Base MR Crams 90% of Champions Into 4 Values, Armor Spreads Across 24 — Top MR Belongs to Akali, Not a Tank

Base armor and magic resist (MR) across all 173 champions, using only their level-1 values, turn out to be assigned in completely different ways. MR clusters so hard that just the value 32 covers 78 champions, 45% of the roster, and 30-33 alone accounts for 89.6%. Armor is scattered across 24 distinct values from 18 to 43, and even the single most common value only covers 14 champions (8%). Same "defensive stat" category, wildly different granularity.

What base armor and base MR actually are

Ddragon's champion data stores the level-1 base value and the per-level growth separately. I already covered growth rates before, so this time I ignored leveling entirely and compared only what champions start with.

Armor's floor and ceiling line up neatly by role

Lowest base armor (18)	Tag
Cassiopeia	Mage
Malzahar	Mage
Taliyah	Mage/Support
Veigar	Mage

All four champions tied at the bottom (18) carry the Mage tag. The top is Leona at 43, with Alistar, Malphite, Pantheon, and Taric right behind at 40. Tanks and tank-adjacent bruisers all the way down, and the 2.39x gap here matches what you'd expect.

MR's spread is much flatter, and the top isn't a tank

Top base MR	Value	Tag
Akali	37	Assassin
Talon	36	Assassin
Twitch	33	Marksman
Vayne	33	Marksman
Zeri	33	Marksman

Akali's 37 beats the tank Leona's 32. Every champion at 33 or above is tagged Marksman except the two assassins on top, and not a single Tank makes the cut (Leona and Alistar both cap out at 32). The bottom is Kayle at 22, Yuumi at 25, and Orianna at 26, Support and Mage, which tracks. But the gap between the extremes is only 1.68x, well under armor's 2.39x.

The same pattern holds for tag averages. Armor averages 34.9 for Tanks versus 22.7 for Mages, a 1.54x spread. MR averages only 32.5 for Marksmen versus 30.0 for Support, just 1.08x (tags are Riot's own classification, not actual lane assignments, so take the averages as that and nothing more).

Takeaway

Armor is clearly tuned by role, but MR sits around 30 for almost everyone regardless of what they play, and there's barely any role logic visible in it. My read is that this is part of why magic damage and MR-penetration items feel relevant even outside of mage matchups: physical builds already know where the role-based armor gaps are, while magic damage has to create its edge through runes and items instead of starting stats.

Didn't expect the MR crown to go to Akali instead of a tank