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Blood Thirster was my absolute core item with almost any adc/marksman I played. However with the current revamp I feel it is focused more towards marksmen with Attack Speed steroids and low mobility. Before the patch, my main marksman has been Lucian and I just absolutely needed to have either Blood Thirster or Blade of the Ruined King when playing with him. Is it still worth buying either item now?

I understand Blade of the Ruined King is stronger for the late game now than it was before, but I have always built Lucian as a burst champion with a Blood Thirster rush into Trinity Force. Will the new Blood Thirster limit my burst potential? If so, what item should I replace Blood Thirster with? I have tried an Infinity Edge rush right after the v4.10 patch and, while it was satisfying to crit really hard early on, I felt like it delayed my Trinity Force way too much. This meant I was in the back line for a large majority of the mid game team fights instead of going in and out freely, doing tons of damage and just sustain through what ever damage I took.

I basically want to know if there is a replacement for Blood Thirster and, if not, how should I play with the new item that favors Attack Speed steroid Marksmen and champions?

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    Very Interesting Question. I actually did a lot of research on this topic lately since ADCs changed completely with it. I'll try to form an answer based on the results of my research but It'll take a while ;)
    – Jutschge
    Jun 20, 2014 at 11:28
  • I have been looking into the math and while the new bt does give you a small barrier of sorts which if you take into consideration the max life steal you would normally get per attack is around 30 hp is a little over powered, however the damage out put is far less now with max stacks than before so at any level right now with just B.T. you would only do your base ad + 80 which compared to 100 with just a small creep wave is a huge difference. This is merely guess work on my part however I have played a lot of games as lucian and with the current BT his damage out put is far less
    – Broken_Code
    Jun 20, 2014 at 11:35

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The new Patch changed ADCs Completely. Before this patch Bloodthirster was basically the only thing to buy on an ADC with very few exceptions (Vayne, sometimes Twitch). Now you have 3 Main Options to rush. Bloodthirster is actually none of them.

Why is Bloodthirster a bad Choice?

BT is just more of a defensive Item right now. It's a lot more expensive and it has lost its stacking power. The reason BT was so strong is because if you had The item and your lane opponent just had the components, you would still deal a lot more damage just by stacking it up. Also if you forced your enemy out of lane before he could buy a BF Sword you were in a huge advantage if you got one yourself. I guess Riot wanted to rebalance this by giving you more opportunities for building a core. You shouldn't rush BT under any circumstances I could imagine right now. Maybe you shouldn't even buy it at all.

Dignitas did a gread job at calculating how the new Bloodthirster competes against the BotrK.

Now for the rest I think you can imagine that Infinity Edge is a lot better than BT (300g more and +25% Crit, +50% Crit Damage). Basically on "Burst ADCs" like Lucian, Graves or Corki you should be rushing an Infinity Edge. Of course we shouldn't forget about the new Item (Essence Reaver) . While this Item may seem a little odd on ADCs at first it's a really strong thing to rush on a few ones. Especially Lucian, Urgot (Yes I'll put him here although noone likes him) and Ezreal wil profit a lot from the Mana and CDR. Also it's easy to build since you it's key components aren't expensive.

On pure autoattackers (Ashe, KogMaw, Twitch) BotrK will be the best choice to rush right now. It got buffed a lot for ranged champions while it was slightly nerfed for Meeles (+3% On-Hit dmg, -5% Active dmg). When playing some kind of Hybrid ADC (Varus, Jinx, MF) the Item should be Situational If you want to Push and Duel early you should probably go for a Blade while IE would be better in Teamfights.

So basically:

TL;DR

  • Don't buy BT
  • Essence Reaver if behind or spamming on caster ADCs
  • Infinity Edge on Burst/Caster ADCs if ahead or balanced
  • Blade of the Ruined King on pure Autoattackers
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  • I can see Essence Reaver being useful on mana hungry ADCs that can be Cait and MF for example. You can spam your abilities without worrying as much about your mana. Ez definitely would benefit even more of it.
    – Jonathan Drapeau
    Jun 20, 2014 at 12:29
  • I hadn't even considered essence reaver, however considering how bad bt is it is probably the best right now as it does half life steal as well as the mana regain passive
    – Broken_Code
    Jun 20, 2014 at 12:51
  • Actually, dont ever buy Essence Reaver. It is very stat inefficient, and unless you're blue build ezreal, the late game fights dont last enough for you to burn through your whole mana pool.
    – eyeofthehawks
    Jul 7, 2014 at 13:00
  • @eyeofthehawks well it got buffed a bit recently. But yes you don't buy it for the Mana-regen but more for the CDR and Pickaxe start which can be useful on caster ADCs.
    – Jutschge
    Jul 7, 2014 at 13:02
  • @Jutschge That doesnt stop it from being a wasted item slot later in the game. Most of the stats are useless, and its only 50 ad
    – eyeofthehawks
    Jul 7, 2014 at 13:03

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