IE before LW always, never or depends?

Dazeez·11/19/2014, 2:19:32 AM·1 votes·848 views

My buddy built LW as cait first item the other night and he built BT, PD, LW, GA and then lastly IE. I told him since the only champion on the team was a nocturne with one armor item (randuins) that IE before LW would have been better... Although i told him this with confidence that i was right i satrted thinking about it and wanted other opinions. Obviously if top, jungle and support all have randuins and sunfire and the mid has zhonyas you would want to buy LW pretty fast but in this situation, what is the right build order?

9 Comments

Lumus Avatar11/19/2014, 2:26:41 AM2 votes

Important to remember that if the enemy has no armor item and you have a Last Whisper, your armor penetration still counts. It will reduce their base armor and if they are reduced below zero armor, you begin to deal bonus damage. So armor penetration is useful even against unarmored targets.

ValyrianBlade11/19/2014, 3:01:52 AM2 votes

Last whisper is percent pen. Obviously if they aren't building armour, you don't build it. I would build it mid-late game anyways as the tanks will have enough armour naturally at that point for it to be worthwhile.

You get IE first because it's damage. You need to increase your attack damage first because it doesn't matter how fast you attack, how many crits you get, how much armour you're penetrating if you have no damage behind it. Everything scales off of your damage (exceptions are like vayne who have attack speed reliance on their kit, not caitlyn). Second you build your modifier (PD) because your opponents won't have much armour yet and it will multiply your dps by the most. Third is the LW because they'll start getting armour and This will spike your damage. Then BT and a defensive item (GA typically) last (boots are bought in the middle as needed).

Quepha11/19/2014, 3:02:55 AM2 votes

IE first always... LW isn't that good until late game.

Lord Dusteon11/19/2014, 3:03:03 AM2 votes

Though, a good rule of thumb is if your AD is over 200 to get last whisper.

Hullabaloo90711/19/2014, 12:59:20 PM2 votes

A good way to look at it is that you want to build flat damage first, then stack your percent multipliers on top of it. Usually if you have no flat damage, your percent increases do not do much. This isnt always the case, but it is a good rule of thumb. Some champs can get items that are easier to build and have better synergy with there kit, but if you were going to talk about a generic champ, go with this.

On cait, specifically, IE synergies with her passive a ton and gives her good flat damage and a percent multiplier. Shiv might also be good, but im not sure about that.

xSpartan GG11/19/2014, 11:53:33 AM1 votes

A rule used by many pros if the enemy has 2-3 champions depending on champion number changes get lw you really need it