Markemen can no longer abuse both items together. Idk why the change to them being unique passives didnt ship in the same patch that made Sterak's Gage melee only or why it wasnt hotfixed after it made it to live and another patch passed it over.
Spank the Fox34 votesThe reason with Lifeline sharing the same passive wasn't solely because ADCs though.
The combination of the two would completely invalidate even the most fed Annie with simply those two items. You could ignore burst mages entirely. This should not be re-introduced, even if it's melee only.
Sire Hippington12 votesSo investing gold on two anti burst items that give less utillity and damage than other options helps you not to be bursted down as a melee? Heresy!!! How dare you filthy melees to stand up against your ranged overlords!!
Faceroll Tactics5 votesMaGeS aRe VeRy WeAk
Spank the Fox1 votesIt wasn't just investing to survive.
You could straight up ignore burst while gaining bonus stats and spellvamp/lifesteal.
Zero Skill Tank1 votes'Little damage' my ass. Unless rush it, Gage gives infi-worth of AD on it's prime users.
Only it's way better than normal AD, because it's base AD.
Sire Hippington1 votesunless they use trinity aswell, base ad is worse than bonus, as nearly all ad champs have some bonus ad ratios that don't profit from base ad.
What people are mostly concerned about are not the prime steraks users(juggernauts), but fighters and assasins which usually have lots of bonus ad scaleings and only few total ad scaleings, so for them it certainly is little damage compared to other options.
AirKingNeo4 votesNot really. The only issue was Graves. No bruiser was doing well with the combo.
XDDD12 votesSo melees can't have item synergy like 
on ADC's because "they forget to revert the shared passive" when the reason they made the change in the first place is now obsolete (Sterak now melee only).
They also fucked over 
by putting in the patch notes that they intended it to be a lategame item whereas now we only see it as a first item on 
/ 
and butchered it on all melees and they're not gonna revert that either.
Same for PTA not having a melee-range discrepancy like fervor did.
Either they're "conveniently forgetting" their earlier balance changes so they can fuck over melees or they have the memory of a dead gnat.
Häxel4 votes doesn't stack damage. It just stacks that rapidfire makes geting stacks faster and having a longrange chainlightning than can crit.
if there Damage doesn't stack, why would having 
shields stack be equal?
The thing is that Steraks and Maw already stack equaly like rapidfire and stattiks: Both not stack their damage or shields, the crititems always will do the stattiks damage while the lifelineitems will trigger that shield that gets first over its threshhold for damage.
But like the crititems do a longrangechainattack that also can be applied to towers both lifelineeffects will trigger Steraks Fury AND Lifegrip: You get increased Size, 30% tenacity & 20ad, 10%Spellvamp, 10%lifesteal until out of combat. So what do you want? That similar to having rapid fire for faster stacking stattiks and fleet footwork having steraks OR maw reduce the cooldown in general to lifeline and maybe the rune Nullifying Orb? That could be ok. But stacking shields would be just too strong.
if you want good itemcombinations on melee i can call you a few: 
stacks with 
and 
( / share the same passive and don't stack, but they each stack with cause it shares not the same passive). 
, 
and basicly any healthregitem. 
magic damage increase increases 
and damage too.
Conclusion: stacks as much as . On the other hand 
and 
doens't stack with the full build items (having Hextrinker and Steraks makes again the system trigger that what first gets over its threshhold. Kircheis does rly add zeor benefit to one of the completed items).
Disclaimer: I think that meless are on a weakside too but giving the possibility to add both shields would be the wrong way to buff them. In the end mostly it would buff Ad assassins, the second great class in abusing items. Cause both give huge amount of ad and ad assasins already are, maybe not alltime the strongest, but definetly the stronger class as juggernauts, skirmishers and most divers. And having unkillable assassins, still with good damage, would not benefit the popularity or strength of the currently struggling classes.
LordGeovanni2 votesBecause and are not comparable passives nor are they activated in the same way and was only nerfed because of their interaction on already hard to get to and punish champions aka Marksmen.
Your 'stacking shields' was never too strong on the champions it was intended for on before it was nerfed only the mix of them on champions that are supposed to be vulnerable to assassins was a problem. So much so that even if an assassins jumped on an adc they never moved unless they had a dash and just auto attacked the assassin dead.
Häxel3 votessry i'm totaly sure you have no idea. How you want have an idea for what champion that was intended and for which not? How you can even have an idea it even was intended to be ok for some? You think marksman were the problem? oh, i can give you the link with riots statement to that again as a reminder: https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-69-notes
_"Maw and Sterak’s have complementary defensive triggers: Maw cares about how low you are while Sterak’s cares about how fast you’re dropping. This presents an interesting choice in lane: which item is best for the situation you’re in? Unfortunately, that choice becomes meaningless as the game progresses and beefy champs stack both items to cover all their bases. We’re tying the shields of Maw and Sterak’s together to ensure that picking one is a choice, not just the earlier of two purchases."
It clearly said Beefy champions. Sry to say but marksman are the exact diffrence of beefy champions with the exception of graves. And now don't say that riot had no idea how the situation was and how to balance. The situation with assassins jumping on marksman with no effect was the ardent censer meta. The time were steraks maw stacked was it definetly not. The only champions who bough both as adcs were Graves and maybe Corki. But mostly assassins, skirmishers, divers and juggernauts bought it. So stop talking nonsense it wasn't strong. It was and should not implemented. I already gave you enough arguments agaisnt it. I also said that while melees are on a bad state that would be the total wrong way to buff them cause it would just lead to another unbalanced State.
Fertsa1 votes
Tho honestly he doesn't use it in most build paths and rarely builds it in the one where he is able to
Velzard of Koz8 votesIf you weren't so biased about "ADC abusing everything, everyone else is just diverse build" as you sound, you would have known it can easily be abused by melee classes such as Divers and Assasins just as well. If you think making an item melee suddenly means it won't be stacked and abused with Maw despite the fact melee covers Tanks, Juggernauts, Divers, Skirmishers and Assasins, who are all vastly different, then it's just bias.
You don't even have to go far to see some Divers lean way too much to being more effective Assasins, some Skirmishers can lifesteal to have so much sustain then may end up covering Divers or even Juggernauts, etc, etc.
GayFluffyUnicorn11 votesIf an assassin wants to invest nearly 7k gold into those two items so be it because he definitely isn't dealing any dmg with it.
Häxel2 votesif an assassin has yomus duskblade, these two items and than either black cleaver, lord dominiks (vs tanks), warrior enchantment (as jungler) or guardian angel than i believe they still have damage. Even more as the "adcs" that hearing op abused that combination: Cause both tiems give good ad but no crit or attackspeed. Many assassins already build maw/ga and a shield that would stack would only allow steraks to replace the ga (which already has a realy anoying long cd). assassins would just, again, abuse this the most.
LordGeovanni5 votesexcept that assassins scale off of their abilities which scale off of bonus damage. Adcs Scale with total damage on their auto attacks from super safe range.
GrReaper961 votesThis. On the other hand Rito should really have a more clear distinction between base, bonus and total AD scaling
DragonShea1 votesThis. On the other hand Rito should really have a more clear distinction between base, bonus and total AD scaling
Actually that doesn't really fall into riot's hands. Besides it's easy distinction to make anyways. tAD is Base + Bonus. Bonus AD is any AD from items buffs etc. Base AD is what you get from LV and is what you normally have( is the exception)
GrReaper962 votesNo i mean in terms of ability scaling. Like how AP is green and AD is orange, perhaps a different shade of orange for total/base/bonus AD.
Daimao1 votesWith regards to champion abilities, you can do some napkin math to figure it out. Without more +BaseAD items in the shop I don't see them wasting development time on something like that, though.
Häxel2 votesmaw gives 50 bonus ad. and the basead from steraks hels assasins on their autos too (yes they do autos too in their combos, on minions or on towers). i already told you that adcs need crit and attackspeed. than maybe lifesteal or armorpen. Neither of these items give these stats. But even if steraks just gives them Basead they can't use quite good if steraks would stack with maw again totaly they would totaly screw ga with their 40 ad for the steraks with its 30 basead and the tenacity.
Z3Sleeper4 votesHonestly. Like, I want Steraks to amp up my Trinity Force but I want Maw because the enemy has alot of magic damage.
Sure you can get both, but that's a ton of wasted gold on the shield.
LordGeovanni2 votesThe only reason it is wasted is because they were 2 completely diffrent shields with 2 completely diffrent activation conditions but marksmen using them made them impossible to kill for other classes due to their range (and the fact that marksmen have low cooldown cc even if it is a slow or a root and mobility that no body else ever wants to mention.)
HarrowR3 votesPlease for the love of god try playing an adc with those two items and try killing a maokai,post a video of it,and then ill believe that those two items were ever a problem on any adc,one of those is okay for extra surviveability,but buy two and now you dont have botrk and its %hp damage and no ldr and its arpen,not saying you wouldnt be harder to kill,but in a good team comp where you have a good frontline you waste your damage and the enemy adc will outdamage and outsustain you,you can just hope to survive a diver or some burst but in the end of the day if you dont kill the enemy no matter how much hp you have you will lose
LordGeovanni1 votesGood think all of you played from January 2016 - june 2016 where marksmen used these 2 items and black cleaver were in every position Crit wasnt needed but could still be built. Mages may have ended up in the support slot every now and then but they werent there to burst adcs dead. This build made every other class Tanks fighters assassins unplayable because Marksmen were ranged juggernauts that could surround you and focus you before you even reached any of them and you couldnt deal with any of them even if you jumped on the coupled with the mobility and cc each of them that allowed them to self kite
HarrowR1 votesMan i've been playing adcs since 2010. And except Lucian and MF no one ever built BC,you sure as hell didnt see Vayne,Twitch,Tristana or Cait with it,steraks/maw combination was usually used by Graves who is now jungle,like i said,whoever built that didn't do any damage to anyone that is full tank. I dont want to be that guy to say this but,and its a huge but,youre literally bronze 4,its not that im saying you're bad or something,but in low elos anything goes,hell,i bet teemo and yi are gods and no one knows what to do against Vayne..You get to plat/dia,and things change a lot,you get a tank or two,and a support that are all there to keep the adc alive and soak up the damage,if you're full build and waste 2 slots for Sterak/Maw instead of BT and LDR you're getting outdpsed,it doesn't matter how tanky you are if you are not getting hit,on the other hand that full build enemy Cait or whatever was popular then is shredding your own tank,ripping him to pieces,and he still cant kill her cause she heals from BT,so yeah,going steraks and maw was fun on some adcs maybe so they cant get bursted and can 1v1 better,but that build has never seen the light of any competitive play
Yets42402 votesIts so sad that they keep running melee bruiser and especially juggernaut items, just to cater towards ADC.
We already gave them BotRK, Ghost Blade (which is now an assassin item) BC, they got Sterak's nerfed several times, they made the fucking lifeline passives unique, they nerfed Maw multiple times due to their abuse, they got DD even for a little bit, as well as GA retooled just for them. Like FFS, ADCs need to GTFO of other classes itemization, especially when they already have the best itemization themselves.
Hashihime4 votesDo NOT give people the ability to stack maw and steraks again! Else we can enjoy a Jax meta.
Dreadlocks2 votesOh I miss the glory days of this combination on graves..
Abibyama1 votesGraves top with old warlords and death dance
##PTSD KICKS IN
PurpleHatter1 votesGraves top with old warlords and death dance
##PTSD KICKS IN
What was old warlords? Which iteration was used on him?
Abibyama1 votesThe one that gives you bonus life steal based on missing health
AirKingNeo2 votesIt wasn't 'marksmen', it was just Graves buying both. Marksmen bought either.
Rivuo1 votesanother anti adc post holy shit