User blog comment:Willbachbakal/(Item Concept) Hybrid Items Must Die!/@comment-6016076-20140620154851/@comment-1330314-20140622022047

Thanks for the feedback! Regarding the Sheen line, my main issue with the AP is that it has no synergy with the actual effect, whereas AD does: None of the Spellblade procs scale with bonus AD, but AD synergizes with the Spellblade effect itself, since you need to land an autoattack to apply the proc, whereas your abilities may not even scale with AP.

While my version of TF has more AD, it actually gives less stats overall, and is worth less gold. It's still massively gold efficient, and the pure AD does tend to work better in general, I think the loss of the 30 AP might also lower the damage of the champions who build it by a similar amount. If that doesn't turn out to be the case, the sum of Phage and my Sheen's AD amount to 35, so it's possible to remove 5-10 AD from my Triforce.

On the issue of Iceborn Gauntlet, I think the item's tuned for tanks and bruisers in general, not just AP bruisers. 30 AP is not significant, particularly with regards to most AP bruiser scalings, and replacing the AP with 15 AD would not lower their damage by any significant amount. Frozen Fist isn't generally picked for the AP in any case. I don't think the 15 AD is significant either for AD bruisers, and the bonus physical damage proc means that the item already guarantees armor and greater physical damage on champions. In general, AD would also work better as it tends to go into physical damage, whereas AP typically goes into magic damage: converting the 30 AP to 15 AD would have the item only provide damage of one type.

Lich Bane, on the other hand, is going to be hybrid by design: even with 0 bonus AD, your autoattacks still deal physical damage, so when you inflict a Lich Bane-empowered autoattack you're going to deal hybrid damage in any case, even if it's mostly magic damage and very little physical damage. Giving the item AP and AD will not change the item's use, and the 15 AD on a 3000 gold item means there's very little incentive to build hybrid, particularly as the item itself only gets good if you stack large amounts of AP. Basically, Lich Bane is the only item in the game that would be safe to put hybrid stats on.