Is Rabadon better bought as the last item of a build?

AlphaKennyWun·Jun 16, 2017·3 votes·2,237 views

So I've been thinkning,cause the passive says 35% aditional AP and I kinda don't understand what that means.Is it 35% of total AP including Rabadon's 120 or just the AP besides that,and if that is the case shouldn't it be bought as the last item?Cause let's say you are 120 AP then get the item so the passive gives you only 40 AP or so,but if you are 400 AP the passive would double the items ape cause he has 120 and 35% out off 400 is 140 sou you would get 660 AP.I am asking that because it's kinda unclear to me how the passive works.So if you are 400 AP and the item gives you 120 Ap you have 520 AP if the passive gets 35% out of 520 AP you would fastly get to 700.

11 Comments

DreadlocksJun 16, 20172 votes

If gives you a bonus 35% of your total AP.. Generally when buying D.C. you want to have 2-3 items first.. (so a 3rd or 4th item pick up) It spikes pretty hard mid game, not very great early, and there isn't anything wrong with getting it last. Generally you will be getting void first because people will be building MR of a sort.. But if you are ahead, then there isn't really anything wrong with getting DC 3rd item.

And yes the 35% will keep updating with further ap purchases.

ShadòwJun 16, 20172 votes

the item is pretty bad in current meta as rush item, you should never rush it.

there are simply way cheaper items that additionally give you utility that are better atm.

if you want flat Damage, you should always get item 3135 before item 3089 .

so yes, you should pretty much only build item 3089 as one of your last items.

And the 35% also apply to the 120 AP of Rabadons, but it still is not worth to get early because of the price and lack of utility.

Champion SkinJun 16, 20172 votes

Basically when you buy item 3089 you gain +120 AP and then your AP is multiplied by 1.35 (100% + 35% from Rabadon)

And yes the +35% also work on the 120 AP the item gives so it will always at least give 162 AP (120 X 1.35 = 162 AP) if you have no other source of AP

Generally item 3135 is a better damage item because it is so much cheaper and magic pen also increase the damage your base damage

However item 3089 is better for wave clear (since minions have 0 MR) and for utility abilities which scale with AP like Lux shield which gets stronger with AP but doesn't benefit from magic pen since it doesn't deal damage

MarshbouyJun 16, 20171 votes

I've always heard that if you are going to build void staff and rabadons build void staff first if you are a damage based mage (like azir) and rabadons first if you are a ultility based mage (like karma).

ScriptBrandJun 16, 20171 votes

I would never buy it before I had my 3 core items first

NhifuJun 16, 20171 votes

Rabadon is a must buy for weak late game champions or champions with no multi-hit spells.

The only reason it's not "meta" is because there's no cooldown in the item :P

DeathBurstJun 16, 20171 votes

The +35% applies continuously, not just when you buy the item. If you buy more AP after you bought Rabadon, you'll get +35% on that AP too.

But it's still better to build Rabadon late, because the +35% buff is very expansive, and if you don't already have a lot of AP, you can better spend this gold for another item's more useful passive.

PsyrixJun 16, 20171 votes

usually Rabadon's will be bought as a late game item (4th item or later) as it just provides AP, other items have either actives that are extremely important or have more than 1 stat other than AP.

MLDzXnRRRJun 16, 20171 votes

Rabadon was good when the other mages could reach 1000 AP with it without buying stacking items. Now the total AP in the game feels halved.

AreJun 17, 20171 votes

It depends. Your burst might suffer if you don't have over 300 AP. It's better as a 3+ item. I would only rush Hat 2nd if I'm just absolutely destroying the enemy team, and am sure that I won't die.

MysterQJun 17, 20171 votes

Read different AP mage guides.

When I first started I had seen/heard people rushing Rabadons. I don't think this is effective (mostly because Morellonomicon number 1 lol). But RD is usually a luxury item. So either you are winning lane super hard so you rush it because it gives more flat AP than anything, or you build it late when you have time to build up gold.

But again read guides because I don't play mages.