Items offering Life Steal and Armor, would like help in balancing
Name: Coating Knife Ranged, Melee, Both: Melee Build Path: 900 Gold Base Stats: 5% Life Steal, 10 Armor UNIQUE Passive - Coating: Basic Attacks grant 5 Armor and a stack of Coated for 5 seconds (stacks up to 4 times). Each stack of Coated reduces the duration of Crowd Control effects by 2.5%.
Name: Slick Serrated Scimitar Ranged, Melee, Both: Melee Build Path: Coating Knife, Executioner's Calling, Long Sword, 500 Gold (2600 Gold Total) OR Exchange from Swift Smashing Spike and gain 600 Gold Base Stats: 15% Life Steal, 40 Attack Damage, 20 Armor UNIQUE Passive - Executioner: Physical damage inflicts Grievous Wounds on enemy Champions for 5 seconds. UNIQUE Passive - Coating: Basic Attacks grant 15 Armor and a stack of Coated for 5 seconds (stacks up to 4 times). Each stack of Coated reduces the duration of Crowd Control effects by 5%.
Name: Swift Smashing Spike Ranged, Melee, Both: Melee Build Path: Coating Knife, Vampiric Scepter, Phage, 100 Gold (3200 Gold Total) OR Exchange from Slick Serrated Scimitar and 600 Gold Base Stats: +25% Life Steal, 20 Attack Damage, 25 Armor UNIQUE Passive - Rage: Basic Attacks grant 20 Movement Speed for 2 seconds. Kills grant 60 Movement Speed instead. UNIQUE Passive - Coating: Basic Attacks grant 15 Armor and a stack of Coated for 5 seconds (stacks up to 4 times). Each stack of Coated reduces the duration of Crowd Control effects by 5%
I'm not the greatest item creator but I thought I'd make my own weapons. I was thinking of a weapon that offered both Life Steal and Armor, giving AD Champs safer laning against other AD Champs and minions alike. However, I knew that this would quickly end up getting abused by Marksman Champs due to their range, giving them unfair amounts of sustain in-lane with both reduced damage and life steal, so I decided to make it a Melee-only item. With its shared UNIQUE, Coating, it can grant up to 20 Armor (or 60 Armor for its evolutions) by Basic Attacking, though this effect ends after 5 seconds and isn't by any means permanent (the total Armor given by each item with max Coating would be 30, 80, and 85 respectively). They all also grant Crowd Control duration reduction, for a max of 10% or 20% depending on the item, which makes life a little better for the one using it if they're forced into a lane with Champs like Veigar, Morgana, or Sona. I'm still thinking of ways to balance it because of Irelia's Passive (which would grant her a max of 60% reduced duration from disables from these and her Passive). With the S.S. Scimitar, as a cheaper option, you trade chasing power and Life steal (and some slight Armor) for Attack Damage and the ability to inflict Grievous Wounds. With this, not only do you not have to go the MR path of Last Whisper but you also can prevent your allies from out-sustaining or out-healing your damage output. Of course, most Champs that heal, like Sona and Nami, use AP...and since Armor doesn't affect AP, I thought this was a fair trade. I was thinking this weapon would be better for Champs like Kha'Zix and Gangplank, who generally like taking down stranded Champs. With the S.S. Spike, while more expensive than its counterpart, it trades offensive and execution power for more sustain and chasing ability. (Note: I removed the "ranged" detail from the Rage Passive...this part isn't necessary if the weapon can only be used with Melee Champs). While this item does conflict with Trinity Force, which is an item I've seen often on Life Steal builds, it can be seen as a more "defensive and sustainable" version of it. Because of Rage, you have an easier time chasing after Champs and can face less retaliation from Marksmen like Tristana and Caitlyn. Like said above, though, it doesn't offer MR so AP Champs can tear you down just as easily as normal. I was thinking this weapon would be better for Champs like Master Yi and Sion, whose kits would benefit the most from this. Overall, these items are supposed to be a balance between life sustainability and physical defense, and should most often be used by Top laners who want to engage more often. I made it so they couldn't be used at the same time, so I made them interchangeable as detailed above, because I felt the mixture of Executioner AND Rage, plus quite a lot of Life Steal AND Armor, shouldn't be made so accessible. I probably didn't do a great job at doing this, so I'll update with your help. I didn't include Crit Chance or Attack Speed, because the first isn't necessary for a more defensive item (and would be stupid crazy for Yasuo) and the second would be overkill for some Champs like Master Yi who revolve around it (and already gains quite a lot from the current builds). I hope I did well enough in balancing them. I'm fairly certain I made them too expensive, though, and I'm not a genius at defensive calculations so I'd appreciate all your guys' help! Even if my ideas aren't taken into account by Riot, I hope that it encourages them to think of new ways to make Early Game easier for all of us.