If you're a marksman and a tank builds Thornmail you are pretty much fucked for the rest of the game. Not only does it hurt you when you attack them, it applies grevious wounds so you can't counter it with lifesteal. It is such a strong item that goes under the radar for no good reason.
The JigSAW4 votesThornmail's powerful? You should have seen it when it was, back when an attacker had 30% of their own damage returned to them as magic damage.
Current thornmail returns 10% of your bonus armor + 25 as magic damage on auto-attacks. This is beyond insignificant as if you have 300 armor, you deal 55 damage back to an attacker. I faced a Darius as Vayne top and he had thornmail and I simply murdered him anyway with 10% lifesteal - the wounds/reflect is so pathetic it really does nothing.
Even if you had 400 -bonus- armor the amount of damage taken per auto would be 65. If you have 200 AD with 32% lifesteal you'd pretty much heal for that amount per hit. The attack speed reduction is crap, the damage is crap, and the wounds cut 40% off the heal which is easily fixable - add more attack speed!
I've found Frozen Heart and Randuin's Omen to be far more effective - attack speed reduction permanently in an area around you and Omen for 20% damage reduction off crits with the active slow. Remember, if someone is dealing magic or true damage it won't be effective. Thornmail only applies damage off basic attacks dealing physical damage, so there are better options right now unless Riot reworks it.
Inkling Commando3 votesThornmail only applies damage off basic attacks dealing physical damage,
not true. a caster minion does magic damage for basic attacks and it still gets reflected.
Tahminatrix 1 votesIt does physical, infact I think ALL basic attacks do physical damage, sometimes with bonuses ONTOP OF THEM ( from skills and items and passives)
Except turret fountain thingy? I think that's counted as a basic attack but it does PURE damage which is like TRUE TRUE damage lol.
Inkling Commando2 votesnext game you are in check the colors of the numbers when something is basic attacking you.
Red: physical. Purple: magic. white: true.
turrets do physical damage but Thornmail doesn't reflect but your armor does reduce it. minions only do basic attacks but with thornmail all of their attacks get reflected, physical or magical. proof? i run it on 
all the time and when i wail on minions solo their attacks are reflected. (can even see the purple shots going back at them when they attack)
Tahminatrix 1 votesYou are replying to the wrong person? Or do you not even know what I was talking about?
I clearly know what physical magical and true damage look like.
What are you even on about???
All I did was say every BASIC ATTACK in the game does PHYSICAL damage (which can have onhit and modifiers which do true and magical damage) with the EXCEPTION of Turret fountain / nexus obelisk / enemy spawn, which does a basic attack in the form of PURE DAMAGE
White: True OR PURE
And wtf are you even saying about thornmail, everyone knows all basic attacks (with the exception of turrets due to their passive) (and the turret im talking about since it doesn't even have a healthbar) procs thornmail.
We don't need your (proof) to know that thornmail procs on minions.
My proof? Go into the enemy fountain / spawn , either in practice tool or a game and check death recap.
It will say you have taken PURE DAMAGE
Inkling Commando2 votesall i am saying is- hits brakes wait. wait wait. you are one of those assholes who refuses to be proven wrong and will fight to the death to make sure their point is right. well i ain't gonna dance with you on this sir. you can believe whatever the hell you want. just remember to watch the caster minions when they basic attack you with thornmail on. good day.
Tahminatrix 1 votesWhat point, I never said anything about thornmail all I did was say caster minions do basic attacks in the form of physical damage.
Are you one of those assholes who refuses to aknowledge that they messed up?
Nexus obelisks/fountain turrets do pure damage, go check it out in practice tool if you want proof.
And caster minions do physical damage with their basic attacks....
You have yet to prove either of those wrong and I have no idea why you are talking to me about thornmail when I was just correcting someone about damage types.
The JigSAW1 votesI stand corrected on that one. I forgot the casters do get reflected so thank you.
Tahminatrix 2 votesDon't forget, tanks just lost a ton of hp that they used to get from runes. Now thornmail`s pitiful health makes the item so much worse, especially if you want to opt into frozen heart or gargoyle.
Wilyum2 votesIt's not OP. The reason it isn't is because there are so many % health damage items and abilities as well as true damage skills and masteries. Champions like KaiSa, Varus, Vayne, Kog Maw, and others are not impeded by thornmail nearly at all.
Inkling Commando2 votesThornmail by itself is kinda worthless. you need other armor items to make it somewhat good. such as 
or 
Tahminatrix 2 votesI almost never build it because it only applies grevious wounds to whoever auto attacks, not to mention the INCREADIBLY short duration which was put on it to purposefully limit it to only reduce healing from autos.
And.... it doesn't give much hp, which is detrimental now that half decent hp is harder to get from runes and resistances being much easier instead. (Thanks to the new pick your stats system)
JackMcSnipeyz2 votesIt's not, it's a nice niche item against life stealing champs as it should be, thorn will only actually hurt you if the person is playing rammus.
Elizabeth Keen1 votesI agree, it's quite powerful. Magic resist, though, counters it pretty hard.
MrFawknSunshine1 voteslol thornmail is only really built if facing more then one auto attacker.
and i rather get Randiums over thronmail cuz it offers way more in the way of damage reduction
FOR JUSTICE1 votesbecause of how niche it is. youre only really gonna build it when vs people who like to lifesteal or auto you a bunch, but even then something like randuins would be better if theyre strait auto attackers.
plus, randuins grants more health then thornmail, and has auto attack damage reduction unlike thornmail, and has a soft CC active to boot, with both being the exact same price
