With the extreme emphasis on Magic Pen these days, I tend to run Magic Pen Reds AND Quints giving me 14 Magic Pen Vs 8.5. Then I take Magic Resist Blues and Yellows. (with 19 MR)

And if the enemy takes an AD Mid, I take Armor Yellows and Magic pen Red/Blue/Quints to give me 20 Magic Pen.(13 armor.) That's more than any item in the game. Though, rarely do I get an AD mid since that fad fizzled out.

Regardless, I find that taking flat AP has lost its zing in Season 3, and I know it is hard for people to change the "Meta" thinking, but I've become quite a bit more successful since having done this.

For those who wonder why I take so much resist early on is to counter Pen marks. Also I generally take a Doran's Ring/Teleport on most of my mids as I'm a big fan of range and I get kills without getting close enough to use ignite so I just don't. Besides, it makes me able to gank top and bot, and to sustain with a HP and AP Advantage.


Am I crazy? I am getting something that is priceless in the game and there is no cheaper way to obtain it. There's actually only two ways to get more.

For me it's situational. If I'm playing a champ that has a non-damaging ability that scales from AP (shields, heals, etc) I'll run AP quints. If all of my AP scaling is for damage, I'll go MPen.

It all depends on what mage. Mpen does more damage than AP on spells that have high bases but semi low scaling, and even then, it matters on the enemys MR, if you have voidstaff or not, and how much AP you already have. AP Quints will do more damage than Mpen quints o most mages early game when your spells have low bases and your champ has almost 0 AP, and will slowly drop to a little less damage than Mpen quints as you start to pick up more and more AP. If the enemy starts getting high MR though, AP will usually win out against FLAT Mpen. Of course, when they start grabbing ANY MR, you should grab Voidstaff (Easily the biggest damage increase for the widest range of variables).

Well, see this is why I believe in Magic Pen because now it is not useless after grabbing a Void Staff.

Most of my champs have a lot of high base damage, Ahri, Lux, are my main mids. I have many others, but those are my main two.

I just feel that 8.5 Mpen Vs 14 Mpen, or if I get the oppurtunity to face AD I get 20 Mpen, Which is 44 or 50 Magic Pen, which means with the 8% Mastery they would have to have around 60 MR to even start nullifying any damage.

I rarely get past my third item on my APCs because the game is usually over, and unless I'm getting MR stacked, I never get a void staff before my third item.

I know a lot of it has to do with preference, but I find myself doing more damage as early as level three. Usually because on Both Lux and Ahri I level my damaging spell twice to get that extra harras instead of getting my utility spell.

I base my AP Carries around those two because they are the ones I take into ranked, and they are the ones I win with.