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Hybrid Pen Runes, But No Items?

Alutrosity·7/10/2016, 5:39:29 PM·3 votes·786 views

I find it a little strange that we have hybrid penetration runes in league of legends but not hybrid penetration items, which I feel could easily be done without having to build any new items, and would offer more health options for those bruisers and champions who deal hybrid damage like Jax, Udyr, Kayle.

Obviously this is just an experimental item but why not have Haunting Guise + Serrated Dirk build into something called Twin Gaze where you gain 15+ magic pen and 15+ armor penetration. An item like this could work well on Corki, Jax, Malzahar's voidlings, Kayle, possibly Yorick though he doesn't do magic and physical damage at the exact same time with autoattacks the way the aforementioned champions do.

Part of me thinks this could lead to some toxic bullshit, because popular opinion seems to be that hybrid champions are either worthless, or completely broken. So my question, is should a hybrid penetration item come out, this way hybrid champions can continue to rev up their damage, and not be forced to rely solely on runes, which is slightly annoying from a customization stand-point. It just feels so odd that we have armor and magic pen runes as well as hybrid runes, but no actual hybrid penetration items, and I think it would provide an interesting option for those hybrid fighters and perhaps leave more room to balance them.

8 Comments

Jbels7/10/2016, 5:42:22 PM2 votes

I don't know if you've noticed, but Hybdrid pen runes are expensive as all hell, meaning Riot wanted there to be a gate to having them at all. Can you imagine how expensive hybrid pen items in game would cost?

67chrome7/10/2016, 6:26:44 PM1 votes

I find it a little strange that we have hybrid penetration runes in league of legends but not hybrid penetration items

We also have energy runes and reduced death-timer runes but no items with either of those things.

Just because it works with runes doesn't mean it would translate well into items.

and would offer more health options for those bruisers and champions who deal hybrid damage like Jax, Udyr, Kayle.

One of the issues with hybrid damage is that ~half of it has 100% armor penetration and the other ~half has 100% magic penetration.

Especially when you take a look at how defensive itemization is set up: item 3110 item 3075 item 3143 item 3047 item 3190 item 3102 item 3065 item 3156 item 3140 item 3111

Defensive items tend to target physical auto-attacks or magical abilities pretty heavily, while offering minimal protection against other forms of damage.

Hybrid damage is already pretty difficult to counterbuild, and as such doesn't really require penetrations to be meaningful late-game. Especially on champions like Jax and Kayle.

popular opinion seems to be that hybrid champions are either worthless, or completely broken.

A lot of that is the community going full-derp when describing hybrid damage champions though.

What most people seem to mean with hybrid damage is champions who specifically want AD and AP, ie item 3146.

Such champion builds generally run into the issue that sticking to 1 damage type offers exponential scaling and an amazing late game, where a full build of hybrid damage items does not. item 3031 item 3046 item 3036 item 3089 item 3135 item 3100

However, as you hinted with a lot of the champions you mentioned: hybrid damage is usually tied to champions that just don't build much damage and still output a lot of hurt. The important thing about hybrid damage is, well, hybrid damage. Udyr Shyvana Warwick DrMundo Nasus Volibear In the case of most legitimate hybrid-damage champions, hybrid armor penetration items wouldn't be game breaking. It would probably help such champions scale well into late-game without falling into the 4 major-item rut a lot of bruisers find themselves in. The issue would mostly be around champions like Jax, Kayle, Corkie, Akali, and more essentially pulling off a tanky assassin deal where they're breaking the game with items not intended for them.

why not have Haunting Guise + Serrated Dirk build into something called Twin Gaze where you gain 15+ magic pen and 15+ armor penetration.

Not a huge fan of such an item, giving something AD AP HP and duo pen would make such an item pretty similar to the old Tri Force where it's an amalgamation of stats nobody can optimally utilize, but an amalgamation of stats everyone can put to good use.

It would basically result in meta-golem stat-check situations, without serving to differentiate various play-styles or build paths.

Rockman7/10/2016, 6:35:28 PM1 votes

You get hybrid pen from runes/masteries/kit. We don't need more flat multi penetration or else they gonna be able to kill everyone early/mid.

Friendly Ram7/10/2016, 6:38:42 PM1 votes

They're runes and masteries for hybrid pen. There aren't many hybrid items period.