Since its release in the pre-season, the Umbral Glaive has been seen as a groundbreaking item for the jungle role, providing map control at an incredibly low price. However, if it were just an item for jungle champions, things would be very simple; instead, the Umbral Glaive has become a “national item” for a variety of champions as long as they deal physical damage.
If you remember, not long ago, the Senna no-farm meta was rampant in the professional scene; even after this trend faded, she remained a force in the Support position. The reason, besides Senna collecting souls better than before, is that this champion utilizes the Umbral Glaive exceptionally well.
The limited farming opportunities lead to Senna having a tight economy, making low-cost yet high-quality items like the Umbral Glaive perfect for her. Moreover, the ability to detect wards and gain vision instantly is a perfect complement to Senna’s poor attack speed. Notably, it’s not just Senna; another physical damage Support, Pyke, also uses this item extremely effectively.
Following the no-farm Senna, the next meta in tournaments from Europe to Asia has been Crit Varus. While the style of attack effects carries the team more strongly, Crit Varus has a power spike too early, right from getting the Umbral Glaive, allowing players to snowball and pressure opponents before they reach their own power spikes.
The same situation occurs with Assassins in the mid lane like Zed and Talon, as the Umbral Glaive provides damage and enhances roaming capabilities… from very early on. Having a mobile mid laner that can eliminate the enemy’s vision gives you an enormous advantage in sight, naturally splitting the enemy team and being a prerequisite for victory. In summary, the Umbral Glaive is an overwhelmingly powerful item with many strong stats early on at an extremely low price.
So why has Riot Games overlooked this item? The main reason is probably that this item is rarely purchased since it is not on the recommended items list for the aforementioned champions. Gamers tend to build items according to guides, so few people know about and use the Umbral Glaive. Furthermore, in solo queue, matches often tend to drag on, even with both sides throwing the game back and forth, thus diminishing the value of early-game strong items like the Umbral Glaive over time.
Nevertheless, in the near future, when tournaments resume and the Umbral Glaive is abused, it is very likely that it will be nerfed, simply because an item as cheap as this should not possess such a large amount of power.