A channeled ability is an ability that can be interrupted by crowd control effects that inhibit casting. These effects are: airborne, forced action, disarm, silence, stasis, stun and suppression. When the caster activates the channelled ability he stops any action he was performing at that moment.
While the effects of the ability are present the caster is channelling the ability. In most cases the caster can stop the channelling by performing any action, such as autoattacking, moving or casting their other abilities. Some channelled abilities, however, prevent the caster from doing anything else until the channeling finishes. Most activatable items and summoner spells can be used while channeling without interrupting.
List of Channeled Abilities
Champion | Ability | Channel duration | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to fire the missile. If the target dies while channeling, the ability is put on a 5-second cooldown. | ||
0.25 seconds approximate | Darius is channeling during his dash. Darius must complete the channel in order to deal damage. Interrupting Noxian Guillotine does not put it on cooldown or expend mana. | ||
5 seconds | Deals damage every 0.5 seconds while channeling. | ||
1.5 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to blink and start dealing damage. | ||
0.75 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to gain the bonus magic damage for Gragas' next basic attack within ~5 seconds. Gragas also gains damage reduction for 3 seconds. | ||
3 seconds | Health is restored every 0.5 second while channeling. | ||
3 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to deal the damage. While | is active, it is impossible to interrupt Requiem.||
2.5 seconds | Damage is dealt every 0.166 seconds while channeling. | ||
2.5 seconds | Damage is dealt to enemies in the Null Zone that is created upon starting the channel every second; interrupting the channel won't make the Null Zone disappear prematurely. | ||
4 seconds | Health is restored every 0.5 second while channeling. | ||
3 seconds | Damage is dealt every 0.25/0.2142/0.1875 second while channeling. | ||
3 seconds | Damage will be dealt even if the channeling is interrupted, but the damage will be reduced. | ||
4 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to purchase item. | ||
0.75 seconds | Damage is dealt every 0.25 second while channeling. | ||
2 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to teleport and deal the damage. | ||
1.5 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to teleport. | ||
1.5 seconds | Damage is dealt every 0.3 second while channeling. The suppress effect ends early upon the channel being interrupted. |
Movement Channels
The following abilities can also be interrupted by any form of crowd control that interrupts movement, namely: root and entangle, in addition to all those listed above.
- Champion abilities
Champion | Ability | Channel duration | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
~0.25 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to dash. | ||
3 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to teleport. | ||
0-Unknown seconds | The range increases over the first 0.9 / 1 / 1.1 / 1.2 / 1.3 seconds. The cooldown is reduced by half the base amount and half the health cost is refunded if the ability is canceled, interrupted or times out. |
- Other
Name | Duration of channel | Notes |
---|---|---|
4 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to teleport. |
Objective Channels
The following abilities can also be interrupted by taking damage (this does not include health costs). As of V4.4, shielded champions will still be interrupted even if the damage is mitigated.
Name | Duration
of channel |
Notes |
---|---|---|
4 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to teleport. | |
8 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to teleport. | |
Greater Relic | 3 seconds | Channeling for the full duration is required to capture the objective. |
Capture point | Varying duration | Channeling for the full duration is required to capture the objective. If the capture point is owned by the enemy, it will neutralize halfway through the channel. |
Attacking Channel
Unlike other forms of channeling, airborne, entangle, forced action, disarm, stun and suppression. The difference in the list is that silence is not present and entangle is. This is the only case of an attacking channel that does not inhibit movement.
's can be interrupted by attack-inhibiting crowd control effects rather than casting-inhibiting effects. These effects are:Champion | Ability | Channel duration | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
0–2 seconds | Damage is dealt over the duration depending on the ability's rank. |
Charged Abilities
With the release of quick cast, the player must keep the hotkey held down to charge the ability and it will fire upon releasing the key. Unlike casting channels, the caster is still able to move freely including the use of and .
, a new subtype of channeling was added to the game - charging. A charged ability has two activations - the first begins the charging and the second will fire the ability. While usingCharging is a sub-classification. The forms of crowd control that will interrupt a charged ability depends on the ability's supertype.
Champion | Ability | Channel duration/type | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
0–2 seconds; classic channel | The damage and range increases over the duration, the crowd control changes passing the first second, and said new crowd control increases its duration over the last second. The cooldown is reduced to 2 seconds if the ability is interrupted. | ||
0–4 seconds; classic channel | The damage and range increase over the first 2 seconds. Mana is refunded if Varus cancels the shot or it times out. | ||
0–4 seconds; movement channel | The damage and range increase over the first 1.25 seconds. The cooldown is reduced to 3 seconds and mana is refunded if the ability is interrupted. | ||
0–3 seconds; classic channel | The range increases over the first 1.5 seconds. Half the mana cost is refunded if the ability is times out. |
Casting Times
Most champion abilities that are cast (like
) have a very brief casting time that will interrupt other actions, such as movement or attacking (most will automatically have the champion continue in their previous actions, although some will interrupt previous actions indefinitely). These casting times cannot be interrupted except by the caster's death. Casting times will show a channeling bar on screen, although the bars of short casting times will often not be drawn except on very high framerates.Champions will ignore crowd control effects while casting, with the exception of displacement effects. This is different from crowd control immunity as the effect can persist the duration of the casting time. If a champion is knocked about while casting, the skill will still fire from the point of cast regardless of the caster's position at the time of fire (although it's worth noting that the animation will occasionally fire from the new location). For blinks and dashes, they too will move toward the selected target after the casting has finished regardless of crowd control effects suffered during the cast time.
"Casting" is sometimes referred to as "charging", although charging was assigned to a new mechanic with the release of
.Some notable examples of longer casting times, or casting times that are frequently labelled bugs on account of their ability to ignore crowd control:
Champion | Ability | Cast duration | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
0.25 seconds | There is a wind-down animation upon landing, however this is not forced and Ezreal can move instantly. | ||
1 second | Casting for the full duration is required to fire the missile | ||
0.25 seconds | There is a wind-down animation upon landing, however this is not forced and Kassadin can move instantly. | ||
0.5 seconds | Casting for the full duration is required to fire the shot | ||
0.25 seconds | Tristana cannot move or attack during the animation, but may use her abilities |