Lifesteal nerfs being tested on the PBE currently

Ever since the massive item changes and shop rework in Season 11’s preseason, most League of Legends fans can agree that the meta has shifted a lot and has been completely redefined.

With the introduction of Mythic items and the removal of others, it just seems as if many more champions are now viable to play and have found a place in the meta, whereas before they were massively unpopular and had extremely low pick rate percentages.

An example of this champion is Udyr, who was a very niche champion in Season 10 and was only really picked or played by those Udyr mains or Udyr one-tricks. But ever since the item changes and shop rework, Udyr has become a staple pick for the jungle and has been an S-tier pick for pretty much the whole season.

He has become a nuisance and a must ban or pick champion due to the utilization of Phase Rush and the Mythic item Turbo Chemtank, which grants the Spirit Walker ridiculous amounts of movement speed, thanks to his E ability, which also grants him an increased burst of movement speed.

(Image Credit: Riot Games)

As well as Udyr, playing in preseason just felt chaotic and there were a multitude of champions who were being played in new ways thanks to the introduction of Mythic items. Put simply, it just felt that almost every champion was heavily overtuned, overpowered, early game champions were as strong as ever and late game champions were hitting their powerspikes a lot earlier than they should be.

An overtuned meta has been a just summary for Season 11 so far and one of the biggest problems that players and members of the community have been facing is the changes to the Lifesteal stat.

Riot introduced some brand new Lifesteal based items in the shop that have become core items for many champions, and with the introduction of Omnivamp as a separate way for champions to gain health back from all sources of damage, Lifesteal as a whole has been heavily overpowered for quite some time now.

The purchase of anti-lifesteal items like Mortal Reminder and Morellonomicon has become essential to almost all champion builds, including supports, due to how strong Lifesteal is. Champions are able to gain extortionate amounts of health back in the space of seconds due to Omnivamp and despite this, these anti-lifesteal items still feel pretty useless.

(Image Credit: Riot Games)

Most players will agree that Lifesteal and Omnivamp has essentially rendered items that inflict Grievous Wounds (anti-lifesteal stat with the purpose of reducing healing) as must buy items, but are merely just taking up a spot in players’ inventories and not fulfilling their purpose.

After several months of watching Lifesteal terrorize the Rift, it appears that now Riot are finally looking to address the issue and could potentially look to reduce the power of the stat. Riot have pointed out that they have been aware of the issues of healing sustain from this stat for Season 11, but we have not really seen any nerfs up until this point.

They did attempt to give a buff to Grievous Wounds in an earlier patch, but it does not feel as if the buff was effective enough and as a result, the best call for action for the state of the game would be to issue nerfs to the contrary.

 

The nerfs do not look too heavy and appear to be quite fair, so for all of you players who enjoy the usage of Omnivamp, do not worry!

A full list of the Lifesteal changes may be found below, thanks to the guys at Surrender@20.

Items

Blade of the Ruined King

• Lifesteal lowered from 12% to 10%
• Total cost increased from 3200 to 3250
  • Combine cost increased from 425 to 475

Eclipse

• Total cost increased from 3200 to 3250
  • Combine cost increased from 850 to 900

Bloodthirster

• Total cost increased from 3400 to 3450
  • Combine cost increased from 600 to 650

Immortal Shieldbow

• Lifesteal lowered from 12% to 10%
• Total cost increased from 3400 to 3450
  • Combine cost increased from 600 to 650

Ravenous Hydra

• Total cost increased from 3300 to 3350
  • Combine cost increased from 100 to 150

Sanguine Blade

• Total cost increased from 3000 to 3050
  • Combine cost increased from 1000 to 1050

Vampiric Scepter

• Lifesteal decreased from 10% to 8%

Runes

Ravenous Hunter

• Omnivamp lowered from [1% + 1.7% per Bounty Hunter stack] to [0% + 1.5% per Bounty Hunter stack]