So I was playing today, and I got to that point in my build where I asked myself, "Black Cleaver or Last Whisper?" It occurred to me that in most situations, Black Cleaver is the superior item. Now hear me out, I know that the magic armor number is 112.5, but here is my reasoning: both items should generally come later in the game, where team fights are occurring. As an AD carry, your job is to focus their priority targets, which your team should also be doing, so when you have LW you are only amplifying your own damage, whereas Black Cleaver reduces their armor by 45 at max stacks. So if things are going right, you should be dealing some hefty damage and reducing their armor, while your team bangs away at that same target, and generally you will have 3 AD champs: ADC, jungler (Noc, GP, Shyvana, Shaco, etc.), and your top lane AD bruiser. So instead of increasing your damage, Black Cleaver increases your team's damage against that target. Additionally, BC gives more damage and AS

Also, Black Cleaver has synergy with on-hit effects (due to +AS), and gives much more damage to players with lower armor.

There are situations when LW would be better, though, such as:

- If you're a champ who tends to use one powerful ability that scales on AD, or attacks in small bursts, then LW is better because you won't be getting the full BC stacks and the attacks speed won't be helping you.

- If another player is using the Black Cleaver, then yours won't add any more stacks (I think), since they're capped at 3 on one target, negating part of the advantage.

- If you're playing against someone with signifigantly more than 112.5 armor (e.g. Thornmail + Frozen Heart, or Rammus), then the %ArPen becomes much better (Though if people are stacking Armor, then your team is probably mostly AD so having someone with a BC would also help out, or you could get your mage to focus them down for a quick kill).


I can definitely see that in many situations, your team would be better off having one player (maybe the initiator, or someone with high AS) wield the BC while others use LW, or, if your build allows it, get both for maximum armor penetration.

BC is more worth it on specific top lanes/junglers in some situations, shredding armor for your AD carry is a wonderful thing ontop of the additional damage yourself.

An AD carry still needs LW though, as they need to do as much damage per hit as possible.

Also, Xin zhao is a dueling MONSTER with a BC. Jus sayin