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What is the ACTUAL counterplay to true damage?

GuesstheName132·1/7/2017, 4:21:16 PM·8 votes·3,998 views

I just got out of a game as Vi jungle, while they had a Garen top lane. It was late game, so myself and the Garen was nearly built. I had about 2.9k health. After 1v1 a Trist to zone her out, I was left with about 1.5k (only had Omen's for armor). Garen was still alive at this time, turned on me, spun in circle (E'd), and then Ulted. Since I was his Villain, he ended up doing 1.3k true damage to me, which ended up killing me. I even Q'ed away before the animation hit but that is a whole different topic.

Now the question is, what could I have done in that situation (besides not get so low and get good)? Building health doesn't help against true damage because true damage is a counter to health, armor, and magic resist. Garen isn't the only person who does massive true damage either. A Cho'gath ultimate can also get to near 1k damage, Darius' ult does massive damage (depending on bleed levels), and lets not forget about about Irelia and Vayne auto attacking with true damage. And none of these are avoidable either, besides Zhonya's. So what can someone do when they take nearly 1k damage (or more) in true damage as a squishy, or even a tank/brusier? Is there truly a way to counter it, or is there no counter play to true damage, but to take it like a man and move on?

47 Comments

EndlessSorcerer1/7/2017, 4:31:37 PM12 votes

If true damage is flat damage then you should be building health. While it doesn't reduce the damage you take, it makes the damage into a significantly smaller portion of your health pool.

If it is percentage damage, you can't build against it. Instead, you have to adapt your playstyle to minimize the number of times it can be proc'ed on you.

Garen only deals true damage to the designated villain. If that happens to be you, stay the hell away from him.

If the true damage is applied using basic attacks (i.e. Vayne, Irelia), attack speed slows can reduce the number of times it is applied.

Rebonack1/7/2017, 4:48:00 PM9 votes

You don't counterplay damage types you cactus.

MunchCrunchLunch1/7/2017, 6:15:48 PM3 votes

lol. wait. you play vi and you complain about garen one ult every few minutes.

dunder kill1/7/2017, 4:24:54 PM3 votes

There is no counter to true damage. "Building HP" isnt a counter.

Who is Taliyah1/7/2017, 6:19:46 PM3 votes

Counterplay to true damage? Kayle ult!

Sire Hippington1/8/2017, 1:52:22 AM2 votes

Thats the awsome concept of garen since his rework, if you are the villain, don't get close or you die. Which means for melees, you either leave him to do what it means or your'e fucked anyway...Some how staying high health works aswell, as the ult does %**missing **health damage.

For darius: Avoid the stacks. He has no mobillity and poor range, just try to get the fuck out of his way once you have 3-4 stacks. If he gets max stacks, the ult hurts alot, if not it actually does pretty little damage. Also, it's flat damage, so shields/heals/raw health all help vs it. Cho has not much counterplay to it other that staying away from that imobile beast, but it's flat damage so a big healthpool helps. Irelia has a limited window of time for the truedamage, it's only 5 sec and then it's on cd. If you really fear the truedamage that much, try to avoid her AAs for that time, which isn't so hard to do if she doesn't get frozen mallet, unless you get into her range without her useing the Q. Vayne needs 3 hits on the same target, you can force her to choose between getting into a bad position or switching targets, but that requires some coordination with your mates and obviously doesn't work 1v1. Though she's generally squishy and shortranged, so landing CC on her and bursting her down befor she can AA alot works rather well.

The idea behind truedamage is to give certain champs tools that are relevant even vs more tanky targets. It may often look absurd, but in most cases, truedamage actually isn't that easy to acces and it is well acounted for in the overall balance of the champ. And befor people come with 'Vayne OP' - whenever Vayne is OP, it's not becuase of her sustained truedamage, but because her base stats, ult steroid and Q amp give her so much raw damage that she doesn't rely on her W to kill about anyone in next to no time.

MrButternuss1/7/2017, 4:27:13 PM2 votes

Health. Pure Health. If a ChoGath ult 100-50 you just buy health and ge has a much harder time killing you ^^ Same goes for Noobchamp No.1 Garen

Meep Man1/7/2017, 5:21:59 PM2 votes

Dodging it. Most true damage can be dodged. Only Vayne's cannot be dodged and she is designed around that fact. All other forms of true damage usually rely on the champion being right beside you or landing a skill shot to do it.

theArtifacts1/7/2017, 5:56:03 PM2 votes

Lifesteal

Cowseed1/7/2017, 6:00:06 PM2 votes

The truth hurts when it rest under a mountain of lies. So your best bet is to stop fibbing.

Quepha1/7/2017, 6:16:52 PM2 votes

There's no such thing as counterplay to true damage. Just like there's no such thing as counterplay to magic damage or physical damage.

You're misusing the word "counterplay."

HongChongDong1/7/2017, 4:34:42 PM1 votes

There is no "Magical fix all" counter to true damage. Building HP or something to otherwise extend your HP bar is the only counter. That, or kill them before they use the true damage in the first place.

With champions like Darius and Garen you just have to avoid getting caught by them and let a solid front line pin them down while you kill them with an ADC. FYI the cheesy control mage bot lane won't help you in this situation.

With Cho gath he can just point and click his ulty at any time so there's not much you can do besides either HARD kite him or just eat the R and move on.

Irelia is irelia. Hope the player is bad and miss uses her Q so she's left without mobility then CC lock her and DPS her down.

The list goes on but in general prevent them from using it where possible or prevent them from using it on someone important if the first option is a no go.

Brutalitops011/7/2017, 4:26:22 PM1 votes

Kill him before he gets the true damage off. That's the whole point of true damage: you can't mitigate it at all. As Riot has said, "True damage should be just that: true. No way to increase or decrease the amount you'll take." They said this when they fixed a bug where the blue smite was dealing more damage if you had Mountain Drakes. I reported the bug on here and I got it to the point where people I was playing against were saying that it dealt nearly 1k true to them in Death Recap. Funny thing about Garen's ult is his doesn't even have an AD scaling, it only scales with the opponent's missing health and its base damage.

Escheton1/7/2017, 4:49:06 PM1 votes

Shields are good. As is health. Personally I like movespeed.

"Hey look, a Garen", Vi said as she simply strolled away. Red lines trailing behind her as her swiftness boots did WORK.

(For real tho, Deadmans+Triforce+Tier 2 boots= safety)

ZT Xperimentor1/7/2017, 4:31:32 PM1 votes

True damage doesn't counter health unless it's a percent scaling; such as vayne, & fiora. So stacking health is your best bet unless facing one of those two champions.

Asayake 5150glow1/7/2017, 8:45:39 PM1 votes

Cho ult does 600 true damage base at rank 3, iirc. To get to 1k he'd need ~400 AP, not sure what the exact scaling is.

If he has that much AP, just melt him before he gets to you.

LordGeovanni1/7/2017, 9:57:52 PM1 votes

They changed the wording of garens ult but its a 33% hp exicute when not the villian magic damage can help but i have never though that armor and magic resist reduce as much as they say they do if they do then certain carries be carrying around big 3000 damage spells before defenses are factored in