User blog comment:Khaladar/The Bonecrusher/@comment-4742270-20120609075435/@comment-5159141-20120609172318

Yeah, and that's the purpose. The truth is, this item itself rarely surpasses IE in terms of damage, even with no additional runes or items on IE's side. At 50% critical chance, the average damage of those two items differs by such a great amount, that this item alone could be even considered as underpowered. What it does could be compared to 100%-chance nerfed criticals that do scaling damage that tops at 64,35% if the target has only 1% HP left, and 16,25% in the most common scenario (around 75% hp). Sounds weak, right? But the fact that it actually stacks with other AD carry items and amplifies their effect makes this item so deadly, costly and effective. Thus, this should never be taken on a carry instead of a IE, but rather as one of the last items to keep your damage output at an optimal level.

This item is really strong, and it is meant to be - but it is not OP. People tend to take only the maximized effects of situational items into account and call them overpowered instead of thinking it all through. You can't know it if you don't play with it.