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Cost: 1000 (2500) 
+35 Physical Power
+20% Physical Penetration
PASSIVE - Your first ability cast gains 20% Physical Penetration. This can only occur once every 8 seconds.
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In case you want to find out exactly how much pen you're getting out of this item against an opponent with a specific amount of physical prots, here's the calculation:
Here's a chart showing the progression.
Note that this just gives you the % pen calc. You then have to use that value as a percentage (a value of 23% would be 0.23) and multiply that by the enemy's protections to get the flat pen value.
For squishies building 0 protections at level 20, you will usually get only around the minimum 15% pen. This is only around 10 penetration, making flat pen items like
It is also unlikely that all but perhaps 1 enemy in a balanced match will ever reach 200+ physical protection. That said, if an enemy gets even one normal physical protection item and their protection exceeds 100 at level 20, you'll get more pen out of TB than you would any flat pen item.
- % pen is almost always more of a late game item (except
The Executioner, which DPS hunters usually want earlier)...we're not considering TB early in a build.
- The enemy is a squishy, and most gods at level 20 have at least 60 protections.
- We're not talking about combining Exe + TB.
- God we're building is an ability-based Assassin or something.
- Average item in a full build when a squishy wants physical protections will usually be at least 40. (obvious exceptions are things like
Magi's Cloak.
So, if a squishy gets an item specifically for the protection, they're likely to hit at least 100 protections. As you can see from the chart, at 100, % pen exceeds 20%, which means 20 flat pen or higher, which is higher than any item containing flat pen (with the exception of stacking protection reduction fromSo the ROI on TB should be pretty good IF the enemy gets protections.
Then you have to consider how much actual pen you have in other items. The closer you get to true damage, the more the damage ramps up. Individual god has to be considered too, because some scale VERY well with power, while others are only mediocre.
Against a squishy with no added protections, and if you have a couple decent flat pen items (
If facing mostly squishies, I see BF and SS being late possibilities if you've gotten enough flat pen. TB sorta is weak against 65 prots. All depends.
I remember reading this too. And DB is another item I've heard doesn't actually work very well...suggested if you go the crit route has historically been
But understand something: to counter flat pen, you literally just need to build ANY physical protection item. This is where
In my opinion,
Finally, we're friends on PS4. If you catch me online, just IM me, and I'll gladly join you for some jungle practice where we can test some stuff out. I have a mic.
(maybe I'm just kidding)
Shut up, Bernie!