Help Me Understand On-Hit Builds Vs Critical Ones

Caretaker Jack·Sep 22, 2019·9 votes·10,517 views

I should be ashamed, but i'm tired of not understanding the "Why" we do things the way we do here... So, even if it's dumb to ask, I need to actually understand this:

What even is on hit building? (rage blade, wits end?) Why is it strong? Why do we go on hit for things like Varus/ Kog Maw but not for Jinx? How do you know which one is better for the ones who do both (like vayne, kaisa?)
Why does a pick like kalista bypass both builds and just goes lifesteal?? Is that a thing?

27 Comments

I Like TeemoSep 22, 20199 votes

a crit build usually has item 3031 and 1 of 2 item 3086 items

on-hit has items more like item 3091 item 3115 item 3124

there are champs historically like kogmaw that ran item 3091 item 3124 item 3085 item 3031 (back when wits shredded mr) but i still considered that an on hit build

to understand why its usually in a champions kit... champs like kogmaw have a damage utility spell (W) so prioritizing his ability to hit multiple targets as fast as possible in the early stages, and then evolving into mixed damage makes him harder to counter with 1 set of items (teemo for example can be almost shut down with adaptive, mercs and wits/maw)

champions like jinx on the other hand, she does not have any inherent flat ramp besides attack speed, so prioritizing damage early is almost required, items like infinity edge and essence reaver give a larger flat power spike that a rage blade doesn't offer right away

i think jhin is the best example of this.. if you go just pure raw on hit items, he may deal a fair amount of damage, but with 4 bullets before he reloads you cant be constantly pumping out hits so the items almost always go to waste

Vlada CutSep 22, 20192 votes

On-Hit means Auto Attack power you do On-Hit with a LOT of attack speed and shredding with items such as item 3124 and item 3153 for shredding and item 3115 for CDR Spell shredding gained from 's hybrid pen and stronger auto attacks. Demands AS as a primary stat.

Crit is also Auto Attack based power like on-hit, and even if IS on-hit it is BURST orientated, NOT shredder orientated, and requires you to have item 3031 and item 3086 upgrades to do crit damage, and item 3508 if you are mana hungry or going for 100% crit. Demands AD from so it can have damage to amplify for a big crit auto to begin with, so building 3 's means you're trolling.

On-Hit comes online with it's core items, item 3124 being the essence of EVERY on-hit core build, and your mid game is the strongest, your late game is good too because you've got more ressistances to shred and more AS to shred faster anyways.

Crit is a hyperscaling stat and demands you to build exclusively crit items till you reach 75%, where you go online. Your core is good only if you are snowballing for the purpose your crit auto's deleting all champions that are way lower level than you. You are a late game monster all the time but you lack...shredding. Which is why you basically give up from 25% to 50% of 100% crit chance in order to buy enough items to shred people through.

But none the less, when enemy team doesn't have that many ressistances Crit has the most powerful and bursting autos in the game which is why Crit Adc's buy item 3080 for sustain, where On-Hit builders buy item 3153 because they can sustain themselves close to critsters for their insane AS steroids.

So in plain 1v1's, Crit Adcs beat On-Hit most of the time( Kaisa who shits on 100% Crit Caitlyn . You also have on-hit and crit hybrid builds, where some marksmen are forced to build BOTH because they have strong auto's for crit and auto based abilities binded to their kit and spell damage they need on-hit items for. Kaisa KogMaw and Varus are primary example here. And the latest member to the trio band mentioned above, Vayne .

Now run away before she Ulti's and item 3153 's yo-

ENEMY QUADRA KILL Vayne

iiGazeiiSep 23, 20192 votes

On-hit items add extra damage to your auto attacks. However, this damage is NOT AD, so it doesn't improve your abilities at all (unless those abilities are autoattacks). On-hit champions generally have an attack speed steroid in their kit, AP scalings to take advantage of the AP of Rageblade and Nashor's, and built-in on-hit effects that get multiplied by Rageblade.

Crit items multiply your AD, so it's better when you know you're going to build a ton of AD and/or your kit scales with it ( Jhin Xayah Ashe ).

For Kaisa her crit build deals more sustained damage, like a lot more. You deal insane damage in late-game teamfights with crit. On-hit build offers more burst and poke, but the damage is mainly single target since you aren't building item 3085 . It also encourages you to build more AP items into the late-game, opening up powerful defensive options like item 3157 item 3102

I would default to her crit build for most games, but if your team needs more magic damage or you know you won't be safe enough to just stand there autoattacking, the on-hit build is safer. Both are great, so if you just love the on-hit build, you can play it whenever you feel like.

(For reference, her Crit Build is item 3004 item 3124 item 3006 item 3085 item 3031 plus a situational items and her on-hit build is item 3115 plus situational items)

ArtumisPrimeSep 23, 20192 votes

To put it simply, on-hit builds are builds that utilize dealing extra damage on AA hits through items and/or abilities. That is to say item 3153 item 3091 item 3115 item 3124 item 3042 item 3057 etc

These builds are usually lower in each individual hit than a crit (the only exception I can think of is KogMaw ), but get far more hits out with higher attack speed, while also having more consistent damage because there is no relying on crit RNG.

It's also fairly imperative that the champion on which you build on-hit has some way for it to synergize with their kit. Like Neeko W passive, Kayle passive and W passive, or Teemo E, etc. Otherwise the DPS will be too low for it to be worthwhile, and will usually benefit more from a crit build, Tristana Caitlyn , for example.

NodirjonSattarovSep 23, 20192 votes

champions that build crit typically have crit interactions in their kit or benefit from AD more

BârdSep 23, 20192 votes

On-hit builds are for champions who scale better with attack speed than with AD.

Kog has bonus magic damage on-hit from his W, so you want as much attack speed as possible so you can get as many hits out in your W duration as possible.

You could build him with tons of Crit, sure. It wouldn't even be that bad, it's just that an on-hit build would be better.

You build Jinx with Crit because tons of her damage come from rockets, which synergize super poorly with attack speed items.

They have no base damage, so buying something purely to shoot faster just means you're slapping people with a wet noodle.
They cost mana per attack, so buying tons of attack speed runs you out of mana.
Each attack with rockets costs you one mini-gun stack, so

Vayne and champs like her vary from patch to patch.

Look at the champion an ask "What's the strongest part of the champion? Their AD ratios or on-hit effects".

Kalista builds neither, because she needs to survive in fights long enough to apply Rend, so lifesteal is the way to go.

PartholonianSep 23, 20191 votes

Kalista builds neither, because she needs to survive in fights long enough to apply Rend, so lifesteal is the way to go.

item 3153 item 3085 are both on-hit items. Rend is a delayed on-hit effect - even though you have to press it to actually get the damage, the amount of damage depends on how many times you hit them to stack it first. Twitch Varus have similar mechanics (although Varus can also build Lethality to focus on poke).

Jennifer420Sep 23, 20192 votes

it alrdy got explained a couple of times here but always in pretty long walls so i try to keep it short.

you go onhit on champs that apply a special bonus with autoattacks (vaynes w doing true damage, kogmaw doing %magic damage, kalista stacking spears, kaisa for being the better vayne lul)

you go crit on non onhit champs.

kalista is in a weird state right now. technically she wants to stack her spears into an enemy but she has a problem.

she isnt directly onhit. other onhit accs do bonus damage with each or a certain amount of autoattacks. kogmaw with every w autoattack, vayne every 3rd etc. kalista does bonus damage once she uses her e. so she needs a lot of attackspeed to get many spears in. but tends to die before doing so.
onhit adcs usually have % damage. kalista doesnt. unless she has some juicy ad values her e doesnt do much damage even if you stack 100 spears in a tank.

SmyrageSep 22, 20191 votes

On-hit ADCs usually have item 3124 as core, but other on-hit items include item 3115 item 3153 item 3091 . On-hit ADCs usually have something in their kit, which deals on-hit damage or effect, therefore benefit a lot from building and other on-hit items. Their source of damage is from on-hit effects, therefore crit is a wasted stat on them. The source of damage decides what the ADC is going to build. Crit ADCs usually have good AD scalings and/or they also scale with crit ( Jhin ). Jinx can actually go on-hit build, but it's going to be inferior to her crit build, because on-hit builds require in-built on-hit effect, which e.g Varus Vayne Kaisa have.

Kalista plays the way like you mentioned as well, because her passive states that her AA always deal 90% of her AD and she has no built in on-hit effect, so neither builds are that good on her. Her main source of damage is her E and for that she needs to stick to the targets as much as she can and she needs to hit them with AA as much as she can to get the max damage off from her E. She isn't unique in that regard, that she builds uniquely. Draven also start with lifesteal due to reasons similar to Kalista. Miss Fortune, while technically she benefits from both on-hit and crit builds due to her Q (on-hit) and R (crit), she builds like an assassin, with lethality and armor penetration. Lucian rushes for CD, because he needs to weave spells. Ezreal goes Sheen item and Manamune. The Marksmen' playstyle defines the build. Certain Marksmen can build AP too (Varus, Kog and Kai'sa).

HàrrowRSep 22, 20191 votes

As people already mentioned, some champ kits have in-built on hit effects so building on-hit items just builds upon that damage. If you're wondering what even is on-hit, it's usually the passive portion of an item item 3153 for example this passive is basic attacks deal 8% of current hp as bonus physical damage, meaning you do your auto damage + 8% current HP.

Now why this is strong is because item 3124 while also gives 15 on-hit damage, also doubles on-hit effects every 3 attacks, so with item 3153 you deal auto damage, + 8% current HP dmg, + 15 magic damage from guinsoo and every 3rd strike is basically an on-hit critical hit where you double all of the passive on-hit damage, so you deal 16% current Hp and 30 magic damage.

Now this in of itself is good but coupled with in-built champion on-hit effects like Vayne W dealing % true damage and you're starting to get the picture. Vayne is also a good example of a champ that switches from crit to on-hit depending on the current item meta and her own stat balance. A few seasons ago her ult would give way more damage than it gives now and crit items were way stronger, so even though her W is the same as it is now, it was better to build crit since as early as lvl 11 your R gave you a free item 1038 of damage and you essentially three shotted people

SmyrageSep 23, 20192 votes

Vayne switching from Crit to On-Hit was mostly due her Q was changedd. It used to crit, so she had an inherent synergy with item 3031 , which she no longer really has.

HàrrowRSep 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Vayne switching from Crit to On-Hit was mostly due her Q was changedd. It used to crit, so she had an inherent synergy with , which she no longer really has.

Daamn right, i forgot that, those were good times. For me, not for many others

Daddy AntsSep 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Vayne switching from Crit to On-Hit was mostly due her Q was changedd. It used to crit, so she had an inherent synergy with , which she no longer really has.

Patch 7.19 is when they killed that synergy.

General Esdeath Sep 23, 20191 votes

On-hit champs usually have something in their kit for % max HP damage

Vayne W KogMaw W Kaisa passive

Some just have an AD steroid like Twitch

Crit champs just auto attack and usually use their abilities for utility such as

Ashe R for CC and E for vision Caitlyn Q for waveclear, W for control, E for mobility, and ult for execute Tristana Q for attack speed, W for mobility, E for waveclear and burst

And some champs like Kalista Draven build lifesteal because they have damage and things to help them out, but lifesteal lets them stay healthy longer

ArtumisPrimeSep 23, 20191 votes

On-hit champs usually have something in their kit for % max HP damage

Not entirely true. They simply need a way for it to synergize with their kits, for it to be effective.

Kayle Neeko Varus Teemo

General Esdeath Sep 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Not entirely true. They simply need a way for it to synergize with their kits, for it to be effective.

Kayle has E, Neeko wasn't meant to be on-hit, but she became one because of the W passive, Varus has his W passive stacks, and Teemo is the same as Neeko.

PartholonianSep 23, 20191 votes

Actually, Teemo originally was meant to be on-hit, but that was a long time ago. Shroom-centric builds like item 3285 item 3151 are generally stronger now than something like item 3115 item 3085 poison all the things.

Unless you meant to say "Teemo is the same as Varus". Because he was.

P.S. Personally I'd like to see Teemo be more of a flex pick including being viable in the bottom lane, but I see no sign that's going to happen anytime soon.

General Esdeath Sep 24, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Actually, Teemo originally was meant to be on-hit, but that was a long time ago. Shroom-centric builds like are generally stronger now than something like poison all the things.

Unless you meant to say "Teemo is the same as Varus". Because he was.

P.S. Personally I'd like to see Teemo be more of a flex pick including being viable in the bottom lane, but I see no sign that's going to happen anytime soon.

I'm talking about how he is now, Riot seemed to have dropped any on-hit changes they had planned and just leave him as shroom man. His on-hit build is great vs tanks but it's just AA based with bork being the main tank shredder and liandry working with his E to shred more

ArtumisPrimeSep 24, 20191 votes

I don't see your point.

Whether these champions were intended to have on-hit builds or not, they do.

Kayle's E is missing health, not max health.

General Esdeath Sep 24, 20191 votes

{quoted}

I don't see your point.

Whether these champions were intended to have on-hit builds or not, they do.

Kayle's E is missing health, not max health.

Indeed, her E has synergy with on-hit items that take % HP like bork, otherwise I would have put her in the list with Vayne for max HP.

Anyone can have an on-hit build, it's just good on champs like Neeko/Teemo that weren't meant to have them because they have an ability that says "on-hit damage". In Neeko's case it's the 3rd auto, in Teemo's case it's every auto.

ArtumisPrimeSep 25, 20191 votes

Anyone can have an on-hit build

Everyone can build on-hit items, but not everyone has an on-hit build. If it doesn't synergize with their kit, then IMO it's not a valid build for them. This is how I look at it, anyway.

Daddy AntsSep 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Not entirely true. They simply need a way for it to synergize with their kits, for it to be effective.

This is true.

ThefrostyvikingSep 23, 20191 votes

Well as others stated, the core idea for onhit builds is the fact that they use attackspeed and item 3124 the "guinsoo's rage" passive very well due their kits having some synergy with it.

Meanwhile crit users are just those who dont have that and simply get AD&crit&attackspeed and let those 3 scale of eachother.

As for Kalista, her E lets her scale well of just attackspeed and AD, so starting with item 3153 gives her a bit of each +max HP damage, then more attackspeed+AD for more damage + lifesteal which is always a good bonus.

Her Q also has a pretty good AD scaling if memory serves.

Then she gets more lifesteal because she wants to be able to stay in fights to stack her E as long as possible, exception is if she needs item 3026 or item 3046 just to survive in which case she gets them instead.

OtterlyLostSep 23, 20191 votes

On Hit are things that are generally applied, well.. when you hit them with your AA's. So yes, its like Rageblade, Wit's End, Frozen Mallet, Nashor's Tooth, Blade of the Ruin King, Runaans, ect. Items that have something that is applied everytime you AA them. Why certain champions go On Hit rather than Crit is generally because they themselves have an on hit as part of their kit. You use Varus and Kog'maw as an example; both of them have an on hit affect that synergizes well with other on hits. For example, Varus's blight stacks are an on hit affect that allow him to do Magic Damage along with Physical damage, meaning items like Rageblade and Wit's End(which both give magic pen essentially), synergize nicely with his blight stacks because they increase the damage. Kog'maw, similarly, has %health damage as an on hit that is also applied as magic damage, making the on hit magic pen really nice.

Overall, on hit builds are low AD, high AS, and provide damage in other ways or even sometimes utility in some other way via additional affects added to your AA's.

The reason why they don't work on other champions such as Jinx is because crit builds tend to have less AS but effectively more AD(since crit just flat out doubles your AD damage done with your AA's if you think about it). Jinx has more AD scaling in her builds and even has abilities (her Q rockets) that scale with crit. On hit can work for most ADCs but crit is generally better for most too, specifically champions with high AD scaling abilities(Tristana, Cait, Lucian) or champions with crit scaling abilities(Jinx, Xayah, Yasuo).

Ice Weasel XSep 23, 20191 votes

{quoted}

items like Rageblade and Wit's End(which both give magic pen essentially)

Minor correction: Wit's End no longer affects enemy MR. They removed its shred effect and replaced it with healing from its on-hit damage.

OtterlyLostSep 23, 20191 votes

Oh fair enough! Thanks for that. I thought it still gave MR shred, haha.

Sire HippingtonSep 24, 20191 votes

Usually you only go on-hit if your champ has on-hit in his kit, like kogmaw W, vayne W, kaisa passive or varus W Crit is basically for everone that lacks on-hit. That said, the on-hit champs also can choose to go crit

The main differnce is that on-hit has better 1 and two item spikes with item 3153 and item 3124 and is strong in drawn out fights due to the consitent dps and sustain and the ramp-up from rageblade. Crit is more about bursty damage spikes where you go for single hits, and if one crits you can deside follow up. As an reliable dps tool, it needs longer to get online, usually around 3 items, but it scales harder on most champs. Then there is also the thing with ER, which means there is a sub category in critbuilts for champs that like the mana/cdr and favor AD over AS like ashe.

For many adc, mutiple builts can work with differnt purpose. Varus for example can go on-hit for high hybrid dps, a strong 1 and two item spike and good tank shreding, but his kills won't hit as hard and his damage vs squishys is a bit lower. He can go Lethality and focus on his Q poke, but lacks dps vs tanky opponents Or he can go crit with ER, have still good Q poke but also high dps, but needs longer till he really is effective compared to the other two.

Vanye can go crit to chunk squishys with her Q and basically assasinate them with the stealth of her ult, or go on-hit to shred through any target nop matter how tanky cause of her %hp truedamage.

As for Kallista, she usually goes on-hit/lifesteal. item 3153 + item 3085 is her bread and butter, and then she can expand with any of those item 3080 item 3163 item 3231 item 3091 item 3124 . Her AAs do reduced damage, so her crit scaleing isn't that great. However, her E is basically a delayed on-hit which works with hurricane and rageblade, and it't where most her damage comes from. Usually she goes high sustain cause she has no real burst, she needs extendet fights, and becuase of her passive. She's a hard target to focus and pin down, so if gets alot sustain it really becomes hard to kill her.