Most League of Legends players despise champions who build lethality items. Lethality champions are notoriously known for building early leads and snowballing the game in their favour. Although dealing with them may appear to be an uphill struggle, their impact on the game can be reduced with the correct macro and strategy. There are ways to play into opponents building lethality items, and here is how to do so.
What is lethality and who builds it?
Riot Games introduced Lethality in patch 7.14 of League of Legends to replace the armour penetration feature. The change may have been strange for some at first, but the goal was to create an environment where fed champions could no longer build armour penetration and run away with the game without any possible counter. Champions like Talon or Zed could build these items and essentially make squishy and immobile champions, like ADCs, unplayable, which resulted in a troublesome meta.
After the addition of lethality, a much wider variety of champions have been seen building at least one lethality item in order to help them in the late game. Lethality scales much better than armour pen did, so it is a viable choice for most players. Champions like Ezreal, Kai’Sa, Jayce, and Wukong can use items like Duskblade of Draktharr to give them the extra boost they need to survive a team fight while ensuring a consistent damage output.
How to play into players that build lethality on champions
The general method for dealing with lethality champions is to subdue them early on while preventing rival players from assisting them. Another option is to build armour, but none of these methods is super effective in the long run. Since lethality scales with an opponent’s armour and health, buying tanky items won’t do as much as one would think. Additionally, catching a champion building more than two lethality items can be difficult because they usually have enough disengage to make a quick pick on a player and get out before anyone notices.
There are a few ways for players to deal with lethality, and here are some key ones; a good option would be to try and single them out before they hit their item power spike. Before even getting into the game, knowing which champions can snowball if they build lethality items is essential. If you are laning against a lethality player, be sure to stay safe and make plays only when a kill is guaranteed. Even a champion with just Duskblade can be a big problem.
Another good way to deal with lethality players is to stay grouped with your team. It is much harder to make a quick in-and-out play if there are teammates around your and can deter them from trying something funny.
Finally, to combat lethality, build a stasis-type effect like Guardian Angel, Zhonya’s Hourglass, or even just a one-time-use Stopwatch. These items make you a less enticing target for the lethality player and make it very difficult to make plays. If an ADC builds one of the stasis items and is ambushed by an assassin, it is significantly easier for them to wait for backup and escape alive.
While playing against a lethality player can be difficult, players can always use their game knowledge to ensure that lethality players have a much harder time on the Summoner’s Rift.
