Kraken Slayer vs Blade of the Ruined King: Which First Item

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Rush Kraken Slayer on Yunara and Kai'Sa. As a first item it out-damages Blade of the Ruined King against almost every champion in the game. Yone is where it depends on who he's fighting.

What each item gives you on Patch 26.19

Kraken Slayer 3000g

• 45 Attack Damage
• 40% Attack Speed
• 4% Move Speed
• Bring It Down: Every third Attack deals bonus physical damage On-Hit, increased based on their missing Health.

Blade of The Ruined King 3200g

• 40 Attack Damage
• 25% Attack Speed
• 10% Life Steal
• Mist's Edge: Attacks deal a percentage of enemy's current Health as bonus physical damage On-Hit.
• Clawing Shadows: Attacking a champion 3 times Slows them by 30% for 1 second.

The two passives pull in opposite directions. Kraken's third hit starts at 124 damage for a ranged champion at level 9 and grows as the target loses health, up to 1.75 times that on a nearly dead one. BotRK takes 6% of the target's current health on every hit (9% if you're melee), so it's biggest on a full bar and shrinks as the fight goes on.

Pick your champion

Marksmen: Kraken

At one item, few champions have much of a health bar for BotRK to take a share of, and Kraken keeps climbing through the part of the fight where the kill happens. Yunara gets the most out of it: her smallest lead is 5% into Galio and her biggest is 25% into Fiora. Kai'Sa wants it against 168 of the 171; the exceptions are Maokai, Tahm Kench, Skarner, and none of them by more than 3%.

Yone: it depends on the lane

For Yone these are one-on-one duels, since he's in melee range taking hits back, scored as the points of health he has left when it ends. Into champions with under 300 bonus health Kraken leaves him 2 points better off on average in top lane and 2 in mid. Into 800 or more, BotRK takes over by 8 and 7 points. His best Kraken duel is Camille and his best BotRK duel is Skarner.

I expected BotRK to take more of Yone's matchups than it does, given how often it's his first buy. It turns out his first item should follow his lane opponent. Against a bruiser or a tank top laner, BotRK. Into a squishy mid laner, Kraken.

How these were worked out

Every item and champion number comes from the Patch 26.19 game files. Each matchup is a fight played out a fiftieth of a second at a time, from eight different starting points, averaged. Marksmen are scored on damage dealt while the enemy fights back, so BotRK's 10% life steal isn't part of their numbers; Yone's duels count it, along with everything the enemy does to him. Every enemy holds the first item of their standard build (the same builds every page here uses).