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"Unique Passive: Not Unique"

Stróc Dúnmharú·2/21/2017, 4:25:21 AM·4 votes·3,594 views

So, I guess most (read: all) of the people on the board probably have a reasonable idea of why some items have a "Unique Passive: (blank)" on them. Tiamat and the Hydra Twins have it because otherwise the melee carries in the game just build 3 or 4 of them and kill entire teams in just a couple of autos. Bloodthirster's life steal was made unique because a full build late game ADC with two of them could life steal tank both nexus turrets. Thornmail's retribution damage is unique because auto attack based champions would be useless if it wasn't. You get the picture.

Some items that are different items have a shared "Unique Passive" too. Bami's Cinder and Sunfire Cape don't stack. Sure, you CAN buy both if you want, but you will only get the burn from Sunfire Cape, because being able to stack that passive burning damage would be pretty stupid, right?

Now that I've gotten all that out of the way, I want to bring up an inconsistency in regards to the Unique Passives. Lethality. Specifically, these two lovely offenders: item 3147 & item 3814.

Both of them read "UNIQUE Passive: +15 Lethality"

One problem. If you build both of them, you get +30 Lethality. Its only "unique" in the sense that building 2 Edge of Nights would only give +15 Lethality. Now, that might seem fine, but in that case, why do other different items with the same UNIQUE Passive not stack? How come AP mages/assassins can't get +30 Magic Penetration from building both item 3151 & item 3136? I know that One upgrades into the other, but Serrated Dirk DOES stack Lethality with all of the finished Lethality items, meaning that if you get one of each you can have up to +60 Lethality from items.

Now, some will point out that Serrated Dirk stacking with the other fully upgraded Lethality items is fine, because it gives a different amount of Lethality. That is true, however item 3751, item 1413 AND item 3068 all have different damage, but you can't stack Sunfire Cape, Cinderhulk and Bami's Cinder. This seems to be a really poorly weighted form of balance. Either the Lethality of item 3147 & item 3814 should not stack, OR it should no longer be considered a "unique passive".

ALSO, yes there's more, the Lethality items ALL share another UNIQUE Passive. They ALL grant +20 movement speed when out of combat. Same number, same passive, on all of them. And guess what? They all stack too. So yes, if you build item 3147, item 3814, item 3142, item 3134, and item 3252, you will get +100 movement speed out of combat. Well, actually when I tested it, I got +98, because diminishing returns on movement speed is a thing. But still, 98 is much more than the +20 movement speed out of combat "UNIQUE" passive suggests. They should also either not stack or not be called "unique".

13 Comments

Terozu2/21/2017, 4:28:11 AM1 votes

Unique passives don't stack more than once per item, but can stack if two items share the passive, unique NAMED passives don't stack regardless, it has always been that way. I.E. If two items both have, Unique Passive: 15 Lethality, it would stack, but not if you built the item twice. However, if both items have, Unique Passive: Blood Razor - 15 Lethality, it wouldn't stack, regardless of if it's on two different items.
In the case of Liandry's it's technically the same item. in the case of sunfire's it's Unique Passive - Immolate, so no stacking, in the case of stacking you also have item 3153 anditem 1416 which will stack to do 12% of the target's current health on hit. Coding wise this is because unamed unique passives are technically named, Unique passive: item name.

VoidStaresBack2/21/2017, 4:29:30 AM1 votes

Unique passives without a name will stack with similar unique passives on other items, it simply prevents you from stacking the same item over and over again. Sunfire cape/Bami's Cinder/Cinderhulk have a named unique passive, Immolate, which doesn't stack with any other instances of Immolate you have. The cleaver items have this same thing: they are named unique passives. On the flip side, you can get both Nashor's Tooth and Morellonomicon and it will give you 40% CDR, despite both CDR passives being unique, because they are not named, but two Nashor's or two Morello's will give you only 20%.

ZephyrDrake2/21/2017, 4:31:21 AM1 votes

that's literally how unique passives have always worked. NAMED unique passives have never stacked with each other no matter how many items with said NAMED unique passive you bought. Unique passives that are not named you can stack as long as it's not from the same item. That way you can limit how much of that particular stat you can get from items and it prevents certain items from just being bought exclusively due to the nature of the stats it gives

Ok sure but why2/21/2017, 4:36:42 AM1 votes

you should be able to stack six item 3285 tbh

Stróc Dúnmharú2/21/2017, 4:37:04 AM1 votes

That seems like a rather misleading way of dividing the two. Its hardly "unique" if the items give the same value of the same stat. Just adding a name to the passive doesn't suddenly make it more unique.

But the real question isn't answered. Why can't the other "unique" passives stack? What real reason is there to allow some but not others to stack with one another? I understand the sentiment of "its always been that way", but just because its been that way for a long time, doesn't mean its necessarily the correct way of doing things.

Why should Lethality get to be itemized for so nicely and efficiently, but other similar stats, like magic pen for example, be so much more restrictive in how much of it is available to be built by any one player?

Stróc Dúnmharú2/21/2017, 4:53:15 AM1 votes

Well fair enough. I still don't think it should work that way, but I accept the explanation :P

Still, I think that if getting so much of Lethality, which is kind of a secondary stat, is possible, then Riot should allow other such secondary stats (magic pen, AoE burn, +base AD, etc.) to be more abundant as well. Purely subjective opinion, however.