Shopping for the Fighter! Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Like all character subtypes, Fighters may ultimately build whatever they want, with the one singular exception that nobody can build more than one Cursed item on their build. Fighter items are intended to balance a need to deal reasonable damage alongside a need for sustained combat and general survivability. Both are paramount.

Absolution is a Fighter item which balances nifty Attack Speed and Physical Power alongside a passive which greatly enhances the user's Armors very briefly if they are hit by a Crowd Control effect.

Aegis of Agawar applies 5% of the user's Max HP as an added on-hit damage bonus to every Basic Attack they dish out. As well, when falling beneath 40% their Max Health, this item gives the buyer a huge boost to their Armors.

Augmentation is a simple beast; on casting an Ability, even if it does zero damage, the user's very next Basic Attack receives a large power spike. This does not operate on a cooldown, so the effect can be abused as much as the player can keep up the Ability spam for.

Basilisk is the Fighter's anti-Tank item, and is essential if they find themselves facing off against a Tank in the Offlane or Jungle, such as Steel or Rampage. On hitting an enemy, Basilisk will apply an Armor Shred. On applying four Armor Shred stacks, it will evolve into Erode, which is basically a juiced up version of Armor Shred. Hitting an Eroded target will stack the Erode effect, making it very difficult for anyone to continuously take hits from the buyer.

Berserker's Axe is an interesting choice for specifically most Offlane Fighters, but also Khaimera, Greystone or perhaps Bayle as Junglers. Whenever the buyer performs a leap, a dash or crosses through a fog wall, Berserker's Axe will steadily increase their movement speed and attack power briefly.

Citadel is, ironically enough, more popular on Tanks and Supports than Fighters. But, it does yield Fighter stats, with the unique effect of reducing the Physical Armor of nearby enemy players by 20% per nearby enemy players. It is a perfectly plausible choice for the back of any Fighter's build.

Cursed Scroll is a very quirky item. It gives a motherlode of Attack Speed but with a brutal dynamic to use such speed with; on hitting literally anything, the buyer will lose 5% of their health. Whatever they've struck will also lose a minimum of 5% of their health, plus whatever else was going into the hit. This automatic 5% continues on every hit until the buyer reaches 30% of their health, at which point the item stops causing recoil damage. For every 5% of health the user is missing, they get roided up Health Regeneration. This item will doubtlessly cause the buyer's HP bar to swing like a pendulum with how it works.

Draconum is, despite its appearance, indeed a Fighter item. Its effect is that it boosts the healing the buyer receives from literally everything by 2% with each hit they dish out to an enemy, up to a maximum of 20%.

Earthshaker is a good pick for Ability-focused Fighters. On hitting anything at all, the buyer's Ability damage is increased by 1% for ten seconds. This buff refreshes whenever hitting something, and can grow up to a maximum of a 10% boost. The item itself also provides some nifty Attack Speed, making it a little easier to attain stacks.

Gaia Greaves are a quirky Fighter item. On moving 100 steps, the next Basic Attack the buyer connects with against anything will deal an extra 2.5% of their Max HP bar in extra damage. As well, the buyer's jump height receives a 60% bonus and they gain a small temporary bonus to their movement speed on striking something.

Mistmeadow Buckler is basically only ever effectively used by Greystone and Grux because of their specific needs and how they are filled by this item. This is, uniquely, an anti-Magic Fighter item, and is the only one of this class to function like that. In addition to standard Fighter stats, this item offers Magical Armor and a passive which reduces incoming Magic damage. Because Greystone and Grux are both very physically tanky, but susceptible to Magic, they are basically the only two in the entire game who really, really want to buy this item in some scenarios.

Mutilator is another simple item. Basic Attacks will now deal a bare minimum of 1% the target's Max HP, and Abilities now do a bare minimum of 3.5% of the target's HP. Of course, Fighters will easily clear these marks even against the absolute tankiest of foes, but the raised minimum floor on their damage output makes the rest of their kit, by extension, deal more damage. It is a pretty good backup pick to Basilisk, to be built in conjunction with it, if a Fighter finds themselves seriously getting bogged down by one or more tanky foes.

Overlord is a scaling item, so anybody who builds this item seriously must build it first to get the most out of it. When the item is complete, it gives two simple but seriously important effects. On gaining 1 CS, the buyer will receive a permanent bonus of 1 to their Max HP, and this ratio holds up when greater quantities of CS are received at once. As well, the user's Basic Attacks now permanently deal a Cleave AoE which inflicts added damage equal to 1% of the user's Max HP.

Rapture is a popular choice on Fighters for its tremendous Attack Speed and huge omni-vamp capabilities, letting it very adequately help the user stay alive thick in the middle of a fight. It pairs beautifully with Overlord, Draconum and works at least somewhat well on any Fighter in the game.

Salvation is a Fighter item which, as per the name, aims to focus on keeping the buyer alive. On falling at or beneath 22% of the user's Max HP, Salvation will apply a shield with 22% of the user's HP and grant them a briefly roided out omni-vamp to all of their attacks. This does operate on a hefty cooldown, but the effect is so enormous that it has the potential to single handedly decide an otherwise even or slightly disadvantageous fight on its own.

Tainted Blade is the Fighter's entry into the Tainted family of items. Simply put, on dealing Physical damage through any means at all, the target gains the Blighted effect and heals themselves for 45% less for several seconds. This item is absolutely mandatory if the enemy team has Boris, Khaimera or Grux on it. Even if it doesn't, though, this item can interfere with all forms of healing, so it is a worthy choice for a build in general.

Tyranny is an excellent choice for Fighters who can simultaneously move and wield their Ultimate Ability at the same time. In other words, because Serath's Heresy Ultimate is more of a self buff than it is a straight up attack, she can perfectly capitalize off of an item like this. Others who could use it might be Adele, who can drop her Queen's Garden and then immediately engage enemies who are hopefully entangled in it, Terra who can activate her Unstoppable Force and try to go ham with it for several seconds, or Zarus who can trap enemies in his Coliseum and then fight them inside of it.

Volcanica is notable as the first item which ever had to technically be nerfed, but only nerfed specifically for stance-switching characters. On casting an Ability, the other Abilities which were un-cast will see a slight cool down reduction. The reduction is nerfed right into the ground specifically on stance switchers such as Wukong and Eden, so badly nerfed that it is essentially unusable for them (not that Eden is a Fighter anyway, but I digress).

Vyzar Carapace is sort of a very soft Basilisk with self-shielding properties. On hitting an enemy, the enemy gains a stack of Scorn. The user must strike an enemy with three Scorn stacks to gain Vyzar Carapace's main benefit; a small shield for the buyer and a small burst of damage to the target, both of which are equal to 2.5% of the user's Max HP.

Alternator, Demon Edge, Dread, Mindrazor and Spear of Desolation are Assassin items. While dealing enough damage as a Fighter is certainly a worthy concern, this must be balanced alongside the need to survive close quarters melee combat for potentially long periods of time. Assassin items do not give any Armors for the most part, they rarely give significant quantities of Max HP, and they almost never have passives which are helpful for one's survival in anyway. As such, they tend to be poor fits for Fighters most of the time.

Amulet of Chaos, Claw of Hermes, Combustion, Dreambinder, Gaussian Greaves and Magnify are all Mage items. Fighters scale off of Physical Power, and Mage items give exclusively Magical power. As such, these items simply do not fit Fighters in general. Although some of them get randomly tiny Magical scaling in obscure parts of their kit, like Serath or Crunch, even they should scoff at the notion of actually committing to a Mage item.

Crystal Tear, Galaxy Greaves, Tainted Charm, Truesilver Bracelet and Xenia are Support items. Some of them could maybe help the user stay alive in some cases, but none of them will help the user deals enough damage to actually competently fight back. Supports are intended to be constantly helping teammates, so it makes sense that Support items do not give much in the manner of self efficacy. The Offlane in particular is viewed as somewhat of an "island", so self efficacy is paramount here.

Cursed Ring, Demolisher and Vanquisher are Carry items. It's essentially the same idea as the Assassin items, where while Fighters could make use of the damage output these items give, they would be at a major loss in terms of sustaining themselves due to these items being purely focused on squeezing out as much damage as possible at the expense of everything else.