@feral pony, Spell vamp and on hit abilities

Jingerbeardman·May 9, 2014·2 votes·551 views

So I have been wondering something lately regarding spell vamp and abilities that buff auto attacks with on hit effects. It seems like they do not benefit from spell vamp even though they are technically dealing spell damage. I myself play multiple champions with on hit auto attack buffs and have tried building spell vamp in the past only to find out that it does not help me at all the way I expected it to.

I am wondering what the reasoning behind this is. It is understandable not to allow spell vamp to work on item derived on hit bonuses but why not kit based on hit spells and effects?

7 Comments

CaptainWednesdayMay 9, 20142 votes

Because these abilities are Auto-Attack enhancements, not spells, technically. If an ability reads, "(insert champion name)'s next basic attack will an additional X damage", then the ability counts as a basic attack. However, if the ability reads, "(insert champion name)'s next basic attack will an additional X damage and does another effect", the ability is an on-hit effect ability, thus applying Spell Vamp.

For example, let's compare Nasus's Q and Leona's Q.

Nasus Siphoning Strike: Nasus's next attack within the next 10 seconds will deal bonus physical damage.

Leona Shield of Daybreak: Leona's next basic attack deals additional magic damage and stuns the target for 1.25 seconds.

Nasus's Q is an auto-attack enhancement, an on-hit effect. That being said, this ability will apply Life Steal. Leona's Q is an auto-attack enhancement as well, but her's is an on-hit effect ability. It does something a basic attack cannot. The physical damage from Leona's basic attack will apply Life Steal while the bonus magic damage will apply Spell Vamp.

I hope that answered your question, or at least got you to understand things a bit better. Sometimes it takes a little research to tell what your ability is going to do. All these champions are so different! Best of luck to you, fellow Summoner.

JingerbeardmanMay 9, 20141 votes

Doesnt explain varus blighted quiver, kogs w, and poppies q triggers spell vamp as well. Not all attacks that have magic damage trigger spell vamp. varus is understandable why it doesnt as it is a constant and not really a spell but an effect. kog maw however must activate his bio-arcane barrage which to me means a spell. if you buy will of the ancients however none of his attacks return any health. Life steal, as far as I know, only accounts for physical damage and ignores magic damage.

CaptainWednesdayMay 9, 20141 votes

These are cases that require you to look up the effect.

Varus's Blighted Quiver bonus magic damage is a passive on-hit effect that at the same time does not apply spell effects, meaning Spell Vamp is not applied.
Kog'Maw's Bio-Arcane Barrage bonus magic damage is (just like Varus's) a passive on-hit effect that does not apply spell effects (the ability itself), meaning Spell Vamp is not applied.
Poppy's Devastating Blow bonus magic damage is an active on-hit effect that applies spell effects, meaning you will apply the full Spell Vamp.

A lot of these things need to be looked up because the case can change from time to time. Typically, Spell Vamp applies to single target abilities that deal magic damage. Again, there are cases that differ. Just requires some research. Just a side note, why are you trying to build Spell Vamp on any of those champions? I can understand maybe a Gunblade for Poppy, but what's your concern with the others?

JingerbeardmanMay 10, 20141 votes

one of my main mid laners is ap kog, and I bring up varus cause I tried it a long time ago and remember it not working.

It does not make much sense why devastating blow and Bio-Arcane Barrage are different in the way they work. I get that poppies is a single hit and kogs is over a period of time, but both have to be activated, hence "active". It does not say in kogs spell tooltip activate to gain a passive bonus to your auto attacks, if it did it would make no sense.

CaptainWednesdayMay 10, 20141 votes

Well, Devastating Blow is a single target ability, while the Barrage is a sustained, passive ability. It would be providing too much free Spell Vamp.

ShadowNinetailsMay 10, 20141 votes

Honestly, Spell Vamp is one of those weird stats where only a very small sub-set of mages actually want it (as compared to the non-existent subset of physical dmg dealers that wouldn't want Life Steal). Remember when item 3152 's recipe was changed to include 2 item 1004 's so that champs like Veigar Evelynn Leblanc would pick it up more? Remember how mad the Mordekaiser Kennen Rumble players were compared to how often the champs that actually used mana decided "hey you know what? sure I'll get some spell vamp."? Just before they changed the recipe again to take out the mana regen, they even called out "Ok, so apparently Spell Vamp is only attractive to manaless mages since the others just want to 100-0 you and Spell Vamp doesn't really help them do that." I know when I stopped trying to force item 3152 onto my Ahri build and swapped it for item 3135 , my game really picked up.