Dagger

Dagger is the cheapest damage item in the League of Legends shop and the only basic source of Attack Speed: 10% Attack Speed for 250 gold in patch 26.21, no passive, no recipe. Ten items build out of it, among them Berserker’s Greaves, Zeal, Recurve Bow, Phantom Dancer and Navori Flickerblade, which means every marksman and every on-hit champion carries a Dagger or two back to lane at some point.

What does Dagger do?

It raises your Attack Speed by 10% of your champion’s base value. On a champion attacking 0.65 times a second, that is roughly one extra auto every fifteen seconds, which sounds like nothing until you count how many last hits and trades happen in fifteen seconds of lane.

Attack Speed is also the stat that makes other stats work. A Long Sword adds damage to each hit; a Dagger adds hits, so the two multiply rather than add, and that is why marksmen alternate between them on early recalls rather than stacking one (a lesson most players learn by buying three Long Swords and wondering why their trades feel slow). Is a lone Dagger ever worth keeping? Not really. It is the piece you buy because the recall timer is up and the next component is 250 gold away.

Is it worth the gold?

Exactly even. Dagger sets the reference price our efficiency numbers use for Attack Speed, 25 gold per 1%, so 10% is worth 250 gold and the item sits at 100% for its 250 gold.

The sell value is 175 gold. Honestly, the price is the point here more than the efficiency: at 250 gold the Dagger is the one damage item you can buy on the very first recall with almost any amount of gold, and still have room for a potion and a ward. Nothing else in the damage tree is that cheap. Compare it with Long Sword, which costs more and gives flat damage instead of speed.

What does Dagger build into?

Ten items, split between marksmen and fighters:

• Boots: Berserker’s Greaves, the Attack Speed boots.
• Marksman components and items: Zeal, Recurve Bow, Scout’s Slingshot, Phantom Dancer and Navori Flickerblade.
• Fighter items: Hearthbound Axe, Stridebreaker and Experimental Hexplate.
• One mage item: Dusk and Dawn, for AP champions who auto attack.

Thing is, Zeal and Recurve Bow between them lead to most of the crit and on-hit items in the game, so two Daggers on the first recall keep nearly every attack-based build open. Each of the ten, with its price and the items above it, is in the LoL items database.

Who buys it?

Marksmen and on-hit champions first: Jinx, Kai’Sa, Vayne, Kog'Maw, Twitch, Varus. Then fighters heading for Stridebreaker or Hearthbound Axe, junglers who clear with autos (Master Yi, Kindred, Bel'Veth), and the handful of mages like Kayle, Teemo or Azir who want Attack Speed on the way to Nashor’s Tooth or Dusk and Dawn. Tanks, enchanters and assassins almost never buy one. Who is left out, then? Pretty much nobody who right-clicks for a living (and Yasuo, who gets his Attack Speed from crit instead).

How has Dagger changed over the patches?

Four times, and the direction has been steadily cheaper and weaker:

• Patch 4.10: cost 400 → 450, Attack Speed 12% → 15%.
• Patch 5.22: cost 450 → 300, Attack Speed 15% → 12%.
• Patch 14.10: Attack Speed 12% → 10%.
• Patch 14.19: cost 300 → 250.

Put simply, a Dagger today is a third weaker than its 2014 version and little more than half the price, and because it is the reference for Attack Speed, every item above it was repriced along the way. The table above has each entry.

When should you buy it?

On any early recall where you are an attack-based champion with spare change after a ward and a potion, and on later recalls to fill the last gap before Zeal or Recurve Bow. Two at once is normal, since both of those components need two. For what it’s worth, the Dagger is also the correct answer when you have 250 gold and nothing else fits: cheap, always useful later, sold back at a fair rate if the plan changes. If you are new to attack-based roles, our guide to LoL roles covers how marksmen spend their first recalls, and a Dagger is in most of them.

FAQ

How much does Dagger cost?

250 gold in patch 26.21, the cheapest damage item in the shop. It sells for 175 gold.

What stat does it give?

10% Attack Speed.

Does it have a passive?

No, it is a flat Attack Speed component.

What does it build into?

Berserker’s Greaves, Zeal, Recurve Bow, Scout’s Slingshot, Phantom Dancer, Navori Flickerblade, Hearthbound Axe, Stridebreaker, Experimental Hexplate and Dusk and Dawn.

Why buy two Daggers at once?

Because Zeal and Recurve Bow each need two, and buying both on one recall saves a trip. Together they give 10% Attack Speed twice over for less than the price of a Pickaxe.