Last Whisper

Last Whisper is the Armor penetration component in League of Legends: 20 Attack Damage and 18% Armor Penetration for 1,450 gold in patch 26.21, with no passive. It is two Long Swords plus a 750 gold combine fee, it builds into Lord Dominik’s Regards, Mortal Reminder and Serylda’s Grudge, and it is the item every physical damage carry buys the moment the enemy tank finishes a Chain Vest.

What does Last Whisper do?

20 Attack Damage and 18% Armor Penetration. The first number is a Long Sword and a bit; the second is the reason the item exists.

Percent penetration ignores a share of the target’s Armor before the damage calculation runs, and because it is a percentage it is worth more against targets who have more Armor. Simple arithmetic, big consequences. Against a squishy mage with 60 Armor the Whisper removes about eleven points, which barely registers; against a Malphite sitting on 250 it removes 45, which is the difference between tickling him and killing him. Is it worth buying against a team with no tank? No, and that is the most common Last Whisper mistake: a carry who buys it on reflex into four squishies has spent 1,450 gold on 20 Attack Damage (the penetration is doing almost nothing there). Against two or more champions building Armor, it is the highest damage increase per gold you can buy. Draft decides it.

Is Last Whisper gold efficient?

Not on the stats our table can price: 48%. The 20 Attack Damage is worth 700 gold at 35 gold per point, and percent Armor Penetration has no basic item to set a price, so the remaining 750 gold shows as a loss.

In practice the penetration is the whole purchase, and its value scales with the enemy’s Armor rather than with a fixed gold figure. Thing is, that makes the item either the best or the worst buy in your inventory depending on the draft, with very little in between. The 750 gold combine cost is steep, more than the two Long Swords inside it (Riot prices the penetration there, not in the stats), and the sell price is 1,015 gold, so hold off on the Whisper until the enemy Armor is actually on the map rather than buying it because it is in your recommended build.

What does Last Whisper build into?

Three items, and the choice between them is about what else you need:

• Lord Dominik’s Regards, the pure damage version with critical strike, for marksmen.
• Mortal Reminder, the version that applies Grievous Wounds, for marksmen facing healing.
• Serylda’s Grudge, the Lethality and Ability Haste version with a slow, for assassins and bruisers.

So the component commits you to penetration but leaves the flavour open, and most players hold the Whisper for a recall or two while they see whether the enemy Soraka or the enemy Malphite is the bigger problem. Honestly, that pause is the right habit: the Whisper alone already does most of the work against Armor, and the upgrade is where the specialisation happens. Current prices for the three upgrades are in the LoL items database.

Who buys it?

Every physical damage carry, eventually: marksmen as a third or fourth item in most games, earlier if the enemy top laner is a tank who is already stacking Armor at fifteen minutes (an Ornn with Plated Steelcaps and a Chain Vest is the usual signal). Lethality assassins and AD bruisers go through it toward Serylda’s Grudge when their targets stop dying to flat penetration. Who never buys it? Mages and enchanters, obviously, and on-hit champions whose damage is largely magic, like Kog'Maw with Rageblade or Varus with Terminus, who get less from Armor penetration than their Attack Damage suggests.

How has Last Whisper changed over the patches?

It used to be a finished item, and the history shows the moment it stopped being one:

• Patch 5.22: Cost 2300 → 1300 gold, Attack Damage 40 → 25. The old legendary became a component with upgrades above it.
• Patch 7.4: Attack Damage 25 → 10.
• Patch 9.3: Cost 1300 → 1,450 gold, Attack Damage 10 → 20.
• Patch 12.10: Armor Penetration 20% → 18%.

Funny enough, the 12.10 trim came with the durability update that gave every champion more Armor, which made the Whisper more valuable in the same patch that trimmed it, and the two roughly cancelled out. Since then, nothing. For what it’s worth, the 2016 change in 5.22 is the one that defined the item as players know it now: a mid-priced component you hold until the right upgrade becomes obvious.

When should you buy it?

When the enemy has two or more champions with 100 Armor or more, or one tank who is clearly the only thing standing between you and their carries. Before that point, a Long Sword or two toward it is fine, because they feed almost every other Attack Damage item if the Armor never materialises. Not sure whether your champion is the kind that reaches this item at all? The guide to LoL roles explains how marksmen and AD assassins put their builds together, and Last Whisper sits in the third or fourth slot of nearly all of them.

FAQ

How much does Last Whisper cost?

1,450 gold in patch 26.21. Two Long Swords make up 700 gold of that and the combine fee is 750 gold; selling returns 1,015 gold.

What stats does it give?

20 Attack Damage and 18% Armor Penetration.

What does it build into?

Lord Dominik’s Regards, Mortal Reminder and Serylda’s Grudge.

Does percent Armor Penetration stack?

Not with another percent source of the same kind. Buying two of its upgrades does not double the penetration.

Was it ever a finished item?

Yes. Until patch 5.22 it was a 2300 gold legendary item with 40 Attack Damage; that patch turned it into the component it is today.

When should you skip it?

When nobody on the enemy team is building Armor. Against squishy targets the penetration adds very little and the gold is better spent on raw damage.