I always wondered is riot trying to leave that door open for people to try new builds? I mean lets take wukong for example, a full ad champ but his w is low ap scaling, you can't really build ap because it's pointless and does no damage and has low ap ratio damage, why not just leave it has base damage only and not have ap or ad just leave it as base damage only. (just curious not raging)
Mathbalnase5 votes
also old Baron buff
also (very) old paradigm of 'obviously, abilities should scale with ability power'
IcyPepper1 votes
Mathbalnase1 voteswhat about him?
IcyPepper1 votesOh I was just making a joke about your last sentence. Zed doesn't use ability power, despite most of his gameplay being abilities.
I was just being silly.
Mathbalnase1 votesthe 'abilities should scale with ability power' paradigm is, as I noted, '(very) old' Riot stopped conforming to that for conformity's sake ... part way through season 1, was it?
It offers some situational benefits to the champion, at very little cost to balance, rarely causes any problems, and would take effort to change, for very little benefit to the game.
PedramCarter1 votesDoesn't really do anything though, you mentioned situational, if you built trinity force for example or iceborn you don't really gain any benefits from the ap side, wont make a difference as his ap scaling is already low.
GanksLikeGast0n5 votesIt's a means of giving champions utility without giving them OP amounts of damage. Take Wukong for example: Before the Q nerfs he was a very high burst damage AD assassin with a stealth that allowed him to sneak in, escape, or block skillshots. However it also does a decent amount of base damage, with AP scaling. His trades were already pretty decent, but he had to choose whether to save his stealth to escape, or use it to surprise his opponent. Now if you changed the scaling to AD, he would still have all of his previous damage, but then he would have significantly more damage on his stealth. This in turn would take his trades from decent, to oppressive. By having it scale AP, Wukong can keep his utility without becoming oppressive.
FHMarshy2 votesWell look at how many people are whining about Riven just because her shield scales with AD.....
AnOstrichWithPMS2 votesyea but they removed ap garens core so that's never happening again lol
SIayton1 votesI always wondered this too. I guess its so people feel less bad building triforce or frozen gauntlet?
AnOstrichWithPMS1 votesmy favorite is shyvana....she has 2 ap moves and then her W is AD scaling MAGIC DAMAGE so if you build magic pen it benefits the W anyway lol
Hard4Hamsters1 votesA lot of it I see is old Champ design or a balancing issue. You'll notice that newer champs scale better with things they want to build more or less, but then you have older champions like Shen who has 4 AP scaling abilities but doesn't usually build AP at all. On the other side, Pantheon's ULT has AP scaling because if it was based off of AD, it would do way too much damage with a build that benefits the rest of his kit of 100-0 burst. I could be wrong, but I do like the ability to do those quirky builds. Some champions, particularly AP mages scale perfectly with one stat. Maybe it has to do with lore and magic that the champions use to cast those abilities. Take Garen for example. His ULT you would expect to scale off of AP as a magical sword from the sky smites an enemy. Same could be applied to Wukong's W, as it is an illusion and not a physical attack. You could probably find contradictions to this but I'm just spitballing.
Kazaashi1 votesI think of it this way:
Caitlyn's Q scales off of AD because it is basically just an affect of her gun, which used to attack, therefore the ability scales off AD.
Shaco's E uses his shiv to deliver the dmg, but the poison on the blade is the real dmg dealer, so it scales off of AP because it is a special ability on the shiv that deals the dmg, not the shiv itself.
Kodyack1 votesI think of it this way:
Caitlyn's Q scales off of AD because it is basically just an affect of her gun, which used to attack, therefore the ability scales off AD.
Shaco's E uses his shiv to deliver the dmg, but the poison on the blade is the real dmg dealer, so it scales off of AP because it is a special ability on the shiv that deals the dmg, not the shiv itself.
so, Zed throws a shuriken, it'd be interesting if the shadow one did magic and the physical did physical, but it doesn't... so there's that, also his shadow slash does pure physical damage and scales off AD, even though it's a non-physical attack (or it appears to be)
Cho on the other hand, his ult bites you for AP scaling true damage, and his E is spikes that do magic damage that scale with AP as well.
is an oddball as well, though he's more hybrid
magic damage bonus on atuo, mainly an AP/tank champ despite using A GIANT FREAKING ANCHOR
landing on people does magic damage
I think you probably get where i'm going with this; AD and AP scaling makes no sense whatsoever anymore.
Kazaashi1 votes
so, Zed throws a shuriken, it'd be interesting if the shadow one did magic and the physical did physical, but it doesn't... so there's that, also his shadow slash does pure physical damage and scales off AD, even though it's a non-physical attack (or it appears to be)
Cho on the other hand, his ult bites you for AP scaling true damage, and his E is spikes that do magic damage that scale with AP as well.
I think you probably get where i'm going with this; AD and AP scaling makes no sense whatsoever anymore.
Since Zed's Shadows use a copy of Zed's Shuriken, it would do the same thing as the real one, which would be AD. Strong argument to make it magic dmg, but that would be op game mechanically so they get a bit of leeway on that one from me.
Well, Cho is a ultimately rapacious creature from the void, so his teeth are not normal teeth, but an embodyment of the void, thus they scale of AP.
Pantheon's leap is beyond physical limitations, so he uses AP to enhance his ability to jump.
Naut is consumed by the abyss so, he is getting magical/supernatural help in carrying and using that HUGE anchor, so he scales of AP.
Ez is tricky. I'll have to think about that one for a minute.
This is fun, give me some more!
Axrios1 votes4 fun
Negaflame1 votesTo OP :
I beleave the reason is in case some champions or items would grand AD + AP suck as 
or 
and also champion like 
. because of those events adding a slight AP scaling allow those items and champions to get a slight advantage. also certain AD could benefit from having a 
as it proc from SPELL DMG and not magic dmg (Vs heavy armor champions).
it open more doors for people in situational team fights. Maybe there would be so much armor that giving a AD a certain A build would better proc in the battle.