Some points to note on Avarice Blade:

• It provides +12% DPS, on average.
• As a GP5 item, it is an early game item.
• Longsword costs significantly less, and provides roughly +20% DPS early game and is more predictable.
• Many champs do not have any scaling with crit chance, while many AD champs do have scaling with AD skills. Ashe's Volley, Urgot's Acid Hunter, Renek's skills, etc.
• Crit chance comes more into power late game, once significant AD items have been acquired so crit chance can multiply the effect of those items. This is directly competing with Avarice's purpose as a GP5 item.

Compare this with, most notably, Philosopher's Stone:

• Slightly more expensive (800g for Philosopher's Stone as opposed to 750g)
• Provides strong early game stats, allowing nearly indefinite laning.
• Builds off of a common first-pick item, Regrowth Pendant.

Or Kage's Lucky Pick:

• Provides AP, which is useful at all stages of the game.
• Is comparable in cost (Only +15g more than Avarice Blade)

I bring this up mostly because of Ghostblade. Currently there is no point in getting Avarice first as it provides a tiny amount of extra damage and this damage is unreliable. The stat it provides is primarily a late game stat, which makes it a useless item early game, defeating the purpose of it being a GP5 item. Barring extreme special circumstances (Like Gangplank's Parley or Tryndamere's Bloodlust), there is no benefit to getting an Avarice blade first instead of Brutalizer. Please rework this to make it a more viable item.

Crits are for auto-attacking champs or those with abilities that can crit (this is kind of obvious). A longsword isn't roughly +20% DPS early game. It's roughly +20% DPS at level 1.

You said it yourself, it gives a consistent +12% expected damage output, which is useful at any stage of the game.

It's +20% DPS if your starting damage is 100 and your enemies have no armor, yes.

I think its a good item on a few champions that especially like crit chance.

I would rather have damage instead of crit on a gold per 5 item. Riot can make a new item and keep the old Avarice blade for people who like the old one.

It works good on Gangplank, the little crit boost helps a lot more than you might think if you haven't tried it before. He makes so much gold and crits sqishies for so much damage. If it was re-worked I'd be upset.

Gangplank is an investor. He stacks gold early game and buys into late game.

Right, Gangplank is one of the few champs that can use Avarice Blade. Most everyone else gets very little benefit from it. And this is discouraging because Ghostblade is one of the best choices for most MDPS.

Avarice Blade just needs more things to build into. Right now it builds into Exec's Calling and Youmuu's . .. one is very situational. The other is only good on MDPS.

This isn't the problem. Kage's Lucky Pick only builds into one item (which is typically very situational), and Philosopher's stone only builds into one item. However, these items still provide a strong immediate benefit when compared to Avarice Blade.