People complain about damage being excessive: but healing is just as excessive, if not more

People complain about damage (especially burst damage) being too high, which is indeed true, but what people often overlook is that healing is just as much of a problem than having too much damage.

Runes are the main thing causing this. Between Conqueror, Ravenous Hunter, Taste of Blood, Fleet Footwork, Triumph, Bloodline - champions have much more healing than they are supposed to (and some champs which are not supposed to have healing at all, have it). It is not uncommon for a champion who is supposed to have 0 sustain, to become a drain tank, just by using heal runes and picking sustain items.

For example, Katarina - The fact that she can burst down champions is acceptable; even though it is frustrating to be bursted down that fast, it is her job as an assassin after all - and there is still ways to counter that. However, why she is allowed, on top of bursting down entire teams, to heal so much? She has 0 sustain in her kit, but thanks to the combination of Hextech Gunblade and Ravenous Hunter, she becomes a drain tank burst machine that 100-0 enemies and 10-100 herself. I've seen a ton of videos where she does that. She can even pick Conqueror and/or Death's Dance to heal even more.

But it is not just her. Akali does the same thing, and even with the healing from her Q removed, she becomes a drain tank with Ravenous Hunter and Hextech Gunblade, on top of Conqueror. Ryze can pick Ravenous Hunter, and sometimes even Conqueror. At late game, Ryze effectively becomes an ADC with lifesteal - except that he does magic damage and uses spells. Zed , whose mage's main form of counterplay against is to poke him, can pick Ravenous Hunter and Taste of Blood, which helps him shrug off harass from mages.

The Bloodthister became obsolete on most ADCs. This is because they can just pick 'Legend: Bloodline' and have the lifesteal they need. From there, they can focus on building more crit items, and the slot they would spend on Bloodthister, they can spend on armor penetration items to help against tanks, or GA so that they can have a second chance if they die, Mercurial Scimitar to remove a dangerous CC, BotRK against health stacking, etc - Basically, with lifesteal no longer causing ADCs to have build constraints, ADCs can have everything they need in a single build, they sacrifice little to nothing.

While most champs can get sustain from runes alone, some items are still somewhat problematic. Hextech Gunblade, like I said, gives sustain and burst to the few champions it synergizes with. Burst and sustain is a toxic combination. This item is too conflicted into being an AP assassin item and an hybrid sustain item. There is also Death's Dance, which gives super good offensive stats and gives too much survivability for champs that build it, thanks to its combination of omnivamp and damage delay.

Finally, there are some champs that are problematic by themselves, and is in part due to their sustain. For example, Aatrox already has a ton of sustain in his kit. Combine that with Spirit Visage, Conqueror, Ravenous Hunter, Death's Dance... It is impossible to outheal him, With his ult activated, Aatrox is essentially a Dr. Mundo with much more damage and CC. Yuumi makes anyone she attaches to a drain tank, with her healing, and you cannot counter that by focusing her because Yuumi is untargetable while attached. Imagine if Soraka could do the same thing; she has better heals, but there is this exploitable weakness. Even then, there is a reason why Soraka has been nerfed so much in the past.

And you say... But Grievous Wounds counter healing!

Grievous Wounds does not entirely negate healing. It just reduces it somewhat. Drain tank champions will still heal for significant amounts even with GW added into the equation, and if you do not have sustain yourself, it doesn't matter you are reducing the enemy sustain; they will still outsustain you in a fight. Try using GW on a Mundo , he will still heal for massive amounts with his ult. Also, the build constraint caused by the necessity to build GW items is massive most of time. Especially for APs, which unlike AD or tank champs, need to fully complete Morellonomicon to get GW.

The healing creep actually contributes to damage being too high, because champs can get healing from runes, and focus their build into more damage instead of having to build sustain items if they need to. Also, you are encouraged to try to 100-0 an enemy, because if you don't do that, they will heal everything back and kill you.

I think Riot should really look into the amount of healing we have in this game.