On-attack and on-hit are two different moments, and for a ranged champion they can be a second apart. That single distinction explains most of the arguments about why an item didn't work.
League of Legends Guide
On-Hit Effects
Triggers and TimingOn-attack effects fire the instant your windup completes and the attack goes out. On-hit effects fire when that attack reaches the target.
Two nearly identical phrases, two different points in time, and almost every complaint about an item not working traces back to which of the two it was written on.
Melee gets both at once, ranged doesn't
A melee attack lands the instant the windup ends, so on-attack and on-hit happen together. A ranged attack launches a projectile that has to travel, so on-attack fires immediately and on-hit waits for the arrow to arrive.
That's why an identical item feels snappy on one champion and delayed on another. Nothing about the item changed, only the distance between the two triggers.
A miss cancels the on-hit half only
If the attack is blinded, blocked, dodged, or the target stops being a valid one, the hit never happens, so nothing on-hit triggers or gets consumed. The on-attack half already fired and keeps whatever it did.
Which reframes what a blind actually is. It doesn't stop you attacking, it stops your attacks arriving, and every stack, proc and slow attached to landing them goes with it.
On-hit is where most of your damage lives
Forty one items sit on the on-hit trigger against six on on-attack: starter items, spellblade items, hydras, most attack speed items and a pile of support items. The full list is below.
So the trigger that gets switched off by a blind, a dodge or a block is the one carrying the majority of your bolted-on damage. That's an uncomfortable amount of a build resting on one moment. A spell shield won't save anyone from it, incidentally: spell shields stop abilities, and a basic attack isn't one.
Every on-hit item, grouped by what it does
Forty one of them are buyable on Summoner's Rift. Reading the whole list front to back isn't the point; noticing which bucket the item in your build belongs to is.
Spellblade, and you only get it once
Cast an ability, then land an attack, and that attack carries bonus damage. Seven items share the effect, so buying a second one adds stats and no second proc.
Bonus damage on every attack
The plainest version of the trigger. No condition beyond landing the hit, which also makes these the items a blind hurts most.
Cleave, which is why hydras clear waves
The splash damage on the hydra family is an on-hit effect, not a separate ability, so it misses when your attack misses.
Energized
Move and attack to build a charge, then spend it on your next hit. The charge builds on-attack and pays out on-hit, which is the whole distinction in one item.
Support items that pay somebody else
Both of these hand the on-hit damage to the ally you healed or shielded rather than keeping it.
Starters and early buys
Easy to forget these count, and they're the ones flagged not to feed your life steal.
Conditional one-off hits
Each of these fires on a specific attack rather than on all of them: the first one, the fifth one, the one after you leave vision, the one after a champion has been standing near you.
Six items, and that's the entire list: Guinsoo's Rageblade, Navori Flickerblade, Rapid Firecannon, Runaan's Hurricane, Voltaic Cyclosword and Yun Tal Wildarrows. Two of them appear above as well, because an item is allowed to do something at both moments. Everything here fires whether or not the arrow ever lands.
Around thirty champions apply it with a spell
Plenty of them apply it at reduced effectiveness rather than in full, at rates like 25%, 50% or 75%, and the percentage is buried in that ability's own text. It varies per champion, which is why two on-hit builds on two similar-looking champions can perform completely differently.
The other half of this is where the absurd builds come from. An ability that applies several single-target on-hits generally counts as several separate casts, so the effects stack up rather than being spread thin. A small number of abilities are exceptions, but the rule is what turns a modest-looking item into an entire build path on the right champion.
Two items do the same trick from the item slot rather than the ability bar. Guinsoo's Rageblade and Runaan's Hurricane both apply your on-hit effects themselves, which is why they show up in every build that has decided to stop pretending it's an attack damage carry.
There's a third trigger nobody names
A separate set of items and runes fire when you apply crowd control rather than when you attack. It's a short list and worth reading once: Imperial Mandate and Solstice Sleigh on the item side, and Aftershock, Glacial Augment, Approach Velocity, Cheap Shot and Font of Life among the runes.
It's worth knowing because it explains how a support with no attack speed and no damage items still contributes damage in every fight, and why an engage tank's item choices look nothing like an on-hit fighter's despite both being melee.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between on-attack and on-hit?
On-attack fires when the swing goes out, on-hit fires when it lands. For ranged champions those are separated by the projectile's travel time.
Does a blind stop on-hit effects?
Yes. The attack never lands, so nothing on-hit triggers or gets consumed.
Do abilities apply on-hit effects?
Around thirty champions have one that does, often at reduced effectiveness written into that ability's text.
Can one ability apply on-hit more than once?
Usually yes, if it applies several single-target hits. Each counts separately.
Why does my support deal damage without damage items?
Because several support items and keystones trigger on applying crowd control rather than on attacking.
The short version
Check whether an item says attack or hit before you blame it, expect a delay on anything ranged, and remember that a blind deletes the larger half of your build for its duration.
For the attacks themselves, our attack speed guide covers windup and the hidden ratio, and our life steal guide covers which on-hit damage heals you.
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