Why do AD assassins get access to so much, and AP so little?

Krys Star·11/4/2018, 1:31:13 AM·5 votes·939 views

Night's Edge gives them a 7s long Spell Shield, whereas Banshee's Veil you have no control over at all, which they must channel to activate, yes, but they can move while channeling this and if interrupted, is put on a 5s cooldown, and has a 40s cooldown overall, similar to Banshee's Veil.

They are able to stack so much Lethality, which continues to scale into mid and late game, while AP champions are left with one Magic Penetration item, two if they pick up Morellonomicon.

They get to purchase Guardian Angel, which gives them a good deal of damage, brings them back from death with 50% of their base health and 40% of their maximum mana and provides armor, on top of giving them a Stopwatch that they can use one time, thus giving them a miniature Zhonya's Hourglass effect.

They get a retro-styled Deathfire Grasp for AD, Duskblade, which can slow enemies for 99% (even if it's just a quarter of a second, that's insane). Couple this with Youmuu's, another Lethality item which speeds them up, they can stick to their target easily (especially considering every assassin are packed with mobility).

Meanwhile all AP champions get is Morellonomicom which gives 15 magic penetration flat and... Grievous Wounds. That's it...

Granted, mages having access to more magic penetration would make LeBlanc a lot more problematic as it is, but why is it that AD champions get so much access to Lethaility, and Mages only get one option? Shouldn't AD's access be just as limited, or AP's just as free? I'm probably just being a butthurt baby about it, but it's ridiculous seeing how much babying AD assassins get year and year and yet, when a mage is too bursty, it's a huge problem. I'm also tired of seeing all these Resolved traits getting nerfed, and yet Electrocute and so many other problematic runes that are making champions burstier than they already are, are ignored and given the blind eye.

6 Comments

ZephyrDrake11/4/2018, 1:45:46 AM7 votes

why are you comparing Lethality with magic pen?... let me ask you a few simple questions. What is the champion with the lowest base armor (excluding Thresh )? what is that value? now do the same with MR... you will instantly see why there are so many more lethality items in the game vs magic pen ones

Moody P11/4/2018, 1:56:48 AM5 votes

because you're misrepresenting both items to make it seem like AP champions are suffering at any capacity

ignoring that AD assassins have more expensive penetration builds and that armor is maybe twice as abundant as MR and that void staff exists when it's 40% total m pen, that APs have insane range, utility, or superior in-fight mobility compared to their AD counterparts as well as better innate survivals like fizz pole and leblanc's passive

AD items get to be """better""" because AP kits are superior

SmallCheeseCake11/4/2018, 1:36:26 AM3 votes

Ap's have access to deathcap and zhonyas

Super Sandmanne11/4/2018, 1:42:12 AM3 votes

Mages would abuse anything ap assassins would find useful

Titanium7011/4/2018, 1:49:38 AM1 votes

While I agree on the point that Ap-Itemization is quite a joke compared to the AD one... That's not really an isuue for Assassins since all the tools they need are already in their kits and therefore the only utility stat they need is CDR.

Giving AP-Assassins similar tools to AD would be....

.. just imagine for a second LB would scale of AD... [sg-ahri-3]

yeulx11/4/2018, 2:29:27 AM1 votes

kind of a thought ive had.. we do need like 1 good ap assassin item... back in the past we had Deathfires grasp... tho that was just a broken item in general. but it did the job, theres many things riot need to do.... let alone one thing riot needs to do imo is to make an Assassin jungle item, something that assassins would only find appealing say like for eve.. rengar, kha, give it movement speed and some type of adaptive damage and then a neat assassin effect