All abilities affected by Plated Steelcaps change on patch 13.5

For the better part of these 13 seasons, League of Legends has functioned in the same way. Changes have been big and plentiful. But for the most part, the game has embodied what playing a MOBA really means. The changes to the armor boot option in patch 13.5 could signal a change of philosophy over at Riot Games, and Plated Steelcaps might be the first domino to fall.

How Armor and Plated Steelcaps work?

To not make this an essay, here’s the short version of it. Armor blocks physical damage in League of Legends. That physical damage can be outputted by using abilities or auto attacks. All champions do physical damage with their auto attacks. But some depend on them more than others in order to dish out damage. That’s what ADC champions and their role does.

On the flip side, Plated Steelcaps or formerly known as Ninja Tabi, block a portion of the auto attack damage. This upgraded version or tier two boot option gives users 20 armor, 45 movement speed and its passive reduces incoming damage from all basic attacks by 12%. To simplify, if you have 100 health and 0 armor, and you get hit by a basic attack from a champion with 100 attack damage and 0 armor penetration, the passive alone would lead to you receiving 88 damage instead of 100. 

Plated Steelcaps changes on patch 13.5

Now that we understand the concept, lets see how the game really functions. In modern League, damage can be tagged as more than just belonging to a basic attack. Riot can control whether the individual instance of damage also counts as a spell, an activation of something, or whether it should trigger on-hit effects like lifesteal, crit, and other forms of damage amplifiers. These properties are pretty well hidden as they’re supposed to be mostly intuitive. You could do your due diligence to do in-depth research, but we already did it for you.

Damage blocked by Plated Steelcaps before patch 13.5

These are all instances of damage that were affected by the 12% damage reduction Plated Steelcaps provided before patch 13.5. These included all basic attacks, excluding turret damage.

• Runaan’s Hurricane bolts
• Akshan’s passive ability second hit and his E’s subsequent hits
• Aphelios’s initial and follow-up basic attacks after using both Sniper/Flamethrower Q and R, the onslaught of hits while using his Severum gun ( Red Pistol- Q ability), attacks against the initial target using Infernum (Flamethrower gun) and it’s Runaan’s Hurricane bolts, as well as his Crescendum (Boomerang) main attack. You can notice that his small Chakrams that stack and the splash damage from his Flamethrower gun are not included.
• Ashe Q ability (including unique Runaan’s hits spread randomly onto nearby targets)
• Caitlyn Headshots from passive ability but not the trapped bonus damage from using the W ability.
• Corki passive auto attacks, where both physical and magic damage is reduced
• Draven’s Q ability has its full damage reduced
• Fiora E (both hits)
• Galio’s passive auto attack to the primary target, which is converted to magic damage
• Graves auto attacks (all pellets)
• Jayce ranged W (Hypercharge) attacks
• Jhin’s auto attacks including the fourth one that is a guaranteed crit from his passive
• Jinx Q ability (Fishbones rockets) to the primary target, including Runaan’s missiles primary hitting the primary

• Kayle base E ability, the physical portion of it at least
• Kayle Arisen E ability is having its physical damage reduced to the primary target and AOE spread
• Kled W’s last hit’s additional damage
• Lucian’s passive ability second hit
• Malphite W ability active against the primary target
• Master Yi’s  passive ability second hit
• Nautilus’s passive auto attack full damage
• Nocturne passive to primary target
• Nunu passive AOE cleave damage

Other damage instances blocked by Plated Steelcaps before patch 13.5

• Pantheon Empowered W all hits
• Quinn P attack’s full damage
• Rek’Sai unborrowed Q ability (Queen’s Wrath) to primary target
• Renekton W (both versions all hits)
• Rengar passive leap attack, including the one from the ultimate ability when unstealthed, and his Q ability attack
• Samira passive attacks when someone is crowd controlled, all hits
• Sett’s passive and Q ability attacks
• Shaco’s passive, Q ability, ultimate ability (clone) attacks
• Shyvana human form Q ability, the first auto, same goes for Sivir W ability as well 
• Sylas passive ability auto attack to the primary target
• Twitch ultimate ability all attacks
• Udyr E ability (stun) attack

• Urgot W ability which is a flurry of hits
• Viego’s double attacks against enemy marked with his Q ability
• Wukong’s W ability (clone) attacks
• Xayah’s passive auto attack to primary targets
• Xin Zhao’s Q ability all attacks
• Yasuo’s Q ability (thrust, spin, and whirlwind) to the first/closest target
• Yone’s passive auto attacks, where both physical and magic damage is reduced and his Q ability (thrust and dash/whirlwind) to first/closest target
• Zeri’s Q ability, where all hits, including the 3-missile version during her ultimate ability and the Runaan’s Hurricane bolts are reduced

This list is massive but it just got expanded. If a special attack is not mentioned here, it has its original 100% AD physical damage portion reduced but not the bonus damage. This remained unchanged on patches moving forwards. Examples of this are:

• Aatrox, Akali, Ziggs, Zoe, Kha’Zix and Jarvan’s passive auto attack. 
• The same goes for Gragas, Fizz, Jax, Kassadin, and Orn’s W abilities.
• Leona , Shen and Udyr’s Q abilities are also included, with the most notable being Ekko’s E ability.

Abilities damage blocked by Plated Steelcaps after patch 13.5

All of the above are still affected but after patch 13.5 these abilities also have their damage reduced by Plated Steelcaps:

• Heartsteel item activation
• Annie’s ultimate ability (Tibbers) basic attacks, Ivern’s ultimate ability (Daisy) attacks (excluding the knock-up damage), Malzahar’s Voidlings basic attacks, Yorick’s Ghouls (E ability) and Maiden (ultimate ability) basic attacks. It’s a bit confusing because these pet hits are tagged as Basic Attack damage. Feels unintuitive that they’ll be reduced by Plated Steelscaps since most other pets’ attacks still aren’t (exmp. Heimer turrets, Shaco boxes, Zyra plants).
• Bel’Veth’s Q and E ability hits
• Ezreal, Fiora, Irelia, Gangplank, and Miss Fortune’s Q abilities 

• Empowered auto attacks such as Blitzcrank, Mundo, and Hecarim’s E ability, Darius, Udyr, Illaoi, and Volibear W abilities, on top of Garen, Nasus, Yorick, Trundle, Volibear, Wukong (including from clone) Warwick, and Viktor Q abilities.
• Other empowered auto attacks affected by the change are Shyvana’s q ability in both human and dragon form to all targets, Nidale’s Q ability in cougar (melee) form, every attack during Warwick’s ultimate ability, Viego’s ultimate ability and vayne’s Q ability damage without the bonus damage.
• Senna’s Q ability to both primary and AOE targets is affected
• The physical portion of Fizz’s Q ability.

Other notable abilities unaffected

We are not sure why Viego’s ultimate ability is coded like a basic attack but here we are. Plated Steelcaps don’t reduce incoming true damage like Cammile’s Q ability or Vayne’s W ability. Miss Fortune’s passive ability is not considered ‌a basic attack after the Navori changes a few patches ago, and is not reduced by this item. Some special attacks like the on-hit damage from Jax Ultimate and W ability or Kog’Maw’s W ability apply bonus damage that counts as ability usage and is unaffected by this change. Twisted Fate’s W ability basic attack is considered one big instance of spell damage. The same goes for Evelynn’s E ability.