Guardian Angel

Guardian Angel is a 3,200 gold legendary item in League of Legends that brings you back from a lethal hit: 55 Attack Damage and 45 Armor in patch 26.22, plus the Rebirth passive. When you take lethal damage, you enter Stasis for 4 seconds and then return with 50% of your base Health and 100% of your max Mana.

How does Rebirth work?

Take a hit that would kill you, and instead of dying you go into Stasis: untargetable and frozen in place for 4 seconds. Then you stand back up with 50% base Health and full Mana.

Base Health is the key word. It means the Health your champion has from level alone, not the bonus Health from items, so the revive restores less than half of your full bar on a champion who built Health. Sure, a second life is still a second life. In practice, the enemy team has to spend another round of cooldowns on you, and in a close teamfight those 4 seconds often decide who wins (enemies sometimes walk away thinking you’re done, which is its own small advantage).

What about the cooldown? Riot’s data text for Rebirth doesn’t include it, so read it off the item tooltip in the client.

Is Guardian Angel worth the gold?

On stats alone it comes in at 88%. The Attack Damage and Armor are worth 2,825 gold together, against a 3,200 gold price.

The split, priced from same-patch basic items: 55 Attack Damage at 35 gold per point is 1,925 gold, and 45 Armor at 20 gold per point is 900. You pay 375 gold above the stats, and that’s the price of the revive. Honestly, for an effect that can undo a death, that’s cheap.

One quirk to know about. It sells back for only 1,280 gold, far less than the usual share of the price, so selling it late to fit something else costs a lot more than you’d expect.

What does it build from?

Steel Sigil (1,100 gold) and B. F. Sword (1,300 gold), with 800 gold to combine. B. F. Sword is the bigger damage chunk (and the bigger gold jump on a short back); Steel Sigil is cheaper and adds Armor, which helps if an AD threat is already beating you up. It doesn’t build into anything.

How has Guardian Angel changed over the years?

Quite a bit, including a full identity change. Riot’s data has it from 2013, and in older seasons it carried Armor and Magic Resist with no damage at all. Patch 7.9 turned it into the AD item it is now.

• Patch 7.9: Magic Resist removed, Armor 60 → 30, Attack Damage added at 40, effect text changed.
• Patch 8.11: cost 2,400 → 2,800 gold, Armor 30 → 40, Attack Damage 40 → 45.
• Patch 12.17: cost 2,800 → 3,000 gold, Attack Damage 40 → 45.
• Patch 14.1: cost 3,000 → 3,200 gold, Armor 40 → 45, Attack Damage 45 → 55.

The latest entry is a text change in 14.21. To be fair, the trend since 7.9 is simple: the price keeps climbing, and the stats climb with it. The table above lists every change patch by patch, and the LoL items database tracks every other defensive AD item the same way.

Who should buy it?

AD carries who get focused and who decide fights just by staying alive: marksmen late in the game, and AD fighters who go in first. Usually it’s a later buy. The revive matters most when your death would lose the fight outright.

Who gets less from it? Mages can’t use the Attack Damage, and a tank who already survives most fights doesn’t need a second life as badly. The catch is that a revive on a champion with low base Health only buys you so much. Not sure where your champion fits? Our champion guides break down builds by pick, and for a fed carry who can’t afford to die in the final teamfight, Guardian Angel is the classic safety net.

FAQ

How much does Guardian Angel cost?

3,200 gold in patch 26.22, including a 800 gold combine cost. It sells back for only 1,280 gold.

What does Rebirth do?

Upon taking lethal damage, you enter Stasis for 4 seconds, then revive with 50% of your base Health and 100% of your max Mana.

Does the revive restore bonus Health?

No. It restores a percentage of base Health, not Health from items.

What stats does it give?

55 Attack Damage and 45 Armor.

What does it build from?

Steel Sigil and B. F. Sword.