I think it says something about the state of AP that the average tank build only has one MR item

TotalJerk·Apr 4, 2016·9 votes·419 views

VS anywhere from 2-3 armor items. Life would be so much easier for AP if and it's upgrades were nerfed. 70 Magic resist combined with 500 health and regen is just absurd. Not to mention the fact that both and are such good items that some champions might consider taking them even into an all AP comp.

As an AP champion I just despise the moment when a champion finishes their or because it just basically means that that champion is effectively not worth even attacking anymore except to clean up stragglers the AD champs missed.

12 Comments

ModWulf HelhammerApr 4, 20165 votes

You know that's how it's always been right? Unless the enemy team has an absurd amount of AP damage on their team (think a Lux mid, Morgana support, Lissandra top, and Elise jungle), you don't need that many MR items, due to how AP damage works, where it doesn't come in consistent amounts, but rather in short bursts periodically.

AD damage on the other hand, whittles you down, such that you need a much stronger resistance to it.

SpoofghoulApr 4, 20165 votes

ok ill let you in on a little secret

tanks have high hp regen and a huge pile of health goodluck bursting that, even if they dont buy mr you still wouldn't kill them with your burst combo then they have like 6-10 seconds before you can nuke em again

with the mr item they will need nuking at least 3 times instead of 2

most mages therefore with their range, will pick other targets and therefore you wont really be needing mr that much as a tank.

Meanwhile AD ignores half your armor and every ad user boosts their dps by buying ad, if mages did their total ap as aa magic damage youd bet tanks would wuickly stack that mr but its not the case

meanwhile every ad user does exactly that and adc boost it even harder with crits and as

and with 10 trillion million billion armorpen easily available for barely any gold you gonna need like 5 armor items for armor to make a noticeable difference and even then you still get 2 shot

armor is too weak so tanks dont have room for 2 mr items if they even want to tank

Baby GhoulApr 4, 20163 votes

Tanks counter burst damage, which typically comes from mages, burst damage counters DPS, which tends to come from ADCs, and DPS counters the tanks. (At least it's supposed to)

They're naturally going to build more against the thing that threatens them the most. Tanks shouldn't typically be building that much magic resist because they're built to absorb burst damage.

The only defense items that most ADCs get have magic resist in them, even QSS, which is usually reserved just for Zed.

TotalJerkApr 4, 20161 votes

Sure that's all true, but nowadays I dread the moment Spirit Visage gets finished because the Tanks not only get difficult to deal with, they become borderline raid boss level. The reasons you cited were at one point exactly what people cited as to why magic resist items were more inefficient than armor items. At some point Riot decided to completely abandon that philosophy.

PartholonianApr 4, 20163 votes

I think it says mostly that a tank is expected to tank towers, dragon/baron and champions, and only one of those things MIGHT do magic damage.

Anyway... the whole point of AP champions is that they're supposed to blow up squishies well, but be bad at blowing up tanks (maybe wearing them down if they get multiple rotations without being engaged on). The first half of that equation may not be working well if item 3156 is too good, but hitting the actual tank items is not the answer. It's good for a class to have weaknesses, as long as it also has strengths.

The people who are supposed to die to Leblanc if she catches them alone and they don't outplay are the ones who can't build the major MR+health items anyway, or not without seriously cramping their ability to do their actual job in the team.

RalanrApr 4, 20162 votes

I mean, that only makes sense when facing certain team comps. Heavy AD comps lead to lots of armor.

We don't see many heavy AP comps.

PartholonianApr 4, 20162 votes

If you're actually playing against Ryze Diana Corki Annie then yeah, you would want multiple MR items.

You're FAR more likely to be up against Yasuo MasterYi Zed Jinx Trundle though. Both individually, champion by champion, and especially as a whole team comp. Non-pro players basically don't even think about "is this comp very physical heavy" until after the game when it's time to write another "nerf Rammus" thread.

Zero Skill TankApr 4, 20161 votes

They often even take 4.

Pierce The VealApr 4, 20161 votes

It might also have to do with having 4k+ hp, and bot needing mr because mages don't want to use all their spells on someone they can't kill in a rotation or two.

Sire HippingtonApr 4, 20161 votes

I think thats less the state of ap than that of tank items and adc(wich leads to ap feeling bad)

mr items are far more gold efficient stat wise than armor items right now
most ap champs are burst focused, tanks counter burst and are countered by dps, which usually is dellivered by physical damage
physical damage, especially from adc, is just so high that tanks NEED to built 2-3 armor items if they want to be any tanky, especially since half of that armor is ignored later in the game anyway.

the kast true points have been true all season, which is why tanks usually built only 1 mr item every season so far, unless they face multiple magical damage threats. They also usually take mercs wich also gives some mr.