Can we give crit the armor pen treatment?

badooga·12/2/2016, 8:20:37 PM·2 votes·486 views

To give attack damage based assassins more consistency, we’re reworking armor penetration to be more consistently impactful late game without being overbearing early on.

-- Preseason patch notes

I'm not going to beat a dead horse by listing everything wrong with ADCs. But I will say that it is wrong for ADCs to get huge power spikes on their first or second item while they are supposed to be lategame powerhouses that are weak early on. And generally speaking, these items are critical chance-focused items.

In the same way that armor pen is (was?) too overbearing early on, crit should scale based off of level. That way, it isn't a huge power spike when ADCs get their first item, but they will still be powerhouses late game, fufilling the weak early on, stronger later design that they should have. The specific numbers, of course, would be up to Riot, but should be based off of the intentions listed above.

Of course, RNG as a mechanism for crit in itself is flawed on its own (remember dodge?), but that's for another time. But what do you guys think?

5 Comments

ShaolinToilet12/2/2016, 8:24:06 PM1 votes

ADCs are fine right now aside from a few champions.

Brutalitops0112/2/2016, 8:38:57 PM1 votes

I think that crit builds have some pretty insane weaknesses.

First off, the standard crit build for most ADCs right now is B.F. Sword -> a Zeal item -> Infinity Edge -> a second Zeal item. For most ADCs, this leaves them with around 150 AD, no armor penetration, and no lifesteal until after third item, which means that they have no sustain and no way to break through anyone building some armor. The triple crit build is good at killing squishies, but leave you dead in the water if the enemy team has anyone who can build an armor item or 2 early. Also, buying a Thornmail on a tank will force ADCs to switch up their builds for lifesteal, MR, and armor pen, since they'll be killing themselves on the Thornmail.

Second, the 100% crit build is only viable on a few champions, namely Jhin, though I've heard that it can work decently well on Vayne too. For this, you'll as normal go BF Zeal IE Zeal, but then get an Essence Reaver afterwards. This leaves you with 1 slot to fill with either lifesteal or armor pen, and there isn't always a clear choice. Again, good at killing squishies, but bad at killing tanks and anyone who buys a Thornmail.

Third, a 50% crit build, IE + a Zeal item, doesn't let you have reliable enough crits for killing squishies, but lets you bypass some of the problems from the previous builds.

The last ADC build out there is a highly situational On-Hit build, where you pick up a BoRK. You'll do this when you need to kite juggernauts or get through massive health-stacking tanks, but if they return with armor + Thornmail, you're screwed. At the same time, you can't kill squishy champions particularly fast because you opted for % current health damage for shredding tanks.

The other problem for ADCs is assassins. A number of them can pretty easily dive the backline and kill you, meanwhile a tank is disrupting the frontline and ensuring you're unprotected.

Overall, I think that the 6 item limit and the drawbacks to doing triple crit/100% crit builds can overshadow the positives if the enemy team has a strong, armor stacking tank. Pick Rammus or something and rush Randuin's/Frozen Heart into Thornmail, you'll see what I mean. Any ADC who tries to kill you dies, while any ADC who tries to run past you to kill your team gets taunted. The bigger problem for the game's health right now isn't the crit builds, but how powerful the picks are. Twitch and Vayne have been heavily buffed by Riot recently without proper compensation, making them a lot stronger than where they should be. And, next patch, they're getting both nerfs. However, despite the fact that my main for several months now (Twitch) is getting nerfed next patch, I'm excited for the Kalista and Fervor of Battle buffs, as she is one of my favorite ADCs and in the state she's in I can't play her for some fun.

Kaioko12/2/2016, 8:43:20 PM1 votes

The difference is that crit (for the most part) scales with auto attacks and not skills. Armor pen on the other hand scales perfectly with both auto attacks and skills. Because of this, armor pen lacks the natural scale curve that crit has since the damage increases a lot less after reaching level 9. Crit late game on the other stays relevant and really isn't actually that strong early outside of Vayne whose receiving a well deserved nerf.

Big Lincoln12/2/2016, 8:49:03 PM1 votes

no

crit should be pushed away from ADC-only tho