LoL Spell Shield Guide: What It Blocks and What Ignores It

A spell shield negates rather than reduces, and summoner spells go straight through it, and the enemy still gets paid for the spell you blocked.

League of Legends Guide

Spell Shields

What They Block

A spell shield doesn't soften an ability. It stops the ability applying to you at all, damage and crowd control together, and then breaks.

Only a couple of champions have one in their kit. Everyone else buys it, and the skill is knowing which spells count as things it can eat.

What Counts Three Exceptions The Caster Still Gets Paid Multi-Hit Abilities What It Never Blocks FAQ

NegatesRather than reduces

NoBlocks summoner spells

NoBlocks runes

3Exceptions to those two

0.1sWindow for multi-hit casts

YesCaster keeps their refunds

Champion abilities yes, summoner spells no

Champion abilities, most epic monster abilities, summoned unit effects and item actives are all blockable. Runes and summoner spells are not.

So holding a spell shield against Ignite or Exhaust accomplishes nothing at all (the opposite of most players' intuition about it). Banshee's Veil and Edge of Night both grant one, and Verdant Barrier carries it as a component, so the shield is available long before the finished item.

Two champions carry one without buying anything. Sivir's is the one everybody knows, and Nocturne's does the same job on a much longer leash. If both a kit shield and an item shield are up on the same champion, the kit one goes first.

Exactly three exceptions

One damage rune and the two upgraded forms of the jungler's summoner spell are blockable, and blocking them consumes the shield.

The rune exception matters more than it sounds. A shield you were saving for an engage can be spent by a stray poke proc from a laner who wasn't trying to do anything clever.

The caster still gets paid for hitting you

Blocking a spell doesn't undo what the spell gave its owner. Cooldown refunds, mana refunds, stacks, buffs and dashes attached to landing that ability all still happen, because those count as secondary conditions rather than part of the ability affecting you.

So the enemy who threw a hook into your shield still gets everything except the hook. Blocking is purely a defensive win.

Multi-hit abilities are blocked together, barely

An ability landing several damage instances in one cast gets all of them blocked (provided they arrive within roughly 0.1 seconds of each other). Spread wider than that and only the first is eaten.

That tenth of a second is the difference between a shield stopping an entire barrage and stopping the opening tick of one, and it's why the same item feels excellent against one champion and useless against another with a superficially similar ultimate.

Four things it never blocks

Dragons are the loud one. Not a single dragon attack or ability can be blocked, at any stage of the game, which cancels the plan of holding a shield for the pit. Baron and the Rift Herald are kinder: the shield blocks their abilities, just not their basic attacks.

Terrain is the second. Anivia, Trundle and Taliyah can all drop a wall or a pillar on you and none of it can be stopped, because the ability changes the map instead of applying anything to you.

Persistent damage is the third. A pool you're standing in and a passive damaging aura both keep working (there's no single event for the shield to eat).

The fourth is timing rather than a category. A debuff already sitting on you stays there, so putting the shield up after Zed, Zoe or Kayn has marked you does nothing about the mark. Delayed explosions work the opposite way round: a shield raised before the detonation still eats it even though the first half of the ability landed, which covers most of what Fizz, Brand, Zilean, Senna, Tristana and Varus are threatening you with.

Tethers split the difference. The shield stops the initial hit and does nothing about the tether once it's attached.

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Frequently asked questions

Does a spell shield block Ignite?

No. Summoner spells pass straight through, apart from the two upgraded jungle smites.

Does it block runes?

Only one damage rune. Everything else in the rune tree ignores it.

Does blocking a spell waste the enemy's cooldown?

No. They keep refunds, stacks and any dash attached to landing it.

Does it block all the hits of a multi-hit ability?

If they land within about 0.1 seconds of each other, yes. Otherwise only the first.

Does a spell shield block dragon damage?

No. No dragon attack or ability can be blocked. Baron and Rift Herald abilities can be, but their basic attacks can't.

Is a spell shield the same as a normal shield?

No. It cancels an event rather than absorbing an amount, and nothing that boosts shield strength affects it.

The short version

Hold it for abilities rather than summoners, and expect to lose it to a poke rune more often than to the thing you were saving it for. Blocking the hook is worth it anyway, even though the enemy keeps their cooldown.

For the other kind of shield entirely, our shields guide covers absorption and stacking, and our untargetability guide covers the other way to make a spell miss.

Which ability do you always save your spell shield for? Let us know in the comments below.