League of Legends' Lethality and Magic Pen Items are Being Buffed

A selection of League of Legends' defense-defying items are receiving buffs soon to compensate for the loss of magic penetration and lethality that the current runes offer.

As most who have been keeping up with the new Runes Reforged have likely noticed, the new runes won't include raw stats to supplement early game fights. Instead, they'll act as a combination of runes and masteries where each rune offers innovative and interactive abilities. The magic penetration and lethality stats therefore won't be accessible to champs as pure stat increases, so champion buffs and now item buffs are being tested to give those stat-users something to work with.

"In addition to base stat and ability adjustments we're trying out some item changes to also adjust for the impact of runes," Riot Meddler said. "We're buffing a range of items, primarily those that offer magic pen or lethality, to compensate for damage their users have otherwise lost."

While not every item was chosen to receive buffs when the new runes come out, Meddler said that those that currently have changes being tested were chosen specifically to accommodate certain champions who would need the items most after the Runes Reforged changes.

"The particular items in question were chosen because they both generally offer anti champion power (what was lost, and we don't want to increase waveclear unnecessarily) and because they're pretty closely tied to champs who need a bit more help in the new runes world," he continued.

These changes for certain items should help alleviate some players' concerns with their mains and the new runes. While building rune pages online and scouting out potential playstyles for their favorite champs, some players have noticed that certain champions – namely AP one – might not have as many options or as much power with the new runes. These item buffs precede a more in-depth look at AP items that is expected to begin sometime early next year.

The buffs to magic penetration and lethality items are currently being tested on the PBE in addition to stat buffs for champions across the board, so expect to see some lengthy patch notes in the future.