Armor penetration

Armor penetration is a champion statistic that directly reduces armor, meaning 10 armor penetration makes a target have -10 armor or 20% penetration equals 20% less. The difference between penetration and armor reduction is that reduction can reduce armor below zero (the same is true for magic), which means attacks deal more than 100% of damage to it.

All champions have 0 base armor penetration but can increase it with items, runes, masteries and some champion abilities.

Order of calculations
When attacking, armor penetration and armor reduction are considered in the following order :
 * 1) Armor reduction, flat
 * 2) Armor reduction, percentage
 * 3) Armor penetration, percentage
 * 4) Armor penetration, flat

Flat armor reduction
The target's armor is reduced by an amount. Flat armor reduction stacks additively.
 * Example: 20 armor reduction reduces the target's armor by 20, so a target with 30 armor will be reduced to 10 armor (302010) .

Flat armor reduction can reduce a target's armor below zero. For example, if an enemy with 10 armor has their armor reduced by 25, the enemy will have &minus;15 armor.

Percentage armor reduction
The target's armor is multiplied by a percentage (100%the listed reduction). Percentage armor reduction stacks multiplicatively and is ignored if the target's armor is 0 or less.
 * Example: 20% armor reduction multiplies the target's armor to 80%, so a target with 30 armor will be reduced to 24 armor (3024) .

Percentage armor reduction makes a bigger difference on targets with higher armor. For instance, with 40% armor reduction, a target with 200 armor will lose 80 while a target with only 50 armor will lose 20.

Percentage armor penetration
The target's armor is treated as being multiplied by a percentage for purposes of damage calculation (100%the listed penetration). Percentage armor penetration stacks multiplicatively and is ignored if the target's armor is 0 or less.
 * Example: 20% armor penetration causes the target to take damage as if its armor was multiplied by 80%, so a target with 30 armor will be treated as though it had 24 for purposes of damage calculation (the target's actual armor value will not change, however).

Because the target's actual armor value does not change, anything else depending on that value also doesn't change (e.g. ).

Percentage armor penetration makes a bigger difference on targets with higher armor. For instance, with 40% armor penetration, a target with 200 armor will be considered as having 80 less while a target with only 50 armor will be considered as having 20 less.

Last Whisper is a special case in that it is a percentage bonus armor penetration. This results in a negative interaction with armor reduction because of the order of operations (i.e. armor reduction goes before armor penetration). Armor reduction will remove armor from the bonus amount before the base amount leaving less bonus armor for the last whisper to penetrate.

Flat armor penetration
The target's armor is treated as being reduced by an amount for purposes of damage calculation, but cannot be reduced below 0. Flat armor penetration stacks additively.
 * Example: 20 armor penetration causes the target to take damage as if its armor was 20 less, so a target with 30 armor will be treated as though it had 10 for purposes of damage calculation (the target's actual armor value will not change, however).

Because the target's actual armor value does not change, anything else depending on that value also doesn't change (e.g. ).

Examples
Given 20 flat armor reduction and 30% armor reduction, and the target is affected by 10 flat armor penetration and 35% armor penetration,
 * Target A has 80 armor.
 * The 80 is reduced to 60 by the 20 armor reduction.
 * The 60 is reduced to 42 by the 30% armor reduction.
 * The 42 is considered to be  by the 35% armor penetration.
 * The  is considered to be  by the 10 armor penetration.
 * Target A takes damage as if it has armor.


 * Target B has 18 armor.
 * The 18 is reduced to &minus;2 by the 20 armor reduction.
 * The &minus;2 is not affected by any further calculations because it is less than 0.
 * Target B takes damage as if it has &minus;2 armor.

Champion abilities
Note: Only the armor penetration effect of these abilities is shown here, to read more information on each of these abilities, follow the link on each of them.
 * passively grants him % armor penetration.
 * ignore 40% of targets' armor.
 * upon activation grants him 50% penetration to bonus armor.

Masteries

 * grants armor penetration.
 * grants flat +  per level armor penetration.

Champion abilities
Note: Only the armor reduction effect of these abilities is shown here, to read more information on each of these abilities, follow the link on each of them.

Percentage Reduction: Flat Reduction:
 * reduces the armor of all enemies hit by % for 3 seconds.
 * reduces the armor and magic resistance of the enemy hit by his first attack after cast, by % for 5 seconds
 * reduces the armor of enemies hit by her autoattacks by 3% for 5 seconds. This debuff stacks up to 5 times.
 * reduces the target's armor and magic resistance by % for 4 seconds.
 * , when empowered by having more than 50 Fury, Dice will reduce the armor of all enemies hit by % for 4 seconds.
 * reduces the armor of the first target hit by 20% for seconds.
 * reduces the armor of his target by 20% and gains for the same amount. This amount is doubled over the next 4 seconds. The armor reduction lasts for another 4 seconds after the drain completes.
 * reduces the armor of all enemies hit by % for 5 seconds.
 * reduces the target's armor by 20% for 4 seconds after every third consecutive hit.
 * reduces the armor of the target hit by for 3 seconds.
 * reduces the armor of targets hit by his basic attacks or by 15% for 3 seconds. Only one target may be challenged at a given time.
 * fires automatically every half second, reducing enemies armor with each hit by for 2 seconds up to a maximum of 8 stacks.
 * reduces the armor of all enemies in the area by for the time they are on it plus 1 second.
 * reduces the target's armor by for  seconds.
 * reduces the armor of all enemies hit by its activation damage by  for 4 seconds.