Good post! =D It's a really tough choice..
40% CDR is essential on GP, and I found that running 10% scaling CDR runes before these changes gave him the optimal build path too. (Youmuu's 10% + Lucidity 15% + 5% masteries + 10% scaling = 40%)
Essence Reaver is a really good item, and seems good on GP, but if you build TRI then ER you already have 40% CDR cause of the ER passive (20% crit = 20% CDR) since Tri-force now gives 20% crit and 10% cdr. (TRI 10% CDR) + (ER 10% CDR) + (ER-passive 20% CDR) = (40% CDR.)
All in all the changes means that you definitely don’t need 10% scaling CDR from runes if you build ER. Building Essence Reaver also means that buying Youmuu (+10% CDR), Death’s Dance (+10% CDR), Lucidity Boots (+10% CDR) is a complete waste of stats, aka money. And nobody likes wasting money. So you want to avoid Youmuu’s, Death’s Dance and Lucidity Boots if you buy Essence Reaver.
IMO I would rather just drop the Essence Reaver. I never had big trouble with mana after I have Trinity Force anyways, and since the ER passive kinda excludes some really good items I would rather go something like: TRI > Infinity Edge > Lucidity Boots/Youmuu’s > Lucidity Boots/Youmuu’s > 5th item > 6th item
The 5th and 6th items should be very situational. Some of the new items are really good. Death’s dance will give you a really offensive/kinda defensive item and give you max cap CDR. The new last whisper upgrades kinda sucks imo since the armor pen only counts for BONUS armor. That means they basically does nothing against marksmen, midlaners etc. that don’t stack armor. It can work in some situations, like if they have soraka + malphite, the Mortal Reminder would be good. If you want to do pure splitpushing all game I would definitely get Phantom Dancer.
For 5th and 6th item I would choose 2 of these: - Second Infinity Edge (insane dmg = fun) - Death’s Dance (if I don’t have 10% scaling CDR from runes) - Bloodthirster (damage + survivability) - Maw of Malmortius (if they have lots of AP) - Sterak’s Gage (to survive high burst) - One of the last whisper upgrades (if they are stacking armor)
For starting item the patch kinda screwed GP. The way i played him was just to buy flask, rush Avarice Blade, farm early and spam my ult whenever fights were happening. They removed avarice, flask, mana pots and nerfed Health pots (cost more), and in response came up with Cull and Refillable Potion, which is kind of a nerf to some "farm and sustain earlygame" champions. Cull is worse version of Avarice Blade. Cost 450, gives you an extra +400 gold at 100 cs. Sells for 180, meaning you lose 450-180= 270 gold. So if you buy it, then sell it when you have 100 cs, you have earned 130 gold, which really is'nt alot..
Im not sure what to start for now, I would either start Cull and try to keep it as long as I can, or start longsword+refillable pot, then upgrade the pot. Maybe even start dorans blade if i wanne play really agressive.
We'll see how they change things in the next few patches :D