Ability Specifics Vocabulary

Rux100·Aug 5, 2016·3 votes·524 views

Can someone please tell me the difference between magic damage, bonus magic damage, "+ X% Ability Power", physical damage, attack damage, and "+ X% Bonus Attack Damage"?

I just read ability breakdowns of and and from what I understand they both seem to need a lot of AP and not nearly as much AD as one would think. And this is embarassing because is my 3rd most played champion and I always build AD, but I'm left asking myself "wtf does he need AD for?" since all of his abilities seem to be magic- or ability power-based.

Am I missing something? Someone please clear this up, I'd be really appreciative :D

16 Comments

Fondling GemsAug 5, 20162 votes

Ezreal has a lot of AP scalings, but his main dmg comes from Q and that scales much better with AD than AP, His passive also makes him do better sustained dmg with AD.

Also, Magic dmg/physical dmg: The damage Type. This deals dmg based on your Mpen/ARpen compared to the enemy MR/Armour Bonus Magic dmg: An ability that does a base amount of physical damage (usually normal AA damage) plus X amount of magic dmg +X% Total AP/AD: Scales with a % of your AD/AP. At 100 AP a 30% AP scaling does 30 more dmg. +X% Bonus AD: Note there is no AP version of this. Only scales with extra AD you build, so the base AD your champ has is not factored in.

CrettAug 5, 20161 votes

These champions have abilities that all scale with AP, but that doesn't mean you have to build them AP. You're not building wrong. They're intended to build AD

BloodyTomponAug 5, 20161 votes

magic damage, bonus magic damage, "+ X% Ability Power", physical damage, attack damage, and "+ X% Bonus Attack Damage"?

Physical damage is a damage type. There are 2 main types: Magic and physical.

Magic damage and bonus magic damage are the same (where are you seeing bonus magic damage btw?).

Auto attacks do physical damage.

Attack damage is a stat that all auto attacks and some abilities scale with. There is base Attack damage and then the bonus attack damage is any attack damage beyond the base attack damage.

Ability Power is similar to Attack Damage. It's a stat that increases many abilities power (hence the name :P ).

+X% ability power is how much of the AP is converted into additional damage (note, it can be physical or magic damage.)

+X% Bonus attack damage is how much attack damage that is bought is converted into damage (note, it can be physical or magic damage.)

+X% Total attack damage is how much attack damage both base attack damage and what is bought is converted into damage (note, it can be physical or magic damage.)

Rux100Aug 6, 20161 votes

So "X% AD" and "X% AP" is the extra attack damage from bought items, but BOTH can be physical OR magic? Not sure I understand.

Also, ALL AAs are physical dmg? Including champs like Victor and LeBlanc?

PhDs NutsAug 6, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Also, ALL AAs are physical dmg? Including champs like Victor and LeBlanc?

Yes, but some champions have nuances. Corki converts half his AA damage into magic damage. Varus gets extra magic damage on his AAs from his W passive. Orianna gets bonus, increasing magic damage on her AAs as she attacks.

GaleWinUnleashedAug 6, 20161 votes

All auto-attacks, regardless of the champion using them, deal physical damage. Some are enhanced by certain passives, abilities, or items such that they deal some extra magic damage on top, but there is always physical damage being done. This physical damage is based on the champion's base Attack Damage stat; all champions begin with a base Attack Damage stat ranging from 40 to 63 (Orianna and Maokai as the lowest and highest, respectively).

The two stats you can buy, Attack Damage and Ability Power, are used when an ability has AD and/or AP scaling. The ability in question may output either physical damage or magic damage (depending on the champion in question). As a general rule, Attack Damage is used for physical damage skills, and ability power is used for magic damage skills.

This is not always the case, though. Consider Ezreal. His Q, Mystic Shot, has both AD and AP scaling. The damage it deals is wholly physical damage, even if your entire build consists of Ability Power items. Ezreal's R, Trueshot Barrage, also has both AD and AP scaling, but it deals magic damage.

Hopefully that clears a few things up. If you still have further questions (or if I raised some new ones), feel free to ask.

https://i.imgur.com/1HvNiEO.png?noredirect

Rux100Aug 6, 20161 votes

I'll use Ezreal since you used him. His R does magic damage. However, that doesn't mean the amount of magic damage it produces is solely based on how much AP I have. Having item 3031 will still increase its damage. Even though gives AD, Trueshot Barrage converts a percentage of that AD into magic damage. So as an enemy, you will need MR if you want to block damage from Trueshot Barrage.

On the other hand, Mystic Shot will deal ONLY physical damage. Even if you buy a item 3089 , Mystic shot will convert a percentage of that AP into physical damage, meaning that a target will need to build Armor to resist the damage.

If this is correct, this is why low-elo players love to play AP Ezreal. Enemies see all the AP he's collecting and build MR, even though his main ability in the end converts all that AP into physical damage anyway. I always wondered why I could have item 3065 and item 3102 and still take so much damage from Ezreal 's Q.

Now I'll use MissFortune to see if I really got it down. Her Double-up produces physical damage, but will scale with AP. If I got it right, this means that if I buy item 3135 , it will take 35% of that AP and convert it into physical damage, meaning that the enemy will still need Armor to reduce the damage taken from it.

One more time: TwistedFate 's Pick a Card will take 100% of the AD from item 3072 and convert it into magic damage, meaning an enemy will need MR to block damage from that specific ability.

Right???

BloodyTomponAug 6, 20161 votes

I'll use since you used him

Yep, that's right.

Now I'll use

Yep, that's right too.

One more time:

Yep. Sounds like you've got it now.

Rux100Aug 6, 20162 votes

Thanks both of you! I feel I can adjust my item builds better with this knowledge! [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

BloodyTomponAug 6, 20161 votes

No prob bob. If you want to know anything else hit me up.

GaleWinUnleashedAug 6, 20161 votes

That's it exactly. It may help slightly if you phrase it just a little bit differently, though.

You said:

"Trueshot Barrage converts a percentage of that AD into magic damage"

Try thinking of it as:

"Trueshot Barrage converts a percentage of that AD into damage. Trueshot Barrage deals magic damage."

It says exactly the same thing, without squishing two steps into one. It's like trying to teach math in a school setting. Expanding it and showing each step individually makes it slightly easier to learn for most students.

For the vast majority of abilities, their damage type is fixed. There are a few exceptions where an ability may switch damage types under certain circumstances. Garen is a good example here. Given a certain condition (that the enemy he is attacking has been labeled as the Villain), Garen's ultimate ability, Demacian Justice, will deal true damage instead of magic damage.

Sounds like you've understood the concept!

https://i.imgur.com/1HvNiEO.png?noredirect

BloodyTomponAug 6, 20161 votes

Also, ALL AAs are physical dmg? Including champs like Victor and LeBlanc?

Yep. All auto attacks have the damage type physical. They're increased my armour penetration and decreased by armour.

So "X% AD" and "X% AP" is the extra attack damage from bought items, but BOTH can be physical OR magic? Not sure I understand.

This is for abilities only. They normally aren't both at the same time if that's what you mean (there are one or two that do, but better to ignore that for the time being). Some of the abilities scale with Attack Damage but do magic damage (which is confusing). There are some that scale with AP that do physical damage. Some scale with both, but only do one damage type.

Take Ezreal's ultimate. It's damage type is magic. It scales with both AD and AP. Regardless of what stat you build it will only do magic damage.

Does that make sense? It's pretty confusing and a lot to take in.

Rux100Aug 6, 20161 votes

BTW, KogMaw 's W mentions dealing bonus magic damage. That's where I read it.

EDIT: Kennen 's W also mentions bonus magic damage.

BloodyTomponAug 6, 20161 votes

Cool. That ability is what's called an 'auto attack modifier'. So it does the damage of his auto attack in physical damage plus the damage of this ability in magic damage.

RisenDarkKnightAug 6, 20161 votes

Ezreal and MF both have AP scaling on their abilities, but they are both primarily played AD. AP Miss Fortune is pretty terrible right now, and AP Ezreal is viable but a lot harder to make work than AD.

Generally any champion that has any AD ratio at all in their kit is an ad champ (the only exceptions are Katarina and Akali I think), while champs with no ad ratios at all are usually AP or full tank.

+x% AP or +x% AD are just telling you the scaling on an ability (I.E. Ezreals Q has a 110% Bonus AD Scaling so for every 1 AD you buy, his Q does 1.1 more damage). Bonus magic damage just means that an ability or effect adds magic damage.

The main thing to note about magic vs physical damage is just that one is countered by magic resist, the other by armor. Miss Fortune does almost all physical damage since her ult, her Q, her passive and her autoattacks do physical damage (and only her E does magic), so she is more heavily countered by armor and armor pen is a better stat for her to buy. That's why the Ghostblade + Duskblade + Black cleaver build is so popular on her.

Ezreal, on the other hand, does magic damage with all his abitities except Q, so buying armor pen on him is less valuable (though you should still get a last whisper if the enemy team has a lot of armor as his Q is his primary damage output). The Ghostblade/Duskblade/Cleaver build doesn't work at all on him because of this.

RisenDarkKnightAug 6, 20161 votes

You can definitely try AP ezreal if you want (Build Hextech revolver and Lichbane early, then deathcap), but it's a much risker pick then AD ezreal, since he struggles to kill minions, needs to land ult to be useful in teamfights, and often has to E aggressively in lane for damage. The payoff is a lot more burst damage and early kill potential.