Removing BotF hurts Generals more than Assassins (who have BotS, Renewel, Heaven's Wrath which is typically better anyway) so I'm going going to be addressing Generals in this post.
I don't think that Dark Crimson Vial is inferior. It might even be superior
Doesn't work on Sedna, though it does work on Erebus/Oak due to their high hp. Totem of Endurance is also a far inferior choice for any General that is going an Assassin build, esp given the minion hp bug.
Diamond Pendent sucks. It's +75 mana compared to Renewel and it gives 200 less hp and only half the cooldown reduction (which is the whole point of getting Renewel or Diamond Pendent anyway).
Pendent of Grace is a late game favor item, and would therefore suffer the same drawback as Amulet of Teleportation does.
I forgot that Symbol of Purity gave a (small) hp bonus, I'll have to look into that the next time I fight Oak/Erebus/UB trinity the next time I play as my hybrid Oak.
Blood Soaked Wand is raped by Silence or any team with UB + TB/Erebus/Rook. It's cast time is simply too long to be useful except for healing by the tower (I used to 2v2 with a partner who used BSW, and I've played with it around in high-level games. I have quite a lot of expierence with the drawbacks of BSW. It needs to either give 300 mana and a little bit more hp (1500) OR it needs to have it's cast time halved).
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Take the following "truths" in demigod:
1) All Generals buy monks with their first 1000k
2) All Assassins buy Banded Armor + _____ with their first 1000k
3) If you are laned against a Demigod who is interested in fighting you level 1 over a flag (not BotS Beast, TB, DA or Reg) and you engage (you are not a minion build). Then they probably either have BotF or Renewel both which give an HP advantage.
Assassins also have better favor items (the only really good favor items for generals are Cloak of Night and Ring of Divine Might who aren't health-stacking anyway so we aren't including them in our discussion, though you can HP stack just fine as an Assassin build with Cloak it's just a ganking-favor item which implies a different style of play rather than holding flags and tanking).
Anyway, this means that if you get monks, you are 400 - 1200 hp behind whatever Assassin (not BotS Beast, TB, DA, or Reg) you are laned against... and they probably have a monk. BotF is your only option if you want to hold a flag. If you are content with being 3 minutes behind getting currency and therefore about a 600 gold disadvantage (and warscore!)
Therefore, if you are a Assassin-build general who got monks and want to hold a flag early game, you must go BotF.
