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Armor pen vs Armor shred

ThurgotOfThunder·1/7/2019, 3:47:46 PM·2 votes·3,389 views

I see a bunch of posts talking about armor pen and how it makes playing tanks suck. That is a true statement, and while I do think armor pen should be nerfed (lightly), I think the biggest issue is armor SHRED. The difference can seem trivial, but applying % armor shreds for the whole team to enjoy can be extremely powerful, especially when multiple champions on the team applying that % shred can benefit from it. I think most instances of armor shred in the game should be changed to pen and nerfed lightly, but the biggest issue is the black cleaver. If only the champion with the black cleaver benefited from the % armor pen it would be a huge nerf to the item, but it would also have fixed a ton of the issues we've had since the black cleaver was changed. It warped top lane, which warped resists, which warped armor pen and crit, which warped damage output as a whole.

Personal opinion: I have always felt % armor pen is a necessary evil but that it should be attached to limitations not buy this one item and the entire enemy team loses 30% of their armor for the rest of the game.

1 Comments

woodvsmurph1/7/2019, 10:45:24 PM1 votes

Uh... conqueror was added because tank base stats beat bruiser base stats even with cleaver vs whatever the tank rushed for item... partly because tank would get first item before bruiser could finish cleaver. Bruisers needed the armor pen so to speak of conqueror to compete. And cleaver is neither deserving of a nerf nor is it the problem.

Tank items switched to be more resistance based rather than hp based... then Riot introduces multitude of true damage options via crit and conqueror plus more %hp damage items (or buffed at least) which basically negates/ignores all those added resistances. So resistances being less useful plus lower hp from tank items after they got reworked and presto... tanks feel like crap.

The solution is to reduce and/or remove much of the true damage that has been added, buff tank durability, and (to keep them balanced/healthy) reduce the base damage tank abilities do to champions by a degree respective to the increase in their durability. I.E. if tanks are 20% more durable, their damage to champs via base ability damage should be cut by 20% roughly. This makes them better do their job, prevents the fiasco we had for awhile where maokai could braindead stick to an adc or bruiser and just merc them with base stats while taking 0 damage, and would make it more viable to give bruisers a healthier alternative to conqueror.