Phantom Dancer or Shiv?

Nightshade17·8/26/2015, 10:59:24 PM·1 votes·1,137 views

So lately I've been wondering about something while playing ADC, regarding these items, and figured I'd ask the boards. When is it good to build Statikk Shiv instead of Phantom Dancer, or vice-versa? I've come to the assumption over the past season or two(granted I don't usually play ADC a lot) that Shiv is better to build when you're behind(due to the cheaper cost, and Avarice blade being part of it meaning better gold generation). I don't know if that's actually the truth, or if it's just that certain ADCs are better with one or the other. Any thoughts, or personal preferences when it comes to these items?

7 Comments

ZodiacSheep8/27/2015, 8:40:22 AM3 votes

So, PD vs. Shiv, from what I've learned and heard from better ADC mains, depends on the ADC pretty heavily. Building one over the other isn't bad or anything, but each champion is naturally going to prefer one over the other.

So, the more reliant you are on auto attacks to deal damage, the better Phantom Dancer is. Shiv actually deals more damage in short trades and is burstier, but when you fight for longer PD starts to overtake Shiv in damage pretty quickly. Champions like Vayne, Caitlyn, Ashe, and Draven prefer PD because they deal damage in auto attacks fairy exclusively. Miss Fortune, Lucian, Quinn, and Graves both use abilities to deal a lot of damage and, more importantly, want to burst enemies more than fight for a longer period of time if they can help it.

There's also a couple of other things to consider. If your team has weak waveclear, or if you're being pushed in a lot, Shiv is really good. If you're late game, Shiv's damage has fallen off and Phantom Dancer is probably better by now. If you're behind, Shiv is easier to build and typically ends up costing a significant amount less if you build Avarice Blade quickly. If I had to say what I'd normally build on every ADC I'd go... (note that I could be wrong on some of them, I don't play every ADC so some of them are more or less guesses).

Statik Shiv: Graves, Lucian, Miss Fortune, Quinn, Sivir (to synergize with her waveclear more than anything), Varus.

Phantom Dancer: Ashe, Caitlyn, Draven, Jinx, Kog'Maw, Tristana, Twitch, Vayne.

Vayne, Kog'Maw, Draven, and maybe Twitch (I don't play as him) might consider Shiv to help with poor waveclear.

Just my two cents.

Aeolian Melodies8/27/2015, 12:47:19 AM1 votes

Raw DPS: PD Pushing power/wave clearing: Shiv

baby reksai8/27/2015, 3:24:07 AM1 votes

Agreed with phoenix. Usually shiv is first buy of the two because it is the cheaper item and it helps with wave clear. Depending on the situation i normally always buy shiv on my adcs. Vayne and twitch are the outliers.

Shiv - early mid game PD - late game

Darknixx8/27/2015, 12:20:50 AM1 votes

To me, it really depends on what ADC you are playing. I find that normally, you just pick one or the other, I prefer not to run Statik Shiv and Phantom Dancer in one game. However, my personal opinion is that Statik Shiv is really for those champions that have a lot of attack speed. The reason behind this is the faster your attack speed is, the more you get those Shiv charges. Phantom Dancer is for those more instant killing champs, like Vayne.

Hangsterr8/27/2015, 9:55:49 AM1 votes

item 3087 is an early item build for ADC and usually work on some adc very well so it should be kept like Tristana for example Shiv work well on Yi and Tryn and Yasuo and Shaco......the only 4 melee Champ that I know work well with it item 3046 is a late game item build, that why usually some adc go for a shiv early and sell it later on for it

Hullabaloo9078/27/2015, 11:47:32 PM1 votes

I really like ghostblade on siv. It gives you a nice early game boost because it makes your q do a ton of damage. Go item 3142 item 3031 item 3071 item 3153

Kei1438/27/2015, 3:45:59 AM1 votes

Keep in mind, shiv helps with wave clear. PD's better for 1v1 due to crits.

Shiv has 1% more MS, if you need to kite or rotate alot, its slightly better than PD

Shiv is cheaper as mentioned, but if you are way ahead and feeling good about it, get PD