Penetration isn't necessary. It's just a damage increase that gets worse as they buy defenses.

Khristophoros·Sep 29, 2017·1 votes·236 views

Just as an example, 15 magic pen vs base level 1 MR of 30 means instead of doing 76.9% damage you do 86.9% damage. That is a 13% increase. Ok that's pretty good, but it's not different from getting a 13% increase by some other means. The drawback is if the enemy buys MR that percentage drops.

So when I see some of the new runes with % damage increases I'm more excited about that than when I see penetration. Percent damage increases are always good. If you have 10% increased damage it doesn't matter if the target has a lot of defenses or a lot of health. Your damage relative to their EHP increases by the same amount either way.

3 Comments

Bionic JellyfishSep 29, 20171 votes

lets take a minute to think about who actually builds magic penetration other than sorc shoes. Mostly ap assassins such as Fizz, DIana, Ekko, and Kassadin. For them, magic pen is worth it because it increases their damage against squishes who don't buy MR. But these assassins should not be fighting against tanks anyway, so %hp damage is useless. against a squishy, they wont deal enough damage to kill the squishy with just %hp without making them tankbusters like Darkin Form Kayn.

In conclusion, magic Penetration and percent health damage both have their places.

KhristophorosSep 29, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Bionic Jellyfish,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=bLjjww7Y,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2017-09-29T21:44:41.624+0000)

lets take a minute to think about who actually builds magic penetration other than sorc shoes. Mostly ap assassins such as Fizz, DIana, Ekko, and Kassadin. For them, magic pen is worth it because it increases their damage against squishes who don't buy MR. But these assassins should not be fighting against tanks anyway, so %hp damage is useless. against a squishy, they wont deal enough damage to kill the squishy with just %hp without making them tankbusters like Darkin Form Kayn.

In conclusion, magic Penetration and percent health damage both have their places.

I was not talking about percent health damage. I was talking about percent damage increases. Like, "you do 10% more damage". It's always a strong effect regardless of enemy armor/mr.

Bionic JellyfishSep 29, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I was not talking about percent health damage. I was talking about percent damage increases. Like, "you do 10% more damage". It's always a strong effect regardless of enemy armor/mr.

oh i see what you mean.