If you ask the average player, they’d tell you that lethality is the most broken stat in League of Legends.
Lethality significantly increases your ability to one-shot squishy enemies and shred down tanks when you play AD champions. And if you have enough of it, you often become unstoppable.
Lethality is important because it increases flat armor penetration and you need it to counter champions that stack armor all game long, especially nowadays when the armor numbers are so high. And it works extremely well on bursty AD mid laners.
But we don’t often achieve a “max lethality” build in League of Legends. In most matches, we prioritize situational items after our core items and we don’t focus on lethality only.
However, if you manage to hit the maximum lethality build, your abilities start to one-shot even tanks. You can try this build on any physical damage champion – the fun is guaranteed.
The Highest Lethality Numbers in League of Legends
Before I give you the actual items to achieve the max lethality build, let me just inform you what, how, and when it is possible to do so.
- 155 – the highest amount of lethality possible in League of Legends and only APHELIOS can get it. This is thanks to his passive, The Hitman and the Seer, which allows him to get a bonus of the lethality stat. (Level 18)
- 122 – the maximum amount of lethality you can get on any champion if you have ORNN on your team. This is because Ornn can upgrade your mythic item and grant it bonus stats, including lethality. (Level 18)
- 114 – the max lethality number ANY champion can achieve in LoL. It requires a combination of runes and items and the build doesn’t include boots. (Level 18)
As you can see, only Aphelios has access to the true max lethality build. The number “155” is calculated with Ornn’s item upgrade in mind as well, so it actually requires both champions to be present in order for this to happen.
And if Ornn isn’t on Aphelios’ team to upgrade his item, then Aphelios can only get 147 lethality by himself.
On the other hand, if you have Ornn on your team and you’re on a champion like Zed, for example, achieving 122 lethality is definitely possible. The game needs to last long enough for you to collect enough gold for 6 items, but anyone can do it.
And if you don’t have Ornn on your team and you still want to pursue the max lethality build on any champion in League of Legends, here are the runes and items you should build.
Read Also: Top 10 Best Items Against Tanks
The Max Lethality Build in LoL
This build doesn’t include Ornn and Aphelios in the equation and every champion in League of Legends can achieve it.
Runes:
- Sudden Impact – 5.6 lethality minimum = 9 lethality on level 18.
Items:
- Prowler’s Claw – 18 lethality plus 5 per legendary item = 43 lethality.
- Youumu’s Ghostblade – 18 lethality.
- The Collector – 12 lethality.
- Serpent’s Fang – 12 lethality.
- Axiom Arc – 10 lethality.
- Edge of Night / Umbral Glaive – 10 lethality.
So, if you calculate the number of how much lethality you can get with this build, it equals 114. Of course, you don’t need to get these items in this particular order, but I’d always start with Prowler’s Claw and work my way down.
Youumu’s Ghostblade is the only legendary item in LoL that grants 18 lethality. All other items in this category (Duskblade of Draktharr and Prowler’s Claw) are mythic items.
The items that grant 12 lethality are The Collector, Serpent’s Fang, and Eclipse. However, you should never build Eclipse instead of Prowler’s Claw because Eclipse doesn’t grant lethality per legendary item.
And there are 3 items in LoL that grant 10 lethality – Axiom Arc, Edge of Night, and Umbral Glaive. These are more situational and you can build them in any order you want.
- (Optional) Sandshrike’s Claw – 26 lethality plus 5 per legendary item = 51 lethality.
As discussed above, this is only possible if you have Ornn on your team. But if you manage to upgrade Prowler’s Claw to Sandshrike’s Claw, you’ll have 122 lethality.
Prowler’s Claw vs. Sandshrike’s Claw
As you can see, Prowler’s Claw is the secret ingredient that allows us to reach maximum lethality in League of Legends. It’s the only mythic item in the game that grants 5 bonus lethality per legendary item, so this stacks up to 25 extra lethality in the late game.
Besides this, the item gives you bonus AD and ability haste, two stats that are excellent on AD champions that utilize their abilities. And Prowler’s active perfectly synergizes with the max lethality playstyle.
When activated, Prowler’s Claw dashes you behind your target and increases the damage you deal to them by 15%. This effect lasts for 3 seconds so you can use this window to assassinate the chosen enemy champion.
The stronger version of Prowler’s Claw, Sandshrike’s Claw, is forged by Ornn and his passive. And it’s only available in the late game.
Sandshrike’s Claw works completely the same as Prowler’s Claw and the active isn’t changed at all. However, you do get extra stats with Sandshrike’s Claw, especially damage and lethality. As for the lethality, the extra number is only 8.
So, even if you don’t have Ornn on your team to upgrade you this item, you’re only 8 lethality away from the max lethality in League of Legends.
Read Also: The Best Lethality Champions in League of Legends
Conclusion
One question that you probably have is whether it’s actually worth going for the max lethality build or not. And the answer really depends on the situation at hand.
For example, having 6 lethality items on Zed is enough for one-shotting any mid laner, ADC, and support in the game. However, against tanks, the optimal thing to do is not build the items that give you 10 lethality and go for armor penetration items instead.
This is especially important when you’re playing something like lethality Sivir or lethality Caitlyn because items like Serylda’s Grudge and Lord Dominik’s Regard will increase your damage more than Axiom Arc or Edge of Night.
In any case, try the max lethality build and see how it works for you!
