Ability damage

Ability damage is one of the game's archetypal damage types, and is the damage type dealt by most abilities. Ability damage is the pre-requisite for applying ability effects, such as Rylai's Crystal Scepter and  Spell Vamp. Dealing ability damage will also generate aggression from turrets but, by contrast to basic attack damage, does not trigger the Call For Help AI on minions.

Ability damage is never described as such in-game, instead being listed as physical, magic or true damage. However, those typings can be attributed other archetypal damage types (e.g. basic attack damage can be physical and magical, too) and so knowing whether or not an effect deals ability damage can be hard to intuit.

The basic rule is: all damage-dealing abilities, excluding attack effects, deal ability damage.

Below lists exceptions.

Non-Damaging Abilities

The following non-damaging effects actually deal 1 ability damage, inflicted as true damage. This is sufficient to trigger spell effects, such as Luden's Echo, although will not incur any noticeable healing from  Spell Vamp.

• Anivia's Crystallize
• Trundle's Pillar of Ice
• Zilean's Time Bomb
• This list may be incomplete.

Non-Abilities

The following non-abilities will also trigger spell effects:

Items

• Bilgewater Cutlass
• Blade of the Ruined King
• Hextech Gunblade
• Hextech Protobelt-01
• Hextech GLP-800
• Luden's Echo
• Runic Echoes

Summoner Spells

• Chilling Smite
• Ignite

Runes

• Arcane Comet

Thess lists may be incomplete.

On-Hit Ability Damage

The following attack effects deal ability damage, meaning they will trigger ability effects. The triggering basic attack will still apply other attack effects.

• Ekko's Phase Dive
• Gragas' Drunken Rage
• Illaoi's Harsh Lesson
• Jax's Empower and Grandmaster's Might (passive)
• Kassadin's Nether Blade (active)
• Kayle's Righteous Fury
• Kennen's Electrical Surge (passive)
• Kha'Zix's Unseen Threat
• Leona's Shield of Daybreak
• Twisted Fate's Stacked Deck and Pick a Card
• Udyr's Tiger Stance (activation effect)
• This list may be incomplete.

Abilities that trigger on-hit effects and ability effects

The following abilities apply both on-hit effects and spell effects:

• Blitzcrank's Power Fist
• Camille's Precision Protocol
• Darius' Crippling Strike
• Dr. Mundo's Blunt Force Trauma
• Evelynn's Whiplash and Empowered Whiplash
• Ezreal's Mystic Shot
• Fiora's Lunge
• Fizz's Urchin Strike
• Gangplank's Parrrley
• Garen's Decisive Strike
• Hecarim's Devastating Charge
• Irelia's Bladesurge
• Jax's Empower
• Kassadin's Nether Blade
• Katarina's Voracity, Shunpo, and Death Lotus
• Kayle's Starfire Spellblade
• Master Yi's Alpha Strike
• Miss Fortune's Double Up
• Nasus' Siphoning Strike
• Nidalee's Takedown
• Shyvana's Twin Bite
• Senna's Piercing Darkness
• Trundle's Chomp
• Vayne's Tumble
• Volibear's Thundering Smash and Frenzied Maul
• Warwick's Jaws of the Beast and Infinite Duress
• Wukong's Crushing Blow
• Yorick's Last Rites

Note that, however, the damage dealt by these abilities is not classified as ability damage, except in the case of Whiplash and the magic damage portion of Urchin Strike. Except in those cases, the damage dealt by these abilities will not benefit from  spell vamp. It is possible with Non-Damaging Abilities (above)—the implementation of this change could have been to have these abilities deal an additional 0 spell damage.

Trivia

• An effect that applies both attack effects and ability effects allows a champion to trigger items like Luden's Echo, Lich Bane, Statikk Shiv and Duskblade of Draktharr all on a single instance of damage - e.g. a single Mystic Shot or Phase Dive. It also allows them to trigger Muramana twice, since it applies on both the attack effect and the ability effect.

Gameplay Elements