Oh really? : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKp8zlN7lgU

You can still get to less than 30% HP through physical attacks, you know.

Hexdrinker is better on champions like Lee Sin or Pantheon who scale off of AD specifically but don't necessarily want to auto-attack a lot.

Wit's End is much more powerful for Warwick or Irelia who do want to auto-attack, and specifically want to auto-attack rapidly, but don't have as intense AD scaling.

Hexdrink: Shield Strength buffed from 300 to 400. Now grants 40 additional MR for 4 seconds in addition to the shield.

Wit's would still be worth more given that its bonuses are always active, but at least this would put Hex and Wit's on roughly equal footing.

Well... yes. Clearly Hex will be stronger on champs that scale with AD given that Wit's offers none. But mostly I'm fishing here for the reason why Wit's is vastly more gold efficient. WW and Irelia both have a very powerful mid-game item that caters to them in the form of Wit's. Lee and Panth have a gimped mid-game item that caters to them.

I seem to recall Morello mentioning that there's a hole in the 2k range raw AD itemization. A simple boost to the AD offered by Hex could help to fill that gap, yes?

When I feel the need to go for one, I'll usually take both.

Hexdrinker and Wit's End serve vastly different roles. Wit's End is something you get when you want to become a tanky autoattacker, like Warwick, Xin Zhao, Irelia, who don't synergize well with crit-based dps items. Hexdrinker is what you get on someone who has abilities that scale with AD but can use some extra hp against casters, for example if they have a Karthus, Poppy, Garen (if he doesn't already kill you with spin), Veigar, Kassadin, Malzahar, etc. Wit's End will probably not save you from certain death, but Hexdrinker will. Hexdrinker will not do a bunch of damage, but Wit's End will. People with Hexdrinker will probably not be autoattacking a whole lot. It's nowhere near as cost efficient as Wit's End, but Wit's End doesn't synergize with anything except Malady, and even then far less than Bloodrazor.

Using both of 'em is certainly viable on some champs. And Hex is situationally useful. Makes a pretty decent opening item to those Warmog's/Atma's builds.

But I would still really like to know why the silly thing is sitting about 1k gold behind Wit's End in terms of efficacy. I understand that it's better on champs with AD scaling. I understand that it functions better against burst since Wit's might not get the time it needs to charge.

What I don't understand is why these minor differences in utility and reliability translates out to Hex being deficient in 1k gold worth of raw stats.

Is it because the test realm version of the thing was stupidly OP and so the released version was a bit gimpy intentionally? If so can we finally fix that issue?

while i like your thinking i feel that hex is not meant to be a midgame item but a relatively early game item

if you are a lee sin soloing vs an annie (god help you) merc treads + rushing hex drinker can very quickly make that a winning occasion especialyl if you compare that cost to say the cost of a RoA's

now what we could see is a item that builds from pickaxe that doesn't promote passively pushing your lane (tiamat) but does scale well by cost (not last whisper)

P.S. before people say last whisper is a great item how dare you insult my beautiful item all top tier players get last whisper on carries are you a bad

i would like to remind you i am talking about mid game itemization where last whisper is horribly gold inefficient

LW becomes gold efficient very quickly as then enemy armor levels start to climb but before they hit about 130 or so its not very efficient depending on runes

Wit's End might be extremely cost efficient, but it doesn't synergize with any other item except arguable Malady. Hexdrinker on the other hand is something you would keep around and make all your abilities stronger and stuff. Hexdrinker does seem like it needs a buff late-game though. It becomes far less noticeable toward late-game teamfights, though it's still great against combo-based burst casters, like Veigar or Kassadin.

And it's not that big of a difference really. Full stacks Wit's End is 40% AS, 50 MR, and 42 damage. Hexdrinker against magic damage is 35 AD, 30 MR, and 300 HP. Wit's End is about 1050+750+~1500 = 3300. Hexdrinker is about 1450+500+800 = 2750. Not bad IMO.

Neh... I suppose this is more semantics than anything else. I don't generally consider the game to be very early any longer past ten minutes or so. Mercs AND Hex by ten minutes would require an impressive combination of being fed and flawless CS.

I really don't have much of a preference regarding whether Hex should be buffed defensively (to help differintiate it further from Wit's) or simply upping its AD by 15-20 (to fill the role of an early/mid game AD item) provided that it gets some kind of upgrade.

Technically it synergizes with any source of IAS and Magic Pen. Obviously that isn't as strong as synergizing with IAS, Armor Pen, AND Crit, but that's why I valued the 42 damage on Wit's at 2/3s the worth of raw AD in this 1k gold figure I've been tossing around the topic.

I'm curious though. How do you think it might be buffed for late game alone?

Maybe make the shield strength contingent on your champion level?

*EDIT of doom!

Also keep in mind that the shield only blocks magic damage and it only lasts for 4 seconds. Valuing it as high as raw HP makes about as much sense as valuing Wit's magic damage as raw AD.

Wits End is miles better on Lee Sin.

I say this as Lee Sin should be jungling and Wits End is an amazingly good jungle item. Jungle Lee Sin wants to attack a lot as you put it.

Honestly Hexdrinker sucks. Excepting perhaps Panth (only real AD melee caster) I can't think of anyone I'd get Hex over WE on.