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The real problem with Lethality.

ZerglingOne·2/15/2017, 10:13:15 PM·32 votes·2,014 views

Is not that the concept of the stat or even the amount that is granted by the items. Clearly the items are not all that efficient cost-wise, but they are extremely slot efficient. But even that isn't really the problem.

No, the bottom line is they just give way too much AD.

Consider for a moment what having 60 or 65 AD on an item means in a vacuum. We're talking raising AD on the order of 5 less than an infinity edge.

And you know what? Magic pen in all technicality is more powerful as a stat than lethality but it's not complained about because there's much less raw scaling involved.

Just think if we had 3 AP items that gave 15 flat magic pen each and all of them also gave 100 flat AP. That would also immediately be the dominant strategy for magic damage dealers like lethality is right now for AD characters.

What can we do about this?

First, cut all of the items down to 50 AD. I feel like that is an absolutely necessary change. Their price can come down to compensate, but it has to be less powerful late game than it is.

Second Make lethality reverse scale with bonus armor. Forget the scaling with level crap, that was a kinda ridiculous idea. Say someone has 70 lethality, and I've bought 100 bonus armor. Maybe we should make it so it scales like damage against armor. Like maybe that reduces the effectiveness of lethality by 50% so they now penetrate only 35. Duskblade can still have its full true damage, we're only talking about the physical damage amplification here.

I personally believe those are the 2 changes that need to happen to make it a healthier stat.

23 Comments

Niaphim2/16/2017, 3:05:00 AM3 votes

I agree. These items have too high power budget that allows lethality users to scale to late game, while they are supposed to use early game power spikes and close out games or fall off if they fail to capitalize.

MaeDoSan2/15/2017, 10:19:33 PM2 votes

Maybe you can get too much lethality from sources other than items is where the problem lies...........

Kaioko2/15/2017, 10:25:12 PM1 votes

I disagree -- the real problem with Lethality is that it applies last in the armor penetration formula. This means that with a black cleaver and LDR; you can easily bypass most of the bonus armor champs have and make Lethality still relevant against champs building armor.

If it were to apply first in the list then it would still be effective against squishy targets (where it is supposed to be) and it wouldn't be effective on tanks.

Kaioko2/15/2017, 11:11:55 PM1 votes

You don't have to sound like a hipster lol I was arguing that it was going to be an issue the moment they were thinking about changing lethality and the values they were proposing.

The damage on lethality definitely doesn't solve the issue but reducing it alone won't solve the issue. If you notice, most of the champs that can abuse lethality are those who have high base damage on their skills as it is.

ViciousSummoner2/16/2017, 4:45:36 AM1 votes

Lethality is too perfect. You either gut it or stays useful. Lower the AD and Lethality still does the exact same thing. Lower the value and Lethality is next to useless. Armor Penetration was more balanced than Lethality and should be reverted back to Armor Penetration.

SnowFall2/16/2017, 10:40:57 AM1 votes

And? And? And buff assassins scaling of course, because those are their items.

Vesemir2/16/2017, 12:33:36 PM1 votes

Only problem with lethality is that adcs abuse it like every item in the game. Because Riot lets adcs buy items that are meant to be bought by assassins. If they dont whiny adcs will cry all over the boards.