Hubris

Hubris is a 2,800 gold Lethality item in League of Legends that pays you for kills: 55 Attack Damage, 18 Lethality and 10 Ability Haste in patch 26.21. Its Eminence passive grants 90 Attack Damage, plus {{item:6697:fx:Eminence:3}} more for every champion you have killed, for {{item:6697:fx:Eminence:4}} seconds whenever a champion you damaged in the last 3 seconds dies.

What does Eminence do?

It turns a kill into a temporary damage buff. When a champion you hit within the last 3 seconds dies, you gain 90 Attack Damage for {{item:6697:fx:Eminence:4}} seconds, and the buff grows by {{item:6697:fx:Eminence:3}} Attack Damage for each champion kill on your scoreboard.

The “per champion killed” part is where snowballing lives. A player on two kills gets a modest bonus; a player on eight kills gets a buff that rivals a whole component. Ninety seconds is also a long time, long enough to cover a reset, a walk back to lane and the next skirmish, so a fed assassin can keep the buff running for much of the mid game (which is, to be fair, exactly when fed assassins are already the problem). Lose the fight and get nothing? Correct, and that is the deal: the item makes a lead bigger and does nothing to help you build one.

Is Hubris gold efficient?

Yes, even with the passive ignored: 106%, which is 2,965 gold of stats for 2,800 gold. The parts are 55 Attack Damage at 1,925 gold (35 gold per point from basic items), 18 Lethality at 540 gold and 10 Ability Haste at 500 gold.

Count the passive and the number climbs with every kill. The catch is that none of it is guaranteed, unlike the flat stats on Youmuu’s Ghostblade or the shield-cutting on Serpent’s Fang, so a Hubris bought in a losing game is a plain stat stick with slightly above-average efficiency. Not bad. Not what you paid for either.

Who should build Hubris?

Assassins who are already winning: Zed, Talon, Qiyana, Naafiri, Kha'Zix, Rengar, plus Jhin and Draven among the marksmen when they want to press a lead instead of scaling. Two early kills in lane is the usual signal.

In practice the item is a first or second buy when you are ahead and almost never a buy when you are behind, because a 2,800 gold purchase whose passive needs kills does not help a player who is not getting any. Funny enough, that makes it one of the few items whose correct build order depends on the scoreboard rather than the enemy team. Up 3-0 at ten minutes? Rush it without a second thought. Down 0-2, though, and you should buy something that works on its own and come back to it later, if at all.

What does the build path look like?

Two components: Serrated Dirk at 1,000 gold, then Caulfield’s Warhammer at 1,050 gold, and a final 750 gold to put them together. The Dirk comes first for the early Lethality, which also helps you get the kills the passive wants. Nothing builds out of the finished item.

How has Hubris changed over the patches?

It is a young item, first listed in patch 14.1, and Riot has already trimmed it twice:

• Patch 14.2 to 14.4: effect text changed three patches in a row.
• Patch 14.19: Ability Haste 15 → 10.
• Patch 26.5: cost 3,000 → 2,800.
• Patch 26.9: Attack Damage 60 → 55, effect text changed.

So the pattern is cheaper and a little weaker each time. The table above lists each entry, and if you want to see the same timeline for the other Lethality items the LoL items database has them side by side.

When is it the right buy?

When you are ahead on an assassin and expect the kills to keep coming. Long story short, Hubris is a snowball item, and buying it is a bet on your own lead. For a clearer idea of which positions are expected to snowball and which are expected to scale, the guide to LoL roles covers how each role spends its early gold.

FAQ

How much does Hubris cost?

As of patch 26.21 it costs 2,800 gold. Combining the two components takes 750 gold, and you get 1,960 gold back on a sell.

What stats does it give?

55 Attack Damage, 18 Lethality and 10 Ability Haste.

How much Attack Damage does Eminence give?

90 Attack Damage plus {{item:6697:fx:Eminence:3}} for every champion you have killed, for {{item:6697:fx:Eminence:4}} seconds after a takedown.

Do assists trigger it?

Yes, if you damaged the champion within 3 seconds of their death. Only actual kills add to the per-kill bonus, though.

What does it build from?

Serrated Dirk and Caulfield’s Warhammer.

Is it worth buying when behind?

Usually not. Without kills the passive does little, and other Lethality items give more reliable value for the same gold.