League-of-legends – Tiamat splash and Infinite Duress (Warwick ultimate)

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The wikia entry for Tiamat specifically mentions that it does 50% of physical damage as splash. It also gives Infinite Duress (Warwick's R) as an exception, without mentioning further details.

  • Does this mean that items which add on-hit magic damage (Wits' End, Malady) do not contribute to the splash?
  • How does it work with Warwick's ultimate? Specifically, Tiamat splashes physical damage done while Duress does magic damage – so will Tiamat proc splash but with 0 dmg (no physical component) unless there is a Sheen equipped? If not, is the splash also magic (as per original source) or its converted into physical dmg?
  • If Tiamat splashes during Duress, since it is using a magic damage source will that add on-hit effects from e.g. Wits' even if this is not normally the case?

Best Answer

Infinite Duress states :

"Warwick lunges at an enemy champion, suppressing the target for 1.8 seconds and striking for magic damage five times in 0.334-second intervals. Warwick gains 30% life steal for the duration. Each of his strikes triggers on-hit effects and benefits from life steal and Eternal Thirst."

The first thing we note is that Infinite Duress does magic damage. Magic damage does not get splashed by Tiamat but let us continue.

Note the third sentence that modifies these magic damage strikes:

Each of his strikes triggers on-hit effects and benefits from life steal and Eternal Thirst."

Here we find that the ability modifies how life steal and on-hit effects (such as Wit's End, Malady, Bloodrazor) are applied. However it still do NOT make the damage he deals physical. Tiamat will only be proced on physical damage dealt from basic attacks, it will NOT cause any damage from his ultimate to be splashed for the follwoing reasons:

1) Infinite Duress deals magic damage (Tiamat only splashes physical damage).

2) Infinite Duress makes specific reference to applying on-hit effects but does not actually make the strikes from the ability count as basic attacks or deal physical damage (Tiamat only splashes on physical damage from basic attacks).