Navori Flickerblade vs Phantom Dancer: Which Attack Speed Item

Patch 26.19

Buy Navori Flickerblade on a marksman whose abilities do real damage. Phantom Dancer only wins for champions whose damage rides on every single attack, and none of the marksmen who buy either item in their standard build is one of them.

The board

Xayahbuys Navori as item 2Navori +19.5%

Twitchbuys neitherNavori +11.5%

Ezrealbuys neitherNavori +9.6%

Jinxbuys neitherNavori +9.1%

Jhinbuys PD as item 2Navori +7.4%

Lucianbuys Navori as item 2Navori +6.0%

Caitlynbuys neitherNavori +2.9%

Sivirbuys Navori as item 3Navori +1.1%

Miss Fortunebuys neitherPD +1.1%

Yunarabuys neitherPD +8.1%

Dravenbuys neitherPD +10.3%

Vaynebuys neitherPD +11.8%

What each item gives you on Patch 26.19

Same price, 2650 gold, and the same 25% crit chance. You're trading 25% attack speed and a little move speed for Navori's passive, which takes 15% off whatever's left on your basic ability cooldowns every time you attack. Ultimates don't count.

How much that passive is worth depends on how often you attack and how hard your abilities hit, so it's a different item on every marksman.

Longer fights, bigger Navori lead

Champion	Quickest third	Longest third	Every champion	Navori wins
Lucian item 2	Navori +3%	Navori +10%	Navori +6%	170 of 171
Xayah item 2	Navori +6%	Navori +34%	Navori +20%	171 of 171
Jhin item 2	Navori +4%	Navori +11%	Navori +7%	168 of 171
Sivir item 3	Even	Navori +4%	Even	106 of 171

Each champion's fights sorted by how long Phantom Dancer takes to get the kill, then split into thirds. Gaps under 2% are marked even.

Navori does nothing on the first swing. Every attack pulls the next cast closer, so the longer a fight runs the further ahead it gets. For every buyer here, bruisers and tanks sit further toward Navori than squishy carries do.

Xayah gets the most out of it. Her damage lands when Bladecaller [E] pulls her feathers back, and every ability she casts makes her next attacks drop more of them, so faster cooldowns mean more feathers and more recalls. Navori wins against every one of the 171 champions for her, by 34% on average in her longest third of fights.

Lucian's case is Lightslinger [Passive]. Every ability turns his next attack into a double shot, and both shots cut the cooldown on Relentless Pursuit [E]. A dash that comes back sooner is one more double shot, and Navori speeds up the whole loop. Navori puts him ahead against 170 of the 171 (the one exception is even).

Sivir is the close call. Across every champion the two items land within 2% of each other for her, and they're dead even against the ones she kills quickest. Navori only opens a gap in her longest fights, 4%, so it's worth it when you'll be shooting through a frontline and a wash when you won't.

Jhin buys the wrong one

This one surprised me. Whisper [Passive] turns bonus attack speed into attack damage, so Phantom Dancer's extra attack speed isn't wasted on him: at level 11 it gives him 167 attack damage against 159 with Navori. It loses anyway. Each of his four shots before a reload also takes 15% off his cooldowns, and the extra casts that buys him hit far harder than 9 attack damage does.

Navori comes out ahead against 168 of the 171 champions, and the 3 it loses are all within 2%. His standard build takes Phantom Dancer second. On these numbers it shouldn't.

When Phantom Dancer wins

Draven, Vayne and Yunara don't build either item, so they went through the same test at item 2 to find where the answer turns over. It turns over completely. Phantom Dancer wins against every champion for all three, by 10%, 12% and 8% on average. Spinning Axe [Q], Silver Bolts [W] and Cultivation of Spirit [Q] all pay out on attacks, so for them more attacks is the deal and a shorter cooldown barely registers.

It isn't simply about how much damage comes from abilities, either. Twitch gets 20% of his from them in these fights, less than Miss Fortune's 52%, and Navori still beats Phantom Dancer for him by 12% while she sits within 2% of even. What sends a champion to Phantom Dancer is a kit that pays out on the attack itself.

Pick your champion

What the fight counts

These are fights where both champions stand and trade, which measures damage, and damage is where Navori's passive lives. Phantom Dancer's other half is movement: 10% move speed against Navori's 4%, and Ghosted, so you walk through units. None of that shows up here because nobody moves. If your games turn on kiting a diver or walking out of a bad fight, that's what Phantom Dancer buys you on top of the damage above.

How these were worked out

Every item and champion number comes from the Patch 26.19 game files, Lightslinger [Passive] and Xayah's feathers included. Each matchup is a fight played out a fiftieth of a second at a time, with the enemy hitting back and healing, run from eight starting points and averaged. Abilities go out the moment they're off cooldown (Xayah holds Bladecaller [E] until enough feathers are down to root). Builds are the standard builds this site uses everywhere, and each buyer faces the choice at the item slot where their build makes it.