Lethality for Dummies

Lethality is not nearly as strong as everyone thinks it is.

Armor is a direct and effective counter against it.

Let us say you have 30 Lethality.

How much Armor does 30 Lethality ignore?

It can ignore up to 30 Armor.

That's a lot of Armor, right?

WRONG!

30 Lethality only ignores 30 Armor if the enemy you are attacking is level 18. 45 Lethality ignores 45 Armor if the enemy you are attacking is 18.

So, how much Armor do you ignore if your enemy is less than 18?

There's a formula for it, but we can skip all of that as long as you can remember this.

Every 15 Lethality would ignore 9 enemy Armor if the enemy was level 0. But there is no level 0.

The scaling is simple. Every 15 Lethality = 9 flat Armor Penetration with an additional one-third Armor Penetration per enemy level. Or 9+6=15 if the enemy is level 18.

So, if a player invests runes, masteries, and items toward Lethality, they would end up with a maximum of 75 Lethality. It takes over 9k gold in game to acquire that much Lethality. Enemies who are level 18 will have 75 of their Armor ignored by a player who invests in that much Lethality.

It takes an even smaller investment in Armor to mitigate the effects of Lethality.

You have your base Armor and most anyone runs Armor runes for at least an additional +9 Armor; so, even if you are some squishy champion like , you should at least have 77 Armor at level 18 without building a single armor item. 0 Gold just to have some armor remaining even against full Lethality builds. Of course, you're practically taking true damage without buying Armor against Lethality builds.

How much Armor do you want after Lethality takes a bite out of it is entirely up to you because Lethality, by itself, cannot and will not ignore whatever additional Armor you gain from items as a result of every champion's inherent base Armor values.

This is why Ninja Tabi are so in right now. It is a cheap investment in flat Armor that counteracts Lethality.

And that, dear readers, is Lethality for Dummies.