User blog comment:Willbachbakal/(Item Concept) Revamping Life Steal/@comment-5588011-20150826183220/@comment-1330314-20150829192711

I said it was an opportunity to buff him, not a buff. Tanks were never meant to win against ADCs in sustained duels, and if they can now that speaks more about issues with sustained damage on tanks than it does about life steal. A tank's role is not to win duels or DPS races, and removing their ability to tone down sustain would be an opportunity to buff their core strengths, such as their crowd control or tankiness.

Sustain has also been a core stat on AD damage-dealers even when it was in far worse shape, so that point is moot. I have also made it dependent on fewer stats than it does now, so whatever problems it has now would be reduced, and I've standardized the base sustain of top-end items to provide the same base amount of life steal. Additionally, making the stat unique and named would force it to be exactly as powerful as it needs to be on any single item, as stacking the effect would be impossible. Life steal has always been strong in DPS races and weak to burst, and this would not change those strengths and weaknesses.