Boards›Gameplay

Magic/Armor Penetration at start, vs ad/ap

THExJACKAL·1/11/2015, 5:46:33 AM·1 votes·486 views

My question is mainly this: If at the start of the game, I have runes that give me 14 magic penetration, how much more damage would that give me, at the start of the game? I'm thinking that if most champs start at around 30 mr, that's almost half their mr stat being taken down right? So wouldn't it be better to start with pen runes, in order to get as close to true damage as start, or would ap runes be better? Also, accounting of masteries, with the 6% magic/armor pen, that would then make it more around 11 mr for them, I think. Why do I see more people starting ap instead of magic pen?

2 Comments

Byrnes1/11/2015, 5:49:25 AM1 votes

Last I checked, without running the math right now, it was always ad/ap = early harass + easier farm, where pen = better damage into mid/late (since, like Phreak said best, pen multiplies damage so it only pays off if you actually have any).

xLegendary Troll1/11/2015, 6:24:14 AM1 votes

I ran flat magic pen for a year. This is what I can say,

The damage difference between flat ap and flat pen is barely noticeable at lvl 1. Once you hit lvl 3-6 flat AP is noticeably stronger than pen.

However, after level 6 or mid game flat pen is superior to flat AP. The damage is very noticeable especially when attacking someone who rushes athenas first