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Guinsoo’s Rageblade is one of the most popular offensive items in League of Legends. This particular weapon is classified as a legendary critical modifier. Ideally, you want to buy Guinsoo’s Rageblade on a champion with high physical base damage or greatly benefits from critical strikes.
As you can presume, this weapon is incredibly excellent on someone like Master Yi or Ashe. It is one of the best weapons for scaling into the late game, allowing you to nuke squishy backlines and takedown tanky frontliners. Guinsoo’s Rageblade is among the oldest items in the game, and it pays homage to Dota’s creator Steve “Guinsoo” Feak (one of the creators, that is).
Initially, this was meant to be a version of Dota’s Daedalus, a strong offensive item with high nuking potential. When creating the weapon, the developers were thinking of Corki, one of the few AD champions present at the time.
In this guide, I will analyze the weapon’s stats, unique abilities, and how it works when combined with other items.
Key Info Up Front
Guinsoo’s Rageblade is categorized as a critical strike modifier. It is tailor-made for ADCs, and it is especially potent on champions with high base damage or those who have passives and abilities with a critical strike.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade Basic Info
This weapon scales well with other sources of a critical strike. Although it isn’t purchased on many champions, just 11 or 12 of them, it can be really strong on these few users. The item’s base efficiency is moderate, but it becomes significantly better as you get other sources of a critical strike or critical damage. In fact, when you have a guaranteed critical hit, the weapon has a 176.6% gold efficiency.
What’s even better about Guinsoo’s Rageblade is that it is very reliable, unlike some other items that achieve maximum potential at a certain number of charges. For example, to get the most from Luden’s Tempest, you must cast enough spells to reduce the Echo cooldown.
Due to the nature of the item, you don’t have to worry about positioning. This can be a problem with items like Sunfire Aegis or Randuin’s Omen, where you have to be close enough to enemies to be impactful. Guinsoo’s is a unique item, but it is sometimes compared to Wit’s End, Black Cleaver, Nashor’s Tooth, or Blade of the Ruined King.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade costs 2,600 gold and can be sold for 1,820 gold. Aside from Guinsoo’s Rageblade recipe that costs 900 gold, you will need a few other items to assemble the weapon. It requires an 800-gold Rageknife (made from 2 Daggers and a recipe), Cloak of Agility for 600 gold, and an additional Dagger at 300 gold cost.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade Stats and Uniques
When wearing the item, you get a 20% critical strike boost and an extra 45% attack speed. In terms of passive abilities, it will give you access to Seething Strike and Wrath.
Wrath is simply incredible when stacking critical strike chance. It will apply two physical damage per 1% of critical strike on every basic hit. In other words, your auto-attacks will deal extra 200 damage if you manage to reach a 100% critical strike chance. What’s even better, this damage can be altered and improved by all the modifiers and effects that otherwise impact critical damage.
The second passive effect is called Seething Strike. By auto-attacking an opponent, you receive a 6-second stack. Your next basic attack will trigger the Phantom Hit effect when you accumulate two stacks. When you land a strike, your stack counter will be reset.
Phantom Hit will cause all your procs to be 100% effective. Keep in mind that Phantom Hit is not an instantaneous ability. Instead, it will take 0.15 seconds to affect the opponent.
How Do Seething Strike and Wrath Work?
Seething Strike and Wrath are quite unique. Furthermore, they also interact well with each other. Depending on the champion, they can feel extremely potent or very lackluster.
Neither Wrath nor Seething Strike can activate spell shields. As physical strikes, they also cannot be blocked by spell shields. Wrath is considered as proc damage and can benefit from life-stealing abilities and items. As for Seething Strike, while it allows you to apply various effects on your strikes, it cannot damage structures.
The nature of Phantom Hit never changes. In other words, it will always work after a delay, even if the strike is countered (for example, if it’s popped). Phantom Hit and stacking hits will always trigger basic attacks. However, it won’t have any impact on strikes that are similar to auto-attacks but are not classified as such.
Keep in mind that Wrath and Seething Strike count as separate instances of damage. They cannot deal cumulative damage when paired up with items that have Spellblade or Echo passives.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade History of Changes
As mentioned, this is one of the oldest items in the game. It has existed since the 0.9.25.21 patch. You would need a Pickaxe, Blasting Wand, and a Guinsoo’s Rageblade recipe to assemble the weapon back in the day.
The first iteration of the item had a stacking unique passive. Whenever you dealt damage with an auto-attack, you would gain a stack granting an extra 6 AP and 4% attack speed. Each stack lasted 5 seconds, and you could get 8 of them. In other words, you could accumulate 48 AP and 32% attack speed.
As you can notice, Rageblade was meant for hybrids. Someone like Corki or Akali would benefit significantly from the combination of ability power and attack speed. The developers kept the item in its existing state for a few patches, only focusing on minor bugs.
Although Guinsoo’s would stack to a point where it would decimate enemies, it wasn’t necessarily made for nukers. Instead, it was created for champions with a solid sustain and mobility, but not necessarily high damage. They would be able to remain in battle for a long enough time to take advantage of the stacks.
Attack speed stacking would make it interesting, as it would allow scaling of certain champions. So, it isn’t shocking that the item is good on Vayne as it would help procing of Silver Bolts. Although this ability causes true damage, it gets stronger with attack speed.
Similar could be said for Ezreal. The champion needs to cast as many spells as possible to boost its attack speed via Rising Spell Force. As such, continuous switching between spells and basic attacks would empower each other.
Version 1.0.0.152
The first, larger update occurred during the 1.0.0.152 patch. Riot decided to tweak the weapon’s price going from 2,235 gold to 2,600 gold. The item was too strong at that time as Riot additionally nerfed it, reducing the effect’s duration from 8 seconds to 5 and ability gain from 6 to 4.
However, the 1.0.0.152 patch wasn’t all bad. The item also gained a new effect that would only activate once you drop below 50% health. You would gain 10% spell vamp and life-steal and 20% attack speed when that happens. This new passive had a 30-second cooldown and would remain active as long as you were engaged with enemies.
The new effect was especially nice on champions who rely on life-steal for survival including Olaf, Warwick, Sion, etc.
Version 5.22
Most experts would agree that Guinsoo’s Rageblade was very balanced during this period. Nevertheless, the company decided to make a few major alterations in version 5.22. Among others, they decided to make the item better for hybrids and ADCs.
First off, they slightly changed the price going from 2,590 gold to 2,500 gold. Previously, you would gain stacks whenever you auto-attacked or cast abilities. However, this was now changed, and you only received stacks with basic hits. With this, Riot wanted to focus on right-clickers such as traditional fighters and assassins.
The previous version of the item provided 4% attack speed with each stack, which was now increased to 8%. But the real game-changer came with AD stacking; the wearers now received 3 attack damage with each hit. Furthermore, once you reach 8 stacks, the champion would receive an effect called Guinsoo’s Rage.
Guinsoo’s Rage was another thing that made this item great for hybrids. It would empower basic strikes with 20 + 15% bonus attack damage + 7.5% ability power as magic damage. What’s even better, this strike would affect both your primary target and the surrounding enemies making Guinsoo’s a great pickup for all the champions who are lacking team fight presence.
Version 6.9
Although not as big as patch 5.22, version 6.9 brought a few interesting innovations. First off, you would now require Recurve Bow for the recipe. The price was significantly increased, going from 2,800 gold to 3,600 gold. Although this made the weapon very expensive, you did receive a few extra perks.
First off, Guinsoo’s Rageblade now had a new passive unique that empowered basic hits with 15 bonus magical damage. The old passive was altered a bit, and you could no longer gain 8 stacks. Instead, the stacking was capped at 6.
Previously, champions would receive 2 stacks on melee strikes and 1 stack on ranged strikes. Now, both attack types would provide just 1 stack. Furthermore, the old passive that granted extra damage based on ability power and attack damage was removed. Instead, Guinsoo’s Blade now had Phantom Hit.
Version 8.6
After patch 8.6, Guinsoo’s Rageblade was made by combining Amplifying Tome, Pickaxe, Recurve Bow, and a recipe. Instead of costing 3,600 gold, the price was reduced to 3,000 gold. This also resulted in noticeably lower stats and game impact.
Instead of providing 35 attack damage, the item would now give a champion 25 AD. Ability power was reduced from 50 to 25, as well. The developers also removed the passive effect that boosted your auto-attacks with 15 magic damage. Instead, the basic attack would deal 5 + 10% AD and 5 + 10% AP magic damage.
More importantly, the stacking effect was significantly changed. Although it still provided 8% attack speed per stack, the ability power and attack damage gains became percentual. In other words, you would get an extra 4% AP and an extra 4% AD with each hit.
The passive lasted 5 seconds, and you could accumulate 6 stacks totaling 48% attack speed, 24% ability power, and 24% attack damage. Your champion would still receive Guinsoo’s Rag at max stacks, further buffing the offensive potential.
The following 8.7 version increased the price from 3,000 gold to 3,300 gold. Given that this nerf was not enough, the developers gave Guinsoo’s Rageblade another whack in 8.13, reducing AP and AD stacks from 4% each to 2.5% each. As a result, you could accumulate up to 15% each, instead of the previous 24%.
Version 8.23
Work on Guinsoo’s Rageblade continued in the forthcoming version. Although the item was fairly balanced, Riot would refresh it every once in a while. For example, they made a few major alterations in version 8.23.
First off, the price went from 3,300 to 3,100. The passive effect that gave you 5 + 10% AD and 5 + 10% AP was completely eliminated. Instead, Riot decided to reinstate the previously removed passive, once again empowering basic hits with 15 magical damage.
The item’s main passive, which was the strongest selling point, was now removed. You could no longer stack charges, thus increasing your AP, AD, and AS. Instead, a wielder would gain access to unique effects Last Whisper and Dissolve.
These uniques worked similarly but with a different emphasis. Dissolve would provide 6.5% to 15% magic penetration, while Last Whisper gave you 6.5% to 15% armor penetrations (the percentages were based on a champion’s level).
Guinsoo’s Rageblade received a few major buffs in patch 9.10. Phantom Hit would previously trigger on every three strikes, but now, it was available every second hit. Instead of providing a level-based magic and armor penetration, the weapon gave you a static 15% penetration to both of these.
Version 10.23
Patch 10.23 was a major overhaul to the entire game. A lot of legendaries changed their status into mythical. Furthermore, the icons and classifications for all items were changed.
Although Guinsoo’s Rageblade survived this patch and wasn’t turned into a mythic, it did endure numerous alterations. From this point onward, it was classified as a critical modifier item, and you could only have one magical object of this type.
The weapon’s price was significantly reduced, going from 3,100 to 2,600. Its recipe reflected this, no longer requiring Pickaxe, Recurve Bow, and Amplifying Tome. Instead, you would require AD-oriented items like Rageknife, Dagger, and Cloak of Agility.
All hybrid components were removed. In other words, you would no longer gain ability power when purchasing Guinsoo’s Rageblade. Instead, the item gave a 40% attack speed and 20% critical hit chance. Passive abilities were also reworked. Dissolve, Last Whisper, and unnamed passive providing 15 bonus magical damage were eliminated, giving way to Seething Strike and Wrath.
The first iteration of Wrath was especially strong. It would give you 2.25% AD per 1% critical strike chance, which was later on reduced to 2% AD per 1% critical. All in all, you could deal up to 225 bonus damage with each strike.
The first version of Wrath is that it disabled critical strikes. So, by stacking critical strike chance, you would only improve Wrath’s damage but not the base damage. This could stifle ADCs in the later portions of the game. Furthermore, it made it somewhat counterintuitive to build Guinsoo’s Rageblade on champions who otherwise need critical strike to be effective.
Seething Strike was already present on the item, although Riot didn’t have an official name for the passive. It was a stacking unique that would apply Phantom Hit after 3 basic attacks.
Final Updates
The majority of changes from 10.23 onward were minor. There was a quick hotfix after the patch that reduced the bonus Wrath damage from 2.25 AD per 1% critical to 2 AD per 1% critical strike. At the same time, the cost of the item went up to 2,800 gold.
Riot dealt with a few bugs in the upcoming versions changing how Guinsoo’s Rageblade interacts with Muramana and Kraken Slayer. After patch 10.25, the weapon could once again deal critical strikes. Eventually, the developers imposed a critical strike cap but made it so that Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Wrath could apply critical strike modifiers.
During the last update, which occurred in the 11.10 patch, the weapon’s price was reduced to 2,600 gold.
Win Percentages and Optimal Champions
Although this item sounds awesome in theory, it is only effective on a handful of characters. It provides optimal results on 11, 12 champions, including Master Yi, Varus, Kai’Sa, Ashe, Kayle, Aksan, Senna, etc.
Ideally, you should buy the weapon on characters who already have other sources of critical or critical modifiers. That way, you can maximize Wrath’s potential. The item is also very nice on those who have high base damage. Back in the day, the item was mostly built
If you buy Guinsoo’s Rageblade on one of these 12 characters, you have a 56.8% chance of winning the game. Although this is a rare pickup, you can see it in 18.22% of games (matches featuring these 12 champions).
Guinsoo’s Rageblade is not ideal as a first item. Wrath is only good if you have a significant critical strike chance, so it is much better to purchase weapons that will give you lots of flat damage. In 71.04% of situations, Guinsoo’s Rageblade is acquired as the second item, and people buy it as a third in 22.75% of cases.
Despite high acquisition rates as second or third, it provides the best win rate as a fourth item. When you get it a bit later, Guinsoo’s Rageblade can give you a 60.54% chance of winning the game. The weapon is especially potent on Vayne, and this champion will buy it in 67.51% of all her matches. After that, Guinsoo’s Rageblade is very common on Kalista (43.68% purchase frequency) and Kog’Maw (52.18% purchase frequency).
While the weapon is excellent on these characters, it is the best when purchased on Irelia. She has a 64.22%-win rate with the item, but you will see Guinsoo’s Rageblade on Irelia in just 1.44% of the champion’s games. Kayle is also very successful, with Guinsoo’s Rageblade having an incredible 63.53%-win chance when carrying the weapon.
Suggested Item Builds
Guinsoo’s Rageblade doesn’t provide much space for experimenting. The item is pretty streamlined due to its Wrath passive. In other words, you should try to get as many critical strike items as possible. Of course, increasing your base damage is also very nice as this will unlock more devastating critical hits.
If you wish to try a classic Guinsoo’s Rageblade build, here are some of the best suggestions:
- Vayne (Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker’s Greaves, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Kraken Slayer, Phantom Dancer, Bloodthirster)
- Varus (Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker’s Greaves, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Kraken Slayer, Runaan’s Hurricane, Manamune)
- Kog’Maw (Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker’s Greaves, Kraken Slayer, Runaan’s Hurricane, Phantom Dancer)
- Master Yi (Berserker’s Greaves, Blade of the Ruined King, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Kraken Slayer, Death’s Dance, Wit’s End)
- Kalista (Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker’s Greaves, Runaan’s Hurricane, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Bloodthirster, Immortal Shieldbow)
- Ashe (Blade of the Ruined King, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Kraken Slayer, Infinity Edge, Berserker’s Greaves, Runaan’s Hurricane)
Pairing Guinsoo’s Rageblade with other items
Given that a lot of these champions are ranged, the addition of Runaan’s Hurricane is not a surprise. This item is especially good because it gives your champion an extra 20% critical hit chance. On top of that, the high combined damage between these two items allows you to nuke enemies in a wider radius.
Kraken Slayer scales well with Guinsoo’s Rageblade. This is another weapon with a high critical chance and extra physical damage and attack speed. The item’s unique passive, Bring it Down, is perfect if you have high AD.
Although Runaan’s Hurricane and Kraken Slayers are the most common pairings, almost any critical strike item can scale well with Guinsoo’s Rageblade. For example, you can build it with Bloodthirster, Essence Reaver, Lord Dominik’s Regards, etc.
Navori Quickblades is a relatively new item that synergizes well with Guinsoo’s Rageblade. This item provides 60 damage, 20% critical chance, and 30 ability haste. The weapon has strong passive, called Deft Strikes, which reduces your ability cooldowns by 20% whenever you deal a critical strike.
I also need to mention the interaction with the Blade of the Ruined King. Unlike other items on the list, this particular weapon doesn’t provide a source of a critical strike. Instead, it will give you attack speed, life-steal, and physical damage. However, due to its strength in the current meta, many players will add it to their preferred builds.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade vs. Infinity Edge
Critical damage champions usually have to choose between Infinity Edge and Guinsoo’s Blade. Riot classifies these items as critical strike modifiers, forcing the players to focus on one of them.
Both items work better if you have a high critical strike chance. Wrath can provide you a total of 200 bonus physical attack damage at 100% critical strike, while Infinity Edge gives you extra 35% damage on critical strikes once you reach a total of 60% critical strike chance.
Infinity Edge has a ludicrous 95.59% gold efficiency. However, this is relatively similar to Guinsoo’s Rageblade’s gold efficiency of 96.15%. So, most players will choose based on the price and the base stats that each respective item provides.
Infinity Edge is significantly more expensive, costing 3,400 gold compared to Guinsoo’s 2,600 gold. But keep in mind that this is somewhat unimportant as both items have similar gold efficiency. In other words, no matter what you choose, you won’t be at a financial loss. So, you might opt for Guinsoo’s if you want to get a crit modifier as soon as possible, while Infinity Blade might be better in the ultra-late game when you start optimizing your inventory and want to get as much value as possible from every slot.
The items are also different in terms of their base stats. While both provide a 20% critical strike chance, Infinity Edge gives 70 attack damage, and Guinsoo’s Rageblade will increase your attack speed by 45%.
Although you can argue that both attack damage and attack speed are important for ADCs, certain champions benefit more from attack speed and those who shine with more attack damage. That is, attack speed will be better if you have procs, and attack damage can be better for nuking.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade Trivia
Guinsoo’s Rageblade is among the most prominent items in the game. It was inspired by Dota and one of its creators, Steve “Guinsoo” Feak. In fact, there was another magical object in Dota that had the same name – Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse. However, unlike Rageblade, Scythe of Vyse was mainly built on casters.
Here are some of the things regarding Guinsoo’s Rageblade that you might find interesting:
- The weapon was added into League of Legends just before its original public launch.
- Like Runaan’s Hurricane, Titanic Hydra + Guinsoo’s Rageblade combination is great for melee carries who lack AOE damage. However, there is just a handful of builds that feature the combination.
- One of the more notorious League of Legends bugs featured Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Sion. This champion would gain negative ability power when wielding the weapon.
FAQs
Question: Should I buy Guinsoo’s Rageblade?
Answer: Guinsoo’s Rageblade has a gold efficiency of 96.15%. However, if you reach 100% critical strike, the item’s efficiency increases to 176.6%. The item is good on a handful of champions who focus on the critical strike. Although you can buy it on some other ADCs, they won’t benefit as much. So, your purchasing decision will be affected mainly by the character that you’re playing.
Question: Is Guinsoo’s Rageblade better than Infinity Edge?
Critical strike champions are forced to choose between Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Infinity Edge. Both of these increase your 20% critical strike chance. While Guinsoo’s Rageblade gives attack speed, Infinity Edge will provide a source of extra damage. Generally speaking, Guinsoo’s Rageblade is more popular among champions who have proc abilities or rely on attack speed, while Infinity Edge scales better for characters who need attack damage.
Question: How was Rageblade changed over time?
Answer: Initially, Guinsoo’s Rageblade was an item intended for assassins and other AP-based carries. It had a stacking passive that would increase your ability power and attack speed. The attack damage component was added at a later date. Dissatisfied with the item concept, the developers have continuously changed it. Eventually, they made a decision to turn it into a critical damage modifier.
Rageblade LoL Guide: Summary
Guinsoo’s Rageblade is one of those items that completely changed its purpose over the years. Initially created as an attack speed/hybrid damage weapon, it eventually became a nuking artifact significantly boosting critical strikes of champions.
This particular item is only good on a handful of champions, but they can be really strong with it. Generally speaking, only 12 characters can benefit from the weapon, but you can always try and experiment with builds. Although critical strike can feel underwhelming on certain champions, the attack speed component is great on just about anyone.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade also reminds us of the connection between Dota and League of Legends; it is a good way to honor the predecessor.