Champions fill different niches within the game and as such require different base stats in order to balance them out. Stats are correct as of patch 3.11, thanks to Lolwiki for the numbers.

The numbers listed are the champion’s stats at level 1 without any masteries, runes, items, passives or abilities factored in.

Health

Health is a stat that on its own doesn’t necessarily tell us much because of how it scales with armour or MR. However there are some stronger early game champions when it comes to health pools.

Top 5 Level 1 HP’s for champions

Champions HP Gangplank 576 Jax 561 Tryndamere 559 Taric 558 Amumu 556

The big winner at level 1 is Gangplank who has the best hp in the game at level 1, a full 15 HP above second place. It may not seem like a lot but it means he has 2% more hp than the next highest character!

Melee carries need strong base stats in order to let them gain a lot from their item builds, which is why Jax and Tryndamere are close to the top. I expected some of our ‘health’ based champions like Zac or Dr. Mundo to join this list and while they’re relatively close, Zac has 550 hp at level 1, they don’t quite make it.

The ranged character with the highest HP is Thresh, who clocks in at 541 at level 1, and he has the 12th highest health at level 1. He is surprisingly high for a range champion, the next highest being Kog’Maw who is 34th. Make sure you’re abusing this early power when laning as Thresh.

Bottom 5 Level 1 Hp’s for champions

Champions HP Janna 434 Zyra 429 Heimerdinger 425 Lux 424 Anivia 420

The losers in this case tend to be the squishy support/mage champions. There are 2 ADCs in the bottom 10, Vayne and Ezrael, 4 champions that can play support and a few AP mages. Makes a lot of sense, this champions don’t need high health because usually they are towards the back of a teamfight, while our top champions are in the front lines.

Heimerdinger is currenly being reworked so he may end up moving from his position on this list in a future patch.

Katarina is the melee champion with the lowest starting health at just 478, almost a full 98 behind Gangplank.

Effective health

Effective health comes in 2 parts, Magic and Physical. Magical is based on the amount of HP you have and the % damage reduction you get from MR. Physical, unsurprisingly, is the same but based off HP and armour. The more Armour/MR you have the more effective health you have aganist that type of damage because it gets reduced by a larger amount before its applied your health bar.

Top 5 Physical EHP’s

Champion HP EHP Phy EHP Mag Armour MR Gangplank 576 690 906 19.8 31.25 Jax 561 682 895 21.5 31.25 Amumu 556 674 885 21.3 31.25 Garen 551 671 880 21.7 31.25 Trundle 551 671 880 21.7 31.25

Our big winners here are mainly the same characters with the highest health bars, like Gangplank, who despite his relatively low armour value still has the highest physical and magical EHP in the game.

In the top 10 there are a few outliers such as Sejuani, 23.5 armour at level 1, and Skarner, 22.8 armour at level 1, who both have very high armour values at level 1, 23.5 and 22.8 respectively, so have much higher physical EHP than would be expected from their base health totals.

Most champions at this end of the effective health spectrum have scaling MR to allow them to survive the AOE damage that is being thrown around in a teamfight. Admittidly back when most of the champions were designed most of the AOE damage was magical, while that isn’t the case now days.

Bottom 5 Physical EHP’s

Champion HP EHP Phys EHP Mag Armour MR Janna 434 490 564 12.8 30 Zyra 429 489 558 14 30 Anivia 420 481 546 14.5 30 Lux 424 475 551 12 30 Heimerdinger 425 468 553 10 30

Our losers for effective HP are those who have generally the lowest health pools in the game. Due to the fact that all of the champions in this list are ranged they don’t have scaling MR. You’ll need to take this into account when decided on your build for various games.

If the opposing team is running double AP, or has strong AOE magic damage from Karthus or even Anivia, then you might need to purchase early MR items to help you survive a teamfight.

Interestingly Gangplank can take 209 more physical damage than Anivia at level 1. Given the following table on base ADs Gangplank can take as many as 4 more melee attacks than Anivia can at level 1. Also given the damage ramp up on Parrrrley it’s a shame his kit doesn’t provide him with the power he needs to compete with the likes of Jax or Renekton in the top lane because he is so naturally tanky.

Attack Damage

Attack damage is the amount of damage a champion does with their basic attack. I was actually quite surprised by who was on our top list.

Top 5 Base AD’s

Champion AD Maokai 61.3 Warwick 60.1 Singed 60.0 Jax 59.7 Galio 59.7

Maokai has the highest base AD in the game at level 1. Maokai! All the magic being thrown around the Twisted Treeline really did him some favours when they animated him.

Of the champions listed above Warwick and Jax are the only champions who really use their auto attacks as the main part of their kit. This is probably one of the many reasons Jax does so well with Trinity Force as the sheen proc scales from his base AD.

I find it very interesting that Singed is 3rd on our list. I know InvertedComposer is a big Singed player and he advises attempting to use auto attacks during Singed’s flip and given the above stats I can really see why. If you’re looking to improve your Singed play then this could be one of the big areas to attempt to gain lane dominance.

Bottom 5 Base AD’s

Champion AD Vladimir 48.0 Teemo 47.5 Lulu 47.0 Orianna 46.6 Karthus 45.5

The lowest base AD is also slightly surprising. I expected Anivia to be down here, as i’ve always had problems with last hitting on her, but it might be due to the attack animation rather than her base AD.

So if you’re playing one of these champions frequently and you’re struggling with last hitting it might be a good idea to include a few AD red marks in your rune page so you can get more last hits or maybe grab the +4 minion damage mastery in the offence tree.

Though, saying that, all of the above champions do have an auto attack modifier, Teemo has poison, Lulu has pix and Orianna has clockwork wind up, or a fairly spammable spell, Karthus’ Lay Waste or Vladimir Transfuse.

Why are you telling us this?

Knowing how your champion’s power compares to the others your laning and playing against allows you to make intelligent decisions regarding trading, last hitting and overall playstyle. If you’re playing one of our stronger early game champions then you need to abuse this power by bullying the enemy champion.

Obviously it comes down to a lot more than just base stats but take a moment when you arrive in lane to study your opponent. Do they have a particularly high armour or MR value? Is their AD or health much higher than you’d expect for a Lux? Alternatively do it before the game by using lolnexus to investigate their runes/masteries.

Additionally armour/MR runes are worth a lot more on Gangplank, because he has such a high base health, than someone who’s lower in the chart. Min-Maxxing your champion, even from the start of the gamem will give you advantages that you can use to snowball the game into your favour, further widening the power gap between you and your lane opponent.

In a future article I’ll take a look at how the champions scale and look at some of the ‘outliers’ in the stats.