Table of Contents
Key Takeaways from Bruiser Itemization:
- Bruisers scale with AD, but need defense to be able to dish out damage as they are melee
- Bruisers are a mix between Tanks and AD damage, building items that contain both schools of stats
- They are versatile but tend to be split pushers and divers
- Main Bruiser stats are AD damage, health, resistances, and ability haste
- Balancing teamfighting and side laning makes Bruiser itemization complex
Bruisers are characters that scale with AD but tend to take damage while doing their damage. This means that they for the most part build AD together with survival stats like health and resistances. Bruisers typically have some survival spell and some engage spell.
Due to these factors, Bruisers are relatively multifaceted, they can act as a sort of front line, they can flank, they can dive and they can aid in killing the opposing frontline and they can engage. But at their core, they are not the greatest team fighters as they can easily be kited and tend to not have hard engage. This is why they usually want to flank and this is why they are often side-laners.
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Bruiser Itemization Balance
As Bruisers are often top laners and sidelaners, they have to throughout the game itemize both for their lane and teamfights. One can imagine the scale being from focusing on side-laning to fully on teamfighting. Certain items like Hullbreaker are fully on the side of sidelaning, while Goredrinker is on the teamfight side. One would also shift the stats and specifically resistances depending on what one is focused on. But even if one focuses on teamfight, one needs to make sure one can handle being in a sidelane and not get run over by their opponent.
What One Needs to Consider in Bruiser Itemization is:
- How does my character’s trade pattern operate?
- Do I need to win the sidelane?
- Will I teamfight or more skirmish?
- What damage sources will damage me?
Bruiser Builds
Which mythic they take — Eclipse, Trinity Force, Divine Sunderer, Stridebreaker, Iceborn Gauntlet, or Goredrinker depends on how their champions’ trade patterns work for the most part. Certain champions can stack up Trinity, and others go for more bursty trades, making Divine Sunderer fit them better. Characters like Jayce benefit more from the stats of Eclipse due to his ranged and poke nature. Iceborn Gauntlet and Stridebreaker are good for helping you stick to your target. While Goredrinker massively increases survival in teamfights.
If you can spend time autoing or mainly sidelaning, items like Blade of the Ruined King and Wits End are strong. Spirit of Sho’jin if you can consistently get autos in and your cooldowns are crucial and have strong defensive spells like Jax and Pantheon – who can use their CDs to get in and do damage, and block damage to then do another rotation.
Black Cleaver is a good item if you have ways of applying it quickly or if your team benefits from the armor shred. Ravenous Hydra and Murramana increase the damage of your spells and auto attacks, good for both side-laning and teamfighting for characters that do damage with spells.
Defensive Options
Death’s Dance, Steraks Gage and Maw of Malmortius all serve as a way of surviving for longer while scaling with AD. If you will be drain tanking in the middle of the opponent’s team, Jak’Sho is strong. If you build loads of health you can also get items like Gargoyle Stoneplate to survive for longer and survive some bursts, especially useful if you have strong sustain. Titanic Hydra massively increases your auto attack damage if stacking health. Spirit Visage is good to increase your sustain against an AP-heavy team.
Certain characters also want to stack movement speed, building items like Deadman’s Plate and Force of Nature. Since Bruisers tend to jump into the fray, it is also strong to build items like Randuin’s Omen and Frozen Heart if there are several AD threats to reduce the damage of the enemy team.
While Bruiser items are not that plentiful, you can also build almost all tank items, but this is usually later in the builds when they have already built the good Bruiser items. They can also build certain Assassin items, like Prowlers, and Eclipse, these make you much more damage heavy but squishier.
There are also some outliers like Yasuo and Yone who are essentially crit-based bruisers. Where they get crit on usually two items and then build more like a Bruiser. Also, some Bruisers utilize fast auto attacks like Belveth who starts her build like an on-hit AD carry but finishes with Bruiser items.
Bruisers don’t have a lot of options, but they have a lot of factors to account for while deciding what items suit them best, which can make it complex.
