Serpent’s Fang

Legendary item · Patch 26.21 · numbers from Riot's Data Dragon files, refreshed every patch

Total cost2500 g

Combine cost625 g

Sells for1750 g

Gold efficiency95%

Serpent’s Fang stats

+55 Attack Damage
+15 Lethality

Passive and active effects

Passive: Shield Reaver: Damaging an enemy champion reduces Shields they gain by % for 3 seconds. If they were not already affected by
Passive: Shield Reaver: , reduce Shields on them by %.

Effect text as written in Riot's game data; for scaling effects, the in-game shop tooltip shows the exact numbers that match your current stats and level.

Build path

Builds from

Champion guides with Serpent’s Fang

Qiyana Qiyana ARAM build
Lulu Lulu counters
Morgana Morgana counters

Gold efficiency

Stat	Amount	Gold per point	Gold value
Attack Damage	55	35 g	1925 g
Lethality	15	30 g	450 g
Total stat value			2375 g

Gold efficiency = stat value ÷ item cost = 2375 ÷ 2500 = 95%. The gold per point comes from basic items of the same patch (for example, Long Sword: 35 g per Attack Damage). Passives and actives are not counted.

Serpent’s Fang patch history

Patch	Change
14.1	Cost: 2600 → 2500 gold
13.16	Lethality: 12 → 15
12.12	Lethality: 14 → 12
12.11	Lethality: 12 → 14
11.17	Lethality: 18 → 12
11.12	Effect text changed
11.7	Effect text changed
11.5	Effect text changed
11.2	Cost: 2800 → 2600 gold; Attack Damage: 60 → 55; Effect text changed
10.24	Effect text changed
10.23	Added to the game data

We compare cost and stats patch by patch in Riot's Data Dragon files. "Effect text changed" means the passive or active wording changed in that patch.

Serpent’s Fang is the anti-shield item in League of Legends, a 2,500 gold Lethality purchase with 55 Attack Damage and 15 Lethality in patch 26.21. Its Shield Reaver passive cuts the Shields an enemy champion gains for 3 seconds after you damage them, and strips part of any Shield they already had when you first hit them.

What does Shield Reaver do?

Two things, both aimed at shields. Damage an enemy champion and for the next 3 seconds every Shield they receive is reduced by a percentage; the first time you apply the effect, a share of the Shield already on them is removed too. The exact percentages are in the shop tooltip, and Riot has adjusted them more than once, so check in game rather than trusting an old guide.

Who does this hurt? Karma, Lulu, Janna, Sett, Shen, Tahm Kench, Morgana’s Black Shield, and the whole class of champions who survive bursts by shielding themselves or a carry. It does nothing against healing, and nothing against resistances, which is a narrower job than most items have (and the reason it sits in so few builds).

Is Serpent’s Fang gold efficient?

Nearly, on stats alone: 95%, which is 2,375 gold of stats for 2,500 gold. The 55 Attack Damage carries most of that at 1,925 gold (35 gold per point from basic items), and the 15 Lethality adds 450 gold at 30 gold per point.

So the passive costs you about 125 gold of stats, which is close to free. Worth a slot, then? Thing is, free is not the same as useful. Against a team without shields you have paid 2,500 gold for a slightly worse Youmuu’s Ghostblade with no active, and that is a real loss in a build with only six slots. Against two or three shield champions it is one of the best gold-to-impact buys an assassin can make.

Who should build Serpent’s Fang?

Lethality assassins and AD mids: Zed, Talon, Qiyana, Kha'Zix, Naafiri, occasionally Pyke. Their whole plan is to delete one target in a single combo, and a well-timed Lulu shield is exactly what breaks that plan.

Marksmen almost never buy it, even against shields, because they lack the slot and prefer crit. Fighters sometimes do when the enemy support is a shield bot, but a Serpent’s Fang in a bruiser build is a sign of a very specific problem, not a default. In practice the item goes second or third, after the first damage item, and only once you have seen the enemy composition play out for a few minutes (a Karma support in the lobby is not the same as a Karma who actually shields on cooldown).

What does the build path look like?

Serrated Dirk (1,000 gold) and Pickaxe (875 gold), plus 625 gold to combine. Serrated Dirk is the usual first buy since it gives Lethality early, when it matters most. Nothing builds out of it.

How has Serpent’s Fang changed over the patches?

Through its Lethality, mostly, while the price crept down:

Patch 11.2: cost 2,800 → 2,600, Attack Damage 60 → 55.
Patch 11.17: Lethality 18 → 12.
Patch 13.16: Lethality 12 → 15.
Patch 14.1: cost 2,600 → 2,500.

Funny enough, the stats have barely moved since 2023 even as the rest of the Lethality items were reworked around it. The table above lists all ten entries back to patch 10.23, and the LoL items database has the same history for the other assassin items.

When is it the right buy?

When the enemy has at least two champions who shield often and your job is to kill a single target. One shield support alone is usually not enough reason. Honestly, the item is the clearest example of a situational buy in the game: brilliant in the right lobby, dead weight in most others. If you want a better sense of which roles are expected to burst targets and which are expected to protect them, our guide to LoL roles covers both sides, and Serpent’s Fang makes a lot more sense once you see that matchup.