[TOP 10] LoL Best Lifesteal Champions That Wreck Hard

Updated:

28 Oct 2020

10. Akali

The Rogue Assassin

Akali is a unique lifesteal champion in that she is an assassin. Her burst is accompanied by bursts of healing that are frustrating to deal with. Weaving in and out of danger, healing the whole time, and instantly dispatching enemies with flare and finesse, this champ puts lifesteal to unique and deadly effectiveness.

How Akali’s lifesteal comes into play:

Akali builds a hybrid AP/AD build. This calls for the item Hextech Gunblade, which has two components that provide healing. This gives her a solid amount of healing from both her spells and autos very early in her build, making her a strong laner.
Akali’s Twilight Shroud (W) allows her to wait out her ability cooldowns safely. This helps her heal because her Hextech Revolver (the spell vamp component of Hextech Gunblade) heals her on abilities instead of auto-attacks, so she can wait out her next burst of healing without threat.
Since Akali kills extremely fast, she doesn’t need that much healing to keep her alive through fights in the lane. The small amount she gets from her items and runes is more than enough to win her all-ins in the mid lane against squishy mages and assassins.

How to play Akali, and use her healing to win games:

Akali’s healing, unlike others, is only from items and runes. This might make it seem like she heals like all the non-lifesteal champions, but this isn’t the case. Use her low cooldowns and passive auto attacks to trigger the item and rune healing more often and in higher numbers than others can.
Blow your full burst, take some damage, and then cast Twilight Shroud (W). This will allow you to wait out your cooldowns in safety. Then come out and cast your full burst again, this should heal a lot of the damage that’s been done to you and is relatively safe as long as you have teammates nearby.
Don’t rely on your healing at all times. Know that it’s only coming when your conqueror is stacked and after you get your Hextech Revolver or Vampiric Scepter (or both). Only after this point in the build will the healing start coming, so don’t rely on it in trades before your first back.
Akali’s healing is very effective against poke champions or harass champions in the mid lane. Akali’s damage is already a massive threat to these champions, so use her healing in the lane in order to keep your HP up to continue threatening your lane opponent with a deadly all-in.
Know that you take more healing runes than average, so non-lifesteal champions with non-conqueror runes or conqueror pages without domination tree second will be out healed by you by the midgame.

Runes:

Conqueror
Presence of Mind
Legend: Tenacity
Coup de Grace
Taste of Blood
Ravenous Hunter
Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force, Armor

Build:

Hextech Gunblade
Sorcerer’s Shoes
Liandry’s Torment
Zhonya’s Hourglass
Rabadon’s Deathcap
Void Staff

Ability Max Order: R>Q>E>W

Here's a great guide by Akali one-trick Professor Akali!

9. Zac

The Secret Weapon

Zac is a mega-tank and a jungler who’s healing comes in a very unique way. Picking up blobs of himself that fall off to heal him for his missing HP. This healing becomes higher as the game goes on and Zac gets his Spirit visage, so this mega-tank goes from tanky to unkillable if you’re healing properly.

How Zac’s healing creates the super-tank:

Zac’s blobs heal for percentages of his health. This means that when he builds health in his items, the healing of his blobs increases along with it. It doesn’t take a math wizard to see why this can get out of hand quickly!
Zac’s healing helps him through his first and second jungle clears tremendously. This is his weakest point, so the extra healing is absolutely crucial. Pick up those blobs!
Picking up Zac’s blobs decreases the cooldown of his Unstable Matter (W), in turn creating more blobs. This healing feedback loop makes a competent Zac very hard to kill even early game without ignite or grievous wounds.

How to take advantage of the blobs for extreme healing:

Pick up the blobs! It might sound obvious, but many Zac’s forget to do this. Especially in duels and skirmishes, picking up your blobs is the difference between life and death. Oftentimes, running away can cause death while staying to fight and pick up blobs can keep you alive.
Build Spirit Visage. Unless the enemy team comp has 5 attack damage champions, Spirit Visage is an absolute must. It provides health and magic resist, which Zac benefits from greatly, and the healing amplification makes his blobs that much more effective.
Make sure to pick up the blobs after your engage and Let’s Bounce (R) as they’ll be all over the fight once your engagement is over. This can be a messy part of the fight, and you may feel like you’re just walking around and getting damaged, but as long as you won’t die picking up the blobs will probably net you some bonus HP in the long run, so don’t be afraid to walk around the fight for them.
Back often. Even though you have great healing in the jungle, eventually it will wear you down. Don’t be caught out by a better duelist because you’re overconfident in your healing. Your jungle item will help you sustain, so make sure to back right when you can get the stalker's blade.
Be careful of grievous wounds from items or ignite. They will significantly affect your ability to heal in the early game. Try to stay out of fights with champions that have these until your Spirit Visage is done.

Runes:

Aftershock
Font of Life
Overgrowth
Revitalize
Magical Footwear
Cosmic Insight
Cooldown Reduction, Armor, Health

Build:

Enchantment: Cinderhulk
Ninja Tabi/Mercury Treads
Spirit Visage
Warmog's Armor
Thornmail/Randuin’s Omen
Gargoyle Stoneplate

Ability Max Order: R>E>W>Q

Here's an awesome Zac video by KingStix on how to carry games!

8. Irelia

The Will of the Blades

Irelia is a top lane or mid lane bruiser and duelist that has auto attacks that hit like trucks, healing that makes her very hard to kill, and crowd control that allows her to keep her auto attacks coming. She is a champ that excels at snowballing leads and pushing down towers to win her team games.

So how does Irelia’s Lifesteal help her out?

Irelia is another champ with healing coming directly from her kit. This means she has it within the first three levels’ specifically attached to her Bladesurge (Q). This lets her do well in long early game trades in the top lane.
Irelia can stay in the lane against ranged lakers by last hitting minions with her Bladesurge (Q) to sustain. This allows her to make sure she keeps earning gold and experience and allows her to survive until her Blade of the Ruined King is complete.
Irelia scales well into the late game and builds multiple items that give her lifesteal. This stacking of lifesteal keeps it relevant into the mid and late game and allows Irelia to duel pretty much anybody besides maybe Fiora and Jax while she split pushes to victory.

Irelia tips and tricks!

Use Irelia’s Bladesurge as a mobility spell to close the gap between yourself and carries. Make sure to pay attention to when the ability starts one-shotting the caster minions in a wave, as this will allow you to ride the ability cooldown reset a pretty solid distance toward your enemies.
Build all lifesteal and on-hit items. Both of these increase the healing of your Bladesurge (Q) and auto-attacks. Once you have a Blade of the Ruined King and a Death’s Dance, you can auto-attack your way through most champion duels.
Use Irelia’s sustain to stay in the lane during the laning phase and push. This allows you to get plates for extra gold, as well as deny the enemy laner’s minions to their turret. This is a great way to create a lead.
Don’t be afraid to solo the rift herald. The lifesteal and true damage in your kit can help you take this objective when you know where the enemy laner and jungler are and know that it’s safe. This will net you some plates or maybe even a tower that can help you create a ton of pressure on the map.
Be careful of top laners who run ignite. This can put a pretty significant damper on your kit’s healing in the early game. If you want to fight, run it yourself. But if you want to keep teleport, it might be best to wait on some items, or a very good opportunity to engage an all-in against an ignite top.

Runes:

Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Bloodline
Last Stand
Biscuit Delivery
Time Warp Tonic
Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, Armor

Build:

Blade of the Ruined King
Ninja Tabi/Mercury Treads
Wit’s End
Death’s Dance
Sterak’s Gage
Guardian Angel

Ability Max Order: R>Q>E>W

Here's a must-watch Irelia laning guide by MipZ.

7. Nasus

The Curator of the Sands

Nasus is a top lane tank that starts slow but uses his late-game scaling to become a life-stealing, carry killing, health chunking monster of split pushing and dueling alike. A character that can slowly steamroll over a helpless enemy team, but has a rough early game to get through before he can get there.

Why is Nasus’ lifesteal so helpful?

Nasus’ lifesteal is his passive, so he gets it right off the bat. This is absolutely crucial for Nasus, as there’s almost nobody he beats in the early game. While he’s being pushed in, he needs this lifesteal to help him stay in the lane to get those crucial Siphoning Strikes (Q).
Once Nasus stacks his Siphoning Strike (Q) to a decent amount of damage, as well as gets a Sheen or a Spirit visage, his lifesteal will allow him to win many duels earlier than people might think. This allows you to use this to your advantage against champions that want to engage, bait them in, and turn fights once you know your lifesteal can get you through it.
Nasus is in the unique situation of being a tank with lifesteal. In the late game, this makes him basically unkillable one-vs-one and allows him to stand in the middle of team fights and crush enemies with massive Siphoning Strikes (Q).

How to use Nasus effectively:

Nasus needs to scale in order to really do anything at all in the mid-late game. Play the lane passively and let your lane come to you, last hitting minions near your tower. This will allow you to stack your Siphoning Strike (Q) safely.
While being pushed in, you may get dove underneath your tower. Nasus can turn these situations into opportunities quickly. Make sure to save a Siphoning Strike (Q) to lifesteal off of your enemy with (whichever one is taking tower shots).
Once you have Sheen or Spirit Visage and are able to one-vs-one the enemy laner, you can either split push or group. Make this decision based on if you think the enemy carries can kite you. If they can, you’ll be useless in a fight despite your lifesteal, so go top and use it to one-vs-one and split push.
Nasus is great at soloing objectives if left alone. Use your lifesteal to take sneaky Rift Heralds when the enemy jungler shows themselves on the bottom side of the map. Just make sure you have lane priority and you can duel the enemy top!
Make sure to build tank items. This couples with Nasus’ lifesteal by making him very difficult to kill. His lifesteal is less quickly than someone like Fiora or Vladimir, but he takes just as long to kill by slowly getting more and more health.

Runes:

Unsealed Spellbook
Magical Footwear
Biscuit Delivery
Cosmic Insight
Second Wind
Unflinching
Cooldown Reduction, Armor/Magic Resist, Armor/Magic Resist

Build:

Trinity Force
Ninja Tabi/Mercury Treads
Thornmail/Spirit Visage
Sterak’s Gage
Deadman’s Plate
Adaptive Helm/Randuin’s Omen

Ability Max Order: R>Q>W>E

Here's a video on playing Nasus by Shark Zone!

6. Aatrox

The Darkin Blade

Aatrox is an excellent life-stealer who uses his healing and damage to manhandle his enemies in duels and team fights alike. His healing makes him a terrifying prospect for squishy champs who can’t quite kill him through it, and an impossible task for low damage roles to ever get through the effective health of. If you like pure lifesteal, this is the champion for you.

Aatrox’s power:

Aatrox’s passive heals him enough to win auto-attack trades in the early game. Use this to pressure your opponent out of the lane and get to those important item spikes first.
Aatrox’s healing is a great tool to keep him healed up against ranged or harassing top laners until he can land some of his crowd control and all-in for the kill. His healing allows him to have patience in this regard.
Don’t think only your passive heals you. Remember you get more consistent healing from every auto from Umbral Dash (W)’s passive component. This combination of bursts of healing with consistent smaller heals makes Aatrox’s lifesteal uniquely powerful.

How to use Aatrox’s lifesteal to your advantage:

Unless you're ignited or inflicted with grievous wounds, keep trades long. Your lifesteal will get you through these fights, so the more auto attacks that are traded the more you heal, the better the HP trade is for you.
Save your ultimate for all-ins. It increases the healing of your passive and Umbral Dash (W) passive component as well. This valuable cooldown shouldn’t be used until you’ve baited or cornered an enemy into a dueling situation.
Aatrox isn’t like other lifesteal duelists in an important way. His mobility and area of effect crowd control allow him to team fight effectively. Make sure if you’re unable to split push because of other game conditions, you join your team to fight.
While team fighting, if you’re ahead, you can attempt to catch out carries and kill them easily on the side of the fight. If you’re behind use your crowd control to peel for your teammates and hit as many enemies as possible.
Start Doran’s Shield in the lane against range, and Doran’s Blade against melee matchups you can trade effectively with. Play aggressive with Doran’s Blade, and passively with Doran’s Shield

Runes:

Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Tenacity
Last Stand
Second Wind
Revitalize
Adaptive Force, Adaptive force, Armor/Magic Resist (matchup dependent)

Build:

Black Cleaver
Ninja Tabi/Mercury's Treads
Death's Dance
Sterak's Gage
Spirit Visage
Randuins Omen/Guardian Angel

Ability Max Order: R>Q>E>W

Here's a phenomenal Aatrox guide by ex-pro Wickd!

5. Fiddlesticks

Fiddlesticks is a life-stealing AP jungler who uses his healing to clear the jungle quickly and heal himself through both team fights and skirmishes. A capable duelist in only niche situations, Fiddle excels more when he gets the jump on his enemies and surprises them with his damage, and then with his healing.

What makes Fiddlesticks so effective?

Fiddlesticks has incredible jungle sustain. He is able to clear the jungle fully with excellent speed and remain full health while doing so. This allows him to get to his crucial level 6 power spike where he can obtain his main ganking ability.
Fiddlesticks can easily heal through any and all early game damage that isn’t accompanied by crowd control. Keep this in mind when champions without crowd control try to fight you.
Fiddle’s healing ability doubles as an area of effect damage and an execute. This allows him to deal good damage along with his healing in skirmishes and team fights, making him hard to kill once he is healing off of multiple targets.

How to play Fiddlesticks

Fiddlesticks can do more than one jungle camp at a time. Find a spot you can stand and tether multiple jungle camps to clear your jungle more efficiently. This is difficult, so you should practice in the practice tool first.
Don’t duel junglers with crowd control. Your healing is high, but crowd control cancels the tether and puts it on cooldown. Simply avoid these champions until you see their crowd controls get blown, then go in and fight.
Try to get in a spot in the fight to get more than one person tethered onto your Bountiful Harvest (W). This will allow you to maximize your healing and damage.
Cast your Crowstorm (R) over a wall and from the fog of war. This will cause it to fear all your enemies. This leaves a time for you to get a free Bountiful Harvest (W) down and heal any damage you might have taken.
Start the game with a pink ward instead of a refillable potion. This will allow you to track junglers who can beat you, so you can avoid them and farm to level 6 when you’ll be an effective ganker.

Runes:

Dark Harvest
Cheap Shot
Eyeball Collection
Ultimate Hunter
Perfect Timing
Cosmic Insight
Cooldown Reduction, Adaptive Force, Armor

Build:

Runic Echoes
Sorcerer’s Shoes
Zhonya’s Hourglass
Liandry’s Torment
Rabadon’s Deathcap
Morellonomicon

Ability Max Order: R>W>Q>E

Here's a GameLeap LoL video on jungling as Fiddlesticks.

4. Warwick

The Uncaged Wrath of Zaun

Warwick is a lifesteal jungler who sustains through his jungle clears and excels in staying alive via his healing and lifesteal in duels and small skirmishes through the early and midgame. Once he gets rolling, he’s an impossible to kill rolling ball of death and healing, pinning down and murdering your carries without a care in the world.

So what makes Warwick’s lifesteal so good?

It’s inherent to his kit. This means he has it right off the bat, as his auto attacks and Jaws of the Beast (Q) heal him for more than enough to get him through the jungle healthier than other jungles.
It applies to his ultimate, Infinite Duress. This ability suppresses the enemy and attacks them many times, each of them healing Warwick. This allows him to turn fights around by damaging the enemy and healing while they’re unable to respond.
Jaws of the Beast (W) applies “on-hit” effects and lifesteal to 100% effectiveness, piling more healing on top of an already solid ability. This allows for large chunks of Warwick’s health to return to him on the cast.

So how to play Warwick effectively?

You don’t have to buy health potions while playing as Warwick. Use the gold on a pink ward for early game vision. This will allow you to track down the enemy jungler so you are free to make plays you see fit.
In the right matchup, Warwick can use his healing to bully weaker duelists early game. This allows him to push into their jungle, take their camps, and scare them off of ganks.
Warwick’s ability to win 2v2 and 3v3 skirmishes is excellent. His ability to lifesteal during an area of effect fear, damage reduction, and suppress all give his opponent very little they can do in order to counteract his onslaught in shorter skirmishes.
Warwick doesn’t need to finish his Jungle item to sustain, so he can move right into Tiamat to bump up his clear speed. Use this to plow through jungle camps to get ahead and stay ahead. (Remember to use the item’s active component!)
If the enemy you’re fighting is below 50% health, make sure to use your Blood Hunt (W)’s attack speed bonus to get in some extra auto attacks and lifesteal. If you have this on your enemy, you can probably fight for longer than you think.

Runes:

Press the Attack
Triumph
Legend: Alacrity
Coup de Grace
Celerity
Waterwalking
Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, Armor

Build:

Tiamat
Enchantment: Cinderhulk
Mercury Treads/Ninja Tabi
Finish Titanic Hydra
Deadman’s Plate/Spirit Visage
Randuins Omen/Adaptive Helm
Thornmail/Death’s Dance

Ability Max Order: R>W>Q>E

Here's an extremely in-depth guide by the best Warwick NA!

3. Olaf

The Berserker

Olaf is a jungler who uses his quick attack speed, wild lifesteal, and high burst to control the game early and snowball it hard. His lifesteal is at the core of this, able to sustain through ungodly amounts of damage, and turn around fights that his opponent was sure they’d win with his healing.

How Olaf’s lifesteal makes him terrifying:

Olaf’s Vicious Strikes (W) increases his attack speed and lifesteal. This combined with his passive, which increases his attack speed when he’s low on health, makes for a deadly baiting combo of low-health sustain that can win many team fights and jungle duels.
Olaf’s jungle clear is incredibly healthy for a ganker of his caliber. He is able to clear 6 camps in the time that slower junglers take to take 3 or 4. This allows him to gain farm and experience that gives him a real advantage after his first few recalls.
Olaf is fantastic at killing enemy carries. Able to shake off their peel with his Ragnarok (R) and lifesteal through their damage with his Vicious Strikes (W), Olaf is able to easily chase down squishy and immobile carries and kill them before he goes down.

So how to best utilize Olaf’s lifesteal?

Be aggressive early. You are one of the few junglers with such high early game burst and such high early game healing as well. This means you can duel pretty much every other jungler in the game at the moment. Even if it looks like you’ve lost at first, keep auto-attacking with Vicious Strikes (W) and your passive, you will probably turn the fight around.
Buy items like Spirit Visage and Death’s Dance that not only give you extra healing and/or lifesteal but also make you harder to kill. These two effects combine to make you an absolute headache for carries to deal with. If they can’t shred you, you’ll heal through everything they can do.
Use your lifesteal to combat the health cost of your Reckless Swing (E). It costs some of your health, so make sure you use it while you have your lifesteal active early game, as this combo will swing duels and 2vs2 fights quickly.
You don’t actually have to build lifesteal at all on Olaf, that’s what makes him such a strong character. Invest in items like Enchantment: Warrior and Black Cleaver that give you damage and let your kit take care of the lifesteal.
Do not activate your Vicious Strikes (W) until your Undertow (Q) has allowed you to close the distance. This is because you want to get as many auto attacks in during the duration as possible, so don’t cast it early and waste time.
Although it’s central to his kit, max Vicious Strikes (W) last. It’s good enough at first level to get you through the early game before you don’t need it anymore.

Runes:

Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Alacrity
Bloodline
Magical Footwear
Approach Velocity
Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force, Armor

Build:

Enchantment: Warrior (stalker's blade usually)
Mercury Treads/Ninja Tabi
Black Cleaver
Death’s Dance/Righteous Glory
Sterak’s Gage/Dead Man’s Plate
Spirit Visage/Randuin’s Omen/Guardian Angel

Ability Max Order: R>Q>E>W

Here's a great mini-guide and gameplay video by one of the best jungler's out there, Tarzaned, on climbing with Olaf!

2. Fiora

The Grand Duelist

Fiora is a split pushing duelist who utilizes her wild healing to take down her enemies one-vs-one and put the pressure on the enemy team to respond to her push, dispatching would-be-challengers with ease along the way.

So what makes Fiora a great lifesteal duelist?

Fiora’s auto attacks and her Bladework (E) do a ton of damage, which translates to a ton of lifesteal once she finishes her Ravenous Hydra.
Fiora’s ultimate, Grand Challenge (R) gives her and her teammates healing after she hits her vitals. This healing is almost always too much to damage through, even with grievous wounds applied, allowing her to heal through any and every kind of damage thrown her way.

How to play as Fiora in the top lane!

Make sure you’re using your Riposte (W) on the enemy team’s crowd control. This way you reflect it onto them and are able to stick to them to land auto attacks.
Always save a charge of your Lunge (Q) to either chase down a would-be escaping enemy, or in worse circumstances, as an escape tool. This can save you grief by not dying and nabbing you a few extra kills.
Try to stay in the top lane. Fiora is a great one-vs-one duelist but struggles in team fights because of all of the crowd control the enemy team has. Use your one-vs-one prowess to split off from the team and push down objectives.
Fiora’s Bladework (E) is an auto-attack reset. It resets the timer, or cooldown, of your auto-attack. This allows for two attacks in quick succession, doubling the damage and lifesteal.
Popping vitals is your priority in all fights, whether they’re from your ultimate or not. Use your Lunge (Q) to reposition yourself and hit them, as your damage without them can sometimes be lacking.

Runes:

Conqueror
Triumph
Legend: Alacrity
Bloodline
Magical Footwear
Biscuit Delivery
Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, Armor/Magic Resist (matchup dependant)

Ability Max Order: R>Q>E>W

Here's another Wickd guide, this time for Fiora!

1. Vladimir

The Crimson Scourge

Vladimir is an AP caster who can go mid-lane or top-lane, where he specializes in scaling his damage and healing into the late game. A poor fighter early, if Vlad can manage to get a kill or two he’s a bloody snowball waiting to happen.

So how does Vlad’s lifesteal help him so much?

Vlad’s healing helps him get through an otherwise weak lane phase. He has a hard time against many good duelists in the top lane and assassins and mages in mid. Some healing on his Transfusion (Q) helps him to stay back and sustain through the lane until he’s ready to fight.
Vladimir’s healing late game is absolutely wild. Especially with stacks of his Bloodthirst, his Transfusion (Q) can heal him for around ¾ of his HP, if not more. This is useful in extended fights, as to let you get your burst rotation off more than once.
Vladimir is a phenomenal baiter because of his healing. He can easily turn fights around against unwary foes who attempt to approach him while he’s at low HP. Use this to your advantage against greedy enemy teams.

How to get the best out of Vlad’s healing:

Be sure to use your Sanguine Pool (W) to wait out big cooldowns in fights safely. Then pop up, heal up, and burst down your enemies.
You can cast your Tides of Blood (E) while in your Sanguine Pool (W)
Cast your ultimate on as many targets as you can in a fight or skirmish. Afterward hit as many spells as you can, as its damage ramps up as you hit more spells while the ultimate is active.
Vlad is weak before his first item as well as level 9. Play this part of the lane passively, use your Transfusion (Q) to farm minions from a distance, and be sure to save your Sanguine Pool (W) for escaping all-ins and ganks.
Building Zhonya’s hourglass offers you even more time for invulnerability. Cast it directly before or after your Sanguine Pool (W) to waste your enemy’s time during a team fight, allowing your teammates time to strike.

Runes: