The WORST Masteries That SADLY Preseason didn't change...
...Are Battering Blows and Piercing Thoughts.
While then are many masteries that are not used as much as others and seem objectively worse than other mastery counterparts, they all have at least different niche roles. Insight is taken WAY more than Perseverance, but there are certain niche champs or players that like hp/regen that would choose the latter. Swiftness is taken WAY more than Legendary guardian, but they are a few champs or players that value a little extra resists than tenacity. Therefore, these objectively worse masteries can be better on a per champ/player basis because THEY DO DIFFERENT THINGS and sometimes it comes down to what feels better for that individual champ/player. BB and PT are not this. They are an exact copy of another mastery (Precision) with which they are competing with, are objectively worse, DO THE EXACT SAME THING (give penetration) and would NEVER be taken if not to unlock ferocity keystones. This is simply bad mastery making.
And if you don't think BB/PT are objectively worse:
At level 1 BEST CASE SCENARIO FOR BB/PT, enemy has full FLAT resist seals and glyphs and is RAMMUS (highest base resists), having 40 armor and 44 MR. This will result in gaining 2.45 armor pen and 3.08 magic pen from BB and PT, respectively. Precision gives 3.3 armor+magic pen at level 1. BB and PT lose by .85 armor pen and .22 magic pen respectively.
At level 1 WORSE CASE SCENARIO FOR BB/PT, enemy has no resist runes and is ORIANNA (lowest base resists), having 17 armor and 30 MR. This will result in gaining 1.19 armor pen and 2.1 magic pen from BB and PT, respectively. Precision gives 3.3 armor+magic pen at level 1. BB and PT lose by 2.11 armor pen and 1.2 magic pen respectively.
At level 18 BEST CASE SCENARIO FOR BB/PT, enemy has full SCALING resist seals and glyphs and is RAMMUS, and also has a randuins, a banshees and guardian angel. This gives him 251 armor (104 base, 147 bonus) and 195 (53 base, 142 bonus) MR. We will also assume you have last whisper upgrade or void staff for your primary damage (if you care at all about pen you WILL have one of these by 18 or soon after). After % pen from items is deducted, (% pen items make BB/PT even worse), BB/PT give 12.94 armor pen and 8.87 magic pen. Precision gives 8.4 armor and magic pen. BB wins by 4.54 armor and PT barely wins by .47 MR.
At level 18 WORSE CASE SCENARIO FOR BB/PT, enemy has no resist runes and is ORIANNA , and has no resist items. This gives her 65 armor and 30 MR. We will also assume again you have last whisper upgrade or void staff for your primary damage. After % pen from items is deducted, BB/PT give 4.55 armor pen and 2.1 magic pen. Precision gives 8.4 armor and magic pen. BB and PT lose by 3.85 armor pen and 6.3 magic pen respectively.
Precision beats BB throughout the game versus most champs. Against the armor stacked tanks (251 Armor lolz) BB will be more effective on, the tiny extra pen (4.54 in our sole winning case) is largely useless at that point anyways. Precision beats PT throughout the game. Period. Even against a 195 mr target its basically breaking even (0.47MR wow). Note that BB/PT have their efficiency lower by last wisper items/void staff by roughly 30% Throw in the fact Precision is both pen types combined, which that fact itself is EXTREMELY POWERFUL early game especially for mages who auto a lot while casting spells in lane.
You have to DIFFERENTIATE BB and PT from Precision more. There has to be BELIEVABLE SITUATIONS (a.k.a. not 400 armor targets) where BB and PT CAN be better, AND OPPORTUNITY COST of taking them over Precision, and vice-versa. My suggestion? Make BB/PT stronger for what they are supposed to do, and that is tank busting/countering resist stacking late game, just like Precision is supposed to be lethal against squishies/lower resist targets and in the early game. Therefore, make BB and PT have 30% BONUS pen each, like last whisper.
At level 1 BEST CASE SCENARIO FOR BB/PT, enemy has full FLAT resist seals and glyphs and is RAMMUS (highest base resists), having 40 armor (31 base, 9 bonus) and 44 MR (32 base, 12 bonus). This will result in gaining 2.7 armor pen and 3.6 magic pen from BB and PT, respectively. Precision gives 3.3 armor+magic pen at level 1. BB loses by .6 armor pen and PT wins by .3 magic pen.
At level 1 WORSE CASE SCENARIO FOR BB/PT, enemy has no resist runes and is ORIANNA (lowest base resists), having 17 armor and 30 MR. This will result in gaining 0 armor pen and 0 magic pen from BB and PT, respectively. Precision gives 3.3 armor+magic pen at level 1. BB and PT lose by 3.3 armor pen and by 3.3 magic pen.
At level 18 BEST CASE SCENARIO FOR BB/PT, enemy has full SCALING resist seals and glyphs and is RAMMUS, and also has a randuins, a banshees and guardian angel. This gives him 251 armor (104 base, 147 bonus) and 195 (53 base, 142 bonus) MR. We will also assume you have last whisper upgrade or void staff for your primary damage. After % pen from items is deducted, BB/PT give 24.25 armor pen and 27.69 magic pen. Precision gives 8.4 armor and magic pen. BB and PT win by 15.85 armor pen and 19.29 magic pen, respectively.
At level 18 WORSE CASE SCENARIO FOR BB/PT, enemy has no resist runes and is ORIANNA , and has no resist items. This gives her 65 armor and 30 MR. We will also assume again you have last whisper upgrade or void staff for your primary damage. After % pen from items is deducted, BB/PT give 0 armor pen and 0 magic pen. Precision gives 8.4 armor and magic pen. BB and PT lose by 8.4 armor pen and 8.4 magic pen.
As you can see, BB/PT will start off extremely weak compared to Precision. AND it will remain worse than precision UNTIL the enemy gets 51 bonus armor or 43 bonus mr (at lvl 18), which is when all 3 masteries give equal (8.4) pen. Therefore later game, it will be the same or even much worse again squishies that have 1 or less respective resist item, but will also be much more effectively against high resist targets, solidifying its role as a tank buster/resist stacking counter and distinguishing it from Precision.
Important to note: -BB/PT will still be separate obviously, so you can still only get one, either 30% bonus Armor OR Magic pen, as opposed to Precision's dual/hybrid pen. -Precision will scale with level, BB/PT will scale with enemies' resists, so it is your opponent that basically DECIDES how effective your BB/PT will be. -% pen items (last whisper items, void staff) heavily decrease the efficiency of further % bonus pen, and all of these calculations above were solved using those items. Therefore, I realize new BB/PT will be more effective when used without buying these % pen items, but honestly, I feel like people that care about pen/damage heavily (adcs+mages) ALWAYS grab their respective pen item late game, so this is somewhat a moot point. Notably will give new BB/PT slightly more power mid game though, when people have bought a lot of resists but before carries have gotten their pen item.
TL;DR (i don't blame you)
Battering Blows and Piercing Thoughts have the EXACT same identity (give penetration) as its competitor mastery Precision, yet Precision is way better in 99% realistic situations
My suggestion is to change Battering Blows and Piercing Thoughts from 7% total pen to 30% BONUS pen, like last whisper
New Battering Blows and Piercing Thoughts will break even with Precision when targets get 51 bonus armor or 43 bonus MR (about one respective resist item for the target, and assuming attacker is level 18 and has their respective % pen damage item)
Compared to their live versions, this change will make new Battering Blows and Piercing Thoughts: -MUCH worse early-game against practically everyone (potentially giving 0 pen!) -MUCH worse mid-game against no/low resist targets, same against targets who have bought 1 resist item -MUCH worse late-game against no/low resist targets, same against targets who have bought 1 resist item, MUCH better against targets stacking resists (2/3+ same-type resist items)
This change will differentiate Battering Blows/Piercing Thoughts apart from Precision, with the former having a late-game oriented/tank busting identity, and the latter having an early-game oriented/squishy slaying identity.
The fact that Battering Blows/ Piercing Thoughts have not been buffed/changed all season, EVEN when literally 10/10 champs in a game were taking Precision and Thunderlords, ASTOUNDS me. Thunderlord's aint the problem, Riot....
Thoughts?
