Lifesteal for Lifestealer

I have been playing with lifestealer recently and I have been pondering whether lifesteal for Lifestealer is a viable way of building him - if this is ridiculous then please dont be too harsh as i am still learning the more advanced aspects of the game.

In no way is this representative, but I tested last night in a "hard" bot match going full lifesteal - so I went Mask of Madness, Vladmir's Offering and Armlet of Mordiggian as the core items, along with Power Treads.

Rage + active Mask of Madness and Armlet of Mordiggian meant 190+ attack speed, 56 bonus damage, 33% lifesteal from damage and 7% from HP pool of opponent in Feast - the result was very nice.

However, bots left me a lone to farm, bot team was a good one, outside of Rage and MoM hitting slower than should be .

Is it at all viable in decent level pubs in your opinions ?

You just went full lifesteal.

Never go full lifesteal.

Seriously though, it's not a completely terrible build imo but it's not very reliable. Mask of Madness' increased damage is pretty big and occasionally, the lifesteal doesn't cut it.

Besides, if your team needs a comeback after a not-so-good early game, would you want a Lifestealer with Hand of Midas and Power Treads or Power Treads and Mask of Madness?

Would work when it works, but it's a bit hard to make it work.

I hear you, and I was expecting this response because I can see the downsides - hence why its a guy doing some theorycraft and testing in a bot match rather than in a team (i did end up 6-0-8 and ridiculously hard to kill).

However whilst I acknowledge a 30% increase in damage taken is a lot when MoM is active, you have a 6 seconds BKB with Rage, so you will only be taking physical damamge, and with Vlads + Armlett + Inherent Armour (at lvl 11) you have a physical damage reduction of 45% - so it is false to think that you are taking 30% more physical damage when you are also reducing physical damage by 45% - so mechanics withstanding, you are still in a net benefit scenario plus stealing life with every

What I did find was that to be effective you needed Rage + Armlet + MoM activated and when they are not you are hitting a lot slower than a Lifestealer should be - however - the amount of Lifesteal and bonus attack speed of 235 (MoM 100, PT 30, Rage 80, Armlett 25) is still incredibly strong and then with a Skull Basher thats some serious lock down.

Thoughts ?

Think about what is absolutely necessary first:

Phase Boots/Treads
Armlet
Abyssal Blade
TP scroll
Assault Cuirass

What you want to put in the last slot is up to you, personally I don't think Satanic is a bad idea, but other times you want MKB instead.

You're also taking Composite Damage, and Magical Damage from skills that go through Magic Immunity. The "Net Gain" of Physical Resistance won't help too much against good Early Game Physical Damage dealers like Ursa, Templar Assassin, Razor, etc. etc. and all it takes is an Ensnare, a Fiend's Grip, a Bash, etc. etc. to hold you down while Rage wears off, leaving you unprotected against the increased Damage.

It's a risky strategy that is easily countered I'm afraid. The point of Mask of Madness is that rather than trying to negate the increased Damage, you use the Attack Speed wipe out the opposition before they can retaliate, that's why it's more suited to hard hitters like Sven or Tiny who have massive Right-Click Damage which becomes devastating when combined with high Attack Speed. Lifestealer doesn't hit particularly hard early on with his Right-Click, and does better by combining his skills with others to get kills, e.g. using Open Wounds so your Nukers can blast off their attacks and Heal themselves at the same time, or using Infest when a Ganker jumps into the middle of the other Team.

I do however believe in Vladmir's Offering as a Situational Item on Lifestealer, or better yet, on one of his Teammates. Extra Lifesteal, extra Armour, extra Damage, no drawbacks. Best built on a Semi-Carry/Semi-Support though since there are far better options to consider on Lifestealer.

Thanks for the points - that helps my understanding and theorying.

I am enjoying playing around with Lifestealer so this helps me learn more about what could / should be viable on him.

There is no point in getting life steal since he gains hp based on the percentage of the opponents max hp.
So why stack more life steal? You already get more than enough to fight.