Hextech Gunblade

Hextech Gunblade is a 3,000 gold hybrid item in League of Legends: 80 Ability Power, 40 Attack Damage and 10% Omnivamp in patch 26.22. Its Lightning Bolt active shocks one enemy champion for magic damage and slows them by 25% for 1.5 seconds, which makes it a pick for champions that scale with both damage types.

What does Hextech Gunblade do?

Two damage stats at once, healing through Omnivamp, and a targeted slow. The Gunblade makes sense only when your champion turns both Ability Power and Attack Damage into damage; a pure mage wastes the Attack Damage, a pure fighter wastes the Ability Power.

Omnivamp heals you for a share of all the damage you deal, from abilities and auto attacks alike, not just basic attacks like Life Steal. On a champion who mixes spells and autos in every trade, that’s the stat that keeps you in the fight.

Simple as that.

How does Lightning Bolt work?

Simple to use. You click an enemy champion, and the bolt deals magic damage and slows them by 25% for 1.5 seconds. Short, but enough to land the next ability or stop a target from walking out of range. It only works on champions, so no shocking minions to clear a wave.

Riot’s data text doesn’t list the damage numbers or the cooldown for this active. Thing is, the slow is the part you play around: use it to start a chase, then follow up with your own kit. Want to know the most common mistake? Firing it the second a fight starts, when holding it for the target who tries to walk away would have won the trade (a 1.5 second slow is wasted on someone already standing in your combo).

Is Hextech Gunblade gold efficient?

Yes, at 100% counting only two stats. The Ability Power and Attack Damage alone are worth 3,000 gold, exactly the 3,000 gold price, so Omnivamp and the active come free.

Priced the way Amplifying Tome and Long Sword price them (20 and 35 gold per point), the 80 Ability Power comes to 1,600 gold and the 40 Attack Damage to 1,400 gold. Omnivamp has no basic item to price it against, so it’s left out of the math, and the real value sits higher than the figure above. Is there a catch? Only that you need a champion who uses both stats.

What are the components?

Vampiric Scepter for 900 gold, Hextech Alternator for 1,100 and Amplifying Tome for 400, then a 600 gold combine. Hextech Alternator is the biggest piece. It’s a dead end in the build tree: nothing upgrades from the finished Gunblade.

How has it changed over the years?

Gunblade is old, in Riot’s data from 2013 or earlier, and it went through a full rework in patch 13.14 when Life Steal was long gone and Omnivamp came in. The entries since then:

• Patch 13.14: cost 3,400 → 3,000 gold, Ability Power 80 → 70, Omnivamp 15% added.
• Patch 13.15: Ability Power back to 80, Omnivamp 15% → 20%.
• 13.20 raised the cost to 3,300 gold and cut Omnivamp to 15%.
• Patch 14.19: cost 3,300 → 3,250 gold.
• Patch 26.1: cost 3,250 → 3,000 gold, Omnivamp 15% → 10%, effect text changed.

To be fair, patch 26.1 was a trade: cheaper item, less healing. The full table above goes back further, to the Life Steal version from patch 3.6, and our LoL items database keeps a record like this for every item in the shop.

Who should buy Hextech Gunblade?

Hybrid champions, the ones whose ability ratios use both Ability Power and Attack Damage, or who deal magic damage with abilities and physical damage with autos. Look at your champion’s ratios first. If both numbers show up, Gunblade gives more total damage per gold than most single-stat items, plus healing in long fights. The tooltip in the client spells this out clearly: each ability shows its bonus ratios, and if one line says bonus Attack Damage while another says Ability Power, you’ve found a Gunblade user. Most champions show only one of the two, which is why this item stays rare in normal games even though it looks strong on paper.

For everyone else, long story short, it’s a poor buy. Our champion guides by matchup help you check who you’ll face, and the guide to LoL roles explains where hybrid champions usually play. Put simply, Hextech Gunblade is a niche item that’s excellent on the few champions built for it, usually as a first or second purchase.

FAQ

How much does Hextech Gunblade cost?

It costs 3,000 gold, including a 600 gold combine, and sells back for 2,100 gold.

What does the Lightning Bolt slow do?

It slows the target enemy champion by 25% for 1.5 seconds and deals magic damage.

Does Hextech Gunblade still have Life Steal?

No. Life Steal was removed in patch 5.22; the item now gives Omnivamp instead.

What is the difference between Omnivamp and Life Steal?

Life Steal heals from basic attack damage. Omnivamp heals from all damage you deal, including abilities.

What does it build from?

Vampiric Scepter, Hextech Alternator and Amplifying Tome.