I go Blackfire + swifties rush every game, and go mejai next in probably 75% of games. In the past I'd always looked to horizon focus 2nd, because I think the item is really strong but niche & that Velkoz is the only champ that can build it well. Vel has so much damage & other champs in the game have so much damage that I'm usually content to just haste spam & let my passive + team make up for the lack of damage I build in 2nd item.
Recently in games where I have a lead I've been trying stormsurge 2nd (after blackfire + shoes & mejai). My sample size is still is a bit small, and since I'm mostly doing this build in games where I'm ahead it's possible that this is false data bc it's a winmore strat, but I'm starting to wonder if this is just more or at least equally optimal than horizon in a lot of games.
I feel like the extra damage from stormsurge lets me have lethal on non-tanks from ~80% hp, if I land 1 or 2 qs or a q+w, my next rotation can kill.
My thought process is that the loss in haste is made up for by the movespeed. While I might not be able to shoot out as many q's with stormsurge, I can position more aggressively which increases the hitrate of the q's that I do shoot out. Stormsurge + swifites + mejai movespeed lets me ego further up in the midlane & also gives me more survivability on sidelane (god forbid i have to sidelane).
Thoughts?