Season 16 Items
After years of begging on Reddit, Riot brought Gunblade back in Patch 26.1. 80 AP, 40 AD, omnivamp, and a targeted slow. Here's who abuses it hardest.
If you started playing after Season 10, you missed the Gunblade era. You missed the Katarina one-shots. You missed the Akali drain-tanking through entire teams. You missed the collective tilt of watching a hybrid assassin heal to full HP off a single wave of minions.
Hextech Gunblade was removed in the Season 11 item rework because it was too good on too many champions. Riot said it "warped build paths" and "reduced item diversity." Translation: it was broken and they couldn't balance it.
Well, it's Season 16 and Riot brought it back. The stats are slightly different from the old version, but the core identity is the same — it's a hybrid item with a targeted active that guarantees kills. If you're smurfing in Season 16, Gunblade is your best friend.
The Actual Stats (No Guessing)
⚡ Hextech Gunblade — 3000 Gold
Recipe: Vampiric Scepter + Hextech Alternator + Amplifying Tome + 600g
80 AP · 40 AD · 10% Lifesteal · 10% Spell Vamp
ACTIVE — Lightning Bolt (60s cooldown): Deals 175-253 magic damage (scales with level) plus 30% AP to a target enemy champion. Slows them by 25% for 1.5 seconds.
Let's break down why this is so good. You're getting AD and AP in one slot, which means hybrid champions don't have to choose between physical and magic damage builds anymore. The lifesteal keeps you healthy in lane. The spell vamp means your abilities heal you too. And the active is a point-and-click nuke with a slow — no skillshot, no counterplay, just click and deal damage.
At 3000 gold, it's also reasonably priced. You can finish it by 11-12 minutes on a good lane, which is right when assassins want to start roaming and picking up kills.
Key difference from old Gunblade: The old version had 15% omnivamp and a 40% slow. The new version splits it into 10% lifesteal + 10% spell vamp and the slow is 25% for 1.5s. The active cooldown is 60 seconds instead of 40. It's slightly weaker per-use but the raw stats (80 AP + 40 AD) are higher than the old version.
Champions That Break the Game With Gunblade
Katarina — The Original Gunblade Abuser
🗡️ Katarina
Katarina and Gunblade are inseparable. Her entire kit scales with both AD and AP — her passive daggers, her Q, her R. Gunblade gives her everything she wants in one item slot.
The active is what makes it disgusting on Kat specifically. Her biggest weakness has always been gap-closing onto targets who are just slightly out of E range. Gunblade active has longer range than Shunpo. You click them, they get slowed, you E onto a dagger near them, and they're dead before the slow wears off.
The build: Rush Gunblade first item. Don't get baited into Nashor's Tooth or any other "on-hit" nonsense. Gunblade → Shadowflame → Rabadon's. The burst is instant. At one item, you can kill any squishy mid laner with E → Gunblade Active → Q → E (dagger reset). You don't even need your ult.
The healing: Kat's ult hits multiple targets. With 10% spell vamp, a full channel R in a teamfight heals you for an absurd amount. You become a drain-tank assassin who kills the backline and walks out at full HP. In low elo where people don't interrupt your ult, it's a free Pentakill machine.
Akali — The Shroud Menace
🌀 Akali
Akali's been in a weird spot for a few seasons. Good in pro play, mediocre in solo queue. Gunblade fixes her solo queue problems.
The spell vamp means her Q actually heals her in lane again. Throw Q at the wave, heal up, throw Q at the enemy, heal up. You can trade aggressively and sustain through the poke. The enemy mid laner has to recall; you don't.
The combo: R1 → Gunblade Active (mid-dash) → E1. The slow from Gunblade makes landing E almost guaranteed. If E connects, they're dead. R2 executes. The whole sequence takes about 1.5 seconds and there's very little the target can do about it if they don't have Flash.
Why it's good for smurfing: Akali's skill ceiling is high, but Gunblade lowers the execution barrier. You don't need pixel-perfect E aim when the target is slowed by 25%. It turns "hard to execute" combos into "click and collect" combos. In Gold and Platinum, nobody is going to Zhonya's your R1 or flash your E. They just die.
Jax — The Hybrid Raid Boss
🔨 Jax
Jax has always been a hybrid champion in theory — his W and R passive deal magic damage, his autos deal physical. But hybrid items were so bad for years that everyone just built him full AD or full AP (the cursed AP Jax build).
Gunblade gives Jax what he's always wanted: sustain in extended fights plus burst for catching squishies.
Why it works: Jax wants long fights. He stacks his passive attack speed, he dodges with E, he autos you to death. Gunblade's lifesteal and spell vamp keep him healthy through the entire fight. The active adds a burst component that Jax normally lacks — jump on the ADC, Gunblade active, W auto, and they're at 30% HP before they can react.
The split push angle: Jax with Gunblade heals off minion waves. He heals off jungle camps. He heals off champions. You cannot attrition him out of a side lane. Send one person? He kills them. Send two? He might kill both. With the Level 20 cap from the top lane quest, a Level 20 Jax with Gunblade is genuinely unkillable in a side lane.
Kayle — The Scaling Monster
👼 Kayle
Kayle's always been the "survive until Level 16 and win" champion. Gunblade makes the survival part much easier.
The lifesteal and spell vamp mean Kayle can actually sustain in lane before Level 6. She's not just sitting under tower praying the enemy doesn't dive her. She can Q the wave, auto a few minions, and heal back up. It's not a lot, but it's enough to not get zoned off every cannon wave.
Post-16 Kayle with Gunblade: This is where it gets scary. Kayle's waves deal magic damage. Spell vamp applies. Every auto attack with her passive waves active is healing her. In a teamfight, she's dealing AoE damage to the entire enemy team and healing off all of it. Combined with her ult invulnerability, she's nearly impossible to kill.
The smurf angle: Kayle games in low elo go long. Nobody knows how to end. That's perfect for you. Farm safely with Gunblade sustain, hit Level 16, and then 1v5 the teamfight. The enemy team will type "Kayle broken" in all chat. They're not wrong.
Gunblade vs Other First Items
Don't build Gunblade on everyone. It's a hybrid item. If your champion only scales with AP (like Syndra or Viktor), just build a normal AP item. If your champion only scales with AD (like Zed or Talon), build lethality. Gunblade is specifically for champions who benefit from BOTH stats.
The champions who should rush Gunblade first item:
- Katarina — Always. No exceptions.
- Akali — In most matchups. Skip it against heavy poke lanes where you need MR first.
- Jax — As a top lane rush when you want sustain + dueling power.
- Kayle — For the sustain to survive laning phase.
Champions who might build it second or third:
- Viego — His passive resets benefit from hybrid stats, but he usually wants BOTRK first.
- Mordekaiser — The AD is somewhat wasted, but the active slow + spell vamp is nice.
Champions who should NOT build it:
- Pure AP mages (Syndra, Orianna, Viktor)
- Pure AD assassins (Zed, Talon, Qiyana)
- ADCs (you want crit, not AP)
- Tanks (you want resistances, not damage)
The Spellblade Alternative: Dusk and Dawn
Season 16 also introduced Dusk and Dawn, another hybrid item. It gives 300 HP, 70 AP, 20 Ability Haste, and 25% Attack Speed with a Spellblade passive that deals 100% base AD + 10% AP bonus magic damage and applies on-hit effects twice.
It's a different niche. Dusk and Dawn is for sustained DPS fighters who want to weave autos between abilities. Gunblade is for burst assassins who want to delete someone in one combo and heal through the fight.
If you're smurfing, Gunblade is almost always better. You want kills, not sustained trades. The active slow guarantees the kill. Dusk and Dawn doesn't have an active.
Smurfing With Gunblade: The Gameplan
The pattern is simple on every Gunblade champion:
1. Farm safely until Gunblade completion (~11-12 minutes with good CS) 2. Roam and pick up kills — the active slow makes ganks almost guaranteed 3. Snowball the lead — every kill heals you, so you can chain fights without recalling 4. Close out the game before the enemy team groups and builds grievous wounds
Grievous wounds is the counter. If the enemy builds Morellonomicon or Executioner's Calling, your healing gets cut significantly. But in Gold and Platinum? Nobody builds grievous wounds until it's too late. They'll complain about your healing in all chat instead of spending 800 gold on the counter item.
Check your MMR to see where you'll place, or read about the Season 16 role quests that make these champions even stronger.
Test Gunblade Builds Risk-Free
Fresh Level 30, clean MMR. Practice Gunblade rush timings without tanking your main's rank.
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