Void Staff vs. Rabadon’s Deathcap – Which One’s Better?

Mage players depend vastly on their itemization to do a huge amount of damage with their abilities. And it’s rightful of them to know the right build that will allow them to burst enemies, possibly one-shotting them in some stages of the game. 

If you’re playing as LeBlanc or Fizz, champions that are proven one-tricks, then one-shotting the ADC or squishy jungler/support would be your main role in the game. However, if you are not provided with the right itemization for doing so, you may get caught up in the process and die without helping your team. 

For things to be worse for you, you might not be able to do a big amount of damage to at least ease the job for your teammates! This will eventually lead to a bad attitude and giving up/griefing, situations that you don’t want in League. So, two items that you need are Void Staff and Rabadon’s Deathcap. 

But both of them are different in nature, so how should you know which one suits your style better and which one is needed first? Our guide will help you in the process of choosing between these two powerful items!

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Void Staff

This is a legendary item in League, and it isn’t a cheap one to obtain. Compared to Rabadon it costs less, at 2800 gold, but it’s still quite the amount of money to obtain it. The item provides +65 Ability Power and +45% Magic Penetration. Now, the AP itself isn’t a very “attractive” fact to purchase the item, but the magic penetration is making it very popular and useful among League players. 

So, for those of you who still have no idea how Magic Penetration work, it allows you to ignore the magic damage dealt by your enemies based on the percentage. For this item, it means that you’d be able to avoid 45% of the magic damage that the enemy will deal to you. 

Just because of this feature, the item itself is very popular in tanks that do rely a bit on ability power. This allows them to ignore the enemy mage’s damage, and plus the abilities on the tanks will do more damage. 

The item is very popular in Mages because it deals a huge amount of pure damage, so champions like Annie, Ahri, Kassadin, or Lux are buying it massively. Plus, these mages are very squishy ones, and the 45% of Magic Penetration is allowing them to “escape” narrow situations like ganks or teamfights in which they’ll be the primary focus. 

On the contrary, mages with Void Staff will deal a huge amount of magic damage to tanks that stack up on Magic Resistance.

Rabadon’s Deathcap

The other item is Rabadon’s Deathcap. And it would be silly of a mage-player to not know the importance and the strength of this item. What Rabadon basically does is that it empowers the total amount of AP that your champion has. 

This item accomplishes this feature through two main components it provides: The first one is +120 AP, while the second one is the passive component, which increases the total amount of AP on your champion by 35%. 

But luxury comes with a price, so don’t expect that you’ll spend a small amount of money on this item. In fact, it’s one of the most expensive items in the game, with its cost being 3600 gold.

Now, imagine that you’re Veigar and you have completed hundreds of stacks on your Q. Then, you manage to land a stun on the enemy, and you have 2-3 seconds to finish him off. 

If Veigar has Rabadon along with his full build, then rest assured that W+R are going to finish the job for him, especially against the ADC or other squishy member of the enemy team. Even Fizz can make excellent utilization of Rabadon, that is if he lands his ult properly and can “hop” to the ADC with ease. 

However, both of these items are providing different qualities to your champion, and it’s only fair of us to explain them with a head-to-head comparison.

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Utilization Against Champions and General Impact

When it comes to fighting against tanks, Void Staff will help you much more with the Magic Penetration than Rabadon. However, the increased AP will help you “melt” down the carries in the enemy team, especially if they are the mid/ADC champion. 

As for the game, if you manage to purchase Void Staff in the early stages of the game, then it will help you gain leverage over the enemy mid-laner. Moreover, it will help you in completing more successful ganks, as the damage dealt at lv. 10 will be much greater. 

Another thing that helps Void Staff in this matter is that the item itself isn’t just for boosting individual damage due to the Magic Penetration. If you manage to deal damage to the enemy tanks and not being able to kill them, then your enemies will be able to do the job for you. 

However, with Rabadon, if you can’t kill your enemy, then you haven’t really helped your teammates at all in finishing the already started job.

So, the long-term effects of Void Staff make this item more utilized and widespread. Rabadon is considered an individual booster and is usually bought after everything else is set and done. It’s not that the item is “not-needed”, how could you ignore the impact that this item does on your AP?

But sometimes teamwork makes the dream work, which is why Rabadon is considered the “end-luxury” of a mage build.

Price Tags

The price could be a deciding factor for the Void Staff to be purchased earlier in the game. The 800-gold difference between the two make Void Staff a more anticipated item in the early/mid-game. 

However, this doesn’t mean that the Rabadon shouldn’t be purchased at all, and in the late-game period, when gold doesn’t really matter, there isn’t anything that should stop you from purchasing it as the last item that will help you deal lethal blows!

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Conclusion

Both of these items are very good for mage champions. However, Void Staff helps champions to have a more all-around impact on the game, especially against tanks that rely heavily on Magic Resistance. 

On the other hand, Rabadon is making a major improvement to your AP, both in percentual and in digit-related view. So, if you can afford the luxury of having this empowerment late in the game, then make no mistake that you should use it as you see fit!