The Blade of the Ruined King was originally designed for champions that rely on attack effects, primarily marksmen like Kalista, Varus, Kog’Maw, etc. For Fighters, this item was not very suitable as they are champions that deal most of their damage from their abilities, with auto-attacks only providing supplementary damage. A few exceptional cases where this item works well are Jax and Master Yi.
However, after the 10.5 patch update, the Blade of the Ruined King transformed from being very picky about its users to becoming the “go-to item” for most Fighters. If you watched the VCS yesterday, you could clearly see this trend as even Renekton, a champion that needs a lot of items for direct damage and cooldown reduction, also picked up the Blade of the Ruined King.
Firstly, the Blade of the Ruined King itself received a significant buff, with its passive damage scaling with the target’s current health increasing from 8% to 12% for melee champions, which is already a strong buff. This item is almost the strongest standalone item in League of Legends, so with just this buff, Fighters that possess it will become stronger immediately without needing to wait for a second item.
However, that is just a necessary condition; the sufficient condition lies in the fact that tank champions have been dominating the game recently. At the beginning of the match, when armor and magic resistance are not yet significantly valuable, the percentage-based damage of the Blade of the Ruined King is the best way to counter these tanks. In an era where Ornn and Sett are hot in the top lane, and Sejuani and Zac are returning to the jungle, Fighters are forced to use the Blade of the Ruined King whether they want to or not.
Not only used to counter tank champions, the Blade of the Ruined King also compensates for the power loss of Fighters in the late game, which is extremely important in tense matchups. When owning this item, you will always deal damage because the damage from this item is based on the opponent’s health, so becoming “useless” is very rare.
A typical example is the first game of the match between Ceberus and Team Secret yesterday, where Hani playing Irelia was heavily pressured in the early game, but just by having the Blade of the Ruined King, he remained strong and dealt good damage. If he had followed the usual build with Trinity Force and Sterak’s Gage, he probably wouldn’t have been able to contribute anything.
In summary, the Blade of the Ruined King is currently the perfect item for any Fighter. This item provides everything from guaranteed damage output, good lane sustain and split-pushing capabilities, to immediate power. Gamers should take advantage of this overpowered item to climb ranks before it gets nerfed by Riot for being too dominant.