League of Legends’ team-fight intensive meta has pushed Hullbreaker down the ladder

Hullbreaker was added to League of Legends with patch 11.13 as a replacement to Sanguine Blade.

The core objective of this item was to encourage players to split push lanes within games as they are often too focused on team fights. But Hullbreaker never made a mark in the meta, as victory in League of Legends is tied to winning team fights.

An item specifically for AD splitpushers is coming to League of Legends' PBE tomorrow and eventually live in Patch 11.13: HullbreakerTentative tooltip (and minion hats)👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/aRel7irVbG

— Dot Esports (@DotEsports) June 9, 2021

Even if a player is split pushing, a team that wins a fight will always get the advantage. At the same time, if all the players in a team focus on split pushing, then the neutral objectives become free for the enemy team, which in the current state is a disaster.

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Neutral Objectives and Team fights in League of Legends are way too valuable and need to be prioritized over split pushing

The two primary neutral objectives in the game are Baron and Dragon. The dragon soul, especially the ocean or infernal soul, is way too broken to be ignored. Apart from that, once the soul is collected, the Elder Dragon spawns, which can pretty much turn the tables single-handedly.

Baron buffs allow players to push and the gold advantage that it provides is extremely important for players within a match. Therefore, players will often focus on the timers and set up fights accordingly to grab these vital objectives. In such a scenario, it makes sense why people will never look to split push in games.

This is because split pushing is only viable if the other four team members can win a 4 v 5 matchup. This is quite improbable, and if a team is that far ahead, then the need for split pushing does not even arise. In most cases, teams will fight for neutral objectives if a player is consistently split pushing. The team will be at a disadvantage, leading to a straightforward game within League of Legends for the enemy.

Team-fighting is also the logical way to proceed as a dragon soul is an instant-winning condition within League of Legends. Therefore, missing out on soul will lose the game for players, no matter how much they split push lanes.

I dont like hullbreaker on fiora.. passive is useless when I tp to fights

— ً (@SLXYZ9) June 27, 2021

However, if all five members focus on team fights, this item feels absolutely useless within League of Legends. This is because the combat power of Hullbreaker is very low, and therefore investing money into this item is a waste of resources.

Unless a player is way ahead in the lane, rushing the mythic and the legendary to assist in team fights will be way more beneficial than this particular item. Apart from that, Hullbreaker is to be built by AD top laners like Fiora, Jax, and others. In most cases, these champions will look to assist in fights as they will have the most levels. Thus wasting gold on this item currently does not feel worth it within League of Legends.

However, if Riot ever decides to tweak this item to increase its combat power to the level of Goredrinker or Divine Sunderer, then maybe it will become the first choice for players.

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This article reflects the opinions of the writer.