Talk:Item/@comment-11101598-20130713181637/@comment-14369738-20140426160839

Life steal is something of a broken mechanic. Being able to itemize to heal several hundred HP on hit WHILE ALSO putting out damage that no other characters come near makes ADC's so important. I realize it is a cover for their terrible defensive stats, but all the same it has seen a fair amount of abuse cases.

I would even argue that Ravenous Hydra and BOTRK, items meant for bruisers, exacerbate the problem. The real reason a fed Wukong or Nasus can become completely and totally impossible to stop is that you need to kill him between two minion waves, or he full heals. Then you need to start over. Essentially, these items force a team to burst many bruisers incredibly hard or simply throw mana at them without results.

TL;DR - if a character is not designed with healing in his kit, then being able to add such an insane amount to it so easily leads to several abuse cases and a highly distorted power curve. This is also why jungle Wu and Panth became problematic with spiritstone giving so much healing, it negated their weakness cheaply and with no drawback.