There is an undeniable truth in League of Legends Season 11 that the Black Cleaver is in a very weak state. This item now costs more but provides less stats compared to its previous version in Season 10. Clearly, this makes the gold efficiency of the Black Cleaver much lower than before.
It is agreed that the new passive that deals damage based on a percentage of missing health is very strong in theory. However, the removal of the movement speed increase effect has rendered the new passive of the Black Cleaver meaningless. Fighters themselves rarely build much attack speed, and without the ability to move well to chase opponents, you will never stack the armor reduction fully and take advantage of the Black Cleaver’s passive.
In summary, the Black Cleaver is currently an expensive and extremely weak item, leading players to gradually ignore it. For those who love playing Fighter champions, this is hard to accept, prompting them to call for Riot Games to revise the Black Cleaver. Some even argue that simply reverting to the Season 10 version would make this item strong enough.
Will the Black Cleaver be buffed or receive attention from Riot?
Honestly, the Black Cleaver has almost disappeared from League of Legends in this Season 11. The current meta is not too different from Season 10 as Fighters are still strong, but because the Black Cleaver is too weak, it is not utilized. I think the following changes are necessary for the Black Cleaver to make a comeback:
They should reduce the price of the Black Cleaver because 3300 gold is too expensive. You need to stack up to 6 “new” stacks of the Black Cleaver to utilize its second passive effect. The laning phase is the only time you can do this continuously. Therefore, this item does not offer much utility compared to the money players have to spend.
If not, Riot should buff the stats of the Black Cleaver. The truth is that you rarely activate the new passive because the stats of the Black Cleaver are too poor. Another option is to revert the movement speed increase passive back to the Black Cleaver. The current second passive of the Black Cleaver has too low practical applicability and they should remove it.
The Black Cleaver should be an item providing armor reduction for champions who can last long in fights and help the team increase damage output. However, the more I play, the more I realize that I buy it only for AD, health, and cooldown reduction.
Honestly, buying the Black Cleaver right now is like breaking the game.
I wish they would return the Black Cleaver to how it was before. Wouldn’t it make more sense to provide movement speed for Fighters in close combat than a passive that deals damage based on a percentage of lost health?
Currently, the Black Cleaver has an extremely low purchase rate of 2.4%, even though Fighters like Aatrox, Renekton, Darius, or Gnar are still in the meta. This only shows that the Black Cleaver is in a state of being too “weak”. If Riot does not make timely adjustments, it is highly likely that the Black Cleaver will be completely forgotten by players in this Season 11.
