Crit Itemization Is Getting Worse and Worse - Suggestion For An IE/ER and A Zeal Upgrade Alternative

ArnoldSchwarzens·Oct 28, 2016·3 votes·375 views

I've recently posted several threads on how Kog'Maw and Corki don't itemize with crit very well aswell as a lot of AD Caster Carries like Lucian who buy armor penetration instead. Here's an excerpt:

Their itemization is really fucking terrible.

When you are a Marksman there are two options for what kind of build you are able to go ( unless you are Ezreal ).

One focuses on crit and the other focuses on armor penetration.

If you are a champion that goes for a crit build, you need attack speed, AD and maybe even lifesteal steroids or abilities that can critically strike or have another special interaction with critical strike.

If you are going for an armor penetration build you instead have high base damage and ability damage, high AD ratios and probably bad synergy with attack speed or crit.

Kog'Maw and Corki have neither of both.

Kog'Maws only AD ratio is on his ult and 50% of all damage he deals as a marksman is magical so a penetration build is out of the question. The only interaction he has with crit is his Q attack speed bonus.

Compare that with Lucian who has 3 AD scaling abilities with high base damage, which also are dealing physical damage so that he can go for a penetration build. Or Vayne, which has an enhanced autohit reset on her Q every few seconds, that can not only critically strike but also has a really high AD ratio and procs lifesteal.

So instead Kog'Maw has to go for an on-hit build. The problem is that on-hit currently is only really good on bruisers who only buy a few offensive items - on-hit carry builds are dead ever since old Guinsoo's, Feral Flare, Sated Devourer and the now old Kog'Maw are gone. After Trinity Force and BotRK, the latter being a pretty mediocre item, he actually HAS to go for crit since that is his best option. And as I just said, even so, his interaction with crit is really shitty so it just shows you how bad his itemization is.

Next up it's Corki. He would be an amazing AD caster penetration carry, about 2/3 of his damage comes from his abilities and not his auto attacks, yet because all of his abilities deal magic damage this won't work. Also, the only interaction that he even has with critical strike are his auto attacks, all his abilities don't matter. And 2/3 of his damage comes from his abilities. Just think about it, his synergy with crit is about as good as Zed's or Kha'Zix's synergy with crit.

And with the pre-season, armor penetration builds for marksmen get nerfed even more - they don't get the early flat pen anymore, they can't make much use of the out of combat movement speed the new lethality items give and the worst part is that Youmuu's loses its attack speed for good. Duskblade won't be an option either anymore, none of the AD caster carries have good stealth interactions or need a raptor buff since they won't facechek bushes alone anyway.

So if you are a Marksman in the pre-season, you can't choose between armor penetration or crit builds anymore, the only build you can go is crit ( unless you're Ezreal ). Lucian will soon join the ranks of Kog'Maws and Corki's trash tier level.

My idea back then was that because their itemization with crit is bad, they should get some extra interaction with crits to make up for it - for example mini-crits on Kog'Maw's W or Lucian's ult. Recently I thought about a much better way to fix the issue that is not only easier to balance but also much more interesting - adding more crit items that cater to their needs. Here's what I came up with:

Insert Item Name Here #1: Zeal + Recurve Bow + Dagger + 1000 gold = 3600 gold 70% attack speed 20% critical strike chance Unique Passive: 5% movement speed Unique Passive: 40 on-hit physical damage Unique Passive: Critical striking basic attacks trigger on-hit effects twice. This passive can only occur on every other basic attack. Unique Passive: Equipping this item makes the wielder unable to buy either Infinity Edge or Essence Reaver.

The item you can see above is made for those kind of marksmen who don't scale really well with the raw AD that Essence Reaver and Infinity Edge grant you but on the other hand scale really well with attack speed and on-hit because of their kit. Basically, this item is made for Champions like Kog'Maw with his W, Vayne with hers, Crit Yi and many more AD Carries with on-hit-centric kits.

Also note that with this item existing, Essence Reaver, Infinity Edge and the item of above would all have the same passive that makes the wielder unable to buy more than 1 of the mentioned items. The Essence Reaver/Infinity Edge combination already is very strong but a combination of all 3 would just have way too much value attached to it for some specific champions like for example Vayne. You are supposed to buy one of the 3 and then a combination of Zeal upgrades - and maybe the item you can see below.

Insert Item Name Here #2: Pickaxe + Longsword + Cloak of Agility + 575 = 2600 gold 40 attack damage 30% critical strike chance Unique Passive: After critically striking with a basic attack, your next ability within 2 seconds deals 15% bonus damage.

So there are a lot of AD Carries in the game who have high AD ratios on their abilities but don't scale well with attack speed. They still have to buy crit though because for them, this is the only option. This means that after an Infinity Edge or an Essence Reaver a Zeal upgrade must be picked up even though it might not be the ideal choice.

Enter ( Insert Item Name Here #2 ) . It encourages timing your auto attacks and abilities correctly and goes really well with the whole spell-weaving theme of most AD Caster Carries. This is the ideal item to pick up before or after an Infinity Edge or Essence Reaver if you are Lucian, Corki, Jhin, MF, Gangplank or someone similar.

Just for demonstration purposes, here are a few examples for builds including the 2 items of above:

: / ( Insert Item Name Here #1 ) / / / /Defensive Item