Talk:Armor/@comment-96.26.109.104-20120727121102/@comment-4087140-20120728205022

"Diminishing returns," by definition, refers to when the ratio of an input to its corresponding output decreases as the input increases.

For example, if you're planting seeds in a field, each seed yields one tree. As the field gets too crowded, though, some seeds don't develop into trees because they fight for sunlight and water. This results in getting maybe 0.8 trees per seed, or later on, 0.5 trees per seed, or eventually, 0 trees per seed. This is what diminishing returns means: a decreasing ratio of input component to output product as the input increases.

Every point of attack damage increases your autoattack damage by 1, whether you have 10 AD or 1000 AD. Every point of armor increases your effective health by 1%, whether you have 10 armor or 1000 armor. These are examples of systems that do not have diminishing returns, because the ratio of input to output never changes. An example of something that does have diminishing returns is movement speed; between 415 and 490, each point of MS only actually increases your speed by 0.8; past 490, each point of MS only actually increases your speed by 0.5. This is diminishing returns.

The part that many people (including myself, in the past) misunderstand is that diminishing returns is not the ratio of input product to relative total improvement. That is a separate—though related—topic altogether.