Why do pros go for so much magic pen? When is magic pen worth it and when is it not?

GeyWeedLord·10/4/2018, 3:10:23 AM·1 votes·1,943 views

https://www.probuilds.net/guide/show/BR/1438831400/536088

I see pros buy items like morellenom, sorcerer's shoes, and void staff, yet usually there is only 1 or 2 people on the opposing team with any magic resist at all (often just 1 item). Just looking for someone to explain to me whether those items are still worth it in those situations vs other ability-based items. As far as I know, extra magic pen is basically useless. Not saying these pros are wrong. I am more interested in figuring out a rule of thumb for when magic pen is worth it vs when its not. Also curious whether void staff is worth it if sorcerers is your only pen item (like boots), or if becomes worth it once you have 2 others?

9 Comments

Lets have shrex10/4/2018, 10:26:46 AM3 votes

Because Void staff is fairly overtunned, while MR feels too strong on its side, one hard-counters the other, and not in a fair way Try it, fight someone with 1 MR item without a Void staff, and then do it again with a Void staff, you're going to see the huge difference (yesterday for instance, I was fighting a Darius in ARAM as Leblanc , he had item 3071 item 3053 item 3065 item 3111 , I had item 3020 item 3089 item 3285 item 3135 and instantly procc'd his with Q W E)

Sometimes if I see someone getting item 3155 , I directly go for a Void after my first mana item. And yeah also item 3020 item 3916 give too much pene while being cheap (if the enemies don't have any healer, just get you don't even need to upgrade it until late game)

Lv60 Retri Pala10/4/2018, 10:57:14 AM2 votes

Flat mpen is better when the enemy has barely any MR. If you go penetration early you take away the ability of the tank to solo tank you for all eternity. Usually in pro play tanks get focused first so whoever shreds the tanks first wins the Teamfight.

BLACK REALM GOD10/4/2018, 4:40:47 PM2 votes

item 3165 vs item 3065

item 3135 vs item 3102

item 3020 = bonus?

item 3091 ?

item 3001 ?

it helps you with late game as a mage or any champion that have high amounts of magic damage reliance.

Illabethe10/4/2018, 3:26:53 AM2 votes

If you can get Mag resist to 0, some times Mag pen can actually amplify damage.

Building it's also insurance against future building of mag resist by opponents and leaving you with 5-10 minutes where you can do nothing to counter their resist while trying to build up gold to buy it.

I'm pretty sure they get Morellonomicon for a different reason though : about 40% of the current meta of champions have direct heal sustains in their kits..... making not having it an absolute disadvantage.

Cotten Eyed Joe10/4/2018, 3:31:13 AM2 votes

See the thing is that MR can go negative. So you deal more than the normal amount of dmg. So if you're playing like Katarina, this is amazing. You're an even burstier assassin now. Think of this like how lethality works with people who don't build armor. They die quick. and MR does the same. Plus, if they do build MR, well they need to build more.

GeyWeedLord10/29/2018, 3:01:37 AM1 votes

Ok, I didn't know how flat pen worked before, so I basically thought that it did nothing if you didn't have another magic pen item. Now that I see how it works the answer seems obvious to me. Thanks for the replies, appreciate the helpfulness on here.

Tesladin10/4/2018, 7:49:49 AM1 votes

I often go for void staff 3rd sometimes 4th item. Been doing this for a long time

Salron10/4/2018, 8:03:29 AM1 votes

flat pen is better the less MR the enemy has

Most ranged champs have like 30 base MR so sorcs + oblivion orb is 33 MPen which means you're dealing nearly true damage to them

Critmaster Garen10/4/2018, 8:08:30 AM1 votes

think of it as % damage amp on the damage youre already dealing.