Lord Dominik’s Regards

Lord Dominik’s Regards is a 3,300 gold anti-tank crit item in League of Legends: 35 Attack Damage, 35% Armor Penetration and 25% Critical Strike Chance in patch 26.21. Its Giant Slayer passive adds up to 15% bonus damage against champions with lots of bonus Health, reaching the maximum at 1500 bonus Health.

How does Giant Slayer work?

The more bonus Health an enemy champion has, the more extra damage you deal to them, up to 15%. Bonus Health means Health from items and other sources on top of what the champion gets from leveling, so a tank who stacked Health items is the target this passive was written for.

The cap sits at 1500 bonus Health. A squishy carry with one Health item gets a sliver of the bonus; a tank with several full Health items gets all of it. So what’s the takeaway? The passive scales with exactly the stat tanks buy to survive you, which is a neat bit of design (and the reason the item has carried this name for years).

Where does all that bonus Health come from in a real game? Mostly from tank items. A frontliner stacking Heartsteel, for example, keeps adding permanent bonus Health every time its passive procs, so the longer the game runs, the closer that tank drifts toward the 1500 cap and the more of the 15% you get. Base Health from levels never counts, which is why the passive does almost nothing to a squishy carry even at level 18.

Why buy percent Armor Penetration here?

Because Giant Slayer handles Health and the penetration handles Armor. With 35% of the target’s Armor ignored, your attacks hit a tank as if they had built noticeably less Armor than they did.

Together the two cover both halves of a frontliner’s defense. Funny enough, the same combination makes the item weak into a team of squishies, since they have little bonus Health and little Armor to ignore.

Is Lord Dominik’s Regards worth the gold?

Only partly on paper: 67%. Attack Damage and crit chance are the priced stats, with 35 Attack Damage at 35 gold per point worth 1,225 gold and 25% crit at 40 gold per percent worth 1,000, so 2,225 gold against 3,300 gold.

Armor Penetration has no basic-item price, and Giant Slayer can’t be priced at all, so both are missing from that number. In practice, the real value swings with the enemy team. Against two or three tanks it’s one of the best gold-for-damage buys a marksman has; against five squishies, the formula’s low number is close to the truth.

What does it build from?

Two components: Last Whisper (1,450 gold) and Noonquiver (1,300 gold), plus 550 gold. Last Whisper gives the penetration early, so it’s the pick when the enemy frontline already has Armor; Noonquiver adds crit and damage, the better first buy if your lane opponent is squishy. Nothing builds out of it.

How has it changed?

Riot’s data first lists the item in patch 5.22, and the stat line has been tuned almost every season since. The recent changes:

• Patch 14.10: Armor Penetration 35% → 40%, Attack Damage 40 → 45, crit chance 20% → 25%.
• Patch 14.15: Armor Penetration 40% → 35%.
• Patch 14.19: Attack Damage 45 → 35.
• Patch 25.S1.2: cost 3,000 → 3,100 gold, Armor Penetration 35% → 40%.
• Patch 26.1: cost 3,100 → 3,300 gold, Armor Penetration 40% → 35%.

Real talk, the penetration has gone up and down so often that any guide more than a season old probably shows the wrong number. The 26.1 change is worth spelling out, because it raised the price by 200 gold and lowered the penetration in the same patch, a clear nerf from two directions at once. The LoL items database tracks every one of those changes for the other crit items too.

Who should build Lord Dominik’s Regards?

Crit marksmen facing a tanky team, especially a frontline that buys both Health and Armor. Usually third or fourth. The thing is, you usually know by mid game whether the enemy tanks are scaling, so it’s a decision you make with the scoreboard open.

How does it compare with Mortal Reminder? Both carry percent Armor Penetration and crit. Mortal Reminder trades Giant Slayer for Grievous Wounds, so pick it when the problem is healing, and pick this one when the problem is a wall of Health. Need a refresher on what the marksman role is expected to do in those fights? See the champion guides; and when the enemy frontline just won’t die, this is the item that does the job, or as the name puts it, Lord Dominik’s sends its regards.

FAQ

How much does Lord Dominik’s Regards cost?

3,300 gold in patch 26.21. The last step costs 550 gold on top of the two parts, and the item sells for 2,310 gold.

What does Giant Slayer do?

You deal up to 15% bonus damage against champions based on their bonus Health, with the maximum at 1500 bonus Health.

What stats does it give?

35 Attack Damage, 35% Armor Penetration and 25% Critical Strike Chance.

Is it better than Mortal Reminder?

It depends on the enemy. Lord Dominik’s is better against high-Health tanks; Mortal Reminder is better against healing.

What does it build from?

Last Whisper and Noonquiver.