Youmuu's Ghostblade, Phantom Dancer or Statikk Shiv: What item is best for you?

 

Using these items in the correct situations will highly ensure you success in solo queue. With the removal of the Deathfire Grasp in the Mid Lane, ADC itemization has become the most diverse. As any other guide will tell you, be sure to watch Pro League and Pro streamers as those will guide you to chosing the correct build path. Itemization is very important. You want to have a lot of DPS against a tanky team so Phantom Dancer might be your best choice. When your team lacks major wave clear then Shiv might be the route that's best for your team. Looking to duel the enemy carry and not worry much about a squishier team? Youmuu's Ghostblade is your best bet!

This guide was designed to express the pros and cons of these three items. Once you develop the skill and mindset to use the appropriate items for certain situations you will have found that your Solo Queue success will be much better! Then you can finally get away from those Statikk Shiv rush Miss Fortunes. (We've all been there. That's just the beauty of Solo Queue!) Here we go!

Youmuu's Ghostblade

Stats: +30 Attack Damage +15% critical strike chance +10% CDR
Passive: 20% Armor Penetration
Active: Gain +40% attack speed and +20% movement speed for 4 seconds (ranged) (45 seconds CD)
Cost: 2700g

This is a very good item for players that look to duel the enemy. Champions with heavy 1v1 potential like Twitch, Vayne, and Lucian. This item is also very powerful against squishies because of the 20 flat armor pen, which rips through enemy base armor. What you need to always think about once both teams are picked is the mid game, 20 armor penetration is a lot; it's not something to be overlooked. Youmuu's gives greater burst damage than PD/Shiv while the others give more consistant damage over a period of time.  The thing about Youmuu's is that you're really weak without the active available. Lucian is one champion that heavily benifits this item as his ultimate will scale with the active.

Pros:

- Builds from Avarice Blade- the Avarice Blade gives 3 gold per 10 seconds and plus 2 gold per unit killed, a very cost efficient item.
- Offers amazing duel potential with the active.
- Active can channel well with other champion abilities.
- Armor penetration which is huge!

Cons:
- You become very weak when on Cooldown.
- Tanks can easily overpower you with lack of dps.
- Falls off late game.

              

 

 

Statikk Shiv

Stats: +40% attack speed +20% critical strike chance +6% movement speed
Passive: Unique Passive: Moving and attacking builds Static Charges. At 100 charges, your next atack expends the charges to deal 100 magic damage up to 4 targets. This damage can critically strike.
Cost: 2500g 

Statikk Shiv was item of choice in the second half of season 4 into preseason 5. Shiv is almost identical to Phantom Dancer, however, the two main stats, attack speed and crit, are slightly different, and keep in mind the price is cheaper. This item also offers wave clear. The passive of Shiv is really effective on high burst carries such as Graves. With a simple auto E auto attack with Shiv Proc, Q, and R, Graves can typically 100-25 other carries and fragile supports. That is excluding an engage from  a teammate.  The passive offers you a way to deal magic damage, even if it is miniscule. The passive also gives a huge midgame power spike to all ADCs because the magic damage is quite a lot, relative to the game time, especially if you manage to crit with it. However, as the game goes longer and longer, the damage from the passive becomes close to useless on champions, but is an effective form of wave clear at all stages of the game. This is why most players swap out their Statikk Shiv for that Phantom Dancer.

Pros:

- Builds from Avarice Blade.
- Offers excellent wave clear.
- Passive can hit very hard in the mid game espcially if it crits.

Cons:

- Does not offer much crit chance- With the nerfs to IE and the buffs to PD you do not have as much as a spike when you complete this item.
- Passive becomes close to useless in the late stages of the game on enemy champions.

            

Phantom Dancer

Stats: +50% Attack Speed +35% Critical Strike Chance %5% Movement Speed
Passive: Unique Passive: Champion can move through units.
Cost: 2800g

Phantom Dancer used to be the standard attack speed item after your IE. As of recently, with the nerfs to IE's crit chance, and PD'S crit buff, Phantom Dancer's popularity has began to rise tremendously. Phantom Dancer is a very strong item on auto reliant ADC's like Caitlyn, Tristana, and Jinx. Jinx highly benifits from the buffs to Phantom Dancer as her Rocket's AOE auto attacks apply crit to the targets around it. This allows Jinx to clear waves even better than when players would build the Statikk Shiv. Phantom Dancer is a very powerful late game item. It is usually in the inventory of all ADCs unless Youmuu's is built.

Pros: 

- Allows you to move through units and allows you to easily kite your opponent.
- More crit chance and hit harder and faster on those pesty tanks.
- Never really a bad purchase.

Cons:

- Does not build from Avarice Blade and is fairly expensive.
- Not a dueling item, more of a team fight oriented item. Does not havas strong of dueling potential as Shiv and Youmuu's.

             

   

Conclusion

The nerf to IE has heavily effected the status of the Statikk Shiv. Many players have found Shiv inefficient as compared to the Youmuu's and Phantom Dancer counterparts. Phantom Dancer is relevant at all points of the game and really has no punishment. Youmuu's Ghostblade is the item if you are looking to outplay and duel your opponent but you are fairly weak when the active is down. Combining Lucian ult or Sivir ult with the Youmuu's active can create very effective chase with Sivir and also massive poke with Lucian. At the end of the day you should go with what you are most comfortable with. None of these items are neccesarily bad but some are better than others in some cases. Good luck summoners!