Items are a very important part of League of Legends. How you build your champion defines how well it performs and what it is capable of achieving. Most of this is achieved through unique effects provided by items known as Item Passives.
Item Passives that are labeled Unique do not stack if the same item is built multiple times. Item passives that are Named do not stack if two or more items having the same Named Passive are built. Items with similar passive but with different names can stack.
In order to get maximum value out of the items you build, you must understand what benefits they provide you outside of stats. This is why knowing item passives is very important and must be understood in order to utilize your gold with maximum efficiency.
Also read: Most Annoying Champions
What Are Passives?
Most items in League of Legends have some sort of passive attached to them. A passive is an inherent effect present due to the existence of that item in your inventory. These bonuses are permanently active and remain throughout the game usually.
Champions build various items to gain the effects of these passives to assist their play. This is why itemization is such a hot topic in recent years. Knowing the most optimal item to build depends on your knowledge of the stats it provides as well as the passives you require.
Types Of Passives
Not every item passive is the same as the others. Some items contain multiple passives while some contain similar ones. In order to understand the importance of passives and how they stack, we must first take a look at the different types of passives present in the game.
Passive
This is the basic version of a passive. It can vary from being very simple (basic stats) to complex. Any item that has a passive has an innate effect that is either permanently available or requires some form of condition to be met to apply. A passive may be of the following types:
Unique Passive
Any item with the passive containing the “Unique” tag is referred to as a Unique Passive. Unique passive means that the effect provided by the item is unique to that one item in your inventory. Purchasing multiple copies of the same item will not provide you with multiple instances of the same passive because of the Unique tag applied to it.
This was done in order to prevent items with strong effects from being stacked to multiply the passive strength. In the past, that was being done with items such as Black Cleaver and Sunfire Cape.
Named Unique Passive
Items with Unique tag may have named passives. This is done so that the same passives on different items may not be abused. These passives have a name attached to them which serves a similar purpose to the Unique tag.
Just like how a Unique tag prevents passives from two of the same items from stacking, a named passive prevents passives from two items with the same ‘named passives’ from stacking.
A commonly seen example of this effect is the Lifeline passive. Lifeline is the name of the passive shared by Sterak’s Gage, Hexdrinker, Maw of Malmortius, and Immortal Shieldbow. While the shields provided by all of these items vary, they belong to the same ‘named passive’.
The game does not allow you to build Sterak’s Gage after you have built Maw of Malmortius and vice versa. The same is true for Immortal Shieldbow.
In the past, you were able to build these items together but even then only one of them would actually provide you the shield because the Named passive prevented multiple items from stacking the shield.
Also read: How Does Minion Aggro Work in LoL?
Unique Passives With Different Names
We discussed above the examples of items that share the same ‘named passive’ and therefore do not stack. Now let’s take a look at named passive that can stack. Items that share similar passives but are not under the same name tag, will stack. A good example includes Quicksilver Sash and Mikael’s Blessing.
You can build both of those items and use them to get rid of two separate crowd control abilities. Only the item that you used will be put on cooldown and the other item will retain its separate cooldown.
Items With Shared Passive
Although most items have a passive effect, a lot of those passives are limited to a specific item and therefore require no consideration of stacking or a lack thereof.
Here we will take a look at all the passives that are shared by two or more items. These are named passives and therefore will not stack with each other.
| Passive | Items | Effect |
| Annul | Banshee’s Veil Edge of Night | Grants a Spell Shield |
| Arcane Cache | Watchful Wardstone Vigilant Wardstone | Stores Control Wards |
| Awe | Archangel’s Staff Seraph’s Embrace Manamune Muramana Winter’s Approach Fimbulwinter | Grants Stats based on Mana |
| Dread & Glory | Dark Seal Mejai’s Soulstealer | Grants Ability Power on Champion takedown and takes it away on death |
| Cleave | Tiamat Ravenous Hydra Titanic Hydra | Deals damage around the main target |
| Energized | Kircheis Shard Rapid Firecannon Stormrazor | Stores charge based on movement and attacks and enhances next autoattack |
| Focus | Doran’s Ring Doran’s Shield Tear of the Goddess | Deals bonus damage to minions with auto attacks |
| Immolate | Bami’s Cinder Frostfire Gauntlet Sunfire Aegis | Deals damage to surrounding damage |
| Lifeline | Hexdrinker Immortal Shieldbow Bloodward Maw of Malmortius Sterak’s Gage | Provides a shield below a certain HP threshold |
| Mana Charge | Tear of the Goddess Archangel’s Staff Archangel’s Staff Manamune Manamune Winter’s Approach | Increases maximum mana when you hit an enemy with attacks/abilities |
| Quest | Relic Shield Targon’s Buckler Steel Shoulderguards Runesteel Spaulders Spellthief’s Edge Frostfang Spectral Sickle Harrowing Crescent | Upgrades item for free when enough gold has been collected with it |
| Quicksilver | Quicksilver Sash Mercurial Scimitar Silvermere Dawn | Removes most crowd control effects |
| Rock Solid | Warden’s Mail Frozen Heart Randuin’s Omen | Reduces damage from auto attacks |
| Spellblade | Sheen Divine Sunderer Essence Reaver Lich BaneTrinity Force | Causes your next attack after ability usage to deal bonus damage |
| Spoils of War | Relic Shield Targon’s Buckler Steel Shoulderguards Runesteel Spaulders | Executes minions below certain HP threshold and shares gold with nearby ally |
| Stasis | Stopwatch Zhonya’s Hourglass | Puts champion into stasis for a short period |
| Thorns | Bramble Vest Thornmail | Deals damage to target that auto attacks you |
| Tribute | Spellthief’s Edge Frostfang Spectral Sickle Harrowing Crescent | Grants damage when you auto attack enemy champions/towers |
| Warding | Targon’s Buckler Bulwark of the Mountain Runesteel Spaulders Pauldrons of Whiterock Frostfang Shard of True Ice Harrowing Crescent Black Mist Scythe | Stores multiple wards and allows you to place them and refresh the charges at the fountain |
| Wrath | Rageknife Guinsoo’s Rageblade | Converts critical strike chance to on-hit damage |
Conclusion
Item passives are an important aspect of building your champion properly, according to the game state.
Understanding which items do stack and which do not will help your decision-making when building items and maximizing gold efficiency.
