Talk:VPBE/@comment-24896347-20140715104924/@comment-3974211-20140715114228

In my opinion I would take a bigger leaf out of Needlessly Large Rod's book and have Infinity Edge, Bloodthirster, Essence Reaver and Mercurial provide entirely distinctive effects.

Infinity Edge mostly functions like Rabadon's Deathcap and is the raw-power purchase; and Mercurial Scimitar has a very obvious draw, due to the active. However, I feel Bloodthirster fails to make a stake for people's attention. As it stands, it's a strong defensive option (similar to Zhonya's) but all its defensive capability is up-front (which isn't generally when people appreciate defensive decisions). The issue with Riot's initial "fix" was that it would have clashed with Infinity Edge and they rightfully removed the +10% bonus AD; but the current direction is no better. Either 20% life steal out-sustains Infinity Edge or it doesn't, and either Bloodthirster comes back as the must-purchase or it continues to be largely ignored. This patch also saw Essence Reaver get buffed to a B. F. tier item, granting largely the same stats as Bloodthirster - so I think Bloodthirster needs to go more in the direction of clutch defensive active rather the life steal.

Inspired by its name, "You become immobile and invulnerable for the next 1.5 seconds, restoring health equal to X% of the damage resisted by the invulnerability (where X is your current life steal)." Or, change the recipe to include : "You damage and slow the target enemy and gain a shield equal to the damage dealt (shares the same cap as the passive).", thus allowing you a shield even when not at full health.