Is Lifesteal an Omnivamp?

As a passionate League analyst and theorycrafter, one stat question I get asked a lot is: "Is lifesteal the same as omnivamp?" The short answer is no – while they both offer in-combat healing, lifesteal and omnivamp are distinctly different stats.

Defining the Stats

First, a quick refresher on what each stat does:

Lifesteal: Heals for percentage of physical damage dealt by basic attacks

Omnivamp: Heals for percentage of ALL damage types from attacks and abilities

Lifesteal only accounts for physical damage from auto attacks. Omnivamp works on all damage types and sources – physical, magical, true damage, auto attacks, abilities, you name it.

This core difference makes omnivamp the far more flexible and powerful sustain stat between the two.

Omnivamp Has Wider Applications

Since omnivamp works on spells, it has much wider applications than lifesteal. Champions who rely on abilities comboing can utilize omnivamp for survivability in ways lifesteal can‘t match.

For example, take an AP mage like Anivia. With Liandry‘s Anguish giving omnivamp, Anivia heals for a portion of all her spell damage – something lifesteal could never offer her.

This flexibility makes omnivamp itemization useful on fighters, mages, assassins – roles that lean towards spell-based kits. It also works for marksmen mixing spells between autos.

By comparison, lifesteal is predominantly for right-click focused champions who output steady physical DPS like marksmen and skirmishers. But even they often opt into some omnivamp sources for the added value.

Prevalence of Lifesteal vs Omnivamp

Historically, lifesteal has been much more widely available than omnivamp:

However, Riot has actively reduced lifesteal options while adding more omnivamp lately. The replacement of Ravenous Hunter (9% omnivamp rune) for Treasure Hunter reflects this as well.

Clearly, Riot wants to shift the game away from lifesteal towards favoring omnivamp mechanics. And based the above table, omnivamp itemization rates have doubled recently while lifesteal fell.

The Decline of Lifesteal Over Time

Lifesteal has been a core stat in League since the early seasons. But creep and item reworks have steadily chipped away at its dominance:

• Removal of Spell Vamp items
• Death‘s Dance adding omnivamp over lifesteal
• Eclipse mythic also using omnivamp
• Serrated Dirk losing lifesteal entirely

These changes have limited lifesteal‘s reach primarily to critical strike marksmen. Almost everyone else gets more value from taking some omnivamp where available.

The Future Rise of Omnivamp

As Riot continues paring down lifesteal access and opening up omnivamp options, expect to see omnivamp become the primary sustain stat moving forward.

Lifesteal will likely be left mainly for niche cases like protecting late-game hyper carries. The majority of champions will drift towards omni‘s flexible healing though.

So in summary while lifesteal and omnivamp heal, they diverge enough mechanically to fill different needs. And omnivamp‘s stock is clearly rising whereas lifesteal sinks into obscurity.