My Understanding of Magic Penetration

TNHA Baritone·Apr 18, 2016·2 votes·358 views

Flat is for when the enemy doesn't build MR Percentage is for when they do build MR

Yes or No? Also any other information on the topic?

3 Comments

67chromeApr 18, 20163 votes

Yes or No?

Yes.

30 M Pen vs. 30 MR causes you to deal True Damage. 30 M Pen vs. 300 MR does not.

It's a difference of treating a ~76% damage from magic target as a 100% damage from magic target, or 30% DPS increase in the 30-->0 MR case. It's a difference of treating a 25% damage from magic target as a ~27% damage from magic target, or a ~8% DPS increase in the 300-->270 MR case.

Considering 30% more damage from AD, AP, or %AS is 30% more damage regardless of what your opponent grabs: flat-penetrations seeing reduced %DPS increases vs. more MR does mean flat-penetrations are actually hard-countered by what they're named after.

The inverse is true with % Pen. 100% penetration treats a 0 MR target as a 0 MR target, for a 0% increase in DPS. 100% penetration treats a 300 MR target as a 0 MR target, for a 300% increase in DPS.

Also any other information on the topic?

% and flat penetrations synergize really well with one-another to create a global damage multiplier rather than one focused on high or low defense targets.

This is due in large part to %penetration applying first and flat applying second, so 50%+50 will cause a 100 MR target to drop to 0 MR, as 50% of 100 leaves a target with 50, and 50 on 50 is 0.

50%+50 also doubels damage vs. anything with 100 or more MR, so 50%+50 is the main benchmark for double damage. 150/300/450 AP is generally what you need to double QWER damage at ult ranks 1, 2, and 3 for comparison.

It's worth making a distinction between penetrations and debuffs that reduce armor or MR as well, seeing as debuffs always apply first. This causes item 3001 to have very poor synergy with item 3135 .