League of Legends has plenty of different statistics that you should know before you start climbing the ranked ladder. In the end, the more knowledgeable you are about the game, the more wins you ought to gather. One pivotal stat is Lethality.
What is Lethality in League of Legends?
Lethality is a statistic in League that is most closely associated with attack damage champions and their ability to burn through enemy champions’ armor. Lethality was introduced to the game in 2017 as a replacement for the old flat armor penetration system, and is not to be confused with the current percentage-based armor penetration mechanic.
With Lethality, champions will gain more armor penetration through various items and builds and no longer rely on their level to increase the stat.
As of Patch 14.1, Lethality essentially functions the same way as flat armor penetration did in the olden days, giving you one armor penetration per point of Lethality. This means that no matter what level you are you will get the full armor penetration from Lethality items, making this statistic a whole lot stronger in the early stages than it was before. So, if an opponent has 50 armor and you have 20 Lethality, you will deal damage to them as if they had 30, ignoring a flat amount of armor based on how much Lethality you have.
What is the difference between Armor Penetration and Lethality?
Whereas Lethality lets you ignore a flat amount of an enemy’s armor, the Armor Penetration stat ignores a percentage. So if you were to attack a 50 armor opponent while sporting percentage-based armor pen items such as the Lord Dominik’s Regard with 35 percent, you’d deal damage to them as if they had 32.5 armor. As you can already see, the percentage-based armor penetration has massively diminishing returns the lower the opponent’s armor is, making Lethality the better option in such cases.
However, if you’re up against champions like Malphite who can stack armor to no end, purchasing a percentage-based armor penetration item is highly recommended, as a 300 armor Malphite would see a whopping 105 armor ignored with just Lord Dominik’s. Add to that a few Lethality items and armor reduction like Black Cleaver’s passive shred and you’d be absolutely wrecking any enemy no matter their defenses.
Also, bear in mind that Lethality stacks additively, meaning that if you have two 18 Lethality items, you will have 36 total. However, Armor Penetration stacks multiplicatively. Against a 50 armor opponent, a Darius player wielding Lord Dominik’s and having his E maxed out would do damage as if the enemy had 13 armor, meaning the total Armor Penetration would come out to 74 percent rather than 75. Against a 100 armor opponent, however, it would be 61 percent, diminishing further the more armor an enemy has for the sake of balance.
All Lethality items in LoL
| Name | Stats | Cost |
| Serrated Dirk | 10 Lethality, 20 Attack Damage | 1,000 Gold |
| The Brutalizer | 5 Lethality, 25 Attack Damage, 10 Ability Haste | 1,337 Gold |
| Umbral Glaive | 15 Lethality, 50 Attack Damage, 10 Ability Haste | 2,600 Gold |
| Serpent’s Fang | 15 Lethality, 55 Attack Damage | 2,500 Gold |
| Edge of Night | 15 Lethality, 50 Attack Damage, 250 HP | 3,000 Gold |
| Youmuu’s Ghostblade | 18 Lethality, 60 Attack Damage | 2,800 Gold |
| The Collector | 10 Lethality, 50 Attack Damage, 25 percent critical strike chance | 2,950 Gold |
| Axiom Arc | 18 Lethality, 55 Attack Damage, 20 Ability Haste | 3,000 Gold |
| Profane Hydra | 18 Lethality, 60 Attack Damage, 10 Ability Haste | 3,200 Gold |
| Hubris | 18 Lethality, 60 Attack Damage, 10 Ability Haste | 3,000 Gold |
| Voltaic Cyclosword | 18 Lethality, 55 Attack Damage, 10 Ability Haste | 3,000 Gold |
| Opportunity | 15 Lethality, 50 Attack Damage, four percent movement speed boost | 2,700 Gold |
Best Lethality items in League
Hubris
At the moment, Hubris is probably one of the best items in League of Legends proper and not just among the Lethality ones. This Legendary item grants you a whopping 18 Lethality which in and of itself is a massive boost, though its passive is where the catch is. Each time you kill an opponent, Hubris grants you bonus Attack Damage for 90 seconds, with each subsequent kill increasing this bonus permanently. For Zed or Samira, this is the perfect item, as it allows them to use their high AD scaling to wreck enemies no matter how much HP or armor they have.
Youmuu’s Ghostblade
As always, having Youmuu’s in your Lethality build is almost as crucial as carrying Lethality itself on Assassin champions. The movement speed boost it provides is substantial and can help out a ton both in the early and late game as moving quickly means you can roam, chase, or escape with relative ease. It also gives 18 Lethality, allowing you to go through opponents’ defenses without breaking a sweat.
Axiom Arc
Axiom Arc is a unique item introduced to League in the 2022 preseason. The item gives only 10 Lethality but is mainly taken for its passive effect, which causes your ultimate ability’s cooldown to be refunded by 20 percent every time you get a kill or assist within three seconds of damaging an enemy champion. The item is particularly strong on champions like Zed, Miss Fortune, and Pyke, whose ults are particularly devastating in teamfights.
The Collector
The Collector is largely a situational item since it executes champions below five percent HP with any basic attack or ability that would bring your target below that threshold. For champions like Sivir, Jhin, Senna, and others whose abilities and attacks can chip away at enemies (and whose ultimates are relatively game-changing), The Collector is a solid choice.
Best champions to build Lethality on
Lethality is a core stat for many champions, particularly Assassins, who rely on dealing high damage to all targets and bringing them down swiftly and cleanly. Thus, it is natural for champions like Zed, Rengar, or Kha’Zix, among others, to heavily focus on building up their Lethality, especially when up against heavily armored champions such as Rammus or Malphite. On the other hand, some champions actually scale with the Lethality stat, meaning it is much more a core stat for them rather than a build option.
These champions include the likes of Pyke whose every single ability, except for his Q (Bone Skewer), scales with Lethality to some degree. His Ultimate’s kill threshold is bigger the more Lethality he has, while his grey health storage, W movement speed, and E stun are amplified by Lethality. This makes him a champion that is probably the most reliant on the Lethality stat in League of Legends, though others profit from it significantly.
One such profiting champion is Miss Fortune, whose ultimate can cause absolute mayhem if she stacks enough Lethality. Most of these Assassin or Lethality items grant a ton of attack damage, and MF’s spells have fantastic AD scaling, which, when combined with the armor shred, can deal literal thousands of damage at a time and decimate grouped enemies.
Lethality is a good choice for many champions in League and not just Assassins and can be your get-out-of-jail-free card against certain opponents, so don’t hesitate to purchase some of them if need be.
