15, 16 years ago. Since that time, he was jumping from HoN to LoL, and ultimately,
Dota 2. Of course, Stefan has tried other titles within the niche and, as of late, is
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Guinsoo’s Rageblade is a legendary item further classified as a critical modifier weapon. It works really well on champions that stack critical strike chance, allowing them to scale really well into the late game. In fact, it is one of the better nuking items for ADCs.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade is one of the oldest weapons in League of Legends, going back to the beta version. With this item, Riot paid homage to one of the Dota’s creators, Steve “Guinsoo” Feak. Although the item can help any character that benefits from critical and attack speed, it was mainly created to help Corki, one of the first champions in League of Legends.
In this Guinsoo’s Rageblade guide, we will review to item’s stats, passives, and all other features.
Key Info Up Front
Guinsoo’s Rageblade is a crit modifier item great for quickly nuking enemies with low armor. It can be used by any physical damage carry, but it is optimal for characters who have other sources of critical strike.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade Basic Info
If you have a high enough critical strike chance, this weapon can be extremely cost-efficient. In fact, it might even be the best item in the game. If you manage to get a 100% critical strike chance, Guinsoo’s Rageblade is 176.6% gold efficient.
Unlike some other weapons, it always provides the desired effect. In other words, you don’t rely on stacks, enemy positioning, or other things that otherwise stifle the potential of other items. Guinsoo’s Rageblade has some similarities with Nashor’s Tooth, Black Cleaver, Wit’s End, and Blade of the Ruined King.
The item costs 2,600 gold, and you can sell it for 1,820 gold. To create it, you need to assemble Dagger for 300 gold, Cloak of Agility for 600 gold, Rageknife for 800 gold (two Daggers at 300 gold each, and a 200-gold recipe), and a 900 gold Guinsoo’s Rageblade recipe.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade Stats and Uniques
This powerful weapon will give you 45% attack speed and 20% critical strike. However, its true value comes from its unique passives, Wrath and Seething Strike.
Wrath works by converting every percent of critical strike into 2 extra physical damage that applies on every hit. Keep in mind that you can’t stack more than 100% critical strike chance worth of damage (in other words, up to 200 maximum on-hit physical damage. Wrath damage can be modified by the same modifiers that affect critical strikes.
Seething Strike is the second passive. Whenever you hit an enemy unit, you gain a stack that lasts up to 6 seconds. Once you reach two stacks, the following auto-attack will consume these stacks causing the Phantom Hit effect (all on-hit procs will affect the target at 100% of their respective effectiveness). Phantom Hit has 0.15 seconds delay after the basic strike.
Wrath and Seething Strike Interactions
Due to their specific nature, these uniques have a lot of interesting interactions with other items and champion abilities.
As proc damage, Wrath does not trigger spell effects but will utilize the champion’s lifesteal effects. As for Seething Strike, the damage from this passive cannot be prevented by a spell shield, nor can it damage structures.
Phantom Hit will always work with a small delay even if the strike is popped or destroyed with untargetability, Wind Wall, or similar effect. Both Phantom Hit and stacking strikes trigger on attacks and cannot interact with abilities that are akin to auto-attacks but are not real auto-attacks.
If you have access to one-use effects such as Echo or Spellblade, they will still be considered as one-use effects despite having Guinsoo’s Rageblade in the inventory. The player needs to learn about every potential interaction to understand how Seething Strike would work with a champion or item.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade History of Changes
The weapon was introduced back in the 0.9.25.21 version. It initially required Blasting Wand, Pickaxe, and a recipe. Whenever you used an ability or basic attack, you would gain 4% extra attack speed and extra 6 ability power over 5 seconds. The effect stacked up to 8 times and was perfect for hybrids and AP assassins.
In the upcoming versions, Riot polished a few bugs. The bigger change occurred in the 1.0.0.152 version when the cost went from 2,235 to 2,600 gold. The stacking unique was slightly altered, providing 4 ability power per stack instead of 6, and its duration was lowered from 8 seconds to 5 seconds.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade also gained a new passive unique that gave a champion 10% lifesteal, 10% spell vamp, 20% attack speed whenever your health went below 50%. The effect would last as long as you’re in combat, and it had a 30-second cooldown.
Patch 5.22 Changes
The developers wanted to retain the initial purpose of the item, but they had to make a few tweaks along the way. In patch 5.22, the item’s price went from 2,590 gold to 2,500. The passive effect was now classified as a unique, and it no longer provided stacks when casting abilities.
The attack speed stacks would now give an 8% increase (instead of 4%). After the patch, Guinsoo’s Rageblade provided 3 extra physical damage per stack. Once you accumulated 8 stacks, you would gain a new effect called Guinsoo’s Rage, which would enhance basic attacks with extra magic damage equal to 20 plus 15% bonus attack damage plus 7.5% bonus ability power. A champion would dish this damage to the primary target but also nearby enemies.
Another massive update came in patch 6.9. The formula was significantly altered, and it now included Recurve Bow on top of Pickaxe and Blasting Wand. Instead of 2,800 gold, the price went to 3,600 gold. The item was granted a new unique passive that would enhance basic strikes with extra 15 magical damage.
The developers also changed the other unique passive. The total number of stacks went from 8 to 6, and you would no longer gain 2 stacks on a melee hit. Instead of the old effect that gave you extra magic damage equal to 20 plus 15% bonus attack damage plus 7.5% bonus ability power, you now had access to Phantom Hit.
Patch 8.6 Changes
Another major update came with the 8.6 version. The previous item formula was changed, and instead of Blasting Wand, you required an Amplifying Tome. The price also went from 3,600 gold to 3,000. As a result, Guinsoo’s Rageblade’s stats were significantly reduced. For example, ability power gain went from 50 to 25, while attack damage was nerfed from 35 to 25.
You no longer had a unique passive that gave your basic strikes an extra 15 magical damage. Instead of that, your auto-attacks would dish 5 plus 10% attack damage and 5 plus 10% ability power as magic damage.
The other, stacking unique, was also significantly changed. Now, each auto-attack gave a wielder 8% attack speed, 4% ability power, 4% attack damage for 5 seconds. The effect could be stacked up to 6 times, and at maximum stacks, you would gain 24% AD, 24% AP, and 48% attack speed. Furthermore, at max stacks, you gained Guinsoo’s Rageblade buff.
The next few versions did smaller alterations eliminating bugs and tweaking the price. In patch 8.13, the attack damage bonus per stack was nerfed from 4% to 2.5%. Similarly, the ability power bonus per stack was nerfed from 4% to 2.5%.
Patch 8.23 Changes
Developers still weren’t satisfied with how Guinsoo’s Rageblade worked. They made another major overhaul in patch 8.23. The cost was slightly reduced from 3,300 gold to 3,100 gold.
The previous passive that gave your auto-attacks 5 plus 10% attack damage and 5 plus 10% ability power as magic damage was removed. Instead, champions received a new unique enhancing auto-attacks with 15 extra magic damage.
They also decided to remove other passive that granted you 8% attacks speed, 2.5% AD, and 2.5% AP per stack for 5 seconds. This effect was replaced by two new unique passives called Dissolve and Last Whisper. Last Whisper gave champions from 6.5% to 15% armor penetration based on character’s level, while Dissolve gave champions from 6.5% to 15% magic penetration based on character’s level.
New changes came in the 9.10 version. Previously, Phantom Hit would activate every third hit, but now it would do so every second. Instead of giving armor penetration and magic penetration based on the champion’s level, Guinsoo’s Rageblade now had a static 15% armor penetration/magic penetration components.
Patch 10.23 Changes
Patch 10.23 was a game-changer for the item. After continuous alternations, buffs, and nerfs, it seems that Guinsoo’s Rageblade finally found its identity. Like all other items, its icon was updated, and you were limited to having just one critical modifier per champion. However, this was just the start of changes.
Instead of using Amplifying Tome, Recurve Bow, Pickaxe, and a recipe, you now required Dagger, Rageknife, Cloak of Agility, and a recipe to assemble the item. Its price went from 3,100 gold to 2,600 gold.
Previously, the weapon gave its user 25% attack speed, 25 ability power, and 25 attack damage. After the patch, it provided 20% critical strike and 40% attacks speed. So, it was no longer an item for hybrid builds but instead a critical damage-focused weapon.
The passive that gave 15 extra magic damage on every hit was removed. The same goes for Last Whisper, Dissolve, and the stacking passive. Instead, you would have Wrath and Seething Strike.
It is worth mentioning the first version of Wrath was slightly stronger than what we have today. Instead of giving 2 physical damage per 1% of critical strike, it gave 2.25 damage. So, at 100% critical strike, you would deal extra 225 damage per hit (compared to 200, which we have today). At the same time, you could no longer dish critical strikes, which felt very counterintuitive.
Seething Strike was somewhat similar to the previous stacking unique passive. Although it didn’t give any stacking bonuses, it provided the Guinsoo’s Rage effect (Phanton Hit on every third strike).
Last changes
Since patch 10.23, most of the updates have been minor. For example, there was a version 10.23 hotfix that reduced damage per point of critical strike from 2.25 to 2, while the item’s price was increased from 2,600 gold to 2,800 gold.
The only bigger change during this period came in version 10.25. From this point onward, your Wrath passive would no longer disable critical strikes. In patch 11.5, the critical strike damage was capped at 100%, but your champion could apply critical modifiers to all on-hit damage.
The last update came in 11.10 when the price was lowered from 2,800 to 2,600 gold.
The Most Common Guinsoo’s Rageblade Users
The weapon has a very niche purpose, which makes it optimal on just a few champions. While you can try stacking critical strike chance on just about anyone, it is much better to do it on characters that already have some source of critical.
In other words, Guinsoo’s Rageblade is commonly seen on 12 champions, including Ashe, Kai’Sa, Kalista, Kayle, Kog’Maw, Master Yi, Varus, Vayne, Irelia, Aksan, Neeko, and Senna. The weapon has a solid win rate of 56.8%. While considered a niche item, it has a solid pick rate of 18.22%.
Given how Wrath works, it rarely makes sense to get Guinsoo’s Rageblade as the first purchase. Instead, most players acquire it as the second item (71.04% of cases). It is bought as the third item in 22.75% of situations and as the fourth in 3.42% of cases. It is most successful when purchased as the fourth item, giving a player a 60.54%-win chance.
The most common Guinsoo’s Rageblade user is Vayne. The monster huntress purchases the weapon in 67.51% of her games. Kog’Maw is the second most-frequent user with a 52.18-purchase rate, while Kalista buys it during 43.68% of its matches.
Although rarely bought on Irelia (just 1.44% of her matches), she has an incredible 64.22%-win rate when wielding it. Kayle is the second most-successful user with a 63.53%-win rate. Akshan has a 58.2% chance of winning his match with Guinsoo’s Rageblade in inventory, while Senna has a 57.52% success rate.
The Most Popular Builds Featuring Guinsoo’s Rageblade
As mentioned, this is not the most popular item in the game. It works on several champions with high AD output and/or critical strike, but that’s about that.
When making Guinsoo’s Rageblade builds, you will commonly include Berserker’s Greaves as a nice source of attack speed. Runaan’s Hurricane is also a common purchase, given that a lot of users are ranged champions. Furthermore, you can also notice items such as Blade of the Ruined King or Kraken Slayer.
Here are some of the most common builds that include Guinsoo’s Rageblade:
- Ashe (Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Berserker’s Greaves, Blade of the Ruined King, Runaan’s Hurricane, Infinity Edge, Kraken Slayer)
- Kai’Sa (Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Berserker’s Greaves, Runaan’s Hurricane, Kraken Slayer, Manamune, Nashor’s Tooth)
- Kalista (Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Berserker’s Greaves, Blade of the Ruined King, Runaan’s Hurricane, Immortal Shieldbow, Bloodthirster)
- Kayle (Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Berserker’s Greaves, Blade of the Ruined King, Kraken Slayer, Nashor’s Tooth, Rabadon’s Deathcap)
- Kog’Maw (Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Berserker’s Greaves, Blade of the Ruined King, Runaan’s Hurricane, Kraken Slayer, Phantom Dancer)
- Master Yi (Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Berserker’s Greaves, Blade of the Ruined King, Kraken Slayer, Wit’s End, Death Dance)
Runaan’s Hurricane is great as it provides extra 20% critical strike damage. The bolts created by its unique passive called Wind’s Fury are great for decimating enemies in the area. They are especially potent when paired with Guinsoo’s Rageblade.
Kraken Slayer is another weapon that increases the wielder’s critical strike chance by 20% while also providing 25% attack speed and 65 attack damage. It also has a powerful unique called Bring it Down that scales with your attack damage.
Blade of the Ruined King has the worst synergy with Guinsoo’s Rageblade. Although it gives 40 attack damage, 10% lifesteal, and 25% attack speed, it doesn’t have any sources of critical. However, it can provide something different to your critical damage-oriented builds.
Interesting Facts About Guinsoo’s Rageblade
Due to the fact that this is one of the older items, which also drew inspiration from Dota 1, there are several interesting stories and trivia surrounding it. Here are some of them:
- As mentioned, Guinsoo’s Rageblade was inspired by Steve “Guinsoo” Feak. The first icon was very similar to Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse, a Dota 1’s caster item.
- This was one of the last items introduced into the game before its initial launch.
- Although very strong when paired with Titanic Hydra, effectively doubling area effect damage, there are just a few builds that feature both of them.
- Back in the day, there was an interesting bug that featured Sion and Guinsoo’s Rageblade. The weapon gave the champion negative AP and 2.5% attack speed.
- The visual effect of Guinsoo’s Rageblade was meant to resemble blades that Kratos wields (God of War).
FAQs
Question: How does Guinsoo’s Rageblade works?
Answer: This item provides 45% attack speed, 20% critical strike chance, and two passives called Wrath and Seething Strike. Wrath will give you 2 attack damage per 1% of critical strike, capping at 200 attack damage. Seething Strike will apply a unique on-hit effect called Phantom Hit.
Question: Is Guinsoo’s Rageblade good?
Answer: Guinsoo’s Rageblade is a moderately good item. If we consider only its base stats, it has a gold efficiency of 96.15%. However, it becomes exponentially stronger as you gain more critical strike chance. The weapon provides the best results when acquired as the fourth item and on champions who otherwise benefit from critical strike.
Question: What’s the point of Guinsoo’s Rageblade?
Answer: While Guinsoo’s Rageblade basic stats are solid, they are nothing special. But the item becomes much stronger if you manage to pair it with other weapons that have critical strike. In such situations, its efficiency can go up to 176.6% while also providing a win rate of 56.8%.
Last Considerations
Guinsoo’s Rageblade is a powerful item tailor-made for champions who rely on critical damage. It is very focused, and besides critical strike chance, it also provides lots of attack speed. Its unique passives, Wrath and Seething Strike, will significantly increase your overall output.
Due to the nature of the weapon, it is rarely seen in games. It is only viable on 11, 12 characters, but if you know when to build it, Guinsoo’s Rageblade can provide a major spike.