Talk:VPBE/@comment-26612064-20170215094809/@comment-8506165-20170218195930

" @Unevent no, Riot has specifically stated in recent times that a reason they changed from flat Armour Pen. to Lethality was supposed to be for scaling against tanks but it "wasn't achieving the desired outcome" so the they tried buffing it from  Lethality = { Base Lethality × [40%+(60%÷level)]} to  Lethality = { Base Lethality × [60%+(40%÷level)]}, raising the initial amount."

When did they say that? My understanding of why Riot implemented Lethality is because stacking flat penetration under the previous system could lead to champions dealing nearly true damage to underleveled targets if they snowballed, hence they implemented a level-scaling. Then they buffed it because it was just too weak early and if people were buying it at all it was only as part of their third or fourth item.

" Assassins have a snowball problem. When ahead, they’re really ahead, but when behind, they’re pretty underwhelming. In part, this is the nature of a 1-on-1, outplay champion. But for physical assassins, flat armor penetration is exacerbating the problem. Mages and marksmen—the assassin’s natural prey—don’t typically build defenses early on, so the bulk of their armor in lane comes from levels (Zhonya’s Hourglass is the main exception). So, if assassins start snowballing, flat armor penetration punches through a significant portion of their target’s armor, continuing the snowball. But if assassins fall behind, their threat is mitigated by their targets’ innate stats alone. To give attack damage based assassins more consistency, we’re reworking armor penetration to be more consistently impactful late game without being overbearing early on."

^ That's what the patch notes said when they introduced lethality. I can't read anything into that about lethality being intended as better vs. tanks. I mean, if they said something different somewhere else then fair enough, but I don't recall seeing anything like that on s@20.