30sso1_400.gif

I'll give you Wit's End is useful when you're not fighting tanks. But if you don't understand why BotRK is a core item on tanky fighters (especially Shyvana) I think you're missing something. (Honestly, I've always wanted to try it on full-build Braum for sh$%^ and giggles.)

If you build all-tank and have one slot for damage, BotRK is the way to go because regardless of whatever your piss-poor damage is, it automatically chunks 8% of their current health per hit -not counting the active. Put that on Shyv who has a Q and E that %$^& this thing and you have an initial burst of around 25% of their max health. Don't even get me on the Q passive and the fact that lifesteal is great for tanks. It is the quitessential Shyv item. You don't not take this if you understand her abilities. I think Jax could make due with Wit's End in some cases, but, like Shyv, he's not entirely tank. Bruisers don't build tanky to tank they build tanky to trade. They're usually item-reliant. BotRK will give you decent damage regardless of your attack and it works well with several kits. Wit's End is niche pick. You use it when you need MR and the enemies are squishy or someone else can melt tanks. BotRK consistently keeps you relevant with tanky builds. Wit's End only does it certain games owing to everyone's builds and champ picks.

Wit's End is certainly good, I'll grant that, but BotRK is in no way useless. It's one of the best items in the game.

On Fiora and Yi though, Maw of Malmortius and Mercurial Scimitar are far superior for AD+MR. You can stack a Phantom Dancer on them later for more total damage. They're made to kill before people can kill them, not trade in barfights like Shyv or Mundo. BotRK is a noob trap on Fi. Can't speak for Yi though. I don't use him.

Laraso4/24/2015, 12:38:09 AM1 votes

Tank Meta

Dies to Wolves4/25/2015, 8:22:29 PM1 votes

not saying wits end is bad, but if you can't stick to your target as a melee, you're screwed

bork gives sticking power, wits end doesn't

also, bork gives sustain, which depending on who you're playing, is a godsend (for example, shyv is tanky but doesn't have in-built sustain. Bork gives her more sticking power AND sustain besides the damage)

XxxLumberJackxxX4/24/2015, 12:56:32 AM1 votes

I was with you until you said Mundo should buy it. Then I laughed. BC no

Bears Dont Care4/24/2015, 12:58:26 AM1 votes

10% sustain really...does not mean anything. By the time you afford it, you really do't care for it within the jungle, and against other champions the sustain means nothing if the fight isn't extended. Furthermore, botrk has a higher output when you do not factor armor. When you factor in armor mitigation, wit's end will pull ahead until the target hits a certain amount of HP.

Keep in mind armor will scale higher than MR does typically, and squishy targets like an ADC do not gain MR per level. It is also dependant on the champion.

Master Yi can get either really. Warwick will rush wit's end. Volibear will probably go for botrk. So on and so forth.