True damage in League of Legends is a type of damage that ignores key defenses such as armor and magic resistance. And as such, it may seem as hard to counter.
My goal with this article is to further clarify how true damage works, and all the ways you can play against it.
How to Counter True Damage in LoL?
As you already know, true damage penetrates and completely ignores armor and magic resistance. This means that you will not have a fun time building these defenses against it.
Luckily, there are things that work amazingly against true damage, and those are HP, shields, healing, and invulnerability spells/items.
In general, champions who deal true damage do not deal too much damage. Their main strength comes from ignoring resistance. This means that having a huge health bar will make you incredibly strong versus true damage.
Having shields and heals will help you absorb the damage, and keep fighting. Many true damage champions are designed to burst you. And this means that sustain will make it much harder for them to make an influence.
Invulnerability is more niche and harder to utilize, but it is also great for dealing with bursts. Tryndamere’s R is a great example of this, when used properly, it can make champions like Zed useless.
The best way to counter true damage is to play champions and build items with the qualities I listed above.
The Best Items Against True Damage In League Of Legends
All the principles we already discussed will apply to the items you build. You will want HP, Shields, Healing, etc. So here are some of my top picks:
Gargoyle Stoneplate
Gargoyle Stoneplate is the item that has to be mentioned first. It gives the resource we need the most to counter true damage, the resource is HP.
This item will increase your armor and magic resist, but most importantly it will increase your HP by a base number of 100 + 90% of your max HP. Using it will make you nearly unkillable.
Read Also: The Best Items Against AP Champions
Sterak’s Gage
Sterak’s Gage is probably the second most built item to counter true damage. It gives you a shield that is equal to 80% of your base health after you get below 30% health.
It is great for protecting yourself against true damage and one-shot champions. Other than giving an insanely huge shield, it significantly increases AD and HP.
Warmog’s Armor
Do not be misled by this item’s name, it is called Warmong’s Armor, but a more appropriate name would be Warmong’s Health.
For 3000 gold, this item will give you 800 HP and 200% health regen. These stats are extremely helpful for countering true damage.
Read Also: The Best Items Against AD Champions
The Best Champions Against True Damage in League of Legends
Cho’Gath
Cho’Gath is an AP Tank champion that is great for countering true damage. His main strength lies in his R which increases his HP and size every time he eats something with it.
Cho’Gath is one of the best tanks in League of Legends and he scales super well. So, he’s always a priority pick against true damage dealers.
Janna
Janna is one of the strongest and most popular enchanter champions. She is great for countering true damage champions and those with assassin kits. The shields she gives are large and they can soak up a lot of damage.
Her R is also really powerful for pushing the enemies away and giving allies time to heal and regenerate. Her kit also has a tornado that slows and knocks up the enemies and a “W” that slows the enemies too.
Read Also: LoL Best Items Against Shields
Dr. Mundo
Dr. Mundo is a great tank champion, unlike many other tanks who will just counter physical and ability damage, he is great at blocking true damage as well.
The thing that sets him apart is mainly his R. The spell has properties that allow him to quickly heal and regain the lost HP. Yes, he is susceptible to true damage, but he easily recovers from it.
Taric
Despite being weak in the early stages of the game, Taric is one of the best champions to counter any type of damage, including true damage.
As soon as he gets to level 6, he becomes a monster in team fights. The ability will give a short invulnerability to every ally in its range. This makes him one of the greatest team fight champions.
Read Also: Top 10 Best Items Against Tanks
Lulu
Lulu is much like Janna. She will block the incoming damage by shielding and empowering the allies.
Her R is a great tool that can protect anyone on her team. Once cast on an ally, the ally will become incredibly difficult to kill. Other than this she also has the tools to CC enemy champions, which rends their true damage useless.
Amumu
Amumu is one of the greatest champions for countering true damage in League of Legends. It might not seem obvious initially, but I will explain.
We all know that Amumu is a tank that can stack a lot of HP, well, that is his first strength. Other than that he has incredible amounts of CC.
The combination of HP and CC is lethal against true damage champions because it gives him incredible durability. If anyone tries focusing on him, that will just make them a free target for the Ammumus team.
Conclusion
True damage and the champions that utilize it can be annoying to play against. Luckily, there are some great ways to counter them.
You can buy items like Gargoyle Stoneplate, Sterak’s Gage, or Warmong’s Armor, or you can go as far as to take some counter picks.
The best picks against true damage would be Janna, Cho’Gath, and Taric.
