Abyssal Scepter Suggestions

anhed0nic·Aug 30, 2014·2 votes·767 views

The Problem: Abyssal Scepter has gone from one of the more popular items in season 2 to an item that is ~~never~~ rarely seen in season 4 (at either a competitive or solo queue level). There are a three primary reasons for this: the rise of athene's unholy grail, the range nerf, and the changes to penetration priority.

The Solution: The first fix that would put it into a more balance-able state is similar to how penetration priorities were changed in the pre-season. Flat magic resistance reduction should be applied after percentage magic penetration. Alternatively, as that change is unintuitive (and affects other champion abilities), abyssal scepter could provide magic penetration against all enemy champions within the range of the aura. This leads to the same result, while being more intuitive, but is slightly more confusing.

Why would this help? Currently abyssal scepter's magic resistance reduction aura has an dissynergy with void staff, making it an inefficient buy for nearly all mages in the current (and all past) meta(s). This is in contrast to flat magic penetration, which has its effectiveness increased by percentage magic penetration. This change would put the abyssal scepter aura act in the same way as other magic penetration items and make it a more viable item, while also making it balance-able in the same way as other flat penetration items. Example: Enemy with 100 magic resistance. You have a void staff, the percentage penetration mastery, and an abyssal scepter. Your multiplier is then: 100/(100+(100-20).6) = .676 Without void staff: 100/(100+100-20) = .556 For comparison: Enemy with 100 magic resistance. You have a void staff, the percentage penetration mastery, and a haunting guise. Your multiplier is: 100/(100+100.6-15) = .725 Without void staff: 100/(100+100-15) = .541 Summary of Comparison: Clearly, there is a much larger difference in the damage reduction when you have a source of magic resistance instead of a source of magic resistance reduction. This is something that is a relic of the time prior to the changes to penetration and reduction prioritization changes, and I think that it's something that needs to be changed before abyssal scepter can be balanced well.

Other changes: Abyssal scepter is a hybrid offensive-defensive item, but it falls short as an offensive item late game (even in comparison to other hybrid AP items, such as rylai's crystal scepter). I think an easy fix to this would be to buff the ap up to 80. This would make it an acceptably slot efficient item, and this would leave price as a balancing lever (as well as the amount of magic resistance reduction). This would also help solidify it as an item that can be effectively built into later on with solid ap, while allowing it to compete with chalice of harmony as an early MR source (negatron vs chalice). I realize they fulfill different niches (and for that reason the range of the aura makes sense), but the current tradeoff is too high currently to build abyssal scepter. NOTE: This is merely a suggestion to put the item in a better place after fixing its over-arching problem, not one that I consider necessarily essential to making the item viable again.

Conclusion: Thank you for all who read this; I realize this deals with a relatively subtle aspect of itemization, but this is a problem that I think prevents abyssal scepter from being a truly balanced item after the penetration changes. Please upvote to try and get some attention for the problem.

TL;DR: Abyssal scepter's aura has an dissynergy with percentage penetration. The way the aura functions needs to be changed to make it act more like magic penetration.

Edit: Fixed never to rarely, thank you 12TALES.

7 Comments

12talesAug 30, 20143 votes

I would like to point out that Abyssal Scepter is a relatively standard purchase on top lane Kayle and Gragas. Obviously, both have somewhat fallen out of favor, but it wouldn't be difficult to find examples of Abyssal in competitive play dating only a patch or two ago.

That said, I generally agree with your analysis of the item and proposed solution.

anhed0nicAug 31, 20141 votes

Thank you for your comment. I don't recall it being bought on Kayle (in competitive), but I think you may be right about Gragas. I think it certainly should be viable on a champion like Gragas at the very least, but at the moment I consider it a bit of a trap (another problem I forgot to mention).

OmnipheriousAug 30, 20142 votes

Agree that the formula needs a tweak.

I think instead of the current system of: Flat reduct > % reduct > % pen > flat pen, we should have: %pen > flat pen > % reduct > flat reduct. This makes more sense to me since penetration can't take a target below 0 while reduction can.

Of course if we do this, LW + VS will probably need to be changed to bonus AR/MR penetration only to offset.

anhed0nicAug 31, 20141 votes

Honestly, when I first started playing league back in season 2, I thought this would be how it would work. This would be a huge set of changes that would greatly buff penetration and reduction (and they're already quite strong). You're definitely right that VS+LW would need some changes (and frankly, there would likely need to be changes across the board). Thanks for the suggestion! I definitely agree that it has its merits, especially if riot were willing to implement large changes (potentially in pre-season 5). Regardless, I feel like this is mostly an oversight in the preseason that should be addressed, so I love the thought that you put into it.

The5lackerAug 30, 20142 votes

I think a smarter plan would be to change it to a % reduction over a flat one, as flat reductions and penetration have shown themselves to be more or less universally terrible ideas, as they only succeed in countering enemies who AREN'T doing something.

15% would be reasonable, don't you agree? Perhaps accompanied by a 10 AP increase for some stronger gold and slot efficiency?

anhed0nicAug 31, 20141 votes

Actually, I hadn't thought of that, but it would solve abyssal scepter's problem too. Due to the way percentages act multiplicatively with each other, it would remove the dissynergy that it currently has with percentage penetration. In addition, it would be interesting to see how it acted as a balancing lever for the item. Assuming they want it to be bought on a brawler AP (eg diana, gragas, etc), it makes a lot of sense for it to be percentage based given their likely opposition in split pushes. Great suggestion for a lot of reasons!