Base Attack Damage Never Grows: All 173 Champions Sit at Zero While HP Averages a 3.87x Jump

Across all 173 champions in the game, attack damage (AD) growth per level comes out to zero for every single one. Whatever number a champion has at level 1 is exactly what they still have at level 18. HP averages a 3.87x increase and armor climbs 3.72x over the same span, while raw auto-attack damage never budges.

What "per-level growth" actually means

Data Dragon stores two numbers for each stat: a base value and a per-level increase. The actual number at level N is the base plus the per-level value applied (N-1) times. HP and armor both carry positive per-level values, so leveling up alone makes a champion tankier. The attack damage field (attackdamageperlevel), though, comes back at 0 for all 173 champions. Crit chance growth is also zero across the board, which has been known for a long time — finding out AD gets the same treatment was new to me.

HP, mana, and armor balloon while AD sits still

Averaged across the roster, HP grows 3.87x from level 1 to 18, mana grows 2.93x, armor grows 3.72x, and magic resist grows 1.9x. Even attack speed growth averages 2.49% per level, which alone adds over 40% attack speed by level 18 from base stats. Attack damage is the outlier at 1.0x, no change at all.

The biggest gap belongs to Galio, whose HP balloons from 600 to 2742, a 4.57x jump. His attack damage stays at 59 the entire way, he's swinging with the exact same number at level 18 that he had at level 1 (all that extra size is pure HP).

Base AD itself varies, and so does melee vs. ranged

While it never grows, the level-1 base AD value does differ by champion. The highest belongs to a four-way tie between Cho'Gath, Garen, Ornn, and Renekton at 69, with Camille just behind at 68. The lowest is Orianna at 44, followed by Karthus at 46, Janna and Lulu tied at 47, and Neeko at 48. The gap between highest and lowest is about 1.6x, and that gap neither shrinks nor grows with level.

Splitting by range, melee champions (attack range 200 or under) average 62.3 AD versus 55.1 for ranged champions, melee comes out 1.13x higher. That's a thin margin to make up for giving up all that reach; it's not really enough to say melee champions come out ahead in trades because of it.

What's funny is that Orianna, dead last in base AD, ranks near the top of the whole roster in HP growth. Low AD clearly doesn't mean a champion stays fragile.

Takeaway

HP and armor make a champion tankier just by leveling up, but raw attack damage stays frozen at its level-1 number until you actually buy items. That asymmetry is probably why early trades come down so heavily to build and comp, and why AD carries get called item-dependent so often, the numbers back that up pretty directly. On the flip side, a champion with high base AD gets more mileage before their first item is even finished.

I had no idea Galio's HP could balloon 4.57x while his attack damage stayed exactly the same as level 1.