One of the biggest changes in this most recent test realm patch was a change to the way both magic and armor penetration affect damage. This is possibly the biggest change to the game that I’ve seen, so I’ll try to cover it in as much detail as possible over the course of the next few days.

First, you need to understand the current system. The current system is based off a couple stats. There’s flat penetration and percentage-based penetration. Flat penetration reduces defensive stats by the same amount regardless of how much defense your target has. Your runes are flat penetration, in the case of armor giving up to 29 armor penetration at level one. That’s a big deal considering most toons have 25 or less armor at that point in the game. That’s also the reason for the change. Riot didn’t like that you could potentially deal “pure” damage to another level one player, so they changed it. The old system also worked based on your armor number. If you got an item like Last Whisper, it would reduce your target’s armor number by 40 percent. If he had 25 armor, he would now effectively have 15. If he had 100 armor, it was down to 60. That’s important because the amount of damage reduction given by armor does not scale linearly. At 100 armor you take 50 percent of the damage dealt. It takes 300 armor, though, to bring that number down to 25 percent. In the new system, penetration affects defense differently.

The new system allows for percentage-based penetration only (current runes will be changed to a percentage to adhere to the new system). This system also affects damage reduction based on the percentage of damage reduced, rather than the defensive stat number. This means penetration scales more quickly the more defense your target has. Here are the new stats according to Phreak:

Against 100 armor, the old Last Whisper had you deal 62.5% damage (from 50% without). The new one has you deal 63%. Void Staff is slightly higher.

Against 200 armor, old Last Whisper dealt 45.45% damage (from 33%). New one deals 50.67%.

Numbers aside, the point is that you will not hit squishies as hard in the early game because you will not be able to reduce their armor significantly but you will hit tanks harder the more defensively they build. Does this seem problematic to you? It should. The whole balance of the game rests on the fact that the greatest threat – carries/casters – are also the easiest to kill. Tanks exist to provide a point of initiation and control for a fight so that those squishy damage dealers can stand back and deal damage from safety. This change dramatically shifts that balance.

Now granted, making the the squishies less so doesn’t exactly mean they’ll be incredibly durable. They will be durable enough, though, to discourage many of the early game shenanigans that make this game fun, particularly if they stack health. Imagine that you hit that level one Ashe at 15 percent reduced damage. If she gets any health beyond her base you will have a very tough time bringing her down unless you were annihilating her before this change.

The real problem, though, is for the tanks. Because of the way the new armor penetration works, tanks become essentially as squishy as everyone else as the game wears on. The only champions that won’t be affected as heavily will be tanks like Shen or hybrids like Garen, who have flat or percentage-based damage reduction with no counter. Effective HP tanks, tanks like Rammus and Mordekaiser, will have a very tough time against this change.

This change is also a nerf to caster damage. One of the best ways to currently improve caster damage is by purchasing early magic penetration. Magic penetration doesn’t scale per level as armor does, so players who don’t invest in MR items are highly vulnerable to magic attacks. With the new change, magic pen will be garbage against most targets, making pure AP the best way to go, which already scales fairly poorly if you can’t get fed.

Maybe the biggest problem with this change, even bigger than making tanks feel very obsolete, is the fact that this pushes people away from variety and toward sameness. HP is now so much better than MR or armor that most tanks will probably just stack it instead. DPS toons now have virtually zero incentive to choose an attack damage item that isn’t Infinity and an attack speed item that isn’t Last Whisper.

I’ll be playing a lot on the Test Realm to get a better sense of how this actually affects the game. In the meantime, enjoy your rune pages while you can and start saving IP for some new ones.

There’s been a lot of back and forth in the community about Kennen so I thought it would be appropriate to put together a full guide. I’ve fallen in love with the midget ninja and I’ve been playing him to great success in most every game I’ve tried. Kennen is one of the strongest gankers in the game and, when played well, provides excellent utility and killing power to a solid team. He will easily carry a team if his opponents allow him any kind of farm.

I build Kennen AP, despite all the claims of his poor AP ratios. Personally, I think his AP ratios are excellent, good enough that they might catch a nerf in the near future. For runes, I roll with magic pen marks, dodge seals, cooldown reduction per level glyphs, and health quints. I go back and forth on masteries but for this guide I’ll recommend a 9/21/0 build, taking the 15% spell pen from the offense tree and making sure to grab the extra health and the 4% damage reduction from defense. The rest is up to you.

For summoner skills I take Cleanse and Ignite, but Ghost, Exhaust, and Teleport if your team needs it are all good options.

Kennen is a very powerful farmer so I always like to take him mid solo. Grab a health crystal, get to lane, and get ready to farm. At level 1 I have 820 health, which is a ton for a mid toon. Most of my opponents are somewhere around 500, so I have a huge advantage early. I take Thundering Shuriken (his Q skill) first and focus on last hitting. At level 2 and 3 take one rank of your other skills to prep for your combo. Keep last hitting to get up a decent farm.

Kennen is an excellent harasser. I take Electrical Surge at level 2 so that I can keep my mark count on my target as often as possible. Whenever I have the chance I like to Shuriken my opponent. I’ll then use either the passive from Electrical Surge or the active to keep my marks up. The active has surprisingly good range and can be used any time a nearby target has a mark. Try to always have at least two marks on your target so he’s prepped for a gank. At level 3 you can start rolling with your combo. Without boots your opponent will have a hard time avoiding Lightning Rush. I try to get a stack or two on the target and then Lightning Rush in. The stun procs some extra energy so I can Shuriken again while I’m standing on top of my target and auto attack for some harass and hopefully another mark from the Electrical surge passive. The high early health pool allows me to soak a little minion damage and bring my opponents down to half health or so. Once you have your opponent to half health you should be able to get an easy kill. Again, work up two marks on the target while you farm, regen some energy, build up your Electrical Surge passive and Lightning Rush in. Your stun procs extra energy again and with an auto attack you gain a mark, Shuriken will net you a mark, set your ignite and then auto attack the target down. As they start to run away you should have plenty of energy for a quick Electrical Surge active for a second stun. This combo is your bread and butter until you have your ult. Obviously it relies on your ability to keep marks on your target, so get some practice, even on bots if you want.

For the rest of early game you’ll main Shuriken for the cooldown reduction and increased damage. I follow that with Lightning Rush, again for cooldown reduction and because the damage scales better for the early game than Electrical Surge. Obviously, you want to take your ultimate as often as possible and save consecutive ranks of Electrical Surge for the end of the game.

You should find it very easy to farm. In the mid lane it’s important that you only last hit. You want to keep your target closer to your turret so you don’t have to dive for the kill. I typically wait until I have 1400g, which should be around level 5 or 6, before heading back to base to pick up Haunting Guise and my boots.

At 6 your ganking power only improves. If you’ve done a good job farming your Guise will give the penetration needed for some early kills on targets with low magic resistance. Stack up a mark or two (preferably two) and Lightning Rush in. Once rush hits I Shuriken and start to auto attack for the duration of the stun, planting one mark on my target and dealing a little damage. Once stun ends (which is fast, don’t get me wrong), I pop my ult, which drops another mark and then Electrical Surge for a second stun. You may have to wait a second for the energy to Surge, but if you prepped your target correctly you should have a mark waiting on your Surge passive just in case. That combo alone will kill most targets at 6. Thankfully, you brought Ignite for anyone that might be a little more durable.
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So you’ve purchased a few heroes you like and you want to get started with a rune page. But what to get? If you dig around the forums, you’ll find every possible answer and likely end up no better off than when you started. This is a basic guide for understanding magic penetration runes and their benefits.

If you like to play mage toons – Fiddlesticks, Karthus, Ryze – magic penetration can be a cheap start for your runebook. For a lot of mages, though, it’s a tough purchase to justify because of the way magic penetration works. Penetration only affects magic resistance your target currently has. It’s also the last debuff applied in a string of magic resistance debuffs. It works like this: fixed resistance is applied first, so Karthus’ wall, for instance, which gives a -35 magic resistance debuff. Then comes percentage based debuffs, like Void Staff. Then, after all that has been applied you get your magic penetration debuff.

The real kicker is that penetration can’t take your enemy’s resistance below zero. Only flat resistance can do that. If you’re in some higher tier play and you’ve got enemies stacking up MR, then penetration is a great choice. It adds a level of damage you can only get from Abyssal Staff in game. If you’re a more casual player like myself, then you might see more benefit from flat AP, mana regen, or even flat health.