Ability power is the only offensive stat that does nothing on its own, and the only one you never gain from leveling. Here's why mages build so differently from everybody else, and what an ability power ratio really tells you.
League of Legends Guide
Ability Power
What the AP Number DoesAbility power is the only offensive stat that does nothing on its own, and the only one you never gain from leveling. Here's why mages build so differently from everybody else, and what an ability power ratio really tells you.
A mage's power curve is unusually item-shaped as a result. Levels give a mage bigger spells. They never give a mage a bigger multiplier, so the build carries all of it.
What ability power actually does in League of Legends
It starts at zero and stays there
No champion has any. No level gives any. Every point you ever hold was bought, taken from a rune, or handed to you by a buff.
On its own it does nothing
Attack damage makes your basic attacks hit harder with no items around it. Ability power has no baseline like that. It sits in your stat panel until a ratio reads it, so two mages holding 400 can be doing wildly different damage with it.
It stacks 1:1, forever
No cap, soft or hard. The hundredth point is worth exactly what the first was. What changes the value of an ability power item is the rest of your build, never how much you're already carrying.
A ratio is not a damage type
Ratios sit on physical and true damage abilities too, and on effects that deal no damage at all. Buying magic resist against a high ability power enemy is a guess until you know which of their spells is hurting you.
Attack damage multiplies against attack speed, crit chance, crit damage and on-hit effects, all at once. Ability power has none of that structure. It's one number feeding one ratio at a time, so a marksman's items compound with each other while a mage's just add up.
So a mage's power spike arrives as a single item rather than a pair of them. Rabadon's Deathcap is the only exception on the shelf, and everything else a mage buys is addition.
It also explains the mages who buy attack speed. Kayle and Azir have modified basic attacks that read the attack stats as well, so Nashor's Tooth isn't a wasted slot for them. For a mage whose attacks stop mattering, it would be.
Luden's Echo vs Malignance vs Blackfire Torch: which to build first
These three cost within 100 gold of each other. All three carry 600 mana and a stack of ability haste, and almost nobody buys two. The stats barely differ. The passives don't overlap at all, and that's what sorts the roster.
Luden's Echo
100 ability power, the most of the three, plus 10 haste. Every damaging ability fires six echoes. Hit one target and five arrive at 20%, so you collect two echoes worth. Hit six and you collect all six.
Three times the damage, decided by nothing but how many bodies the spell touched. The artillery mages own this item for that reason.
Malignance
90 ability power and 15 haste, then 20 more haste your ultimate alone can spend, and a magic resist shred that fires only where your ultimate lands on a champion.
So half the item sits behind one button. Cast that button twice a fight and it's the best 2,700 gold on the shelf. Cast it once and you've bought a worse Luden's.
Blackfire Torch
The least ability power at 80, the most haste at 20. Damaging abilities set enemies burning for three seconds, and every champion or large monster currently burning hands you 4% ability power.
One target is a rounding error. Five is close to a free item. It pays for damage that spreads and stays put, and pays nothing for anything else.
The roster splits almost cleanly.
| Champion | Item they build around | Share of their builds |
|---|---|---|
 Lux, support | Luden's Echo | 86% |
 Xerath, mid | Luden's Echo | 75% |
 LeBlanc, mid | Luden's Echo | 70% |
 Kassadin, mid | Malignance | 96% |
 Teemo, top | Malignance | 93% |
 Ahri, mid | Malignance | 89% |
 Malzahar, mid | Blackfire Torch | 90% |
 Heimerdinger, top | Blackfire Torch | 89% |
 Aurelion Sol, mid | Blackfire Torch | 75% |
Share of the most common finished ability power builds for that champion and role, from our own sample of ranked games on Patch 26.17. It counts what players finished holding, not what they bought first.
Four champions are more committed than anyone in the table. Viktor and Hwei essentially never finish a game without Blackfire Torch. Vel'Koz support never finishes without Luden's Echo, and Annie never finishes without Malignance.
Ahri, Lissandra, Annie, Kassadin, Teemo and Fiddlesticks share nothing except where the ultimate sits in the kit, which is dead center. Kassadin is the extreme at 96%, because ultimate haste is his scaling. Teemo reaches 93% from the other end of the game: every extra cast is another mushroom on the map.
Lux is the cleanest test of all of it. Lux support takes Luden's Echo 86% of the time and Lux mid, same champion, same spells, takes it 57%. Gold is the only difference between them, and a mid laner can afford somewhere else to go afterward.
When to build Rabadon's Deathcap vs Void Staff
Rabadon's Deathcap
3,500 gold for 130 ability power, then 30% of your total. Buy it holding nothing and you get 169 points, which is a bad rate. Buy it holding 350 and you get 274, which beats anything else on the shelf.
The item never changes. What you already own decides what it's worth.
Void Staff
3,000 gold for 95 ability power and 40% magic penetration, and nothing else at all.
The penetration is worth whatever magic resist your target still has once your boots and Shadowflame have taken their cut. Against a target carrying none, it's worth close to nothing.
Cryptbloom
The same 3,000 gold for 75 ability power and 30% penetration, plus 20 ability haste and a heal that bursts out of a corpse.
It reads like a sidegrade to Void Staff. On damage it loses by 5% to 14%, and the gap widens the tankier the target gets.
People treat this as one decision. It's two. Deathcap wins the head to head at every magic resist number a real target has.
You're holding 350 ability power, Sorcerer's Shoes and Shadowflame, so 27 flat penetration already comes off the top. Against 100 magic resist, Deathcap does 17% more damage than Void Staff. Against 200 it's still 5% ahead. They cross at about 300, and nothing you want dead has 300 magic resist.
So Void Staff is not the anti-tank answer to Deathcap. It's the anti-tank answer to your next item, and that fight it wins early: against 80 magic resist it beats a plain 100 ability power legendary by about 15%, and by 19% at 100.
What decides it is whether they bought magic resist at all. A marksman who bought none sits in the 40s, and Sorcerer's Shoes plus Shadowflame strip 27 of that before you cast anything. Percentage penetration needs something left to take a percentage of. Buy it when they spend gold on stopping you, and not one item earlier.
That timing is why it stays out of most cores. Evelynn jungle carries it in about a third of her builds, more than anyone. Then Gwen, Vladimir, Karthus and the bot lane mages. No archetype joins those up.
Cryptbloom vs Void Staff: when Cryptbloom is worth a slot
The usage gap is wider than the damage gap. Across every ability power core build in our Patch 26.17 sample, Void Staff turns up close to fifty times more often, and the highest Cryptbloom share anywhere with a real sample behind it is under 8%.
It isn't a trap, it's a different item. A utility mage who isn't trying to kill anyone can want the haste and the heal. Anyone who is should buy the Void Staff.
Frequently asked questions
Do you gain ability power from leveling?
No. Every point comes from items, runes or buffs.
Is ability power always magic damage in LoL?
No. Ratios exist on physical and true damage abilities too, so check which spell is hurting you before you answer with magic resist.
Does ability power have diminishing returns?
None. It stacks 1:1 with no cap.
Why does one mage build Blackfire Torch and another Luden's Echo?
Blackfire pays 4% ability power per enemy you've set burning, so it wants damage that lingers on several people. Luden's pays out on how many targets one cast reaches. Single target burst gets the least from both, and those mages tend to land on Malignance.
Should I buy Rabadon's Deathcap or Void Staff first?
Deathcap, in nearly every game you'll play. The 40% penetration only overtakes the 30% multiplier around 300 magic resist, which nothing you're trying to kill actually has.
When should you build Void Staff?
Once they've spent gold on magic resist. Against a target still on their base value, your boots and Shadowflame have already removed most of it.
Is Cryptbloom better than Void Staff?
Not for damage, by 5% to 14% depending on how tanky the target is. Cryptbloom buys ability haste and a heal instead, and almost nobody takes that trade.
The short version
Buy for the ratio rather than for the number, and check which damage type their spells actually deal before you answer with magic resist.
Item names change every year. The shapes underneath them don't. One cast reaching several targets wants Luden's Echo, an ultimate doing the work wants Malignance, and damage that sits on a crowd wants Blackfire Torch. Deathcap after that, and penetration only once they've paid for magic resist.
Penetration has an order of operations that decides whether that third item is worth buying, and our penetration guide covers it. For what you are actually spending, our gold guide covers where the income comes from.
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