LoL Dashes Guide: Walls, Landing Spots and What Cancels Them

A jump is a dash and the engine has no concept of height, wall-crossing needs a landing spot rather than range, and roots switch dashes off entirely.

League of Legends Guide

Dashes

Mobility and Walls

A dash moves you across the ground between two points, which takes time and can be interrupted. A blink relocates you instantly with no travel at all.

Almost everything below applies to dashes and almost none of it applies to blinks (that's why Flash carries a five minute cooldown).

Jumps Are Dashes Crossing Walls The Ones That Can't What Stops a Dash Stopped Mid-Flight FAQ

A jump is a dash, and it isn't in the air

Every ability that moves you under your own power is a dash (the ones animated as leaps and vaults included). The engine has no concept of height at all.

So a champion visibly sailing over your head is still standing on the ground as far as your skillshot is concerned. There's no need to aim where they'll land. Aim at them.

Crossing a wall comes down to the landing spot

Most dashes pass through terrain, but only if the point they end at is somewhere you could stand. Aim into the middle of a thick wall and you stop at its edge.

The dash that "didn't work" usually did exactly what it was told. The range was fine. The destination wasn't.

A handful of abilities carry a small overhead on that wall check and will complete a crossing that ought to fall just short. Those are worth ten minutes in practice tool, because knowing your one extra escape route is worth more than any amount of theory about the ones that don't work.

Around fifteen dashes can't cross terrain at all

Roughly fifteen abilities (plus one item active) move you without ever passing through a wall. They're mobility rather than escapes.

If yours is one of them, the jungle wall you were planning to leave through is a dead end, and that's information you want before you're at 200 health rather than during.

Roots and grounding switch them off

Both effects prevent dashes being cast at all (with only a handful of stated exceptions). On top of holding you in place, a root removes the button you were going to press to get out.

That's why a root of the same duration as a slow is a completely different problem for a mobile champion, and why grounding effects exist as a specific answer to them.

Getting stopped halfway is a separate thing entirely

Preventing the cast is only one half of it. A dash already traveling can be cut short, and the effects that do it are a specific list rather than crowd control in general.

Knockdowns are the main one. Ahri, Amumu, Hwei, Jinx, Lissandra, Malzahar, Veigar, Vex, Viktor, Warwick, Yone and Zac each own an ability that drops a dashing champion where they stand, so those zones read as such strong answers to divers. Anything that throws you airborne or suspends you does the same job by overriding the dash outright.

Four states save you from that: displacement immunity, full crowd control immunity, a spell shield, or being untargetable. Any one of them and the knockdown does nothing to your dash.

Poppy's Steadfast Presence [W] sits in its own category as a straight dash cancel, and a short list of dashes can also be broken by any immobilize or a polymorph while they're running. Akshan, Camille, Kalista, Rakan, Yasuo and Yuumi are on it. Every other dash in the game shrugs those off mid-flight (a real asymmetry if you're playing one of the six).

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Frequently asked questions

Is a jump different from a dash in LoL?

No. The engine treats both the same way and has no height, so skillshots hit airborne-looking champions normally.

Why did my dash stop at the wall?

The end point wasn't walkable. Dashes need a valid landing spot as well as enough range.

Can every dash cross terrain?

No, around fifteen abilities plus an item active never do.

Does a root stop a dash?

Yes, and so does grounding, apart from a small list of exceptions.

Can a dash be interrupted once it's started?

By a knockdown, an airborne or a suspension, yes. Only six champions' dashes can also be broken by an ordinary immobilize or a polymorph.

What's the difference between a dash and a blink?

A dash travels and can be interrupted mid-flight. A blink is instantaneous.

The short version

Learn whether your escape crosses walls and where it lands, because that's the difference between an escape and a decoration. And aim at the champion in the air rather than the ground beneath them.

For the crowd control that turns mobility off, our crowd control guide covers what each type takes away, and our movement speed guide covers getting there without a button.

Which wall dash do you rely on most? Let us know in the comments below.