League of Legends (LoL) Question: Reviving a dead 2015 Topic - Lifesteal Items(BT vs. RH vs. All)

Alot of the game has changed since this question has been asked, & alot of the game will continue to change. I have been playing League for a very long time & I'm still sad to say that I'm stumped on Lifesteal Items, especially now.

As I mentioned above, League of Legends has evolved(lol), & tons of new Champions & synergies have been established or re-established; A ton of new skills & changes. But what I have really noticed, since 2015, is that these Lifesteal items haven't really gone through any new changes that make one arguably better to choose over the other aside from what a champions kit synergizes best with which item you decide to choose.
(I.E Jax building Blade of the Ruined King, which I haven't seen in a few good years since a boat load of other item changes)

Since then, a Newer Lifesteal Item has shown its face in League, which we all know as Death's Dance; A Lifesteal item that grants relative lifesteal components as to Hextech Gunblade but has an Off-Hand Damage Mitigation function built-in(relative to Bloodthirster or Maw of Malmortius), whereas Gunblade is built for Burst Control via Target-able Burst Damage + a Slow in the form of an Active(relative to Blade of the Ruined King which also has a target-able active that instead steals Movement Speed while also deals a bit of Damage.)

As you noticed, I mentioned Maw of Malmortius in this entry, because of the fact that its unique passive(s) grant both Lifesteal & Spellvamp, along with a hefty shield against magic damage. It's also the only item in the game since the removal of Will of the Ancients to hold onto the written term "Spellvamp", whereas Death's Dance & Hextech Gunblade hold the stated descriptions of healing ALL forms of damage, which is just saying "Lifesteal" & "Spellvamp" simplified.

In comparison, though, Maw of Malmortius has been a go-to Magic Resist mitigation item for your favorite AD Bruisers & Carries for years. It has received a very nice update, followed by a sizeable nerf down the road, but that hasn't stopped it from making the High-Winrate leaderboards. With the mitigation, it also earned a very unique Sustain function that lasts until you leave combat, named, "Lifegrip"; +20 AD, 10% Lifesteal, 10% Spell Vamp. This item has a very "one chance to redeem yourself" mechanic about it, granting you a free magic absorption shield via Primary Unique Passive, "Lifeline". Note: Only triggers by taking magic damage, so it isn't effective against Attack Damage.

{The healing from both Hextech Gunblade & Death's Dance is 15%, compared to Maw's 10%.}

Nevertheless, this item has enough of an affect on survival, as well as player-preferred fame, to make its way on this list due to it's decent healing factor & overall survivability.

Similarly, Death's Dance heals more, offers damage mitigation, & to ALL forms of damage, which is mostly converted to a DoT instead of what the Solid, 1-sided resistance Maw brings to the table.

Then there's Bloodthirster, which grants that raw AD & nice Lifesteal percentage. Instead of the old 20 stacking mechanic from the Old Bloodthirster, which was also abused item build-wise(Build 3 of these and heal forever), the item secured a very controversial rework that was given some pro & con work for quite a bit of time, but eventually veteran players settled in, & the new players hopped on-board naive to the previous version of the item, so no transition required.

Bloodthirster lost the stacking mechanic but gained an over-shield effect when healing past your maximum HP cap, which also decays after 25 seconds of out-of-combat. This is pretty huge because you're basically given a free Barrier when Barrier became lane-irrelevant back in 2013 with the new Heal Rework. So now you get Flash, Barrier, & Heal all in the same kit. Although Micromanaged, it can last permanently, aside from pure CC Burst engages.

Adding onto the purpose of the shield; It's an always active, life-extender. It absorbs all incoming damage instead of just one form of damage, which is pretty hecking essential against those crafty hybrid champions like Jax or those goofy true-damage champions like Camille. And like I said, as long as you aren't stuck, it offers you a chance to escape with your life, which is pretty hard to do if you're caught by a fed Rengar or decent Irelia main without the item.

On-to Blade of the Ruined King...
This item is also an extreme player-favorite for Tankbusting DPS Champions who can either poke from afar( Twitch, Tristana, Sivir) or stick to you like glue( Jax, Tryndamere, Master Yi). With it's incredibly strong passive, even though the item was nerfed, it still remains essential to the tank-busting strategy. It grants +40 Attack Damage, 25% Attack Speed, & 12% Lifesteal(got nerfed lol), which is pretty sweet. It's a very effective item for someone like Twitch who decides to exist when you least expect him to, from a very far distance due to his Ultimate which grants Range & Unit Penetration. The item itself deals 8% of the targets Max HP as damage, which is absolutely brutal when shredding.

Ohhhh Ravenous Hydra. So many memories with so many amazing champion synergies( Riven, Talon, Darius, Everything Melee AD). Unfortunately I'm already bored thinking about trying to type this items history out. The item grants +80 AD, 100% Health Regen, & 12% lifesteal, although I'm clueless as to why they kept the health regeneration passive on the item when they released Titanic Hydra for the tankier bros in the Juggernaut force, but hey, it works. Aside from those numberss, it has a very strong Active that triggers as a 360 degree AoE Wave that deals Total Attack Damage, which is really good for the high damage Champions who hold 340+ AD. It also functions as an auto attack reset, which is nice for most AD melee champions.

I'd cover Hextech Gunblade more in-depth but there's really no reason to. There's nothing too unique about this item that can't be summed up to as "BURST". The item grants hybrid stats, the same heal % as Death's Dance, followed by that stronger Blade of the Ruined King Active.

Hope my lack of interest didn't piss off all of the 3 Katarina & Akali mains in the community.

Moving on...

Personally, my favorite Lifesteal Item that will constantly mesh with these passed season patches has been Mercurial Scimitar. It's a universal item for both Melee & Ranged Basic Attack/Ability Based Champions alike,( aside from the usual Ravenous Hydra rush for those Ability Abusive Melee Champions), but more often used on Glass Cannons/ADC's to avoid the growing CC Abusive Meta that League has been going through for a while now.

It functions as a free Cleanse while also providing bonus AD, Magic Mitigation, & Sustain; 50 Attack Damage, 35 magic resist, 10% lifesteal. Now although it doesn't hold much weight to items like Maw of Malmortius or Bloodthirster, damage, healing, & mitigation-wise, its utility function is still incredibly amazing; granting that free Cleanse I mentioned & a 50% movement speed boost for 1 second, which, in my opinion, is completely underrated by most of the community. But I have a feeling that this drop occurred from a previous nerf that discontinued its Cleanseing of certain attacks like Zeds ultimate Death Mark, & that's just assuming that most of the community was around for that nerf.

Now, I can say I use this item on just about everybody I play; Master Yi, Riven, Illaoi, Caitlyn, Jinx, Draven, pretty much all ADC's thenafter, & most of my AD bruisers who can deal the quick bursts in an effective manner.

Now there's Champions like Darius who could probably benefit from any of the above Lifesteal items, whether intended or not, but I won't go too deep into him, sadly.

Anyways, what are your guys views on the items. I understand most are situational or better used by X champion, but reading opinions on topics like these definitely provide greater insight for unknowledgeable or uneducated players.

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Separate Discussion

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The biggest controversial topic of the older post was Hydra vs Bloodthirster on Hyperscale Carry Yasuo, one of the single most strongest Champions in the game, based around the Critical Strike/ArmorPen Synergy built within his Kit. I notice that Bloodthirster is still the common build item for Yasuo, & I can understand why, wheras Ravenous Hydra or Hextech Gunblade would never reach his build path for obvious reasons: they don't synergize with his kit. But why do you never see Mercurial Scimitar or Death's Dance as the preferred item on someone like him?