Jungling: Bilgewater Cutlass

Bilgewater Cutlass is a much-maligned item. What little play it saw vanished with the nerfs to Hextech Gunblade some months ago. As a jungler, however, I find Cutlass to be an item with potential.

My opinion of Cutlass changed when, on a whim, I built it instead of Wriggle's Lantern while jungling Jax. Though I sacrificed Armor, free wards, and the unique proc I gained AD, Life Steal, and an incredible active for ganking and dueling. Subsequently I dominated the game, enough to motivate an analysis of the role my early item choice played.

It's important to consider Cutlass on its own, without assuming it will be upgraded into Gunblade. While Jax and a few oddball junglers obviously enjoy Gunblade, the vast majority of junglers do not make good use of both AD and AP. On many champions Gunblade might not be the worst idea in the latest stages of a game, but realistically Cutlass must be treated as an alternative to Wriggle's.

Cutlass worked well in my Jax game because he has extremely high single-target damage, even without items. Through his passive and his ultimate's passive he already demolishes buff camps and dragon. Because Jax' simply doesn't need Wriggle's procs or defensive stats to quickly clear even the toughest of camps, the superior ganking and dueling power of Cutlass is more valuable.

The requirement for building Cutlass over Wriggle's is therefore the ability to clear and control the jungle without Wriggle's. Without this ability, no matter how much Cutlass' active may aid your ganks, Cutlass is not a viable alternative. Moreover, Champions who commonly build double gp10 will largely be uninterested in Cutlass. Unfortunately for Cutlass the list of champions who can both control the jungle without Wriggle's and don't build double gp10s is very small.

While Cutlass has potential on a handful of champions, it won't be replacing Wriggle's any time soon. I highly recommend trying it on Jax or any champion you think can get away with it, but most champions will still be better off with Wriggle's or double gp10s.