How Movement Speed Works in League of Legends: A Comprehensive Guide
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Movement speed is a critical statistic in League of Legends (LoL), dictating how quickly your champion traverses the map. It’s a deceptively complex system that blends base values, flat bonuses, percentage increases, slows, and diminishing returns. Understanding how it works can significantly improve your gameplay, allowing you to outmaneuver opponents, secure kills, and escape dangerous situations.
At its core, a champion’s total movement speed is calculated using the following formula:
(Base MS + Flat MS bonuses) × (1 + Sum of all Additive Percent MS bonuses) × (1 – Highest Slow ratio) × Product of (1 + each Multiplicative Movement Speed bonus)
Let’s break down each component of this formula:
- Base Movement Speed: Every champion begins the game with a pre-defined base movement speed. This value typically ranges from 325 units per second (for slower champions like Anivia, Ashe, and Nautilus) to 355 units per second (for faster champions like Master Yi and Pantheon).
- Flat Movement Speed Bonuses: These are numerical additions to your base movement speed. They are typically provided by items or champion abilities. For example, certain boots might grant a flat +25 movement speed.
- Additive Percent Movement Speed Bonuses: These are percentage increases to your movement speed that are added together before being applied. Items and runes often provide these kinds of bonuses. For instance, if you have one item giving 5% and another 7% movement speed, they’ll be added to create a 12% increase before calculations.
- Slows: Slows are a negative ratio applied to your movement speed and are crucial in controlling movement. Only the highest slow percentage is considered in the calculation. For example, if you are hit by one ability that slows you by 20% and another by 40%, only the 40% slow will be factored into the movement speed calculation.
- Multiplicative Movement Speed Bonuses: This is the last piece and can often be the largest contributor to movement. These bonuses multiply together and include abilities and items. If you have two multiplicative movement bonuses of 10%, the speed will be affected by (1+0.1) * (1+0.1) or 1.21.
Movement Speed Caps and Diminishing Returns
It’s important to note that movement speed isn’t a linear progression, and diminishing returns play a significant role. Stacking too many movement speed items won’t yield proportionally massive increases. Riot Games implemented a soft cap system to prevent hyper-mobile champions from dominating the game.
Here’s how it works:
- Raw Speed below 415: No reduction is applied.
- Raw Speed between 415 and 490: The speed in this range is multiplied by 80%.
- Raw Speed above 490: The speed in this range is multiplied by 50%.
These caps ensure that you don’t reach absurdly high speeds, even with a full movement speed build. It also makes it important to get a balance of mobility, damage, and tankiness while building. The caps can be summarized as:
- 415-490 MS: 80% effectiveness.
- > 490 MS: 50% effectiveness.
This system rewards strategic itemization over simply stacking one stat.
Factors Influencing Movement Speed
Beyond the core formula, various in-game factors can affect movement speed:
- Champion Abilities: Many champions have abilities that temporarily boost or reduce movement speed, either for themselves or their enemies.
- Summoner Spells: Ghost is the most notable summoner spell that grants a movement speed increase.
- Items: Numerous items in the game provide flat movement speed bonuses, percentage bonuses, or multiplicative bonuses.
- Runes: Certain runes grant additional movement speed, often under specific conditions.
- Environmental Buffs: Certain buffs on the map (like the Scryer’s Bloom) can give a small boost to movement speed.
- Terrain: Walking through terrain like bushes and river will slow a champion slightly.
The Importance of Understanding Movement Speed
Mastering movement speed dynamics is essential for success in LoL. It allows players to:
- Position Effectively: Being faster allows you to control the engagement and disengage as needed.
- Dodge Skillshots: Outpacing projectiles can be the difference between life and death.
- Chase Down Enemies: Faster champions can more easily secure kills and apply pressure.
- Escape from Ganks: Boosting your speed can allow you to escape dangerous ganks from the jungle.
- Rotate Efficiently: Faster champions can travel across the map quicker to assist other lanes, which leads to better macro play.
Ultimately, movement speed is a nuanced but vital aspect of League of Legends. Understanding how it works will undoubtedly improve your performance on the rift.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are 15 FAQs to further clarify and expand on the topic of movement speed in LoL:
1. What is the slowest base movement speed in League of Legends?
Currently, Kled is the champion with the slowest base movement speed at 285 MS while dismounted.
2. Do movement speed bonuses from different sources stack additively or multiplicatively?
Flat movement speed bonuses stack additively, meaning each numerical bonus is added together. Percentage movement speed bonuses stack additively with other percentage movement speed bonuses, before being factored into the overall total. Multiplicative movement speed bonuses do not stack additively, but instead multiply together.
3. What is the maximum movement speed in League of Legends?
There isn’t a hard cap, but due to the soft cap system and diminishing returns, movement speed typically peaks around 520 to 550, regardless of the items you buy.
4. How do slows affect movement speed?
Slows are expressed as a ratio. They reduce the final calculated movement speed by applying a negative percentage, using the highest slow percentage only.
5. Are movement speed buffs affected by slows?
Yes, movement speed buffs are still impacted by slows, and the slowed speed will be your new base movement speed until the slow wears off.
6. Does terrain affect movement speed?
Yes, terrain such as bushes and the river will slow your champion slightly.
7. Are there any abilities that grant untargetable movement speed?
Yes, abilities like Master Yi’s Alpha Strike or Fizz’s Playful / Trickster allow you to move while being untargetable, or avoid damage with invulnerability frames, not just through raw movement speed.
8. What are some common items that increase movement speed?
Items that increase movement speed include Boots of Speed, Berserker’s Greaves, Mobility Boots, Dead Man’s Plate, Force of Nature, Youmuu’s Ghostblade and many more.
9. Are there runes that increase movement speed?
Yes, many runes grant movement speed, including Phase Rush, Predator, Celerity, and several minor runes.
10. How does movement speed scaling work with abilities?
Some abilities have movement speed scaling, meaning their effectiveness increases with your movement speed. Garen’s Decisive Strike is a great example.
11. How do soft movement speed caps impact gameplay?
The soft caps prevent extreme mobility from single-stat stacking and force players to prioritize balanced builds. It also makes other stats more effective as a result.
12. Can slows stack on a champion?
Yes, slows can stack from different sources, but only the strongest slow is used in the movement speed calculation.
13. Why is movement speed important for kiting?
Kiting relies on the ability to create distance while still attacking. High movement speed allows ranged champions to kite melee champions more effectively.
14. Do all characters in League of Legends have the same base movement speed?
No, as stated, the base movement speeds range from 325-355.
15. How does movement speed affect the early game?
Having an understanding of movement speed in the early game is extremely important. Understanding how much faster or slower you are than your opponent can determine when to engage and whether or not to run from a fight.