Early game, Health runes > Armor runes vs AD champions

Ionian·Sep 29, 2015·2 votes·2,121 views

For these calculations I will assume I'm with 21/9 masteries and the enemy is who throws a Q, and I'm the first unit it hits. Armor runes = +9 armor Health runes = +72 hp

Test 1 - Zed's runes are 15 ad, 0 armor pen. Level 6. (202 damage before armor) Armor runes - Ahri loses 14.0% of her maximum hp Health runes - 13.8%

Test 2 - 6 ad, 11 armor pen. Level 6. (196 damage) Armor - 14.7% Health - 14.6%

Test 3 - 0 ad, 19 armor pen. Level 6. (187 damage) Armor - 14.9% Health - 14.9%

Test 4 - 15 ad, 0 armor pen. Level 1. (105 damage) Armor - 14.2% Health - 13.5%

Test 5 - 0 ad, 19 armor pen. Level 1. (90 damage) Armor - 14.3% Health - 13.8%

As champions level up, their base hp increases and thus the 72 health becomes less relevant. 9 armor starts to become better at levels 7+. However from levels 1 to 6, the flat health protects more against AD than armor. The more you know!

5 Comments

EndlessSorcererSep 29, 20156 votes

Are you accounting for base health regen, potions, and innate sustain?

Reducing the damage you take would increase the value of the health restored.

LankPantsSep 30, 20151 votes

This is especially relevant as Ahri.

RenascentSep 29, 20151 votes

I remember there was some post on the league forums over a year ago which talked in great detail about how Health is better early game than armor/mr.

junglerboy16Sep 30, 20151 votes

Health runes are only better if you are accounting for maximizing your effective HP at max health. In a lane where you want to maximize total health including the use of pots, then armor is drastically superior in terms of total effective HP.

EDIT: What this does show is that taking flat armor is totally pointless now. If you are gonna take armor, take scaling armor because it matches the flat value by the time armor overtakes health in overall effectiveness.

RenailleSep 30, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=If Ahri Was Real,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=uKGmE7nH,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-09-29T21:46:57.492+0000)

For these calculations I will assume I'm with 21/9 masteries and the enemy is who throws a Q, and I'm the first unit it hits. Armor runes = +9 armor Health runes = +72 hp

Test 1 - Zed's runes are 15 ad, 0 armor pen. Level 6. (202 damage before armor) Armor runes - Ahri loses 14.0% of her maximum hp Health runes - 13.8%

At level 6, Talon's effective physical HP with Armour runes= 1472 At level 6, Talon's effective physical HP with HP runes= 1488 Assuming 21/9/0 masteries. The difference is 1.2% in total physical hp, which is a worthwhile trade to increase the effectiveness of block and sustain.