what is AP used for?
i am new at this game, i am currently level 13, it would be very kind of u guys to help me out here. No one tells me what AP is for...
like deez items 
etc...
11 Comments
Here are some of the basics...
AP = Magic-Damage AD = Physical-Damage
Countering AP-Damages : Obtain Magic-Resist Countering AD-Damages : Obtain Armour
Countering True-Damage : Obtain More HP
...this is just the basics but there's more to it than always following cookie-cutter recipes.
AP is a abbreviation for Ability Power, while AD is the abbrev. for Attack Damage.
They are 2 of the many sources (there are gimmicky ones like HP, Armour, Movement Speed etc) of scaling this game has, but they are the primary ones.
Champs whose spells that have its damage written in the description as 123 (+12) where if the "+12" is written in green it means the damage scales with how much your AP is (orange means it scales with AD, red means HP and etc).
Also remember that different champs would have different type and amount of scalings on different spells.
AP do nothing on it's own. Unlike AD that increase the auto attack dmg. However a lot of champs have different AP scaling on their skills. For exemple Annie disintegrate deal 80 / 115 / 150 / 185 / 220 (+ 80% AP). So at rank 5 (220 dmg) with 300 AP (+240dmg) she deal 460 with 1 Q. Hope it helps.
This is bot always the case but most of the time atack damage is for auto attacks
and ap is for things you cast
For example a nidalee spear will do more damage with more ap While her basic attacks will hurt more with spears
There are deffenetly some exceptions teemos aa poison does more damage with ap and zeds trowing shurican seems to scale with ad
the ap wil usualy do magic dmg whete ad wil do atack dmg
How ever yhere might br exceptions like warwick who will do magic dmg
Many champions(especially Mages) have abilities that scale with ability power. That means the more AP you have,the stronger their abilities get. I think Ap also increases the damage to towers,but that is only a small effect,so you shouldn't bother to buy ap for that.
If an ability gets stronger with Ap,it will have a green number showing you how much bonus damage you do,based on ap. other colors indicate other scalings orange indicates that the ability scales with AD red for health yellow for armor pink for magic resistance a brighter red for attack speed(Lucian&Yasuo are the only champs with Attack speed scalings))
Some things to notice are:
-Mages generally have lots of abilities that scale with Ap,though they are not the only characters who do so
-Some abilities have AD&Ap scalings,which gives some characters the ability to go ad or ap,but its usually most effective if you concentrate on one stat
-Even if a champ has abilities that scale with AP doesn't mean that buying lots of Ap is viable on them.
-
are the only champs who have no ap scaling,so ap is pretty much wasted on them.
When you mouse over an ability, you see something like this (click it if you can't see it):
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GrLMzIX1TCE/Ve9K29mYAnI/AAAAAAAAxAU/2XAWksxoOOQ/s1600/straggg.jpg
Notice the green number? That means the ability gets stronger with more AP.
If the Champion you're playing has a lot of these green numbers, then you should build AP. If they have a lot of orange numbers instead, that means their abilities get stronger with AD.
AP is like AD, but for mages who scale off of it. If you hover over an ability with veigar or a champ who builds AP, you will see the damage plus more damage, like 100(+34). That 34 damage is from your AP, and there will be more damage the more AP you have.
ty guys :>
AP or Ability Power is the main combat stat for Champions(usually Mages) that do primarily Magic damage. Generally their abilities have scalings attached to them which use AP.
Take 
for example. Her Q, has a scaling of 70% of your AP. This means that if you have, say about 200 AP, the ability gains 70% of 200 as additional damage. So the more AP you have, the more damage your spells do.
Hope this helped more or less.