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Why are Lethality items still not melee only when ranged abused something they weren't supposed to?

Astôlfo·1/12/2017, 2:26:54 PM·27 votes·6,285 views

This Lethality change is just going to make ArmorPen abuse on ADCs retarded again. ADCs were never ever supposed to be able to use flat armorpen, and were one of the MAIN reasons flat armorpen got changed into Lethality, gutting it altogether and ruining it for assassins too.

The other reason was flat armorpen was too snowbally, but there was MULTIPLE other ways to fix that issue. Soft cap of armorpen per level, hard cap overall, reducing flat armorpen on items, etc.

Every single AD assassin is melee. And changing flat armorpen to Lethality gutted their itemization. Meanwhile the ranged ADCs that abused something they weren't even supposed to ever use could still use it (albeit Lethality being a lot worse overall and generally not worth).

And now you're just buffing Lethality and STILL not keeping it melee only? This is stupid as fuck.

89 Comments

RiotRiot Axes1/13/2017, 2:14:20 AM9 votes

We are comfortable with Marksmen buying Lethality items if that turns out to be optimal. As I said before we shipped it, neither killing nor preserving Marksman builds was a specific goal.

We did Lethality to make physical assassins more balanceable. It's not working out well for them at current tuning levels, so we're making changes. Marksmen aren't driving this stat's design.

vOmvbrawfU1/12/2017, 2:28:07 PM6 votes

Why do melee top champions dominate the win rate charts if ranged top are so much better at everything?

Ralanr1/12/2017, 2:33:20 PM5 votes

Riot isn't going to make a bunch of items melee only to prevent abuse. It ruins build diversity.

Sraeg20131/12/2017, 4:46:08 PM4 votes

Every single AD assassin is melee.

Technically Jhin, Tristana, Twitch and Vayne are ranged AD assassins.

Or per new naming methodology "Slayers".

KidOmega371/12/2017, 3:02:42 PM4 votes

I guess I don't see why lethality is inherently for melee champs in your arguement. I know armor pen items used to be typically built on melee only (Old Ghostblade for example) but the game evolves over time and that's just how it goes.

Chamuel851/12/2017, 2:29:59 PM3 votes

What if they wanted to make a ranged AD assassin?

FrostySkipper1/12/2017, 10:27:56 PM2 votes

Quinn > your ranged AD assassin. She literally roams to pick off easy targets

VoidStaresBack1/12/2017, 11:54:55 PM2 votes

Quinn is a ranged AD assassin, and Riot even acknowledges this (she's one of two marksmen classified by Riot as Marksman/Assassin, the other being Twitch).

Making it melee-only would hurt her ability to actually do her job (roam and assassinate), as the lethality items give her a more immediate powerspike and better roaming and burst potential than a standard ADC build.

6Sfool1/13/2017, 12:42:58 AM2 votes

The main reason why flat arpen was replaced lethality is because it didn't scale well, and was way too powerful early game. I don't think Riot had any intention to not let adc's use the stat.

TyrekGoldenspear1/12/2017, 3:18:22 PM2 votes

Well, what was the reasons behind making the hydras melee only?

If we can isolate that reason we can then convince Riot that its okay to make more items melee only.