LoL 12.6: Riot to curb Healing with Nerfs to Lifesteal Items and Runes

Riot Games are looking to hold back healing in League of Legends by nerfing several Lifestealing items and runes, as well as removing Ravenous Hunter in LoL patch 12.6.

Healing has always been a crucial part of League of Legends, from the Summoner Spell Heal to the various items and runes in the game that provide some form of healing and sustain. It allows for players to receive second chances in team fights, sometimes giving a small window that can turn the tide.

But during the last few seasons, the game has seen an uncontrollable rise in healing and sustain, and that's why Riot is looking to stop it in its tracks in LoL 12.6.

LoL 12.6 Lifesteal Nerfs Confirmed

Expected to go live on LoL 12.6 after hitting the League of Legends PBE, several changes were made in hopes to slow down healing in the game. Here's what they look like.

Items

Vampiric Scepter

• Lifesteal: 10% ⇒ 8%

Bloodthirster

• AD: 55 ⇒ 60
• Life Steal: 20% ⇒ 15%

Blade of the Ruined King

• Life Steal: 10% ⇒ 8%

Immortal Shieldbow

• Life Steal 10% ⇒ 8%
• Mythic Passive health: 50 ⇒ 70

Runes

Ravenous Hunter

• Removed

Legend: Bloodline

• Changed
• Gain 0.4% Life Steal for every Legend stack (max 15 stacks). At maximum Legend stacks, gain 100 max health. Earn progress toward Legend stacks for every champion takedown, epic monster takedown, large monster kill, and minion kill.

It's worth noting that instead of reworking Ravenous Hunter similar to Legend: Bloodline, Riot decided to remove it and instead implemented a new rune tat grans bonus golds on unique takedowns, Treasure Hunter.

Credit: Riot Games

“As a general principle, sustain (like any other stat) should come at a cost,” League of Legends dev TheTruexy explained on Reddit. “If you want to deal a ton of damage, you sacrifice durability. If you wanna itemize as a drain tank, you shouldn’t also present a high damage threat. Imagine this as a systemic pass at re-evaluating the cost of sustain.”

READ MORE: LoL 12.6: Rengar Rework FINALLY arriving in next update

This is something that, according to TheTruexy, has been in the works since Season 11, stating "The early hints of these are seen in the Fighter Mythic changes over S11, with Goredrinker/DS having damage siphoned to cost their sustain power."

As always, due to the nature of PBE, none of these changes are final as Riot will continue to look at them until patch 12.6's launch on Wednesday, March 30.