In the last few weeks the Keystone "Thunderlord’s Decree" reached insane levels of popularity across all tiers, positions and champions. Its buff in the latest preseason patch did not only fix the bug that caused it to only scale 10% with AD, but it also increased this value to 30%. While the AP scaling was ‘reduced’ – or just fixed – from 20% to 10% it still deals more damage in many situations than its AP counterpart in the Ferocity tree, Deathfire Touch. Another important factor for many damage dealers is that "Precision", a 2nd tier mastery in the Cunning tree, the same tree as Thunderlord’s, is also stronger than its Ferocity counterparts in almost any game. Let’s take a precise look on said masteries and their comparison to the Ferocity tree.

The Precision and Thunderlord’s combination is stronger than any other option when it comes to raw damage against the backline, damage output in the early game and short trades in general, which makes them especially important in the fast-game environment we currently have. Every point in Precision offers 1 (+0.1 per Level) flat armor penetration and 0.6 (+0.06 per level) flat magic penetration. In other words 5 points into the mastery and 12 levels – around mid to late game – into the game the values are: 11 armor penetration and 6.6 magic penetration. The Ferocity tree offers up to 7% (for 5 points) armor or magic penetration – mixing is possible. For the Ferocity mastery to be more effective than Precision the enemy therefore needs to have 157 armor or 94 magic resistance respectively. Remember that this is at level 12, in the mid game and that Precision offers both penetrations making it especially valuable for hybrid damage dealers. While you might encounter an enemy tank with resistances this high in the mid game, this is often not the case. Even if it were, the flat penetration is way more valuable during the early game – the Laning Phase – and whenever you attack an enemy that is not a tank. Games are very short these days so the early game is extremely important, which is also a reason for why Thunderlord’s and Precision are as important as they are right now.

Though Thunderlord’s has a bunch of obvious advantages there are certain champions and playstyles that require a different Keystone. I guess nobody is going to be shocked to hear that in almost all the games I encounter these days I see around 9-10 Thunderlord’s Keystones. The broken nature of the Keystone relative to the others is evident and by now almost everyone knows it. But there are exceptions to the rule and some of the players I saw taking the Keystone didn’t really think that choice through at all. We have to remember that both the Precision mastery and Thunderlord’s Decree are damage masteries and though they are strong, stronger than all the other damage masteries in most but not all situations, they still remain damage masteries.

A Soraka player for example might of course use the base damage of Thunderlord’s to trade during the Laning Phase, but is this really the best and only choice to take? If you were to take Windspeaker’s Blessing instead, you would lack the additional 60-90 damage that Thunderlord’s offers at levels 6-9 while increasing your heals by 10% and offering 10-13 armor and 5-6.5 magic resistance for 3 seconds to every ally healed. In said fight on level 6-9 this would result in an increase of 17-23 on your heal (W) per use and of 15/22.5 (if your ally is below 40% hp) per champion on your ultimate, taking only the base values without scaling. With your W having 3-2 seconds cooldown you can most likely use it at least 2 if not 3 times during the fight leading to a total healing increase of 73.5-91.5 (on your Marksman alone!), including your ultimate, and an armor/magic resistance increase of 10-13/5-6.5, even more than Precision is going to penetrate. I would call that stronger than Thunderlord’s. Besides, these stats – unlike Thunderlord’s – are not bound to cooldowns or a maximum number of champions and do not require you to attack your enemy and, therefore, position aggressively. In other words, the Windspeaker’s Blessing also strengthens your general sustain during the Laning Phase, the durability of your whole team during Teamfights and allows you to do so from a safe position.

This was only one example, but it shows you how exactly you should address the choice of your Keystone. It’s not enough just to take Thunderlord’s because it is the strongest. You need to be aware of what your playstyle is. If you are not going to use Precision and Thunderlord’s to trade in the early game, or if your main goal is to protect your scaling carry through shields and/or heals, you might want to reconsider your choice. Also, there are other situations in which a different Keystone could be more useful. Consider Braum, again, he might use Thunderlord’s to aggressively trade early on, but if he does not or if he wants to focus on helping his Jinx/Tristana/..., he will be better off taking Bond of Stone which does not only make him more durable but also passively protects his allies, which is basically what he is all about.

One can also gamble or play according to a certain strategy when deciding which Keystone to use, resulting in a different choice. In the beginning I mentioned that the Ferocity tree offers percentage penetration, which is only useful when attacking tanks in the mid to late game. The same late game nature applies to the Keystones of said tree. Both Warlord’s Bloodlust and Fervor of Battle offer decent stats for Marksmen when it comes to fights that extend a short trade. A fight of 6 seconds in late game for example leads to the following numbers: 1 Thunderlord’s proc (250-290 damage) or 288 bonus damage with Fervor of Battle (with 8 Auto Attacks) or 40% Attack speed over 5-6 seconds (depending on the timing of the first critical strike) and most likely 2 heals of 15% damage dealt (around 60-90) off a critical strike (for around 50% chance of critical strike). When it comes to raw damage it is easy to see that Fervor of Battle is going to deal more damage than Thunderlord’s Decree at around 7-9 Auto Attacks and is going to continue dealing even more damage the longer the fight lasts. Choosing Fervor of Battle over Thunderlord’s can therefore be useful, especially when fighting tanks in late game (also remember the % penetration), but it comes at great risk. You have to survive the Laning Phase while having significantly worse trading power, and you have to reach late game. It is a gamble I would not recommend for solo queue but which can be worth a try in a more organised environment. A team of 5 can build a composition that wants to play around a Fervor of Battle Hyper Carry, and is built to reach the late game, or it might as well feature some strong assassins, combined with a Fervor of Battle Carry to deal with the tanks.

Whenever you choose a Keystone, you choose a playstyle. Taking this decision can cover up weaknesses (for example, Vayne will have less problems early on running Thunderlord’s), improve your strengths (Hyper Carries with Fervor of Battle can be incredibly strong later on), or even define how you want to play the game in general (going for late game or pressuring the mid game). Every decision comes at a cost and has to be considered carefully. Just going for Thunderlord’s, because it is the most overpowered Keystone at the moment, may be viable, and it will most certainly not be a mistake, but there might be a stronger Keystone out there that could give you an advantage when playing a certain way. League of Legends is a competitive game, every advantage that you might get is one you need to use if you want to overcome the competition.

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