The numbers show up on the screen at beginning of game but the damage boost doesn't seem to work at all. I heard that they don't go into full effect till later levels but all I know is they don't seem to be doing anything.
They work fine, i use Lethality and Magic Pen Runes.
magic pen works fine but the armor pen something is clearly wrong. Ok when i get lets say ghostblade and duskblade my damage is through the roof without runes.
Yet when i have armor pen runes and I get a duskblade my damage is like i dont have any of the runes at all I don't see damage untill i get the ghostblade just like I didnt have the runes at all.
Early in the game the enemy has less health, armor works by increases the value of their health vs physical damage. So at less hp armor is worth less and consequently armor pen is worth less, that is probably what you are noticing. Armor pen doesn't start to be noticeable until the enemy has ~1k hp and even then it isn't as good as later in the game.
Flat armor penetration (the stat is called lethality) scales with level, and is given by the equation lethality x (.6 + .0222 x level).
So at level 1 with 10 lethality, the actual amount of armor you are penetrating is only 6.2222 and doesn't become the full 10 until level 18.
