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This article or section is substantially or structurally incomplete. You can help the League of Legends Wiki by expanding it. For more projects, see the Community To Do List.
Additional information:
This article and the Damage types section in particular contain confusing or outdated information that is presently subject to a complete overhaul.
This article was last edited by Hylofear on 24-Feb-2024 10:15.
Damage Annie

Damage is displayed as a red section on a champion's health bar.

Note: Not to be confused with attack damage, a champion statistic, nor health costs.

Damage is the deduction of a unit's current health as a result of an offensive interaction referred to as a damage instance or damage event.

Damage type classifications[]

Damage events in League of Legends can be assigned different types, tags and properties to manage interactions, such as mitigation by the respective type of resistances or additional effects to be triggered by the damage event based on tags.

Damage types[]

Any instance of damage can have only one of the following types:

Physical damage
Magic damage
True damage
  • Not reduced by resistances nor almost all damage reduction effects. Reserved for powerful effects or those that for gameplay or technical reasons are not supposed to interact with resistances or reduction effects. True damage still respects Hybrid resistances icon shields and Cosmic Radiance invulnerability.

Damage tags[]

Any instance of damage can have none or multiple of the following tags:

BasicAttack
ActiveSpell
  • A tag found on damage instances of most abilities and some systemic effects that makes them trigger spell effects, including most empowered basic attacks. Often associated with the user spending mana and/or a cooldown to deal the damage.
AOE
  • A tag that lets the game recognize an instance of damage as coming from an area of effect source. Certain Summon Tibbers pets are more resilient against damage with this tag in order to make them less susceptible against champions with strong area-of-effect abilities. Often accompanies the ActiveSpell tag.
Periodic
Item
  • A tag that lets the game recognize an instance of damage as coming from a non-champion source, such as an item or summoner spell. This allows effects that are supposed to only trigger on champion abilities (e.g. Tiamat's Tiamat's Cleave, Liandry's Torment's Liandry's Torment's Torment) to ignore damage instances with this tag.
Proc
  • A tag that lets the game recognise an instance of damage as being applied as a secondary effect. This is commonly used for on-hit effects or other instances of damage that shouldn't interact with anything else. This tag is normally reserved for automatic applications of on-hit effects (e.g. Jax's Jax's Grandmaster-At-Arms Grandmaster-At-Arms, Kog'Maw's Kog'Maw's Bio-Arcane Barrage Bio-Arcane Barrage, Blade of the Ruined King Blade of the Ruined King).
Pet
NonRedirectable
Indirect

Damage properties[]

Any instance of damage can have none or multiple of the following properties:

ApplyLifesteal
EnableCallForHelp
RespectImmunity
RespectDodge
TriggerOnHitEvents
TriggerDamageEvents
ApplyOmnivamp
Nameless property


Damage values[]

Base values and character statistics ratios[]

Critical strike[]

A damage instance can critically strike when it is implemented as such on an active attack or ability. Damage that critically strikes is modified by a percentage above 100%, thus dealing increased damage. This modified damage is calculated pre-mitigation. Critical strikes interact exclusively with Critical strike chance icon critical strike chance, Critical strike damage icon critical strike damage, and Randuin's Omen's Randuin's Omen's Critical Resilience. The highest critical strike damage instance is also tracked in the post-game statistics.

A basic attack that critically strikes is modified by the attacker's Critical strike damage icon critical strike damage, which is by default 175%. Most on-hit effects will not be affected, unless specified (e.g. Riven's Riven's Runic Blade Runic Blade).

Actual Critical strike icon critical strike damage instances are not to be confused with Critical strike physical icon cosmetic critical strikes. On screen, they are both represented by the impact text icons Critical strike icon Critical strike magic icon Critical strike true icon. However, cosmetic critical strikes are only visual, and the icons are used for clarity (e.g. to denote Karthus' Karthus' Lay Waste Lay Waste hitting a single target).

Critical strike chance icon Critical strike chance above 100% does not affect critical strikes.

Average damage calculations
Assuming:
  • All amounts are in decimal form.
  • DamageBase = the normal damage amount (before any modifiers)
  • CritChance = critical strike chance
  • CritMod = critical strike modifier/ratio

Then the average damage per attack when continously attacking can be calculated with the formula:

For example:
  • 100 DamageBase, 40% CritChance, 175% CritMod
    • average damage per attack
  • 100 DamageBase, 100% CritChance, 175% CritMod
    • average damage per attack
  • 100 DamageBase, 80% CritChance, 215% CritMod
    • average damage per attack
  • 100 DamageBase, 100% CritChance, 120% CritMod
    • average damage per attack

Capped damage[]

Damage value modifiers[]

See also: Damage modifier

Invulnerability[]

See also: Invulnerability

Calculating mitigation[]

See also: Armor and Magic Resistance

Calculating applied damage[]

See also: Shields



The information below describes an outdated model of damage classification, but will continue to exist until the section and cross-wiki references are fully overhauled.

There are two systems for classifying damages: an engine-level system and a script-level system. As the name suggests, the engine-level system is integrated into the game's engine; while the script-level system is a relatively modern addition that allows Riot more flexibility.

Damage classifications modify what effects are triggered when damage is dealt or received - e.g. on-hit effects (such as Wit's End Wit's End) are triggered whenever your champion deals a source of Basic Attack basic damage.

Engine level[]

Wiki Name API name Description Example(s)
Fear Beyond Death 2 Raw damage e raw Damage that ignores shields. It is hard-coded to ignore Revival icon resurrection, but specific instances are then special-cased to be un-ignored. Fear Beyond Death Fear Beyond Death, Death from Below Death from Below and Nexus Obelisk Nexus Obelisk (to non-champions)
N/A internalraw As above, but also ignores Cosmic Radiance invulnerability. Revival icon Resurrection and Bailout Bailout are ignored. Nexus Obelisk Nexus Obelisk (to champions), Rift Herald's Rift Herald's self-damage, Cell Division's Cell Division's redirected damage, and Friend of the Forest's Friend of the Forest's grove freeing to monsters
Umbra Blades Default damage e periodic[s 1] Ability-based procs with no interactions. Effects without a proper damage type default to this category, including most splash damage. Umbra Blades Umbra Blades, Ricochet Ricochet, Liandry's Torment Liandry's Torment, Tiamat Tiamat, Ignite Ignite
Wit's End item Proc damage e proc[s 2] Attack-based procs with no interactions. Proc effects are triggered whenever you deal basic damage. Wit's End Wit's End and Kircheis Shard Kircheis Shard
Thornmail item Reactive damage e reactive Damage type dealt by Thorns. Similar reflection effects (e.g. Annie and Rammus) are classified as area damage. Only Thornmail Thornmail and Bramble Vest Bramble Vest
Basic Attack Basic damage e attack[s 3] Damage dealt by any unit(s), which includes turrets, neutral monsters, and minions basic attack and some champion abilities. Mystic Shot Mystic Shot, Lunge Lunge, Steel Tempest Steel Tempest
Disintegrate Spell damage e spell[s 4] Damage used for single target abilities and some basic attacks. Disintegrate Disintegrate, Ace in the Hole Ace in the Hole, Noxian Diplomacy Noxian Diplomacy, Pick a Card Pick a Card
Death Lotus Area damage e spellaoe Damage dealt by most abilities capable of damaging multiple units. Incinerate Incinerate, Rupture Rupture, Eye of Destruction Eye of Destruction
Blaze Persistent damage e spellpersist Damage dealt through DoTs Blaze Blaze, Malefic Visions Malefic Visions
Void Swarm Pet damage e pet Damage dealt by most pet basic attacks. Other pet damage is classified as Spell/SpellPersist. Tibbers Tibbers, Daisy Daisy, Eulogy of the Isles Eulogy of the Isles
  1. The League of Legends Wiki decided that the word "periodic" would be too easily misunderstood due to the implication of 'bleed' or 'over-time' behaviour.
  2. The term 'proc' refers to a mechanic that has a chance of triggering, which is common in games such as World of Warcraft (e.g., "Your attacks have an x % chance to cause [...]" effects). League of Legends originally featured 'true' proc effects (e.g., "your attacks have a chance to slow.") However, the design philosophy of Riot Games' over-time grew more towards preferring 'on-hit' or "every nth attack" to purely random mechanics. Despite this: the engine-level label persisted. The term 'proc' now describes all additional effect triggers even if they are not guaranteed, 'proc' is used as a verb when triggering such an effect.
  3. The League of Legends Wiki elected to use the 'basic' portion of basic attack to refer to this damage type to avoid confusion between 'attack damage' the damage type and attack damage the statistic.
  4. Some abilities such as Karthus' Lay Waste are capable of dealing either spell damage or area damage depending on the number of targets hit.

Before our editors determined the above damage types from the game files, the wiki's damage type documentation was based on observation. The wiki previously grouped spell, spellaoe and spellpersist as a single 'ability damage' type, with 'single target,' 'aoe' and 'dot' being noted as subtypes. The wiki also used pure damage as a conjectural placeholder for the now-termed raw damage. While the described functionality was usually correct, the previous documentation included many 'special cases' for abilities that did not behave consistently with the observed rules.

Despite having distinct use-cases, Wit's End item proc damage and Umbra Blades default damage are almost indistinguishable in terms of their gameplay functionality. Differentiating the two damage types without accessing the game files is extremely difficult for some effects. One of the only known ways to distinguish the two types involves Teemo Teemo: Instances of default damage do not disable Move Quick's Move Quick's passive movement speed, while instances of proc damage will. This distinction does not apply to other "out of combat" effects.

Script level[]

The following are the currently known script-tags:

  • AOE
  • Periodic
  • Indirect
  • BasicAttack
  • ActiveSpell
  • Proc
  • Pet
  • NonRedirectable
  • Item

For the most part, the two systems correlate and so the League of Legends Wiki has elected to not to document the script-level system separately across all articles. Instances where script-level tags create deviations from engine-level rules will be noted on a case-by-case basis in the ability-details. A notable but consistent deviation is Poison Trail persistent area damage, as documented below:

Wiki Name API name Description Example(s)
Poison Trail Persistent area damage e N/A Abilities classified as area damage on an engine-level, but periodic on a script level. This means that engine-level effects (such as spell vamp) trigger the reduced healing, while script-level effects (such as Arcane Comet Arcane Comet) trigger the damage-over-time cooldown reduction. Darkness Rise Darkness Rise, Tormented Shadow Tormented Shadow, The Equalizer The Equalizer

Subtypes[]

Resistance subtypes[]

See also: Armor and Magic Resistance

Resistance subtypes are a secondary typing system that exists to promote champion classes by diversifying the effectiveness of items and champion match-ups. There is a small selection of effects that are triggered by specific subtypes rather than the above archetypes - e.g. Morellonomicon Morellonomicon will trigger on anything with the magic damage subtype, including abilities, basic attacks and on-hit effects (i.e. Wit's End Wit's End will trigger Morellonomicon on a champion with no other source of magic damage). These are the damage types visible to players in-game.

Name Description Example
Attack damage Physical damage A damage type thematically associated with making physical contact, such as fists, swords and the physical projectiles of bows and guns. Armor icon Armor reduces incoming physical damage. Most basic attacks; most AD-scaling abilities; some item effects.
Magic damage Magic damage A damage type thematically associated with non-physical, such as magic or the supernatural. Magic resistance icon Magic resistance reduces incoming magic damage. Most AP-scaling abilities; some item effects; Corki's Corki's basic attacks.
Hybrid penetration True damage A damage type thematically associated with bypassing the target's defenses. Not to be confused with Fear Beyond Death 2 raw damage. A select few sources, such as Smite Smite, Ignite Ignite, Silver Bolts Silver Bolts and Reckless Swing Reckless Swing.


Calculating Damage[]

Physical and magic damage are first reduced (or amplified) by armor and magic resistance respectively before being applied to target, which is referred to as post-mitigation damage. This can be calculated through a damage multiplier.

  • Physical damage's damage multiplier:

  • Magic damage's damage multiplier:

Additionally, damage reduction can exist in forms other than armor and magic resistance (e.g. Alistar's Alistar's Unbreakable Will Unbreakable Will or Irelia's Irelia's Defiant Dance Defiant Dance). These modifiers are multiplicative with Armor or Magic resistances.

See also: Damage recieved modifier

Capped Damage[]

Some abilities, scaling with target's health, have a capped amount of damage they can deal to a target. This is made to avoid dealing massive damage to targets with a lot of health, most often against only Minion icon minions and/or Monster icon monsters.

  • If the ability deals enough damage (before damage reductions) to reach the cap, the ability's damage is reduced to the cap and damage reductions are then applied. This means that against a target that has negative armor or magic resistance the ability's post-mitigation damage can be higher than the cap.

Misconceptions[]

The resistance types—physical, magic and true—are often regarded by players to be the archetypal damage types, which leads to a lot of misconceptions.

For example, some players believe that magic damage, ability damage and AP are all interchangeable terms, with even prominent streamers referring to abilities as dealing "AP damage" and "AD damage". This is incorrect. It is possible for basic attacks to deal magic damage (e.g. Corki Corki); it is possible for abilities to deal physical damage (e.g. Riven Riven); it is possible for AD-scaling abilities to deal magic damage (e.g. Shyvana Shyvana); and it is possible for non-magic damage to apply spell effects (e.g. Luden's Companion Luden's Companion would trigger on Riven if she chose to buy it, although she's discouraged due to her having no AP scalings).

Similarly, many players believe that life steal and spell vamp are specific to physical and magic damage, respectively. Life steal will apply to anything classified as basic damage (including the magic damage from Takedown Takedown, Hextech Munitions Hextech Munitions and Infinite Duress Infinite Duress), and spell vamp will apply to anything classified as ability damage (including the physical damage from Comet Spear Comet Spear and true damage from Reckless Swing Reckless Swing).

See also[]

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