'League Of Legends': Sanguine Blade Is Getting A Replacement

Sanguine Blade, the token split pushing item in “League Of Legends,” is set to be replaced with a more refined and well-rounded version in a future update, opening the item’s effect up to a wider range of champions.

The new item, Hullbreaker, will remain largely the same in terms of purpose but with a new set of stats and a new passive that will make it more favorable for other AD characters, Riot Phlox said in a tweet. It’s scheduled to ship on the PBE very soon and the item is expected to reach the live servers by Patch 11.13.

The new item is essentially a rework to Sanguine Blade. Hullbreaker will still serve as a potent tool for split pushers but instead of boosting a champion’s killing power, the item will buff resistances and large lane minions instead.

Hullbreaker replaces Sanguine Blade’s Lethality and Physical Vamp stats for extra Health and Base Health Regen. The old passive effect, Frenzy, which increases attack speed and lethality, will be replaced with Boarding Party.

When there are no allies nearby, the Boarding Party passive will grant players increased Armor and Magic Resistance based on their levels as well as 20% bonus damage against towers. Additionally, a similar tankiness buff is applied to all nearby Cannon Minions and Super Minions together with a 200% buff to their damage against towers.

These changes were made based on Riot’s goal to enhance split pushing strategies without making them overpowered. Lead gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter said in a Riot devblog that they wanted to make split pushing a healthy strategy that didn’t make games boring or frustrating.

In a separate post, Summoner’s Rift lead gameplay designer Riot Jag said that Sanguine Blade’s stats failed to support the intended “solo operative fantasy” that they had for it.

Hullbreaker’s focus on defense and sieges skews the item more towards 1vX scenarios where split pushers may have to defend against an enemy laner and jungler while the Boarding Party passive lets split pushers deal a bit more damage to turrets indirectly so long as siege minions are nearby.

The new item is expected to be very strong with tougher characters like top-lane Shen, Nasus and the newly-reworked Dr. Mundo.