Preseason Changes and Penetration

ProfDrDeath·Oct 10, 2014·2 votes·634 views

The preseason changes are going to have an interesting impact on the way penetration works in the game.

"But, Prof, there's nothing mentioned about them changing , , or any other of the penetration items and mechanics. How can it have any effect?"

Simple: Minions no longer possess scaling Armor or MR. It will be just their health that scales through the game.

What does this mean? Basically, penetration-focused builds will be worse for waveclear, while retaining their PvP efficiency. Meaning, Void Staff, for example, will be worse for damage against minions than a Needlessly Large . Same will be true for Last Whisper, which will be inferior to the .

What do you guys think about this?

Also, Lifesteal will be stronger against those minions - they will die in the same number of hits, but since each hit does more damage after armor, you regen more life.

12 Comments

ElkingtonOct 16, 20142 votes

I just wish they would nerf the percentages on Last Whisper and Void Staff.

Nothing feels worse than investing a fair amount in resistances as a bruiser or tank (without %dmg reduction) and still dying in seconds to the very thing you're trying to counter-build against simply because they're stacking penetration.

If Botrk and Liandry's didn't exist at least you could stack health to counter it. I personally feel the above two items have done nothing positive for the game.

PoisonedPeaceOct 10, 20141 votes

Minions take increased damage when their armor/mr is reduced below zero, and void staff/LW were never effective on minions anyway

ProfDrDeathOct 10, 20141 votes

Except that penetration CANNOT reduce the effective resistance value below 0.

And LW/VS not effective against minions? Ever tried to kill supers with/without them?

PoisonedPeaceOct 10, 20141 votes

Flat pen can reduce below zero,or is it in the new changes that it can't?

Okay so supers are easier to kill with pen....how often are you wave-clearing supers that makes it a necessary item?

ProfDrDeathOct 10, 20141 votes

Flat Pen never could reduce below 0.

The only thing that can lead to negative resistance values is flat REDUCTION. As in, the debuff reduction.

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Armor_penetration http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_penetration

junglerboy16Oct 10, 20142 votes

Super minions actually have -30 MR base, and don't gain anything per level. MR pen has no effect on them, which is why mages and Feral Flare are strong against them with or with out it. They do have 30 flat armor, but that is hardly enough for a Last Whisper to make a difference (roughly 10 armor pen from it). They just have extremely high health 1500 (+200 every three minutes the game has been going) that means that at 30 minutes, a super minion will have 4500 health, but next to no armor, and negative MR. Conclusion: Magic % health damage is the strongest way to kill super minions.

ProfDrDeathOct 10, 20141 votes

True. My bad. Supers have constant 30 Armor and -30...but they have an aura that gives every minion around them 40 Armor and MR - other supers, too.

Still, normal minions do get Armor and MR currently, meaning that penetration helps against them.

PoisonedPeaceOct 10, 20141 votes

Hmm I guess you're right. The new changes should make life steal much more valuable for laning, which means armor will be more effective. I like it.

junglerboy16Oct 10, 20141 votes

I would agree, except that the % pen makes up the 10AP difference and the small AD difference, they are roughly the same in terms of minion killing power, but NL Rod and BF Sword are cheaper, that is all they have over the void staff/last whisper respectively.

ProfDrDeathOct 10, 20141 votes

Currently.

In the preseason change list, they are mentioning to want to make minions no longer have Armor or MR, but solely HP - which then would scale a lot harder than now.

junglerboy16Oct 16, 20141 votes

No, they said that their armor and MR no longer scales with level, now their hp does. Minions have and will still have armor/MR, now it is just that their hp scales per level and their armor/MR doesn't (it stays at the flat base values).