LoL Attack Damage Guide: Base, Bonus, Total and What Scales Off Each

Attack damage comes in three versions and your abilities only read one of them. That single detail decides whether an item is core or wasted, and the shop gives you no help telling them apart.

League of Legends Guide

Attack Damage

Base, Bonus and Total

Attack damage is innate on every champion and grows every level on all but one of them (Senna is the exception), and it sets the damage of an unmodified basic attack. Nothing else does.

That's the exact opposite of ability power (it starts at zero and never arrives from leveling), and it's why a fighter feels playable from minute one while a mage feels item-dependent.

Free Damage Three Versions Which One Your Ratio Reads What It Multiplies With FAQ

AllChampions have it innately

3Versions of the stat

1:1How it stacks

4Stats it multiplies with

0Cost of a basic attack

NoneDiminishing returns

Basic attacks are the only free damage in the game

Every other source of damage costs a resource, a cooldown, or both. Attacks cost nothing and are always available (that's why attack damage builds look the way they do).

It also raises the floor. Out of mana with every spell down, an attack damage champion can still fight, and that's a different kind of champion to play badly on.

Base, bonus and total are three different stats

Base attack damage is what your levels give you. Bonus is everything else. Total is the two added together, and an ability's ratio can read any one of the three.

There's no equivalent on the ability power side, where every ratio reads the total, and it's the single most missed thing about building an attack damage champion.

Which version your ratio reads changes what to buy

Some items hand you base attack damage and others hand you bonus. If your best ability scales off bonus attack damage, an item raising your base does nothing for that ability at all.

So two items printing the same number can be worth very different amounts to you, and weirdly, nothing in the shop distinguishes them. This is the one place where reading your own champion's ability tooltips properly pays for itself immediately.

It multiplies against four stats at once

Attack speed, crit chance, crit damage and on-hit effects all compound with attack damage and with each other. Ability power has none of those partners.

That's why an attack damage carry's third item feels like a bigger jump than their first, and why the same gold buys a much steeper curve on that side of the shop. The stat itself stacks 1:1 with no cap and no curve, so everything explosive about it comes from the company it keeps.

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Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between base and bonus attack damage?

Base comes from your champion and levels, bonus from everything else. Abilities can scale off either, or off the total.

Does attack damage have diminishing returns?

No. It stacks 1:1 with no cap.

Why do marksman items spike so hard together?

Attack damage multiplies with attack speed, crit chance, crit damage and on-hit effects simultaneously.

Do all champions gain attack damage per level?

All but Senna, whose base attack damage doesn't grow at all. At level 18 base attack damage runs from her 50 up to 153 at the top.

Is attack damage better than ability power?

Neither is. Attack damage compounds and always has a baseline; ability power adds up and does nothing without a ratio to read it.

The short version

Check whether your key ability reads base, bonus or total before you buy, and remember that the compounding is the point. Attack damage on its own is the least interesting version of the stat.

For the stats it multiplies with, our crit guide and our attack speed guide cover two of the four, and our ability power guide covers the side of the shop that works nothing like this.

Base, bonus or total, which does your main scale off? Let us know in the comments below.