Bran, let's discuss this item and compare it to bulwark of hope.
Yes, bulwark's health shield passive and CCR are clutch AF, but pestilence has 20 more defense than bulwark (that cancels out a flat pen item) and is cheaper too.
So why don't you like pestilence outside of countering healing?
I usually get Pestilence if the enemy team has any type of healing and I'm playing a tank. I only go Bulwark of Hope if someone else has already gotten Pest.
Exactly. The item has a very specific purpose for anti-heal. Yes, the base stats are super solid.
Differences:
Pest has 20 higher magical protection.
Pest has anti-heal.
Pest is 150 gold cheaper.
Bulwark likely has 250-350 health more, when the passive kicks in (you're likely going to have this no sooner than level 10, and likely later than that).
Bulwark has 20% CCR, which you might not have gotten from other sources...likeliest other contributors to CCR are probably Spirit Robe, Shogun's Kusari, Oni Hunter's Garb, or Reinforced Greaves / Shoes. (Cap is 30%, so if you get 2 CCR items you'll overcap, but that's fine)
More protection is more important when you're only getting one or two protection items of that type. The higher your prots go, the less effective/efficient they are, per point, and the more contribution health will provide relatively speaking. So, as a first magical protection item, as long as anti-heal is helpful, Pest is probably the best to get. If you've gotten other magical protection before, like Spirit, Urchin, Void Stone, Genji, Pest, etc., then Bulwark will give you a huge survivability boost, and is a good choice if you don't need utility from other items.
But the conversation shouldn't be about Pestilence vs. Bulwark of Hope. It should be, which magical item will suit me best in which situation? Because maybe you're super mana hungry, and the huge MP5 from Genji's Guard, along with the CDR, will be better. Or maybe it's constant teamfight and you want the mitigation from Oni.
Gulf, let me re-iterate my point: "Why don't you like Pestilence outside of countering healing"?
The main topic for this discussion: Forget about healing. Why is Bulwark of Hope superior to Pestilence even though Pestilence has +20 more magical defense (which can potentially cancel out a flat penetration item)?
What Bran said. I only get Pest for anti-healing. If I just need magical protections, I'll grab Genji's Guard or Oni Hunter's Garb instead depending upon the situation and my god choice.
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Yes, bulwark's health shield passive and CCR are clutch AF, but pestilence has 20 more defense than bulwark (that cancels out a flat pen item) and is cheaper too.
So why don't you like pestilence outside of countering healing?
Differences:
- Pest has 20 higher magical protection.
- Pest has anti-heal.
- Pest is 150 gold cheaper.
- Bulwark likely has 250-350 health more, when the passive kicks in (you're likely going to have this no sooner than level 10, and likely later than that).
- Bulwark has 20% CCR, which you might not have gotten from other sources...likeliest other contributors to CCR are probably
Spirit Robe, 
Shogun's Kusari, 
Oni Hunter's Garb, or 
Reinforced Greaves / Shoes. (Cap is 30%, so if you get 2 CCR items you'll overcap, but that's fine)
- More protection is more important when you're only getting one or two protection items of that type. The higher your prots go, the less effective/efficient they are, per point, and the more contribution health will provide relatively speaking. So, as a first magical protection item, as long as anti-heal is helpful, Pest is probably the best to get. If you've gotten other magical protection before, like Spirit, Urchin, Void Stone, Genji, Pest, etc., then Bulwark will give you a huge survivability boost, and is a good choice if you don't need utility from other items.
But the conversation shouldn't be aboutThe main topic for this discussion: Forget about healing. Why is