Why is Lich Bane Good? A Deep Dive into League’s Magic-Powered Auto Attack Enhancer

Lich Bane is good because it provides a powerful blend of ability power (AP) and auto-attack enhancement, allowing champions to deal significant burst damage while weaving in basic attacks between spell casts. It essentially converts the champion’s AP into additional magic damage on-hit, making them much more threatening in close-range skirmishes and trades. This is particularly effective for champions with low ability cooldowns and mobility, who can reliably apply the enhanced auto-attack frequently. The item’s unique passive, Spellblade, is what makes it stand out, providing an on-hit magic damage proc after an ability is used, scaling with a percentage of the champion’s AP. This synergy with ability usage creates a hybrid damage threat that can catch opponents off guard. Furthermore, it offers Ability Haste and Move Speed, enhancing a champion’s mobility and ability output. These attributes makes it a potent and versatile offensive item.

How Lich Bane Works: A Closer Look

The Core Mechanics of Spellblade

The heart of Lich Bane’s effectiveness lies within its Spellblade passive. This unique effect ensures that after a champion casts an ability, their next basic attack within 10 seconds will deal bonus magic damage. This bonus damage isn’t fixed; it scales dynamically with 75% of your base attack damage plus 50% of your ability power. This scaling is what transforms the item from a simple auto-attack buff into a significant damage amplifier. This empowered attack has a 1.5-second cooldown, which means you can’t simply spam abilities and auto-attacks, requiring a balanced and strategic approach.

Why This Is Effective

This mechanism encourages weaving auto attacks between spells. Champions that rely on spell rotations benefit greatly, since it fills a gap in their damage output. The bonus magic damage significantly augments a champion’s overall damage output, allowing them to be effective even when their abilities are on cooldown. The combined base damage and AP scaling makes the item effective at various stages of the game. It’s not just about the single burst of damage, but the consistent additional threat of empowered auto attacks. It turns squishy mages into assassins capable of dealing damage beyond their spells.

Who Benefits Most from Lich Bane

Champions who tend to maximize the benefits of Lich Bane fall into a few categories.

• AP Champions with Low Cooldowns: Champions with abilities that can be cast frequently, and therefore, have more opportunities to proc Spellblade, making the effect consistent and a core part of their DPS. Think of champions with rapid spell rotations like Fizz or Twisted Fate.
• Auto-Attack Weaving Champions: Characters that naturally weave basic attacks between their spells can make full use of Lich Bane’s on-hit passive, seamlessly blending their ability usage with enhanced basic attacks, making a more dynamic and sustained damage threat.
• Burst-Oriented Mages: AP carries that use their abilities in bursts to take opponents by surprise can further enhance their damage with the addition of the Spellblade proc, which creates a high damage output.
• Split-Pushers: Champions who tend to push lanes alone will find that the extra magic damage will make short work of towers when coupled with basic attacks.

Lich Bane Stats and Cost

Lich Bane is a legendary item costing 3000 gold. It provides the following:

• 85 Ability Power: Enhances the power of spells and the damage scaling of the Spellblade passive.
• 15 Ability Haste: Reduces the cooldowns of spells, allowing more frequent casts, which in turn will make the on-hit effect from Spellblade more consistent.
• 8% Move Speed: Improves mobility, enabling the champion to be in the right place at the right time while also helping with chasing and escaping enemies.
• Unique Passive – Spellblade: As detailed earlier, this is the core functionality of the item, enabling the bonus magic damage on hit.

Lich Bane in Practice: Examples and Synergies

• Fizz: Fizz’s kit revolves around weaving abilities with basic attacks. The Spellblade passive amplifies his already potent burst damage, making him lethal in trades.
• Twisted Fate: His Pick a Card ability makes him extremely effective when using Lich Bane. His ability is already tailored around weaving spells and auto attacks, which makes the Spellblade proc easy to achieve.
• Lux: While not universally recommended on Lux, Lich Bane can enhance her burst potential, especially if she is playing aggressively. Her Light Binding and Lucent Singularity can be used to enable the on-hit damage from Spellblade on the next attack.
• Evelynn: Evelynn can use Lich Bane to improve her burst damage and clear out camps in the jungle.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Is Lich Bane an on-hit effect?

Yes, the bonus damage from Lich Bane’s Spellblade passive is considered an on-hit effect, meaning it applies on impact with the target when attacking.

2. Does Lich Bane stack with other Spellblade items?

No, items with the Spellblade passive do not stack with each other. If you own both Trinity Force and Lich Bane, only one Spellblade passive will activate per auto attack.

3. How long does the Spellblade buff last?

The Spellblade effect lasts for 10 seconds after casting an ability, provided the empowered basic attack hasn’t been used. This duration gives players a window to take advantage of the bonus damage.

4. What is the cooldown of Spellblade?

The Spellblade passive has a 1.5 second cooldown.

5. Does Lich Bane work on towers?

Yes, the bonus magic damage from Lich Bane does apply to towers, making it useful for split-pushing and quickly taking down objectives.

6. Does Lich Bane work on Lux’s ultimate?

No, Lux’s ultimate, Final Spark, will not activate the Spellblade passive. The spell must be a standard ability to proc it.

7. Is Lich Bane better than Void Staff?

It depends on the situation. Void Staff is better against opponents with high magic resistance, while Lich Bane is better for adding burst damage on champions that weave auto attacks between abilities. They are generally used in different contexts.

8. What does Sheen build into?

Sheen builds into multiple items including Lich Bane, Trinity Force, Divine Sunderer, Essence Reaver, and Iceborn Gauntlet.

9. Does Lich Bane stack with Trinity Force?

No, Lich Bane does not stack with Trinity Force as they both have the Spellblade passive which does not stack. However, Trinity Force can stack with Iceborn Gauntlet, and Lich Bane can stack with Iceborn Gauntlet since they have different passive names.

10. How much bonus damage does Spellblade do?

Spellblade deals bonus magic damage equal to 75% base attack damage + 50% Ability Power on your next basic attack after casting an ability.

11. Who are the best champions to build Lich Bane on?

Twisted Fate, Fizz, Diana, and Ekko are some of the champions who benefit greatly from the unique Spellblade passive.

12. What are the core stats of Lich Bane?

Lich Bane provides 85 Ability Power, 15 Ability Haste, and 8% Move Speed, in addition to the Spellblade passive.

13. Is Lich Bane good for split pushing?

Yes, the additional magic damage on basic attacks is excellent for quickly destroying towers and objectives, making it a valuable item for split-pushing champions.

14. Can Lich Bane be used by AD champions?

While technically any champion can buy the item, Lich Bane is primarily built on AP champions because its bonus damage is based on AP scaling and magic damage. Its low AD stats make it very suboptimal to build on AD champions.

15. When is Lich Bane a good purchase in a game?

Lich Bane is a good purchase when you want to amplify your burst damage and have the ability to consistently weave in basic attacks between abilities. It’s especially effective against squishy opponents and after obtaining a few AP items.