AD (Attack Damage) is the stat that powers basic attacks and physical-damage abilities. Every champion has it. Every basic attack uses it. AD scales marksmen, fighters, AD assassins, and most physical-damage skirmishers. The higher your AD, the harder your autos hit and the more your AD-ratio abilities chunk.
How AD works
A basic attack deals 100% of your total AD as physical damage before mitigation. Total AD is just base AD + bonus AD, summed additively. Each point of AD is gold-valued at 35.
Physical damage is mitigated by the target's armor. The formula is:
post-mitigation damage = raw damage × 100 / (100 + armor)
That single formula governs every interaction between AD and armor. Armor never blocks damage outright; it scales how much gets through. 100 armor cuts physical damage in half. 200 armor cuts it by two-thirds.
AD vs. Armor: Damage Through Table
The table below shows the percentage of your raw physical damage that gets through at common armor values. Higher means more damage.
| Enemy Armor | Damage Through | Effective HP Multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 100% | 1.00× |
| 30 | 76.9% | 1.30× |
| 50 | 66.7% | 1.50× |
| 80 | 55.6% | 1.80× |
| 100 | 50.0% | 2.00× |
| 150 | 40.0% | 2.50× |
| 200 | 33.3% | 3.00× |
| 300 | 25.0% | 4.00× |
A typical squishy mid laner sits around 30 to 50 armor in the early game. A bruiser with one armor item sits around 100 to 130. A full-tank Malphite with armor stacking can reach 300 or more.
Base AD vs. Bonus AD
Total AD is split into two buckets that some abilities and items care about:
- Base AD is the AD on your champion's stat sheet, growing each level. Senna sits at 50 base AD at level 18. Mega Gnar tops the list at 178.
- Bonus AD is everything stacked on top: items, runes (Conqueror, Absolute Focus, Gathering Storm), neutral buffs, and ability-granted AD.
Most ability ratios scale on total AD, but a meaningful chunk scale on bonus AD only. Quick examples: Trinity Force, Sheen, Lich Bane, Sundered Sky, and Sterak's Gage all empower auto-attacks based on a percentage of base AD. Many late-game scaling abilities (Yasuo's Q, Yone's Q, Aatrox's combo) scale heavily on bonus AD because that's where item stacking lives.
Practical takeaway: a Sheen on a champion with high base AD (Garen, Cho'Gath) is far more valuable per gold than a Sheen on a low-base-AD ranged champion. And bonus-AD scaling abilities reward stacking AD items rather than relying on base growth.
Champions that scale on AD
Out of roughly 170 champions, about 90 have one or more abilities that scale with AD. The rest are pure ability-power or hybrid-ratio kits. AD champions cluster into a few archetypes:
- Marksmen / ADCs: Jinx, Kai'Sa, Caitlyn, Vayne, Kog'Maw. Sustained damage from autos plus modest AD-ratio steroids on their abilities.
- AD Assassins: Zed, Talon, Qiyana, Kha'Zix, Rengar. Burst combos with high AD ratios. Typically build lethality.
- Bruisers / Fighters: Aatrox, Riven, Renekton, Camille, Olaf. Ability-driven autos and on-hit physical damage.
- AD Casters: Pantheon, Jayce, Akshan. Use abilities more than autos but the abilities are AD-scaling.
Some champions blur the line. Hecarim converts movement speed into AD. Senna scales AD infinitely with Mist stacks. Jhin's autos scale with crit chance bonus AD, not attack speed.
Items that grant AD
AD is the most common stat in the item shop. Below is a curated set of the build cores you will see across roles. Stat values reflect current patch ranges; check the in-client shop for the exact numbers.
| Item | AD | Role | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infinity Edge | 80 | ADC | Crit + crit damage amp; core on every crit ADC |
| The Bloodthirster | 80 | ADC / Fighter | Life steal + overheal shield; sustain in extended fights |
| Phantom Dancer | 25 | ADC | Crit + attack speed + a self-shield while kiting |
| Lord Dominik's Regards | 45 | ADC | 35% armor pen; the answer to enemy tanks |
| Ravenous Hydra | 65 | Fighter | Cleave on autos + active waveclear; bruiser staple |
| Black Cleaver | 55 | Bruiser | Shreds 30% armor over six stacks; HP and ability haste |
| Trinity Force | 40 | Bruiser | Sheen empowered auto + tempo passive; scales base AD |
| Sundered Sky | 40 | Bruiser | Empowered auto + heal on engage; new bruiser opener |
| Sterak's Gage | 0 (+50% base) | Fighter | Bonus AD as % of base AD + lifeline shield |
| Death's Dance | 55 | Bruiser | Bleed-conversion damage delay + cleanse on takedown |
| Youmuu's Ghostblade | 55 | Assassin | Lethality + roaming move speed active |
| Opportunity | 55 | Assassin | Bonus lethality when out of combat |
| Eclipse | 60 | Assassin / Fighter | Two-hit shield and damage proc; works on melee bruisers too |
| Essence Reaver | 60 | Caster | Mana refund on auto; for AD casters who cast a lot |
This is the build-core layer. Lethality items have their own dedicated breakdown in the lethality guide.
Armor Penetration vs. Lethality vs. % Armor Pen
Three distinct mechanics all reduce the effectiveness of enemy armor. Knowing which one you need is half the battle.
- Lethality (flat armor pen): Each point of lethality ignores one point of the target's armor for your damage calculation. Cannot reduce effective armor below zero. Best against low-armor targets like mages and ADCs. Found on assassin items (Youmuu's, Opportunity, Edge of Night). Read the full lethality guide for the deep dive.
- % Armor Penetration: Multiplies target armor by (1 minus the percent). Stacks multiplicatively. Stronger against high-armor targets. Found on Lord Dominik's Regards (35%), Void Staff has the AP equivalent. The crossover with lethality lands around 100 to 150 armor.
- Flat Armor Reduction: Different from penetration. Actually lowers the target's armor stat (can push below zero). Comes from abilities like Black Cleaver stacks and Nasus E. Stacks before percentage penetration in the calculation order.
Build lethality when the enemy team is squishy. Build percent armor pen when they are stacking armor. Build Black Cleaver when you want both at once.
When to build AD
You build AD when your champion's damage output is bottlenecked by it. Three common cases:
- Auto-reliant champions need AD per auto. ADCs, on-hit fighters (Master Yi, Tryndamere), and crit-based marksmen scale every basic attack with AD. After the first item provides the right combination of AD + crit + attack speed, more AD just keeps multiplying with the rest.
- Bruisers need kill threat. Pure tank items keep you alive but make you ignorable in a fight. A second AD item (Black Cleaver, Sundered Sky, Death's Dance) keeps you a credible threat while staying durable enough to frontline.
- Assassins build AD to convert lethality into damage. Lethality only matters if your raw damage is high enough that ignored armor moves the needle. The AD on assassin items is what makes the lethality numbers translate into one-shots.
You should not build raw AD when your champion has no AD ratios or relies on base AD for an autoattack-reset combo (a Trinity Force is better than a Bloodthirster on Trinity-reliant champs).
AD vs. AP: which is better?
Neither is "better" in the abstract. Each scales different ability types, and each is countered by a different defensive stat:
- AD scales auto-attacks and physical-damage abilities. Countered by armor. Dominant on marksmen, bruisers, and physical-damage assassins.
- AP scales magic-damage abilities. Countered by magic resist. Dominant on mages, supports, and spell-based assassins. Read the AP guide for the parallel breakdown.
The current meta question to ask is not "is AD or AP stronger?" but rather "which damage type is the enemy team less prepared for?" If they have three squishies and no Plated Steelcaps, AD assassins eat well. If they have two MR-stackers and a Banshee's Veil, your team needs a magic-pen mage instead. Most balanced compositions want at least one source of each, so each enemy item slot has to choose what to itemize against.
Tooltip tip: orange sword icons on a value mean AD scaling. Purple ability icons mean AP scaling. That's the fastest way to read a new champion's kit and figure out what to build.
