Here is a comparison for you guys to think about:
Lets say the enemy has a gooby goobs ton of armor, like a super armor stack renekton or malphite or shyvanna or nasus, and your team comp is pure ad so they can get away with it. We will say they have 400 armor.
400 armor after last whisper and the offense tree bonus armor pen is 244.
244 armor is 71% damage reduction.
So lets suppose you are the best champion for lifesteal-- the guy who does more damage with his sheer raw auto attacks than anyone else, and doesn't rely on on hit effects (which don't proc lifesteal) like true damage wuju style or anything like that. Lets say you are Tryndamere and you have basically 100% crit chance and crit for 1000 damage before resists.
that means against this 400 armor target, despite your armor pen, would only take 290 damage per auto attack after resistances because he has 71% damage reduction.
Now take that number-- 290, and multiply by your lifesteal. Lets assume Tryndamere has a crazy amount of lifesteal, like 2 bloodthirsters for 36% lifesteal. That means he restores 104 health per auto attack against that tank.
It would take 90 stacks to generate that much healing with feral flare, which isn't impossible but it sure as hell isn't happening any time soon. So whats the point of this long comment you might be wondering?
The point is that even if Trynda had 100 magic resist on top of all that stuff he had, and the enemy tank had 0 magic penetration, thornmail would return 300 magic damage per auto attack before magic resist, which is 150 magic damage per auto attack after magic resist.
Recall Tryndamere only heals for 104 hp per auto, so even with basically what amounts to a dedicated lifesteal glass cannon drain tank build, thornmail alone on a tank will cause Tryndamere to receive more damage than he can heal for. Just auto attacking the tank will cause Trynda to lose 46 health, which doesn't sound like alot, but recall that if it were not for thornmail Tryndamere would actually be GAINING 104 health.
Moral of story: because thornmail exists glass cannon lifesteal drain tank auto attackers cannot exist.
gives you 10 HP + 1 per stack back per auto-attack.
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55.6 + 5.56 per stack; 111, 167, 222
