Sustain in League of Legends refers to a champion's ability to maintain their health and resources over extended periods, allowing them to stay in lane or remain in fights without frequent trips back to base. Typically sustain is achieved through innate abilities, items, or runes.
This crucial aspect of gameplay can significantly impact a champion's effectiveness in various stages of the game, from early laning to late-game teamfights.
Types of Sustain
Sustain in League of Legends comes in various forms. Many champions have innate sustain built into their abilities or passive effects. Take Warwick, for instance, whose passive Eternal Hunger allows him to heal for a percentage of damage dealt, with the healing amplified when he's at low health. Vladimir also exemplifies sustain with his ability to drain health from enemies and temporarily become untargetable.
Beyond innate abilities, items play a crucial role in augmenting a champion's sustain. Physical damage dealers often gravitate towards items like Blade of the Ruined King or Bloodthirster for their life steal properties, while mages might opt for items that provide spell vamp or amplify healing effects.
The rune system also offers various options to enhance sustain, such as the Fleet Footwork keystone or runes from the Resolve that increase overall durability and healing received.
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Impact on Gameplay
In the laning phase, champions with high sustain can often outlast their opponents, trading damage more effectively and recovering health more easily. This allows them to accrue small advantages that can snowball into significant leads.
In teamfights, sustain champions shine as disruptive forces. Their ability to absorb significant damage while continually healing forces enemies into a difficult decision: focus them down quickly or risk a prolonged fight where the sustain champion gains the upper hand. This dynamic can create space for other teammates to deal damage or secure objectives.
Additionally, high-sustain champions excel at applying constant map pressure. Their ability to stay on the map for extended periods without recalling translates into more opportunities to secure towers, dragons, or Baron Nashor. The durability provided by sustain allows these champions to tank damage from these sources more effectively, making them valuable assets in objective-focused strategies.
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How to Counter Sustain Champions?
Burst damage is often the bane of sustain-focused champions. Assassins and burst mages can overwhelm these opponents before they have a chance to utilize their healing abilities effectively. The key is to apply massive damage in a short window, leaving little opportunity for recovery.
Another crucial counter to sustain is the application of Grievous Wounds. This effect, which reduces healing received, can be applied through items like Morellonomicon for mages or Executioner's Calling for AD champions. By diminishing the effectiveness of healing and regeneration, Grievous Wounds can level the playing field against sustain-heavy compositions.
Lastly, crowd control remains an effective tool against sustain champions. Locking down these champions with stuns, silences, or suppressions can prevent them from accessing their healing abilities, creating windows of vulnerability for focused damage.
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