Riot to Fix Lethality System in League of Legends
Riot has officially announced that they are fixing the broken Lethality system in League of Legends. This system was introduced in patch 6.22 in November as a replacement for the outdated armor penetration system.
The Issues with Armor Penetration
The previous armor penetration system had a basic issue – it couldn’t effectively work against tanks. If Riot added more armor penetration to address this, it would nullify the natural armor of squishy champions, causing them to take damage as if it were true damage. As a result, assassins used armor penetration to quickly eliminate squishy champions instead of countering tanks.
An Introduction to Lethality
Lethality was introduced by Riot to balance armor penetration for assassins and make it a more strategic late-game build to counter tanks. However, the implementation of Lethality had several issues.
The Problems with Lethality
The straight nerf to armor penetration levels in the Lethality algorithm made the items worthless to purchase early on. Additionally, they didn’t scale enough with the target’s level to be effective against tanks. This meant that the items still had to be built for the same purpose as before, but with reduced efficacy.
Moreover, Lethality negatively impacted ADCs (Attack Damage Carries) who rely on armor penetration early on to counter early-game tanky champions. With Lethality items being ineffective in the early game, ADCs suffered.
Riot’s Plan to Fix Lethality
Riot plans to address the issues with Lethality in the next patch. The exact fix is not finalized yet, but the current plan is to adjust the ratio of direct armor penetration and level-scaling damage. The goal is to change the ratio to 60 percent direct armor penetration and 40 percent level-scaling damage, from the current 40 percent direct armor penetration and 60 percent level-scaling damage.
What Lies Ahead
This change is a step in the right direction, but more may need to be done to ensure the viability of the new Lethality system. For example, changing the level-scaling damage to scale with the target’s armor could improve its functionality against tanks. Riot’s efforts are aimed at finding a solution so that ADC mains can have a more reliable early game experience.
Riot, Lethality system, League of Legends, armor penetration, assassins, tanks, ADCs, fix, viability, level-scaling damage.