Attack speed Question

[{quoted}](name=Illuminate I,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=a6gJQ84T,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-05-14T11:38:06.295+0000)

is attack speed 4 first attack or just for second attack?

Attacks occur in 3 stages. Windup, Attack animation, Wind-down.

A portion of the entire time spent attacking is windup, some of it is the actual attack animation itself, and some of it is wind-down.

For the vast majority of champions, the wind-down takes longer than the attack animation, and the attack animation takes longer than the windup.

More attack speed speeds up all 3 proportionally for most champions, up to a point. At some point the windup becomes so short that it can't become shorter, so buying more attack speed beyond that only reduces the time spent in the attack animation and wind-down. Windup for ranged champions means raising your bow to make an attack, and the attack animation is launching the projectile, and the winddown is whatever occurs after that.

For melee champions the windup is present but sometimes it isn't an actual animation, its just time spent standing still waiting to issue a pending attack. If you've ever ordered an attack command on malphite in lane while you have your attack speed slowed, and your champion started to attack but couldn't make the attack before malphite walked away, then you have experienced the windup animation.

If you have ever made an attack that killed someone despite them flashing away mid-attack then you have experienced the attack animation. For most champions, after the attack animation has started there is no way to escape the damage. For ranged champions it means that the animation to release the projectile has started and it will be launched at its target regardless of how far away the target moves. For melee champions it means their sword or weapon has begun its swing and they will finish the swing, and to keep it on parity with ranged champions it will do damage no matter how far away they move.

The first attack is essentially free because you don't have to wait on the wind-down, only the windup and attack animation.

The second attack requires you to wait on the wind-down of the previous attack and then you have to wait on the windup and attack animation of the second one.

This allows last hitting to be more fluid but still ensures that over time all the attacks except the first have to wait on the 3 phases in order to happen.

"Orb walking" and "animation canceling" means overriding the animation for the wind-down with a different command, like a move command or an ability cast. It means spending time doing something useful that you would have otherwise spent doing nothing, in between attacks.

Optimizing your attack speed can mean making your wind-down short enough that you can cast an ability or make a meaningful move command but not so short that you cannot.

Or it could mean just buying as much as required to balance your physical damage output given your other offensive stats, for the maximum standing dps possible.