One fact is that in League of Legends Season 11, the healing ability has become overwhelmingly strong, especially for the Fighter role. This class of champions can build many powerful healing items such as Bloodthirster, Sterak’s Claw, and Hydra… This causes League of Legends players to have to purchase anti-healing items early to quickly take down Fighters.
However, Riot’s expert – Shakarez has shared a build path that allows Fighters to become almost immortal, even when opponents have healing reduction capabilities. The build that Shakarez mentioned is to purchase Stoneborn Pact after acquiring Sterak’s Claw.
Shakarez: “I see too few players buying Stoneborn Pact after acquiring Sterak’s Claw. This is a very strong combo that I want to see used more often. The shield provided by Stoneborn Pact interacts extremely well with the large health from Sterak’s Claw. I’ve only seen top lane players in Europe utilizing this combo. Other regions like LCK/LPL/LCS seem not to be using it.”
One thing we need to know is that the shield from Stoneborn Pact will scale based on maximum health. Therefore, with an item that grants up to 400 health like Sterak’s Claw, it will significantly enhance the shield from Stoneborn Pact. Moreover, Stoneborn Pact no longer reduces damage upon activation, so players no longer have to worry about lacking damage output when purchasing this item.
This item will make Fighters very hard to take down quickly, which means you have a higher chance to deal damage to enemy champions. From there, players will easily stack the Fury of Sterak’s Claw and heal even more. With these two items, Fighters will truly become a god of war in team fights, being both hard to kill and healing extremely well.
Furthermore, both of these items have shield effects but do not share the same passive. Therefore, players will benefit from two instances of shield activation in fights, greatly increasing the “tankiness” of Fighter champions. Remember that the healing reduction effect does not impact the shield creation. Thus, the Sterak’s Claw and Stoneborn Pact combo will mitigate the strength of items providing Grievous Wounds.
In summary, the Sterak’s Claw and Stoneborn Pact combo provides Fighters with incredibly powerful survivability in team fights. The massive shields from these two items render the Grievous Wounds effect significantly less meaningful, giving players more opportunities to “carry” in team fights. If you are a top lane main, be sure to apply this combo for champions like Aatrox, Renekton, Gnar, Darius, Camille… to climb the ranks.