EPTOn January 12 2013 18:04 Alaric wrote:
Actually you also have to take into account the fact that items like brutalizer had better flat ArPen in s2, and that LW too saw its %penetration nerfed.
But of course, if you pile on enough armour, even though you only receive a reduced % of the source's armour, you still get some, and after awhile you're still tanky. Also, flat penetration falls off less harshly is s3... but it still falls off as armour total increases.
Also, you have to use relatives for the reduction: with your calculations, the numbers for 100 armour mean that in s3 you do 8.9% more damage than in s2, which is far from negligible.
Actually you also have to take into account the fact that items like brutalizer had better flat ArPen in s2, and that LW too saw its %penetration nerfed.
But of course, if you pile on enough armour, even though you only receive a reduced % of the source's armour, you still get some, and after awhile you're still tanky. Also, flat penetration falls off less harshly is s3... but it still falls off as armour total increases.
Also, you have to use relatives for the reduction: with your calculations, the numbers for 100 armour mean that in s3 you do 8.9% more damage than in s2, which is far from negligible.
It's more the fact that lategame tank items do not give the values that they used to provide. Frozen Heart used to cost less and provide more armor. Randuins provides more HP but less armor.
Taking into account the differences in items between seasons would merely improve my point, penetration changes may cause a gap (which could be more or less fixed by a global increase in champions armor by about 5-10), but the scaling of penetration has been unchanged, due to nerfs in the mastery tree and Last Whisper. My point is that the penetration changes for S3 are not to blame for the situation, item changes are.
(Also champions who suddenly get played because people never thought they were viable, yeah. They stopped with Talon because Kha'Zix and Zed have higher ratios and better—read badly designed—kits, but he's as viable as them mid and he was in s2 too, from an item/masteries/laning standpoint.)
Yeah, as I tried pointing out on the LoL forum in a recent thread (doubt it got seen, actual discussion of the game should not be in General Discussion, apparently), champions without utility or counterplay are pretty much impossible to balance.
Its cost and efficiency actually mean that when it would be better individually than previously existing items, you're in situations where you'll have several items anyway. Basically, unless you're behind or already have other stuff covered (most notably BT), BC's never the best buy. Or your job is just to apply stacks for your team to follow, and in this case you care way less about damage and flat ArPen anyway because you "sacrifice" your own scaling for your teammates' benefit in most cases, but this is already long and it's not like I include new stuff when I treat this subject.
(And AP casters have more readily available flat penetration while their targets have weaker or non-existant scaling on resistance compared to armour. On the other hand, you have better ratios considering AD and AP prices.)
The thing is that Brutalizer is one of the best earlygame items in the game, as it gives a Pickaxe worth of AD, so you are getting 10 armor pen and 10% CDR, so call it about ~350 gold for 10% CDR, and that's already over 1200 worth of item. BF Sword is naturally efficient due to the way items scale in League, and Bloodthirster giving 100 AD for 3k is naturally going to be extremely efficient. The reason that BC is good is that most champions that built damage wanted an early Brutalizer, and having a lategame option to that item, even if it is not the most efficient, means that they will not get punished as hard in the lategame for building Brutalizer earlier. The health also synergizes well with Guardian Angel, which is typically the defensive item of choice for burst champions.
