Lethality is a statistic in League of Legends that was created in 2017 to replace the previous system of the flat armor penetration stat. Lethality grants you a flat amount of armor penetration on your attacks rather than a percentage. It’s a newer model for this type of armor penetration, and as a result, it can be confusing at times. This modified statistic is available on certain items such as Duskblade of Draktharr, Eclipse, Prowler’s Claw, as well as many others.
Lethality is also present in some champion’s abilities: Senna’s Piercing Darkness, Aphelio’s Passive The Hitman and the Seer, and Pyke’s Passive as well as all of his abilities. These are a few unique instances where Lethality plays a longer role in a champion’s abilities rather than just in items.
Most of the time, making the choice to build Lethality items can help give you advantages and help you reduce the armor of the enemy champions for fights. Lethality is often built on Attack Damage champions because it helps reduce the armor for champions while you are attacking them. Compared to when you buy an item with Armor Reduction that reduces the armor for the enemy champs that applies for you and all your teammates, Lethality works a bit differently.
There is however an order of effectiveness when it comes to Armor Penetration, and even though Lethality is the last one applied, it can still make a difference. The specific order that Lethality is applied in is:
- Armor Reduction, Flat (stacks additively)
- Armor Reduction, Percentage (stacks multiplicatively)
- Armor Penetration, Percentage (stacks multiplicatively)
- Lethality (stacks additively)
How is Lethality calculated?
In order to calculate Lethality, there is a specific formula that is used:
Flat Armor Pen = Lethality x (0.6 + 0.4 x level ÷ 18)
By using this formula, you’ll be able to calculate specific damage numbers if you need to and it shows that Lethality will give you a minimum of 60% of its value at level one that scales up to 100% at level 18.
Items
Since all champions start off with a base armor stat, Lethality items will also work on all enemy champions regardless of whether they build armor items or not. Today I will focus on two Mythic and one Legendary Lethality items in detail: Duskblade of Draktharr, Eclipse, and The Collector.
Duskblade of Draktharr
This is a Mythic item that grants you 60 AD, 20 Ability Haste, and 18 Lethality (11.2-18 (based on level) armor penetration). This item’s passive allows your next basic attack to deal extra damage and apply a slow if you are a melee champion. One of my favorite things about this item’s passive is that when you take down an enemy champion within 3 seconds of damaging them, it resets the passive and gives you invisibility for 1.5 seconds.
This item can be ideal with assassins like Zed when you want to try to do as much damage as early as possible. It can also be useful for ADCs that can utilize the invisibility to kite in team fights to prioritize this item. For example, you might consider buying this item playing Vayne or Sivir. The only potential issue is that because it’s a mythic item, you wouldn’t be able to buy any other ones so you would be opting for a more aggressive build compared to if you bought Immortal Shieldbow or Galeforce.
Eclipse
This Mythic item gives you 55 AD, 8% Omnivamp, and 18 Lethality (11.2-18 (based on level) armor penetration). This item’s passive activates and when you hit an enemy with two separate attacks or abilities within 1.5 seconds, it deals 6% of the target’s maximum health as bonus physical damage and grants you a 15% bonus movement speed and a shield. This item is innately ideal if you’re a champion with auto-attack resets or abilities that you use to damage a champion within a short time frame. This can be a good choice as a Mythic item if you’re playing Graves, Kayn, or Kha’Zix.
The Collector
This is a Legendary item that grants you 55 AD, 20% Critical Strike Chance, and 12 Lethality (7.47-12 (based on level) armor penetration). This item’s passive allows you to execute an enemy champion if you deal post-mitigation damage that would leave them below 5% maximum health. Champion kills also give you an additional 25 gold. This item is usually bought by ADCs and allows them to be able to finish kills when they just don’t quite have enough damage to kill the enemy.
For example, you might consider buying this item if you’re playing Miss Fortune, Tristana, or Draven just to name a few. Since this is a legendary item, you’re able to gain Lethality and AD while also being able to mix up your build and have well-rounded damage throughout your items.
Another thing to note about Lethality is that you are able to stack Lethality to help you deal more damage as you get more levels. Lethality cannot lower an enemy champion’s armor below 0 however. The only way to do this is with armor reduction. This means that Lethality doesn’t allow you to deal “extra” damage, it simply reduces the armor of the enemy that you are attacking.
When Is It the Right Time to Buy Lethality?
Lethality items might not be the most ideal late game as compared to other items but can be quite useful in certain situations. For example, if your goal is to get ahead early and try to end the game fast, buying 2-3 Lethality items in tandem with other regular AD or Damage Per Second (DPS) items might be your best bet to have well-rounded damage. Lethality in general is useful against squishy targets, such as AD or AP carries, but it’s not very effective when trying to take down tanks who are building multiple armor items.
In this example, a flat amount of armor penetration wouldn’t be as effective against the enemy tanks. This building path is ideal for assassins or ADCs who rely on a lot of their damage coming from their abilities rather than pure auto attacks in which case you would want to build more DPS items over Lethality.
For example, if I’m playing Miss Fortune against a Lucian, Wukong, Lux, Volibear, and Veigar enemy team, I may not be able to make enough of a dent to reduce Wukong and Volibear’s armor. I would be better off buying a couple of Lethality items mixed in with more AD items and focusing on targets where I could do the most effective amount of damage. In this case that would be Lucian, Lux, and Veigar. Every situation is not always the same though, and it’s best to check with other players’ build paths on sites like MobaFire or OP.gg if you’re still unsure what items you should build for what scenarios.
Conclusion
Overall, Lethality can be useful in certain situations but you always have to look at who you’re playing against and what items they are building as well, to see if adding a couple of Lethality items would be a good option. Some players have been known to build full Lethality to try and end the game early and sometimes this may be the most ideal and fun option. I hope this article has been helpful in explaining Lethality items and what champions would be most ideal for building this path.
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