Lets talk about the new runes.
Lifesteal/Attack Speed/Armor Penetration:
I'm honestly not sure
what will happen with this change. If people in general lean towards
Health Seals, Armor Penetration will become better compared to before. Attack
Speed also got a buff on quints, so junglers looking for clear speed are probably
going to be looking in that direction.
A quick note, if you're looking for a mix of Attack Speed and Attack Damage, you used to want Quint AD and Mark AS for more overall stats, but now it's the other way around.
Armor/Health:
With the new runes, I think we'll see a lot less Flat Armor Seals. Granted that's not saying a whole lot. It looks like both Flat and Scaling HP are strong contenders now, as well as Scaling Armor.
I've made a comparison of Scaling Health vs Scaling Armor. The choice between Flat or Scaling is not something I can optimize with math. I can tell you they break even at level 6 though, and have 3 times higher value at level 18, and that both Armor and Health have the same proportions between flat and scaling.
In general for the tanks zoning the ADC, between Scaling Armor and Scaling Health, the Scaling Armor wins out, but that is also with a lot of assumptions in its favour. Assuming 100% physical damage, with a Total HP including Shields and Lifesteal at 3000hp, you'd need ~300 pre-runes Armor for Health Seals to be best. If we consider Armor Penetration, this threshold falls to ~200.
That said, it all depends. You can try plugging in your stats in the calculator to see which proportion of physical damage you have to receive for Armor Seals to be better.
During lower levels when you haven't gotten much armor yet, hp runes hold up much better, but are still beaten by armor seals against pure/mostly physical damage champions, especially if you have sustain as your total relevant HP will be much higher than what it says on your HP bar.
Use Armor IF
You want higher sustain in lane
You're going to be taking a very high proportion of physical damage in team fights
You have really high total hp, including shields and heals/lifesteal throughout the fight
Use HP IF
You are going for/defending against all-ins during laning
You are laning against mixed or magic damage
You have low total HP
Overall, I definitely think HP seals are coming back, especially in mid-lane where sustain is somewhat rare and bursty champions are common. And of course when you lane against magic damage only champions, you can actually get runes that benefit your laning without being gimped later.
Spreadsheet
Cooldown Reduction:
Now
this is a juicy 50% buff. 15% CDR by level 18 is an absolute truckload
of DPS increase on most ability based champions (especially compared to
the alternative 0% on AD champs). But there are some that need to look
at this more than others. One is Ezreal, especially with the right item
build. Another more important champion to look at is Ryze. I've seen a
sad trend of not getting max CDR on Ryze even by 4th major item. With
these runes he can have many more relevant item choices. I could also
see some supports with good utility run these. Brave or ranged utility champions could make great use of them too.
They will at the very least be a viable alternative to MR and AP glyphs that we typically see, especially on choice champs.
Monday 24 March 2014
Saturday 22 February 2014
Lulu: MRpen, Lichbane and Help! Pix
MRpen
First time I saw mid Lulu in a competitive setting she was played by Zamphira. He used a full MRpen build, and I'd like to clarify the strengths of weaknesses of this build. Well, mostly weaknesses.
First, what strengths do the MRpen build have in general. The strength of the MRpen builds are
A) Scales with base damage of spells instead of only AP ratios
B) Is really strong against very low MR targets
Looking at Lulu reveals that her offensive AP ratios are horrid - 50% on Q, 40% on E, and up to 15% per passive proc. So if we were to insist on only building for offensive capabilities, it would look like MRpen would be the way to go. But then look at her base damages. These are in fact also absolutely terrible. No damage on ult, her E is often best used defensively, and W only scales with CDR/AP.
If you really were to make the best of the MRpen build, you'd have to go for low MR targets, so you'd be diving, playing assassin. It just feels like Lulu is not the best for this role.
Lichbane
I've been a sucker for Lichbane since I first considered the math involved. For raw single target damage output, Lichbane is sometimes beat as a first item, rarely beat as a second, and practically never as a third item. It is restricted to auto attacks though, with all the downsides that follow.
But Lulu's auto attacks are already good, she should be trying to weave them in between spells anyway, and she sorely needs extra output to fulfill her role and warrant the farm given to her mid.
Consider that Lichbane adds 150 damage to Glitterlance and Deathcap adds 81, both from 0 AP. With Lichbane, every 1.3 AP adds another damage, Deathcap needs 5.7 AP to add another damage. And that's not even considering that your W and R which would otherwise not deal damage also trigger Lichbane.
Help! Pix
I very rarely see Lulu's E used defensively and it puzzles me. It's incredibly more efficient when used defensively. Firstly it scales better with AP, but the most important thing is target mitigation. When used offensively, you have to get through their MR. When used defensively, they have to get through the target's mitigation.
Lets have a look at basic low mitigation situation with low AP, which favors the damage mode the most. Both targets have 30 armor and MR and you have 0 AP.
The result is that shielding is 69% more effective, or the equivalent of a 138 AP difference. Now that was a very early game example. Lets say you have 100 ap and the armor/mr is up to 50. You're now nuking for 80 effective HP or shielding for 210 effective HP, an increase of 162% effectiveness or the equivalent of 488 ap. So just by shielding instead of nuking you've effectively added 6 large rods to your inventory.
And it gets a whole lot worse. Lets say you're helping your a bruiser take down an AD carry. The carry has 50 armor and MR, the bruiser has 250 armor reduced to 150 by ArP, and you have 400 AP. The result is a difference in effective HP contributed of 400%. The equivalent of 2400 AP.
And then there's the benefit of giving Pix to a target with higher attack speed (or better attack application, such as the bruiser that's diving carries). After around 3 additional attacks, the damage from shielding surpasses that of directly nuking.
There are obviously many scenarios where the shield won't be used or the damage dealt will still be worth more than the damage mitigated or the position of Pix is more valuable on the enemy. Just remember to consider how much the health of your potential targets is worth. While it may produce a bigger EHP swing to buff your tank, the health of your diving assassin / dived carry is probably worth enough more that it's better to shield them. But in general, when in doubt, shield. Especially if you're my support in botlane.
First time I saw mid Lulu in a competitive setting she was played by Zamphira. He used a full MRpen build, and I'd like to clarify the strengths of weaknesses of this build. Well, mostly weaknesses.
First, what strengths do the MRpen build have in general. The strength of the MRpen builds are
A) Scales with base damage of spells instead of only AP ratios
B) Is really strong against very low MR targets
Looking at Lulu reveals that her offensive AP ratios are horrid - 50% on Q, 40% on E, and up to 15% per passive proc. So if we were to insist on only building for offensive capabilities, it would look like MRpen would be the way to go. But then look at her base damages. These are in fact also absolutely terrible. No damage on ult, her E is often best used defensively, and W only scales with CDR/AP.
If you really were to make the best of the MRpen build, you'd have to go for low MR targets, so you'd be diving, playing assassin. It just feels like Lulu is not the best for this role.
Lichbane
I've been a sucker for Lichbane since I first considered the math involved. For raw single target damage output, Lichbane is sometimes beat as a first item, rarely beat as a second, and practically never as a third item. It is restricted to auto attacks though, with all the downsides that follow.
But Lulu's auto attacks are already good, she should be trying to weave them in between spells anyway, and she sorely needs extra output to fulfill her role and warrant the farm given to her mid.
Consider that Lichbane adds 150 damage to Glitterlance and Deathcap adds 81, both from 0 AP. With Lichbane, every 1.3 AP adds another damage, Deathcap needs 5.7 AP to add another damage. And that's not even considering that your W and R which would otherwise not deal damage also trigger Lichbane.
Help! Pix
I very rarely see Lulu's E used defensively and it puzzles me. It's incredibly more efficient when used defensively. Firstly it scales better with AP, but the most important thing is target mitigation. When used offensively, you have to get through their MR. When used defensively, they have to get through the target's mitigation.
Lets have a look at basic low mitigation situation with low AP, which favors the damage mode the most. Both targets have 30 armor and MR and you have 0 AP.
Math:
The result is that shielding is 69% more effective, or the equivalent of a 138 AP difference. Now that was a very early game example. Lets say you have 100 ap and the armor/mr is up to 50. You're now nuking for 80 effective HP or shielding for 210 effective HP, an increase of 162% effectiveness or the equivalent of 488 ap. So just by shielding instead of nuking you've effectively added 6 large rods to your inventory.
And it gets a whole lot worse. Lets say you're helping your a bruiser take down an AD carry. The carry has 50 armor and MR, the bruiser has 250 armor reduced to 150 by ArP, and you have 400 AP. The result is a difference in effective HP contributed of 400%. The equivalent of 2400 AP.
And then there's the benefit of giving Pix to a target with higher attack speed (or better attack application, such as the bruiser that's diving carries). After around 3 additional attacks, the damage from shielding surpasses that of directly nuking.
There are obviously many scenarios where the shield won't be used or the damage dealt will still be worth more than the damage mitigated or the position of Pix is more valuable on the enemy. Just remember to consider how much the health of your potential targets is worth. While it may produce a bigger EHP swing to buff your tank, the health of your diving assassin / dived carry is probably worth enough more that it's better to shield them. But in general, when in doubt, shield. Especially if you're my support in botlane.
Thursday 16 January 2014
Preseason 4 Ezreal
Update on Ezreal - Preseason 4
The new offense mastery tree has changed the math a little for ADCs in the preseason. Less armor penetration both flat and percent, more CDR, AS and AD, as well as bonus AD percentage increase.
Ezreal and Standard
One of the reasons I like Ezreal so much is that the golden standard IE->PD->LW build is not the best build for him. It's not even good on him, it's actually just a wrong build. Something I'm not sure can be said for any other ADC. Usually builds other than IEPDLW trade damage for utility, but for Ezreal the utility comes free with interesting and strong builds.
Central concept - gold efficiency
Gold efficiency is how much you get of some per gold. Brutalizer is cheaper than BF sword, IE is more expensive than Tri, CDR boots cost more than Zerker Greaves, and unlike a lot of analyses I've seen I'm taking it into account.
Ezreal and Standard
One of the reasons I like Ezreal so much is that the golden standard IE->PD->LW build is not the best build for him. It's not even good on him, it's actually just a wrong build. Something I'm not sure can be said for any other ADC. Usually builds other than IEPDLW trade damage for utility, but for Ezreal the utility comes free with interesting and strong builds.
Central concept - gold efficiency
Gold efficiency is how much you get of some per gold. Brutalizer is cheaper than BF sword, IE is more expensive than Tri, CDR boots cost more than Zerker Greaves, and unlike a lot of analyses I've seen I'm taking it into account.
While the mastery changes favors AD over ARP, The Brutalizer is still a terribly underrated early item. While Armor Penetration has gone down, enemy ADC armor has too due to defense mastery changes. I've also changed the armor value for the level 7 part of the sheet to the average armor value of ADCs.
The stats
In the sheet I'm assuming R>Q>E, that you have AS, CDR, AD, AD% and ARP% masteries in offense and that you have AD marks.
The enemy hit is assumed to have average ADC armor plus flat seals at low level comparison. I've added a Sunfire Cape at higher levels and use universal average armor in addition to flat Seals and +5 mastery. R and Shiv only hits 1 target, E hits a target half the time. All this can be modified in the sheet.
Brutalizer first item
The most cost efficient item to go from a sustained damage point of view from the start is Brutalizer. Here's a comparison of Brutalizer vs some other typical items, showing loss of gold efficiency:
8% BF sword
10% Pickaxe
13% Longsword
61% Manamune (stack at 250)
86% Doran's Blade
112% Phage
116% Sheen
The only point of comparison that puts Brutalizer behind is on burst, where it's 3% behind Sheen.
Also, contrary to popular belief, buying Brutalizer early does not sacrifice late game output. Brutalizer stays extremely cost effective throughout the game. Furthermore, Black Cleaver is in all the strongest full builds - even at only moderate armor values.
Boots
I've previously established that Zerker's Greaves are terrible on Ezreal in comparison to CDR boots in every single build. I've made further calculations and it is as stated previously.
Build Paths
From my research there are 4 builds: The early BT build, the early Tri build, the Blue build and the Tear build.
The Early BT Core
Brutalizer -> CDR boots -> BF sword
This is the most cost efficient build for sustained damage in its price range (3000-4000 g)
While this is the most efficient progression, the goal is to get Brutalizer, CDR boots and BT. There are other factors you should use to determine which order you get it in. If you can afford BF, get that. If you need lifesteal, get that. Otherwise spend as much of your gold as you can getting these component, just don't rush CDR boots.
Here are some comparisons to the runner ups, the number being the loss of gold efficiency during sustained damage.
8% B+Sheen+CDR
10% BT+CDR
10% BT
12% IE
24% B+Phage+CDR
24% B+Sheen
29% BoRK
33% Trinity
The only build that compares in the price range is B+Sheen+CDR. Although it has less sustained damage efficiency, it gains 34% poke damage efficiency and 12% burst damage efficiency. I'll cover this build path below.
Once you have Brutalizer, BT and CDR boots it's time for LW unless the enemy team literally has no bonus armor . If you prefer utility and poke, you can go Tri at this stage. At 100 armor you lose 7% sustained efficiency and gaining 10% poke efficiency. At 180 armor you get no increase in poke from Tri. Personal recommendation is going LW first, by the time you could have Tri you could have had LW + Sheen or Phage anyway.
After LW get Tri. Technically IE is better for sustained damage, but only by 3% efficiency, whereas Tri gets utility and has 47% more poke efficiency.
After Tri, get IE.
Lastly, upgrade Brutalizer to Black Cleaver.
When you're at this point, 6 item slots with boots, the weakest item per damage is Tri, followed by BT, followed by IE. Here, I am talking in terms of absolute damage, not efficiency, as you're now at the point where money is irrelevant. I note this because you might want a defensive item but keep your boots.
If you don't want to keep your boots and want an offensive item, make sure you can have blue pot / blue buff on and sell boots for PD
TL;DR: B+BT+CDR boots -> LW -> Tri -> IE -> BC -> PD
The Early Tri Core
Brutalizer -> Sheen -> CDR boots
This build is the second most efficient sustained damage build in the 3-4k gold range. It's main strength is poke though, being unmatched and superior by quite a margin. This also makes it a very strong kiting build.
Another comparison showing loss of gold efficiency for the given type of damage:
| Sustained | Poke | Burst | |
| B+Sheen+CDR | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| BT+CDR | 2% | 95% | 17% |
| IE | 4% | 391% | 23% |
| B+Phage+CDR | 15% | 51% | 44% |
| BoRK | 20% | 405% | 38% |
| Trinity | 23% | 87% | -2% |
| B+CDR | 25% | 76% | 50% |
| Sheen+MM+CDR | 27% | 64% | 20% |
| Sheen+Phage+CDR | 62% | 64% | 42% |
This build only loses out to Trinity Force in burst damage, but only by 2% at the cost of 23% efficiency for sustained damage.
Once you have the core, finish Trinity Force, then build LW. After this, build either BoRK or IE.
Going BoRK loses you 5% sustained efficiency, but gains you the active and lifesteal.
After one, go the other. If you went IE, you could also go PD for a 3% increase over BoRK, but the active and lifesteal will be better the majority of the time.
If you don't want boots, get BoRK or PD depending on which one you left out.
TL;DR: B+Sheen+CDR boots -> Tri -> LW -> IE -> BoRK -> BC -> PD
About Tear:
In the early Tri build, if you want tear, upgrading it after Sheen but before Trinity is more damage. Finishing Trinity is 5% less efficient than upgrading Tear, and that's without it transformed. Overall Manamune loses 12% efficiency compared to going straight Tri or LW after Sheen. Once transformed to Muramana, it's the most cost efficient item, especially for burst (the numbers I used were average mana, it'll generally produce better numbers), and it's in the strongest build Ezreal can produce.
The Blue Build
Manamune -> Sheen -> CDR -> IBG -> LW -> IE -> BoRK
The blue build is fairly inflexible, as the whole point is getting an early IBG, so there's not much to discuss. It's also well known that it offers less damage. I might go more in-depth at another time, but for now you can see its values on the graphs
Graphical Comparison of the 4 builds
Maximum Output
The single most damaging build is BC+Tri+MM+LW+IE+PD clocking almost 1150 DPS against an averagely armored target as specified above, and it includes both anti-armor items.Well, 1225 actually with Havoc, double-edged sword and spell- and martial-weaving.
With boots the highest damage is BC+Tri+MM+LW+IE with 900 DPS. MM and BoRK are interchangeable here.
Spreadsheet Link
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