Best champion item builds in League
In LoL, there are many types of champions and all of these types tend to build different items. This article will cover builds for all roles and the champions that are played in today’s meta.
BEST LoL ITEM BUILD FOR ASSASINS
First of all, let’s define the role of the assassin in LoL. If you are interested in best items, we also recommend your to check our chart of best LoL skins in 2017.
LoL ASSASIN ROLE MEANING:
Assassins in LoL are champions who can burst another champion very fast, often having a lot of mobility and excelling at roaming in the early to mid game.
These champions build items that give them the fastest power spike so that they can take advantage of their ability kits so that they can snowball.
In this article I’ll take two examples of assassins, the best assassins in today’s meta, Ahri and Zed. LeBlanc used to be played very much, but after the recent nerf to her Distortion, her play percent has gone down.
BEST ASSASIN ITEM BUILD FOR AHRI
Because Ahri is an Ability Power based assassin she has to buy all the items made from Needlessly Large Rod so that she can start dealing the most amount of damage her ability kit can do.
Ahri is a champion who loves to build Luden’s Echo as her first item because all the stats on it help her very much. The 120 Ability Power gives her enough damage to wave clear effectively, the movement speed allows her to roam faster and the unique passive increases her burst by a considerable amount, keeping in mind that her ultimate can be used 3 times thus increasing her stacks by 60. This makes her be able to use Luden’s Echo passive 2 to 3 times in an early team fight, where Ahri doesn’t have a blue buff.
In combination with Sorcerer’s Shoes, Ahri will have enough movement speed to get to any lane in a few seconds. This is very important because by reaching other lanes fast you lose the least amount of minions and there is less chance to come late.
Often, if the lane is difficult, Ahri builds either Abyssal Scepter or Morellonomicon because they give a good amount of Ability Power and cost less gold than Luden’s Echo, thus allowing Ahri to reach her first power spike very early. Depending on how the game goes after this buy you can either buy Luden’s Echo if you are ahead or Rabadon’s Deathcap if you still feel that you need some more raw damage.
After building Luden’s Echo you can either build Rabadon’s Deathcap or Void Staff if you begin snowballing or Zhonya’s Hourglass if you are afraid that your positioning might not be good in fights.
- Void Staff is the item that can be completed the fastest, costing only 2295 gold, and it is very useful for your build because it gives you a lot of AP and the magic penetration that you can take advantage of immediately because if enemies see that you begin snowballing they will most likely build some magic resist to counter your damage.
- Rabadon’s Deathcap is the best buy if you are very ahead and have a lot of gold to spend.
So far we have Luden’s Echo, Sorcerer’s Shoes, Void Staff and Rabadon’s Deathcap. The next item depends on how the game goes. If the enemy team has a lot of crowd control it’s best to go for Zhonya’s Hourglass since you can use the stasis effect to dodge some of it or wait for your team’s help if you are in a bad position. If the enemy team can be kited you should go for Rylai’s Crystal Scepter. This item is a perfect defensive asset for an Ability Power based assassin because it gives you 100 Ability Power, 400 Health and your spells apply a 35% slow that lasts for 1.5 seconds (15% for multiple target spells). In combination with the movement speed from Orb of Deception this makes you outrun the enemy while dealing a lot of damage.
After building one of the two items, you go for the other.
Homeguard is almost always the best boot enchant, but you could also go for Distortion if you like to engage using Flash + Charm.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR AHRI IN RANKED GAMES:
- Luden’s Echo
- Sorcerer’s Shoes + Homeguard / Distortion
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Void Staff
- Zhonya’s Hourglass
- Rylai’s Crystal Scepter
BEST ASSASIN ITEM BUILD FOR ZED
All assassins who are based on Attack Damage use to build a lot of armor penetration and items that help them burst as fast as possible. Assasins are very popular pick among our elo boosters.
Zed often builds Brutalizer on his first return to base if he has a good lane match up that allows him to farm and poke without taking any damage. This item increases Zed’s early damage by a lot, 10 armor penetration in the early game means very much and so does 10% cooldown reduction. Because of Zed’s good base damage on Razor Shuriken this item is the best for poking at your enemy before bursting them down.
The other good starting items for Zed are Bilgewater Cutlass and Hexdrinker. These are both great at when you have a bit of a hard time in lane, but they are also very helpful. Bilgewater Cutlass is extremely helpful when used in combination with your ultimate because the damage stacks with your abilities and basic attacks and increases the overall damage of Death Mark. Hexdrinker is an item that helps you survive if the opponent is also having a lot of early game damage, like Ahri, Annie or Ekko.
The good thing about starting with Bilgewater Cutlass is that Blade of the Ruined King is part of Zed’s core items and if you start with it you can build into the first core item very fast.
Zed has many good Boots of Speed upgrade choices. He can either go for Boots of Mobility if he plans to gank a lot and split push later in the game, Ionian Boots of Lucidity if he wants to deal damage more often or be more mobile, Ninja Tabi if the enemies have many Attack Damage threats and he needs to survive a bit more and Mercury’s Threads if the enemy team has a lot of crowd control.
If you build Brutalizer first then you build into Blade of the Ruined King as fast as possible and then Last Whisper. After Last Whisper you build Brutalizer into Youmuu’s Ghostblade. These items are the core of Zed. The armor penetration from Youmuu’s Ghostblade and Last Whisper turn a 150 armor enemy (approximate armor a champion with Zhonya’s Hourglass has) into a champion with 88 armor. That’s almost half of their armor gone. Blade of the Ruined King is very important because of the same reason Bilgewater Cutlass is important, the unique active effect stacks with Zed’s damage while the target has Death Mark on them and it increases the total damage dealt.
After the core build, you can take whatever you see fit based on how the game is going. If you are snowballing you can buy Bloodthirster or Infinity Edge to increase your damage by a lot, but Mercurial Scimitar is a good buy too if the enemy team has much crowd control and Mercury’s Threads aren’t enough or you bought another pair of boots.
In case you want something that helps you survive and makes you deal some more damage you can go for Black Cleaver as a last item, but it will take a while for you to stack the armor penetration on your target and if you try to burst someone from 100 to 0 you will not use the unique passive to it’s maximum potential.
Another good defensive item is Guardian Angel. After you burst someone down and you die, your cooldowns will come back up while Guardian Angel is resurrecting you so you can use Living Shadow to escape.
As for boot enchantments, the best one is Homeguard.
In case you are wondering why this build doesn’t have Ravenous Hydra, it’s because you do not need it. It does give a good amount of Attack Damage and Life Steal, but the unique active and passive are pretty much useless on Zed. Your skills are enough to wave clear and the animation on it is too slow to be used while bursting someone down with Death Mark.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR ZED IN RANKED GAMES:
- Brutalizer
- Mercury’s Threads / Boots of Mobility + Homeguard / Furor
- Blade of the Ruined King
- Last Whisper
- Youmuu’s Ghostblade / Black Cleaver
- Mercurial Scimitar
- Guardian Angel
BEST LoL ITEM BUILD FOR BRUISERS
Before we start to consider builds for the next role in details, let’s define the role of the bruiser in LoL.
LoL BRUISER ROLE MEANING:
Bruisers (are also known as fighters) are champions who can take a hit, but can also deal enough damage to be relevant.
The most popular fighters in the game right now are Irelia and Gnar. Both of them are great split pushers that do well in team fights by sticking to their opponents and making their lives hell.
BEST BRUISER ITEM BUILD FOR IRELIA
Irelia’s core item is Trinity Force. Her ability kit allows her to use very many procs of Sheen and Trinity Force, thus by buying this item she increases a lot of her damage and mobility because her Bladesurge kills minions very easily when in combination with Trinity Force.
Often you will see Irelia buying Trinity Force and going straight tank afterwards. This is a good build, but if she snowballs she can always get some more damage by buying one more item. She has 3 choices: Blade of the Ruined King, Youmuu’s Ghostblade or Zephyr. These 3 items work very well with her kit because they all give Irelia something she really needs, attack speed and movement speed. Blade of the Ruined King is the item that gives Irelia most damage out of the three, but it isn’t the one that gives her most mobility, that one being Zephyr. Youmuu’s Ghostblade is somewhere between the two, having the armor penetration that works in combination with Bladesurge, Transcendent Blades and the Trinity Force proc while having the unique active with half of Blade of the Ruined King’s cooldown. What makes Blade of the Ruined King give most damage total is the fact that it’s attack speed isn’t behind a cooldown and the unique passive is very strong.
Usually, against Attack Damage comps Irelia will go for Trinity Force, Frozen Heart, Thornmail, Warmog’s Armor and one other damage item. She doesn’t have to buy another defensive item because after buying Frozen Heart and Thornmail she’ll already have a lot of armor and the damage reduction will not scale so well anymore.
Against Ability Power heavy compositions you can buy Trinity Force, Spirit Visage, Banshee’s Veil, Frozen Heart and Warmog’s Armor if necessary.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR IRELIA IN RANKED GAMES:
- Blade of the Ruined King
- Ninja Tabi + Homeguard / Furor
- Trinity Force
- Banshee’s Veil
- Frozen Heart
- Zephyr
BEST BRUISER ITEM BUILD FOR GNAR
Being a ranged champion in a lane with mostly melee champions makes Gnar a very good split pusher that makes great use of the new Black Cleaver, making it his core item. It increases his damage output while increasing his team’s damage output and makes him more durable and mobile. It’s a great item all around because its build path is very well made, being able to buy a piece of it each time you go back to base if you are short on gold.
Besides Black Cleaver, Gnar also likes going for Frozen Mallet. This makes his health even bigger and also increases his damage while slowing his enemies. The combination of Black Cleaver and Frozen Mallet is extremely annoying for the opposing laner if you are against a melee champion who cannot farm from a distance.
After buying the two damage items, Gnar players should buy armor or magic resist, depending on the enemy team. Because you already have 1100 health from the previously bought items you shouldn’t be afraid to buy assets that don’t increase your health, so Thornmail is a great buy if the enemy Marksman is powerful or if the enemy team has a lot of physical damage all around. Other good items to buy besides those are the usual tank items.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR GNAR IN RANKED GAMES:
- Black Cleaver
- Mercury’s Threads + Homeguard / Furor
- Frozen Mallet
- Thornmail
- Banshee’s Veil
- Trinity Force / Guardian Angel
BEST LoL ITEM BUILD FOR MAGES
In this part we consider mage role. First of all, let’s define the role of the mage in LoL.
LoL MAGE ROLE MEANING:
Mages are the champions who don’t get too close to the fight, but deal a lot of damage and have crowd control.
The most representative mages of this meta are Azir and Viktor.
These two mages have a pretty similar build path, both going for a mana regen item, choosing between Athene’s Unholy Grail and Morellonomicon , most of the time picking Morellonomicon over Athene’s Unholy Grail because it gives more Ability Power and is cheaper.
BEST MAGE ITEM BUILD FOR AZIR
After taking the mana regen item, Azir can either go for Luden’s Echo or Rabadon’s Deathcap, depending on your play style. If you play more aggressive and can poke down the enemy quickly you should go for Luden’s Echo because it’s unique passive helps your poke a lot, but if you do not then you should go for Rabadon’s Deathcap since it gives you more Ability Power.
Buying Void Staff as third item is imperative as by the time you get there, the enemies are already building magic resistance to be able to fight you.
As your forth item you can either go for Luden’s Echo or Zhonya’s Hourglass, depending if you want to deal more damage or be safer.
As your last item you can either go for Zhonya’s Hourglass (if you don’t already have one) or Rylai’s Crystal Scepter.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR AZIR IN RANKED GAMES:
- Athene’s Unholy Grail / Morellonomicon
- Sorcerer’s Shoes + Homeguard / Furor
- Luden’s Echo
- Zhonya’s Hourglass
- Rylai’s Crystal Scepter
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
BEST MAGE ITEM BUILD FOR VIKTOR
Usually, on Viktor you upgrade your Hex Core once and then you purchase the mana regen item you need.
After the second upgrade of the core you should buy Rabadon’s Deathcap. The third upgrade you can leave for later in the game because Void Staff is more important than it. The most usual skill upgrade order is Death Ray, Siphon Power and Gravity Field last. Even if there are many eSports matches where mid laners prefer getting Gravity Field first or second, solo queue isn’t an eSports match, communication is lacking and thus team fights tend to happen later in the game when you might already have upgraded the core 3 times.
As your last item you can go for either Luden’s Echo, Zhonya’s Hourglass or Rylai’s Crystal Scepter, depending on how well your enemies can get to you.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR VIKTOR IN RANKED GAMES:
- Sorcerer’s Shoes + Homeguard
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Void Staff
- Zhonya’s Hourglass
- Luden’s Echo
BEST LoL ITEM BUILD FOR MARKSMEN
In this part we consider mage role. First of all, let’s define the role of the mage in LoL.
LoL MARKSMAN ROLE MEANING:
The marksmen are the champions based on Attack Damage that deal a lot of damage from the back line of their team.
The most played marksmen in this meta are Vayne and Jinx.
BEST MARKSMAN ITEM BUILD FOR VAYNE
Vayne is a champion who is defined by her great late game. Her core item is Blade of the Ruined King and the second item she purchases is often another attack speed item such as Phantom Dancer, Statikk Shiv or Youmuu’s Ghostblade.
After these two items Vayne goes for either Last Whisper or Infinity Edge, depending on how much gold she has and if the enemies started building armor. After buying one of them she buys the other.
As defensive items Vayne can choose from Mercurial Scimitar, Black Cleaver or Guardian Angel. Mercurial Scimitar allows her to escape crowd control and get to safety while Black Cleaver makes her kite her enemies way easier.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR VAYNE IN RANKED GAMES:
- Blade of the Ruined King
- Berserker’s Boots + Furor
- Phantom Dancer
- Last Whisper
- Infinity Edge
- Black Cleaver / Mercurial Scimitar / Banshee’s Veil
BEST MARKSMAN ITEM BUILD FOR JINX
Jinx is very good at taking down towers and being very safe within her team’s backline because of her very long range.
Her core items are Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer / Statikk Shiv. After building these items she can either opt for Last Whisper or The Bloodthrister depending on how much she needs life steal or armor penetration in the next minutes. Once she built one of these two items she can start working on the other one since she needs both of them.
The defensive items Jinx can buy are the same as Vayne’s since these are the best defensive items Marksmen can get.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR JINX IN RANKED GAMES:
- Infinity Edge
- Berserker’s Boots + Furor
- Phantom Dancer / Statikk Shiv
- Last Whisper
- Banshee’s Veil
- Mercurial Scimitar
BEST LoL ITEM BUILD FOR SUPPORTS
Now we consider support role. Before we start, let’s define the role of the support in LoL.
LoL SUPPORT ROLE MEANING:
Supports are selfless champions that help their team by using wards, setting up kills and defending them in team fights.
The most popular supports in this meta are Janna and Thresh.
Because Sightstone is bought on all supports, it will not be mentioned.
BEST SUPPORT ITEM BUILD FOR JANNA
Janna is a support that peels for her team very well and is able to make them escape difficult situations very fast because of her movement speed buff. This buff works perfectly in combination with Talisman of Ascension.
Because of the fact that Janna is a very good peeler she can buy Mejai’s Soulstealer if her team is ahead, thus getting some Ability Power that increases the Attack Damage her Eye of the Storm brings. Another important use of the Ability Power is Monsoon’s healing which scales with 60% of her Ability Power.
After Talisman of Ascension Janna can go for either Mikael’s Crucible if the enemy team has crowd control or Locket of the Iron Solari if the enemy team has a lot of AoE damage and Magic damage.
Other items Janna can build are Banner of Command or Twin Shadows. These items bring much use to her team, the first by making a lane push itself and the second by finding picks.
Often, support players will leave an inventory slot open for the purchase of pink wards, but if you do not want to do this you can always buy something else that can help your team, like Frozen Heart or Righteous Glory if needed.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR JANNA IN RANKED GAMES:
- Talisman of Ascension
- Ionian Boots of Lucidity + Homeguard
- Locket of the Iron Solari
- Mikael’s Crucible
- Banner of Command
- Righteous Glory
BEST SUPPORT ITEM BUILD FOR THRESH
Thresh is a tanky support that is capable of making plays by either hooking enemies or by getting between them and slowing all of them with his ultimate while knocking them to his team using Flay. This is one of the reasons he works best with Face of the Mountain.
Another very good item on Thresh is Righteous Glory, allowing him and his team to engage into a fight very fast, not allowing the enemy team to position itself to counter attack.
Mikael’s Crucible and Locket of the Iron Solari are also good items for Thresh for the same reasons they are good on Janna and the rest of the supports in the game.
Thresh can also make good use of Frozen Heart because he often finds himself into the enemy team, attracting their attention, so the armor and attack speed reduction works great against Attack Damage compositions.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR THRESH IN RANKED GAMES:
- Face of the Mountain
- Ninja Tabi + Homeguard / Captain
- Righteous Glory
- Locket of the Iron Solari
- Mikael’s Crucible
- Frozen Heart
BEST LoL ITEM BUILD FOR TANKS
In the last part of our item build guide we consider tank role. Before we start, let’s define the role of the tank in LoL.
LoL TANK ROLE MEANING:
Tanks are champions that do not build any damage items so that they can become sponges for the enemy damage and thus their team is defended by them.
The most played tanks in this meta are Sejuani and Gragas.
Even though this is a separate role, the items they can build aren’t that many. The core items on both of them are any of the jungler items enchanted with Cinderhulk and Righteous Glory, allowing them to initiate effectively while being very tanky. The rest of their items are chosen depending on how the enemy team is built. If the enemy team is Ability Power heavy then they build a lot of heath and magic resist, if it’s based on Attack Damage they build health and armor and if they have a composition that is well rounded then they build everything.
UNIVERSAL ITEM BUILD FOR TANKS IN RANKED GAMES:
- Righteous Glory
- Mercury’s Threads + Homeguard
- Frozen Heart
- Randuin’s Omen
- Banshee’s Veil
- Warmog’s Armor
The following content we provide may interest you:
No place for sunfire cape? :x
In the right hand take big sharp sword as your weapon – Infinity Edge
In the left hand take a strong shiled as Randuin’s Omen
On your feet buy Mercury’s Treads
To protect your body choose Spirit Visage
Bring on your neck Frozen Heart
Wear on your head Rabbadon’s Death cap
GG best real life item build!
Would like to see a new guide for season 6 since there are lots of new items released since this guide was written :)
Quite interesting article, but i think that there are no one good item build for each champion, for every game. All games in League are unique, and you need to know your enemies, how to counter the, what items you need in this particullar moment. And just because of all these factors you can not say that there is one perfect build for Ahri. Yeah i agree that some universal items are existing, but not the whole item build.
Would like to see a new guide of the best League items since many of them were released recently.