Has anyone tried a Unicorn build in League?

NinjaFifer·Jan 16, 2015·1 votes·817 views

Over in Smite, there's an ADC build that is very popular where you build no crit whatsoever, but instead rely on straight AD, %MaxHealth damage, and penetration. The idea is that you deal roughly the same DPS to champs in the long run, depending on your champ, but also deal more damage to towers.

I'd imagine the build would look something like this:

I'm no expert on marksmen, so it's probably flawed, but does anyone think that a build with this idea could potentially work in this game? Anyone tried it? Are there any champs who could use this better than others?

12 Comments

JustMyBassCannonJan 16, 20153 votes

The problem with this concept is that all of your damage stats are multipliers of DPS. The general rule with multipliers is that more factors is better than higher factors.

You've got AD * AS * Crit * ArPen for DPS, just as a visual representation. Base equation - 1 * 1 * 1 * 1

Let's just say you have a total of 12 points to allocate between four factors. A build focused on AD and ArPen, with just a bit of AS thrown in, would look a bit like this

6 * 6 * 3 * 1 = 108

But if you spread the factors as equally as possible, you end up with greater DPS

4 * 4 * 4 * 4 = 256

Now, obviously, the stats aren't that clear-cut. The concept is that, if you increase the effectiveness of each damage output stat by 100%, your overall DPS increases exponentially.

NinjaFiferJan 16, 20152 votes

Oh yeah, I know the concept behind the math, but Smite is set up such that the items you can buy have more effective stats in certain areas. The problem with League and this build, I think, is the lack of penetration items. Not counting jungle items, there are 3 for AD. In Smite, there are 7. Stacking penetration is one of the major aspects of the build, since it is a straight % increase to damage as is, and it's really hard to do that in League.

The other thing I think that counts for a lot is the difference between %MaxHealth and %CurrentHealth. In Smite, it's 5% max; in league, it's 8% current. Could be a big factor there.

Hasztalan2Jan 16, 20152 votes

You can't really use unicorn build here. The main factor in smite is the items w/o crit gives a lot more valuable stuff, but here crit simply outclasses everything. Problem is in smite you can miss a lot of stuff due to the 3rd person view and everything including teh AA'S are skillshots but here some1 with critical simply right clicks you and u die.

NinjaFiferJan 16, 20151 votes

Yeah, and I think that the fact that 4/6 items in the unicorn build have penetration (iirc, it's PenBoots-Devo's-Quin's-Asi-Titan-Brawler's). The resistances mechanics in league and smite are similar, so 25Armor = 20% mitigation, but 100Armor = only 50%. Those last points are more valuable, so going overboard on Pen is actually important.

The thing about the point and click vs skillshot is that these guys who were using the build were the pros (I was just watching the World Championships). They can land enough AA's to make the point moot.

BeersteinJan 16, 20151 votes

stacking black cleaver (sucks as is IMO) and LW, then stacking BT and BOTRK is iffy at best IMO.

item 3071 Garen shut up garen. item 3047 item 3111

4nth0l0gyJan 16, 20151 votes

Except that one time it got reworked. That...oh man, Talon was HILARIOUS.

Yulen XoshxiusJan 16, 20151 votes

I actually saw this build before in a match ona lucian, and we lost the match.

NinjaFiferJan 16, 20151 votes

So... was he doing well with it? Was he on your side or theirs?

Yulen XoshxiusJan 16, 20151 votes

He was doing damage with it, but for all I know we could have just been bad or he was fed as well. The main problem was the guardian angel because if we focus fired him he would revive again. He still did enough dps to be priority though.

VesarixxMar 13, 20151 votes

You could do this on champions that have an alternate damage source that doesn't scale with Crit chance like KogMaw or Vayne , as well as on champions that fill more o a utility role if like Ashe Varus Sivir , the main benefit will be how fast you take structure objectives, since crit doesn't afect towers or inhibs and this build is optimized more towards flat AD. The build would more likely look something like this item 3153 item 3072 item 3085 item 3035 item 3252 . These items work as well item 3508 item 3172 item 3042

Also works pretty well on casters, Legolas Varus being a prime example, but you swap out the boots for item 3158

NinjaFiferMar 13, 20151 votes

With the new Tristana, I can see her just being built as an absolute tower menace. Her teamfight is already decently strong as is, and she's got a possible burst caster playstyle with her jumps and resets to utilize the excess AD and Pen. She really doesn't require the crit as much as others might, so she can focus on AD/Pen to really shred towers.

VesarixxMar 13, 20151 votes

The jump in playstyle is more of an AP trist thing, but you still deal decent damage to towers with enough AP, since a % o your AP is applied to towers as damage from your auto attacks.