Season 3: Penetration

It was only a few months ago that I discussed Penetration and Reduction mechanics. Now we've come full circle, and in Season 3 the order of application has gone full circle, return to its original form:

% Reduction
Flat Reduction
% Penetration
Flat Penetration

The strength of Penetration on items, runes, and masteries has been reduced almost universally for both Flat and % varieties, but champion abilities have largely remained untouched. The net result is that many champions are poised for some creative use of game mechanics.

Xerath is the only AP champion with a Penetration buff, and it clocks in at a whopping 40%. Combined with 8% from Arcane Knowledge and 35% from Void Staff, Xerath ignores 64% of his opponents' Magic Resistance. This makes any Flat Penetration roughly 2.8 times as effective as normal. Stacking Penetration runes with Sorcerer's Shoes and Haunting Guise, Xerath can completely ignore up to 140 Magic Resistance. Even an AD carry with Magic Resistance Glyphs, Aegis Aura, Soraka Passive, and a Quick Silver Sash will still be taking true damage. Now realize Xerath routinely hits three or more champions with his off-screen bombardment. Fun times ahead.

Nidalee lacks a personal buff, but can potentially debuff opponents for 40% reduction on both Armor and Magic Resistance. This gives her the same potential as Xerath, provided an opponent steps on one of her traps. Considering the raw damage on a maximum range spear, this should terrify anyone who abhors poke compositions.

Trundle is perhaps one of the more frightening champions. Over the course of six seconds his ultimate steals 30-50% of a champion's Armor and Magic Resistance. With just Penetration runes, masteries, and a Black Cleaver enemies with 100 Armor or less are as good as bare. If you go absolutely nuts on Penetration you could theoretically ignore up to 224 Armor, but then you'd have few defenses yourself.

Olaf gains 30 Armor Penetration passively through his ultimate, which is as much as anyone can stack from runes and masteries combined. His lack of a built-in % Reduction or Penetration mechanic helps curb the insanity somewhat, but targets at less than 100 Armor will still take true damage from all of his attacks with the basic Black Cleaver setup. If you thought Olaf screaming toward you was scary before, wait until Season 3.

Wukong is perhaps the bruiser best positioned to make you shake your fist in anger. With Black Cleaver he can potentially reduce the armor of your entire team by 25%. Combined with the 30% from his Q on one priority target, he and his team can ignore a lot of armor. You should be very thankful there's no melee equivalent to Sorcerer's Shoes, as he would eat it right up.

Interestingly, the big loser in this equation is Flat Reduction. While it's applied after % Reduction, it's still applied before % Penetration and is therefore relatively weak. Unless people completely give up on trying to stack Armor or Magic Resistance against certain champions, Flat Reduction will only be good in the earlier stages of the game.

Still, the potential for Soraka to drop people into negative Magic Resistance is always amusing to consider. Between a full stack of Starcall, Abyssal Scepter, and Malady a foolish champion could be brought down to -134 Magic Resistance, increasing the damage they take from spells by 62%. The chances of anyone being that foolish and surviving long enough to reach that point are nil, but it's still fun to think about.

In any case, the practical result of the Penetration changes is that Health itemization is going to be considerably more important than before. Assassins and bruisers are going to be far more effective when and if they get on top of your carries. Even for champions who don't have ridiculous Penetration/Reduction tools built in, the new mechanics will make them significantly more deadly. Proper positioning and protection, skills that have long been sidelined, are going to be critical to survival.

We're only two mechanical changes into Season 3 and already it's becoming evident how alien the game will seem. Hold on to your Teemo hats, because while there will be a few spots of apparently normality going forward, in general things are only going to get crazier from here.