Unsung Heroes #2: Health, Armor, and Magic Resistance

To continue the lesson on tanking, we will go over the most basic of mechanics. The article will be heavy on numbers, but it is important to understand all the factors that play into how much damage you are taking.

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Basic Tanking Statistics

When it comes to taking damage, there are three statistics every tank needs: health, armor, and magic resistance. Just as important to understand are the three types of damage and how they play into these statistics.

Health and True Damage

Health is the easiest to recognize, since it’s the shiny green bar that lets you know when you’re about to die. True damage will bypass all resistances and damage reduction abilities, though shields that absorb all damage will intercept true damage. These are shown as white blocks on the health bar, and they are given by abilities like Shen’s Feint and Janna’s Eye of the Storm. The value of health is directly related to the damage types the enemy is doing and how much of the corresponding defensive attribute you have: one point of armor or magic resistance effectively makes you have 1% more health to enemies who deal that damage type. Since damage varies and some champions use hybrid damage, you will want a fair coating of health over your other defensive stats, but do not build just health.

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Physical: Armor, Reduction, and Penetration

Armor reduces the amount of damage a champion takes from physical damage. Every champion has a base armor value and a per-level increase in armor. Armor is currently only granted in flat values that stack additively, but a potential Garen change will give his Courage a percentage multiplier. There is no hard cap on armor. When physical damage is dealt, the game calculates the damage given by the following formula:

(Base physical damage) x (100/(100+Armor calculation of the victim))

Since the formula is static, you can take the reciprocal of the multiplier to find the champion’s physical damage reduction, which is the statistic shown when you mouse over your armor in game. The actual effect is modified by any armor reduction on the victim, and armor penetration of the attacker.

Flat armor reduction is given by effects like the Black Cleaver’s passive. It stacks additively, is the first modifier in the armor calculation formula, and it can potentially reduce a champion’s armor below zero. The actual armor value of the champion is reduced, so it can reduce the damage of armor based abilities, such as Malphite’s Ground Slam. Only a few champion abilities give percentage armor reduction. Due to being a percent, it cannot reduce armor below zero, and it will have no effect if the armor value is already below zero.

Armor penetration comes in two forms: percentage and flat. Flat armor penetration is calculated first, then the percentage. Flat penetration can be given by runes, an offensive mastery, the Brutalizer and Ghostblade, and some champion abilities. Percentage penetration is more limited, with one offensive mastery, the Last Whisper, and some champion abilities. Neither will have an effect if the target’s armor is already below zero.

The final armor calculation can appear quite complex due to the order of operations involved:

((((Base Armor – Flat Armor Reduction) * Percentage Armor Reduction) – Flat Armor Penetration) * Percentage Armor Penetration)

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Magical: Magic Resistance, Reduction, and Penetration

Essentially, magic resistance (MR) and the related penetration statistics operate the same as their physical counterparts. The only difference is the classification itself and understanding the different champions and items that play with the numbers. The Void Staff is the counterpart to the Last Whisper. Malady acts similar to the Black Cleaver, but not exactly. The good news is you can just transplant all the work we did above for armor into magic resistance.

((((Base MR – Flat MR Reduction) * Percentage MR Reduction) – Flat Magic Penetration) * Percentage Magic Penetration)

Voila! If you grasped the armor section, you know magic resistance. Nifty, eh?

 

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Crowd Control Reduction

Tenacity is a statistic that reduces the duration of stuns, silences, slows, snares, blinds, fears, charms, taunts, and polymorphs. The most important thing to note is that tenacity gained from items will not stack, but it does increase the effectiveness of champions who already have some form of crowd control reduction. Also of note is that is has no effect on the severity of any forms of crowd control, such as lowering the amount you are slowed.

All tenacity items currently provide 35 Tenacity, which is equivalent to a 35% reduced duration of applicable effects. When your champion has other factors that reduce the duration of the disables they stack multiplicatively. Simply put, it means it will have an effect, but you will never be completely immune to crowd control unless something specifically grants it.

It’s important to understand crowd control from both the defensive and offensive angles, but for the sake of cohesion and brevity I’ll be going over these in the next article. Stay tuned!