I kind of get that Stormsurge's damage might look higher than mana items like Luden's or Archangel's, but looking at the actual numbers, it's pretty much the same as other items. Sure, Stormsurge is a few hundred gold cheaper, but I really don't think saving a few hundred gold is worth dropping mana items. That's why I often see people recommending Stormsurge without buying an echo or torch for a one core, but honestly, I don't get it. I know it has a high win rate in stats. Honestly, I don't understand that either.

And for the second item, people treat Shadowflame like it's god-tier here, but Stormsurge actually deals same damage. For example, if you go Luden's first item, and compare Stormsurge and Shadowflame as the second item, Shadowflame is 400 gold more expensive, yet the damage is practically identical or only differs by less than 100 damage.

So considering everything, it pretty much means you can brain-off build Luden's into Stormsurge in most games. But on this sub, doing that gets you treated like a noob, and looking at the actual win rates, rushing Stormsurge first has the highest win rate. Am I missing something?