First, let’s find out why people buy Doran’s Blade so much? Many answers will say that this item provides health, damage, and lifesteal, making it suitable for Marksmen. Some players even buy it without caring about its benefits, just because… the shop suggests it.
Indeed, Doran’s Blade offers more stats, but ultimately it is still a starting item that you cannot upgrade into anything else. In cases where there are stronger items at the start of the game, this item can easily be replaced, and in this specific case, that item is the Scythe, an item that very few people use but is extremely powerful.
First, let’s take a quick look at the stats of these two items.
Doran’s Blade gives 1 more Attack Damage than the Scythe, a number that is not significant and can be overlooked. Doran’s Blade provides an additional 80 health, a fairly decent number, and 3% lifesteal. At first glance, these are perfect stats that give players confidence in their power. However, we often forget that lifesteal will heal you based on the amount of damage you deal.
In the early game, it is very difficult for you to have 100 Attack Damage to heal 3 health like the Scythe guarantees for you. Not to mention that your damage will also be reduced by armor stats, so in terms of healing alone, the Scythe provides you with significantly better lane sustain than Doran’s Blade.
Next, what makes the Scythe superior to Doran’s Blade is that it allows you to “cheat” power through the ability to gain extra gold each time you farm minions. Don’t think that 1 gold per minion is small; it will shorten the time it takes for you to complete important items like B.F. Sword on your first back and later Infinity Edge, an item that most Marksmen aim for.
“But 80 additional health at the start of the game is very important, how can we give that up?” many gamers might think, and this is not incorrect. However, in terms of healing and economy, the Scythe has clearly outperformed, and we cannot deny this fact. To mitigate the weakness of not providing health stats, experts have come up with a way to combine it with the Precision rune, Triumph.
The Triumph rune helps you increase damage when attacking, not limited to basic attacks and including skill damage, against enemies with more health than you. So when you buy the Scythe while your opponent uses Doran’s Blade, you will be lower in health, and the Triumph will continuously unleash its power. Essentially, Scythe + Triumph will deal more damage than an opponent holding Doran’s Blade.
So which Marksmen should use the Scythe? Basically, all ADCs can use the Scythe as it is very suitable for the scaling nature of this class of champions. Only a few special cases like Draven or Lucian, champions that need to dominate their lane and prioritize health stats, do not use this item. In summary, the Scythe is a stronger item than Doran’s Blade in every way and perfectly fits the nature of Marksmen.
