"(first) Reduction -> (second) Flat Penetration -> (third) Percentage Penetration
Reduction effects like Starks Ferver, Abyssal Scepter, Corki's Gatling Gun, Nidalee's Traps, Taric's Shatter, Fiddlestick's Dread, and Amumu's passive, etc, are applied first. They all reduce the enemy's armor/magic resist by a certain flat value.
Flat Penetration like Runes, Brutalizer/Ghostblade, Sorcerer's Boots, Haunting Guise, Olaf's Ragnarok, Kassadin's Nether Blade, etc are applied second (and in addition are the only penetration effects to be applied to towers (reduction/percentage do not work on towers). They penetrate a flat amount of the target's armor or magic resist.
Last to apply to an enemy are Percentage Penetration effects. There are only two of these in the game: Last Whisper (40% Armor Penetration) and Void Staff (40% Magic Penetration)... though there is a 15% Magic Pen mastery. These apply last and are therefore only worthwhile against very high-armor or magic resist targets. If you are trying to kill squishies, go for the Starks+Ghostblade+Rune Penetration route.
An example:
A Twitch has 73 armor. First reduction effects a la Starks Ferver apply. The rat now has 53 armor. From Runes+Masteries you can get 31 armor penetration. Say you have a Ghostblade as well, thats another 20. So as a target for your damage, Twitch has effectively 2 Armor remaining. Vs a squishy getting that percentage item isn't worthwhile if you're stacking other penetration items, but if your original target had something more like 200+ armor, Last Whisper's 40% is now taking away 80 effective armor from your target (with no other armor pen effects; with others it will be less effective but still worthwhile).
Magic Penetration works the same way."
Thus, all of you getting Last Whisper against a team of no tanks, or a team that is not stacking armor is generally a bad idea, seeing how it's efficiency would be minimal. Instead of doing the usual Infinity Edge to Last Whisper build that everyone seems to do, you should build more damage or flat armor penetration items such as brutalizer, or even go tankier and get veil or ga.
Reduction effects like Starks Ferver, Abyssal Scepter, Corki's Gatling Gun, Nidalee's Traps, Taric's Shatter, Fiddlestick's Dread, and Amumu's passive, etc, are applied first. They all reduce the enemy's armor/magic resist by a certain flat value.
Flat Penetration like Runes, Brutalizer/Ghostblade, Sorcerer's Boots, Haunting Guise, Olaf's Ragnarok, Kassadin's Nether Blade, etc are applied second (and in addition are the only penetration effects to be applied to towers (reduction/percentage do not work on towers). They penetrate a flat amount of the target's armor or magic resist.
Last to apply to an enemy are Percentage Penetration effects. There are only two of these in the game: Last Whisper (40% Armor Penetration) and Void Staff (40% Magic Penetration)... though there is a 15% Magic Pen mastery. These apply last and are therefore only worthwhile against very high-armor or magic resist targets. If you are trying to kill squishies, go for the Starks+Ghostblade+Rune Penetration route.
An example:
A Twitch has 73 armor. First reduction effects a la Starks Ferver apply. The rat now has 53 armor. From Runes+Masteries you can get 31 armor penetration. Say you have a Ghostblade as well, thats another 20. So as a target for your damage, Twitch has effectively 2 Armor remaining. Vs a squishy getting that percentage item isn't worthwhile if you're stacking other penetration items, but if your original target had something more like 200+ armor, Last Whisper's 40% is now taking away 80 effective armor from your target (with no other armor pen effects; with others it will be less effective but still worthwhile).
Magic Penetration works the same way."
Thus, all of you getting Last Whisper against a team of no tanks, or a team that is not stacking armor is generally a bad idea, seeing how it's efficiency would be minimal. Instead of doing the usual Infinity Edge to Last Whisper build that everyone seems to do, you should build more damage or flat armor penetration items such as brutalizer, or even go tankier and get veil or ga.
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