League of Legends patch 11.13 introduces two new items, Anathema’s Chains and Hullbreaker.
An item that’s designed specifically for side laners, Riot Games’ intention is to empower split pushers to help them “take down towers and whoever comes to stop them”.
Hullbreaker functions “similar to how the old Banner of Command worked”, wrote Riot, with the exception being that the champion needs to stick with their minion wave to keep its effects going.
Here’s the low down on just how good Hullbreaker is:
Hullbreaker stats and effects
Base stats
- Build path: Pickaxe + Phage + 825 gold
- Attack Damage: 50
- Health: 300
- Health regen: 150%
Effects
- Passive: While no allied champions are nearby, gain 20-45 armor and magic resist (level 9-18) and deal 20% increased damage to towers. Large minions nearby also gain 60-135 armor and magic resist and deal 200% increased damage to towers.
A legendary item, the key thing to note is that Hullbreaker doesn’t include any Ability Haste, though it does give decent Attack Damage and health regeneration.
Also note that in order for its passive effect to kick in, there can be no allied champions nearby. It’s a solitary item, which doesn’t benefit you when ganks happen, or if you play a top laner that teleports down to help the team around objectives, which the current meta favors.
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When should you buy Hullbreaker?
T1 content creator and analyst Nick “LS” De Cesare compared Hullbreaker with Mythic bruiser items like Frostfire Gauntlet and Turbo Chemtank. It actually gives roughly the same amount of Attack Damage, more HP, base health regen, and practically the same resistances with only one tradeoff — Ability Haste.
Still, while Hullbreaker has pretty solid stats that are comparable to a Mythic item, LS doesn’t believe you can rush this legendary item as your first buy unless you’re way ahead of your opposing laner.
LS further broke down the limitations of this item in the context of recent changes. In League of Legends patch 11.11, Riot Games buffed Warmorg’s Armor significantly, changing its minimum health requirement from 3,000 to 1,100 bonus health.
When tanks get this, it neutralizes that pushing power of Hullbreaker because bruisers now have an even harder time wearing them down.
Read the full League of Legends patch 11.13 notes here.
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