Basic attack

A basic attack (also called a standard, normal, or auto attack) is the default means by which a unit deals damage. Champions perform basic attacks when an enemy unit is right-clicked; basic attacks are also performed by an idle champion when an enemy unit ventures too close to it (if the option to basic attack when idling is enabled), or when the "attack move" function is used (default Shift + Right Click).

Most monsters and minions perform basic attacks as their only method of dealing damage.

A basic attack, under normal circumstances, deals 100% of attack damage physical damage, and can occur whenever the unit's attack timer is over, which is reduced by attack speed and reset by basic attack resets.

Option

By default, a champion will automatically basic attack nearby enemy units. This feature can be turned off in the options menu. Auto attacking can be momentarily disabled by using the "stop" command (default S).

Behaviour

General

Basic attacks cannot be dodged under normal circumstances. That is to say, once a basic attack has been issued from the attacker, it cannot miss the target and will follow the target despite any subsequent changes in position. Certain abilities will cause basic attacks to fail, whether by dodging, blocking, negating, missing or parrying. See Blind, Untargetable, Jax's Counter Strike, Shen's Spirit's Refuge.

Certain basic attacks can be physically dodged (by using mobility spells or walking out of the way) as they don't follow their target after their fired, but will travel fast enough that they're unlikely to be dodged. See Graves' New Destiny, Twitch's Spray and Pray.

Champion

When using attack-move, the champion stops to attack any hostile that gets in their way en route to a destination. If a champion has an attack target, they will continue to attack it if in range and will move closer to it when out of range, until either a new target is specified, a cancel order is issued (pressing the S key or by specifying another move order), or they lose vision of the target.

Many champions also have abilities that will affect their basic attacks in some way or form. Such abilities are treated like basic attacks, are said to apply on-hit effects and will also apply Ability effects.

Minions

Minions will automatically attack their closest target by default, but may change targets in a similar manner to turrets. For more information see the behavior of minions page.

Monsters

Almost all monsters only use basic attacks and only deal physical damage, the exceptions are:

Baron Nashor which also casts abilities.
Rift Herald which also casts abilities.
Dragon whose basic attacks are considered as abilities.
Gromp whose basic attacks deal magic damage.
Rift Scuttler which do not attack at all.

Turrets

Main article: Turret
Turret basic attacks deal physical damage and each consecutive attack deals more damage, up to a cap.

The behavior of turrets is described on the corresponding page as well as the damage of turret basic attacks.

The only exception to the above is the Nexus Obelisk (also called the Fountain Laser), which deals a special type of true damage that ignores all kinds of damage reduction, untargetability and immunity effects and doesn't have missile travel speed.

Structures

In normal circumstances, structures can only be damaged by basic attacks.

Vision

Basic attacking while hiding in brush or in fog of war will reveal the attacking unit. If in brush, basic attacking will reveal allies nearby while basic attacking.

Damage

Basic attacks always deal physical damage unless one of the following abilities is used, in which case the whole damage of the basic attack will be magic damage.

However, certain items, abilities or passives may cause them to deal additional magic damage on top of their base physical damage. Damage from basic attacks benefits from the attack damage stat on the attacker and are reduced by armor on the target.

When basic attacking a turret, your basic attack deals:

If (100% bonus AD) is higher than (60% AP) (or by default):
- Deals 100% base AD (+ 100% bonus AD) physical damage.
If (60% AP) is higher than (100% bonus AD):
- Deals 100% base AD (+ 60% AP) magic damage.

Attack speed

Main article: Attack speed
The rate at which a champion attacks is called attack speed, and is by default capped at 2.5 attacks per second, though some champions and runes can remove the cap.

Windup

EditA unit's attack windup is the portion of their attack which must be completed in order to launch it. The attacker must be standing still in order to complete the windup. For champions that have a projectile basic attack, the windup usually aligns with the champion drawing the projectile on-screen. Optimizing movement and attack commands between the attack windup completing and the total attack time completing is known as stutter-stepping.

The attack windup is displayed as a percentage, and any windup modifier is listed as a decimal next to it.

Resets

Certain abilities can "reset" the basic attack timer, causing the basic attack to queue in prematurely before the second basic attack initiates the queue, resulting in a faster second attack rather than basic attacking twice normally. Hail of Blades gains an additional stack from resets.

A list of actives and abilities that refresh the attack timer:

Special Case

Riven's Broken Wings causes her next basic attack to occur more quickly. This is not considered a basic attack reset for Hail of Blades.

Unstoppable Basic Attack

A basic attack that is not interruptible is classified as an unstoppable basic attack. It is only stopped by death. The following use this mechanic:

Empowered Basic Attack

To see the items and runes that deal bonus damage with basic attack, see attack effects.

Modified Damage

The following champion abilities have their basic attack dealing modified damage:

Bonus Damage

The following champion abilities will empower their basic attack to deal bonus damage:

Damage over Time

The following champion abilities will empower their basic attack to deal additional damage over time:

Others

The following champion abilities will empower their basic attack to give another bonus:

Trivia

In the initial iteration, the icon used to denote basic attacks is reused from an alpha item with unknown effects called Long Staff.

References

Gameplay Elements

Targeting Types	Auto (Passive · Self) · Direction · Location · Unit · Proximity · Vector (Collision · Radius)
Unit types	Champion · Minion · Monster · Pets · Structures (Turret · Inhibitor · Nexus)
Effect types	Ability effects · Attack effects (On-hit) · Area of effect · Damage over time · Heal · Multi-hit · Redirected damage · Shield · Single-targeted
Ability types	Attached · Aura · Blink · Buff · Channel · Combat status · Crowd control · Damage (Ability · Basic · Magic · Physical · True · Nexus Obelisk · Execution) · Dash · Debuff · Invulnerability · Pet · Projectile · Sight · Spell shield · Stealth · Tether · Untargetability · Ward

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