Sundered Sky

Sundered Sky is a Legendary Fighter item costing 3100 gold providing +45 Attack Damage, +10 Ability Haste, and +400 Health. Its passive LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE empowers the carrier’s next basic attack against a champion to critically strike for (60% + 24%) bonus damage AND heal the carrier for (100% / 50%) base AD + 6% of missing health. The cooldown is 10 seconds per target — a unique per-target cooldown that allows the same fighter to cycle LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE across multiple enemies in a teamfight without a shared global cooldown. Excess healing beyond maximum health is converted to bonus health for 8 seconds, and this bonus health stacks up to 5 times — refreshing its duration whenever the heal exceeds 100% maximum health. LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE functions as a true critical strike for all purposes, including interaction with Infinity Edge’s critical damage amplification. Critically, LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE only affects basic attacks — abilities that apply on-hit effects and can critically strike do NOT trigger it. Predecessor Masterwork item: Heavensfall. Limited to 1 Sundered Sky per player. ID 6610. Available on SR 5v5, ARAM, Nexus Blitz, and Arena. Sundered Sky is the self-sustaining fighter’s crit-heal item — a guaranteed crit on the first auto against each new target every 10 seconds, paired with a missing-health-scaling heal that converts high-damage fights into sustained HP recovery.

Sundered Sky is a Legendary-tier item available on Summoner’s Rift (5v5), ARAM, Nexus Blitz, and Arena. Predecessor Masterwork: Heavensfall. ID 6610. Limited to 1 Sundered Sky per player. Sell value: 2170 gold. Categorized under Fighter and Attack Damage.

📊 Stats at a Glance

💡 Per-Target Cooldown — The Core Design That Separates Sundered Sky From Standard Crit Items: LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE’s 10-second cooldown is per-target, not global. Against a 5-champion enemy team in a teamfight, the first auto against each new champion triggers LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE — the 10-second cooldown tracks independently for each enemy. A fighter who engages ADC → support → mid in quick succession fires LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE three times in rapid sequence: first auto on ADC (proc fires), first auto on support (proc fires), first auto on mid (proc fires). The 10-second cooldown then resets per-target — 10 seconds after the ADC proc, LIGHTSHIELD is ready on the ADC again. In chaotic multi-target teamfights, Sundered Sky generates far more LIGHTSHIELD procs per fight than a standard 10-second cooldown would suggest on paper

💡 The Missing Health Scaling — Value Spikes When Nearly Dead: LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE heals for 100% base AD + 6% of missing health. Missing health is the difference between maximum HP and current HP. At 400 HP remaining out of 2000 max HP (80% missing): the missing health component heals 6% x 1600 = 96 additional HP on top of the base AD component. At full HP (0% missing): the missing health heal is 0. This creates a survival feedback loop: the lower the fighter’s HP drops, the larger the LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE heal becomes per proc — the item generates maximum healing value precisely when the fighter is most endangered, converting near-death situations into recovery bursts that can extend survival long enough to win a fight.

💡 Bonus Health Stacking — Up to 5 Layers of Overheal Buffer: When LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE heals a fighter who is already at full HP, excess healing beyond maximum health converts to bonus health for 8 seconds. This bonus health acts as a temporary shield-like HP buffer above the normal maximum. The key mechanic: this bonus health can stack up to 5 times — each subsequent LIGHTSHIELD proc that overheals adds another bonus HP layer, up to a maximum of 5 active bonus HP instances simultaneously. The 8-second duration refreshes each time the heal exceeds 100% maximum health. A fighter cycling LIGHTSHIELD across multiple targets at full HP builds up a compounding bonus HP buffer above their base HP maximum, creating a temporary effective HP total that absorbs incoming damage before the actual HP starts depleting.

🔨 Recipe & Build Path

💡 The 500g Combine — Component-Forward Gold Efficiency: Sundered Sky’s 500g combine cost means 2600g of the 3100g total cost is entirely in components — Tunneler (1150g) and Caulfield’s Warhammer (1050g) + Ruby Crystal (400g). Both components provide meaningful in-component stats (AH, AD, HP) that impact combat before Sundered Sky is fully completed. This contrasts with items like Terminus (1100g combine) where component value is a smaller fraction of total. Sitting on half-complete Sundered Sky components provides strong intermediate combat value — particularly Caulfield’s Warhammer, which provides the highest AH-to-gold ratio of any component in the game at +15 AH for 1050g.

💡 Component Priority: Caulfield’s Warhammer (1050g) first back is the standard approach for fighters who primarily want the AH reduction (shortens CC and engage ability cooldowns). Tunneler (1150g) first is correct when HP survivability during the laning phase is the higher priority — the +200 HP from Tunneler provides trading durability during extended top lane fights before Sundered Sky is complete. Ruby Crystal (400g) alone as first back is a pure HP rush approach for champions who need immediate HP to survive aggressive early opponents.

⚡ Passive — UNIQUE: LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE

EFFECT: The next basic attack against a champion is empowered to critically strike for (60% + 24%) bonus damage and heal the carrier for (100% / 50%) base AD + 6% missing health (melee/ranged). 10-second cooldown per target. Excess healing converts to bonus health for 8 seconds (stackable up to 5 times). LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE functions as a true critical strike affected by crit modifiers. Only affects basic attacks — abilities that apply on-hit effects and can crit do NOT trigger LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE.

Complete Heal Calculation Reference

💡 The ‘Per Target’ Cooldown in a Full 5v5 Teamfight — Maximum LIGHTSHIELD Frequency: Imagine a Jax initiating a 5v5 teamfight and targeting each enemy once in the opening 5 seconds: ADC at second 0 (LIGHTSHIELD fires, heal + crit), support at second 1 (LIGHTSHIELD fires on support), jungler at second 2 (fires), mid at second 3 (fires), top at second 4 (fires). In 5 seconds, LIGHTSHIELD has fired 5 times against 5 different targets, generating 5 × heal per proc in HP recovery across the sequence. At level 15 with 50% HP missing: 5 × 284 HP = 1420 total HP healed in 5 seconds purely from LIGHTSHIELD — without spending any ability resources or external healing items. This is the theoretical maximum that makes Sundered Sky’s per-target cooldown dramatically stronger in teamfights than a simple global cooldown suggests.

⚠️ Basic Attack Only — Not Abilities That Apply On-Hit AND Can Crit: This restriction is the single most misunderstood aspect of LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE. Some abilities in the game both apply on-hit effects AND can critically strike — for example, Wukong’s Warrior Trickster Q empowered attack applies on-hit and can crit. LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE does NOT fire from these ability-triggered attacks. LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE exclusively fires from standard basic attacks — the vanilla auto-attack. Abilities that simply deal bonus physical damage on the next auto (Jax Counter Strike, Darius Decimate bonus hit) are different — the actual basic attack that delivers the ability bonus is still a basic attack and does trigger LIGHTSHIELD. The key distinction: if the attack is a basic attack in the game’s classification, it triggers LIGHTSHIELD. If it is an ability, it does not, even if it looks like an auto-attack.

🎯 Who Should Buy This Item

Champion Archetypes

• HP-Stacking Fighters Who Trade at Melee Range: Sundered Sky provides +400 HP for personal durability alongside LIGHTSHIELD’s missing-health-scaled heal — the more HP the fighter has, the more absolute healing LIGHTSHIELD generates at equivalent missing HP percentages. A fighter with 3000 max HP at 50% missing has 1500 missing HP: 6% x 1500 = 90 HP from the missing health component per LIGHTSHIELD proc. A fighter with 2000 max HP at 50% missing generates 6% x 1000 = 60 HP. HP investment amplifies LIGHTSHIELD’s missing-health scaling proportionally — making HP-stacking fighter builds (Garen, Nasus, Darius) particularly efficient with Sundered Sky.
• Multi-Target Engagers Who Cycle Through Enemy Champions: The per-target 10-second cooldown specifically rewards champions who engage and fight multiple enemy champions in sequence during a single teamfight. Jax, Irelia, Olaf, and Garen who move through the enemy team — hitting different champions across the fight — generate one LIGHTSHIELD proc per champion touched across the fight duration. The mobility and multi-target engagement pattern is the mechanical precondition for maximizing LIGHTSHIELD’s per-fight heal total.
• Fighters Who Need Sustain Without Building Dedicated Life Steal Items: Traditional fighter sustain requires life steal items (Ravenous Hydra, Bloodthirster) that consume item slots and may not align with the fighter’s primary damage profile. LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE provides guaranteed heal per engagement without any life steal stat — the heal fires automatically on every first auto against each new target. Sundered Sky provides self-sustain without requiring a life steal item slot, allowing the remaining build slots to focus on offensive damage (Black Cleaver, Trinity Force) or additional HP for more LIGHTSHIELD missing-health scaling.

Specific Champion Examples

⏰ When to Buy

As a First Item — Melee Fighters in Long Trade Matchups

First item Sundered Sky is correct on melee fighters who need sustained self-healing from the start of the laning phase — particularly in 1v1 extended trade matchups where the fight goes long enough for LIGHTSHIELD to proc multiple times per trade cycle. Against Garen vs Darius, Nasus vs Sion, Jax vs Fiora matchups where both champions fight extended exchanges: LIGHTSHIELD’s 10-second cooldown means the first auto of every trade cycle provides a heal + guaranteed crit. After 10 seconds, if still fighting the same opponent, LIGHTSHIELD resets on that target.

As a Second Item — After HP Foundation or After Damage Foundation

Second item Sundered Sky is most common when a first item has established either the HP base for missing-HP scaling (Warmog’s Armor, Heartsteel) or the damage foundation for the crit and base AD heal component (Black Cleaver for armor shred enabling more effective follow-up damage, Trinity Force for SPELLBLADE synergy). After a first HP item, LIGHTSHIELD’s missing-HP scaling is already amplified by the higher maximum HP — buying Sundered Sky second means LIGHTSHIELD immediately benefits from the HP total established in item 1.

💡 Synergies

Best Paired Items

• Black Cleaver: Black Cleaver reduces target armor by 5% per auto-attack stack, up to 30% total. Each auto-attack on an armored target builds Cleaver stacks while the LIGHTSHIELD crit fires on the first auto of each new target. Combined: LIGHTSHIELD crit on first auto of enemy + Cleaver begins stacking simultaneously. By the time LIGHTSHIELD resets 10 seconds later, the target’s armor has been reduced by 20-30% — the next LIGHTSHIELD crit deals significantly more effective damage through the armor shred than the first proc. The two items create a ramp pattern: LIGHTSHIELD burst → Cleaver shred → LIGHTSHIELD burst again on softer target.
• Warmog’s Armor: Warmog’s +1000 HP directly amplifies LIGHTSHIELD’s missing-HP heal formula. At 50% missing HP on a 3000 max HP champion (with Warmog’s contributing 1000): missing HP = 1500, and 6% x 1500 = 90 HP per LIGHTSHIELD proc just from the missing-HP component — 50% more than the same fighter at 2000 max HP with only Sundered Sky. Warmog’s HEART between-fight regeneration also ensures maximum HP between fights, maximizing the missing-HP delta within fights once HP starts depleting. More HP means both more missing-HP scaling AND a larger bonus HP buffer from LIGHTSHIELD overheal.
• Heartsteel: Heartsteel’s COLOSSAL CONSUMPTION stacks permanent HP on champion hits — each proc adding 5-40 HP permanently. Combined with Sundered Sky: as Heartsteel stacks accumulate across the game’s fights, LIGHTSHIELD’s missing-HP heal component grows proportionally. At 400 Heartsteel stacks (2400 max HP from Heartsteel alone plus base): 6% x 2400 x (missing HP %) scales dramatically. A Garen with Sundered Sky + Heartsteel late game with 6000+ max HP has a missing-HP LIGHTSHIELD component of 6% x 5000 = 300 HP per proc at 50% missing — before the base AD component is added.
• Infinity Edge: LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE functions as a true critical strike for all purposes, including Infinity Edge’s PERFECTION passive (+35% bonus crit damage at 60%+ crit chance). If the carrier has 60%+ crit chance and owns Infinity Edge, each LIGHTSHIELD proc benefits from IE’s 35% bonus crit damage on top of the base (60% + 24%) formula. The combination is particularly impactful on crit-fighter hybrid builds — champions like Jax who build both crit chance items and fighter items where LIGHTSHIELD firing at IE-amplified crit damage creates a stronger first-auto burst per engagement.

Champion & Ability Synergies

• Nasus Siphoning Strike Q — Basic Attack LIGHTSHIELD alignment: Siphoning Strike is a basic attack empowerment — Nasus Q is classified as a basic attack that deals bonus physical damage and stacks. When Nasus uses Q against a champion, the Q delivery IS a basic attack, and LIGHTSHIELD fires on the first Q against each new champion target within the 10-second window. In practice, Nasus’s Q every 1-3 seconds (at high AH) means LIGHTSHIELD fires on the first Q against each champion target he engages, generating a heal + LIGHTSHIELD crit burst on the initial Q hit. This aligns perfectly with Nasus’s power spike pattern where Q stacks are highest late game — precisely when the LIGHTSHIELD heal (100% base AD + 6% missing HP) is also at maximum value from accumulated AD and HP.
• Jax Counter Strike E + Empower W LIGHTSHIELD timing: Jax’s Empower (W) enhances the next basic attack — the Empower-enhanced auto is still a basic attack and triggers LIGHTSHIELD. In Jax’s standard combo (Q leap → W Empower → auto → E Counter Strike), the W-empowered auto fires LIGHTSHIELD on the first auto against the target within the 10-second window. The Empower magic damage and LIGHTSHIELD crit + heal all fire simultaneously on the same attack — the W-empowered LIGHTSHIELD auto delivers Empower magic damage, a physical LIGHTSHIELD crit, and a LIGHTSHIELD heal in a single attack event. This concentration of effects on one auto makes the opener of each Jax engagement extremely high-value.
• Garen Decisive Strike Q empowered auto — LIGHTSHIELD alignment: Garen’s Decisive Strike (Q) empowers his next basic attack for bonus magic damage, silence, and reduced attack timer reset. This empowered attack is a basic attack, and if it’s the first attack against the target within LIGHTSHIELD’s 10-second window, LIGHTSHIELD fires. The combined single-auto event: Q silence + magic damage + LIGHTSHIELD crit physical damage + LIGHTSHIELD heal — all from one attack. Against a target at 50% HP, the combined burst of Q’s magic damage and LIGHTSHIELD’s crit physical damage is the highest single-hit output in Garen’s rotation, while the LIGHTSHIELD heal simultaneously offsets any recent poke damage he received approaching the target.
• Darius Hemorrhage bleed + LIGHTSHIELD heal offset: Darius’s Hemorrhage passive bleed stacks on basic attacks, dealing magic damage per second. During extended trades where Darius has full Hemorrhage stacks, both the bleed damage to the enemy and LIGHTSHIELD’s heal to Darius fire in the same fight window — the bleed drains the enemy’s HP while LIGHTSHIELD replenishes Darius’s HP from his basic attacks. The net effect in a sustained trade: Darius applies maximum Hemorrhage bleed (dealing damage to the enemy over time) while LIGHTSHIELD heals Darius back for each basic attack, creating a heal-vs-bleed race where Darius’s sustained trades become net positive for HP while the enemy bleeds continuously.

❌ Common Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

• Expecting LIGHTSHIELD to fire from ability-triggered on-hit crits: LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE fires only from basic attacks. Abilities that apply on-hit effects AND can critically strike — such as Wukong’s empowered Q strike — do NOT trigger LIGHTSHIELD. This restriction is absolute: if the damage source is an ability in the game’s classification, LIGHTSHIELD does not fire. Jax’s Empower-enhanced auto IS a basic attack, so it does trigger. Distinguishing ‘ability that looks like an attack’ from ‘basic attack empowered by an ability’ is the critical distinction — when uncertain, the safest test is whether the ability replaces the basic attack slot entirely versus just adding bonus damage to the next auto.
• Not understanding that bonus health stacks — and treating it as a one-time overheal: Most healing in the game that overheals does nothing — excess healing at full HP is wasted. LIGHTSHIELD’s bonus health stacks up to 5 times from repeated LIGHTSHIELD procs at full HP. A fighter cycling LIGHTSHIELD across 5 different champion targets while at full HP builds 5 layers of bonus HP simultaneously. This creates an overheal buffer above maximum HP that absorbs damage before the actual HP pool starts depleting. Against aggressive poke-heavy opponents in the post-teamfight window, the bonus HP buffer from stacked LIGHTSHIELD overheals provides meaningful damage absorption that raw HP items don’t replicate.
• Using Sundered Sky on ranged champions and expecting melee-level healing: LIGHTSHIELD’s base AD heal is explicitly halved for ranged champions — 50% base AD instead of 100% base AD. At 270 base AD: melee champions heal 270 from the base AD component, ranged heal 135. Against the already lower missing-HP totals of fragile ranged carries (who die before their HP drops to 20-30%), the missing-HP component also provides less absolute healing. Sundered Sky is a melee fighter item where both the base AD component and the practical missing-HP range are maximized — ranged carries lose half the primary heal value from the design restriction.
• Mismanaging the 10-second per-target cooldown by re-hitting the same target repeatedly: LIGHTSHIELD only fires once per 10 seconds per target. In a 1v1 fight against a single enemy, LIGHTSHIELD fires on the first auto and then is unavailable on that target for 10 seconds. Continuing to auto-attack the same target for 10 seconds generates no additional LIGHTSHIELD procs — only basic attack base damage. In a teamfight where switching to a new target is possible, switching targets immediately after LIGHTSHIELD fires allows the next target to trigger a fresh proc. Sticking on one target exclusively in a multi-champion fight wastes LIGHTSHIELD’s per-target cooldown advantage.
• Building Sundered Sky on champions with no meaningful basic attack pattern: Champions who deal the majority of their damage through abilities and rarely auto-attack (Lux, Syndra, Viktor) generate effectively 0 LIGHTSHIELD procs per fight because they almost never land basic attacks on champions at melee range. The item’s passive is entirely basic-attack-dependent — no auto-attack pattern means no LIGHTSHIELD proc means no crit, no heal, no bonus HP. Sundered Sky requires a champion who auto-attacks champions multiple times per fight — fighters, on-hit champions, and auto-attack-centric bruisers.

⚔️ Counter Items & Playing Against Sundered Sky

Disrupting LIGHTSHIELD Procs

• Kiting and Range — Preventing Basic Attack Ranges: LIGHTSHIELD fires from basic attacks — preventing the Sundered Sky carrier from landing basic attacks prevents LIGHTSHIELD entirely. Ranged kiting champions who maintain distance beyond the fighter’s attack range deny every LIGHTSHIELD proc, removing the sustain entirely. The fighter must close the gap to melee range before LIGHTSHIELD can fire — during the gap-closing phase, no LIGHTSHIELD proc is generated.
• Grievous Wounds — Reducing LIGHTSHIELD Heal Output: LIGHTSHIELD’s heal is a standard heal — Grievous Wounds reduces it by 40-60%. A fighter generating 300 HP per LIGHTSHIELD proc heals only 180 HP with 40% GW applied (120 HP reduction). Against Sundered Sky fighters, early Grievous Wounds application (Executioner’s Calling at 800g, Thornmail’s THORNS) reduces the LIGHTSHIELD sustain from the first engagement, preventing the missing-HP feedback loop from generating large heals during trades.

FAQ

Q: Does LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE’s crit interact with Infinity Edge’s bonus crit damage?

A: Yes — LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE functions as a true critical strike for all purposes, explicitly including critical damage modifiers. Infinity Edge’s PERFECTION passive grants +35% bonus critical damage when the carrier has 60% or more crit chance. If the carrier has 60%+ crit and Infinity Edge, each LIGHTSHIELD proc benefits from the 35% IE amplification on top of the base (60% + 24%) LIGHTSHIELD formula. The combined IE + LIGHTSHIELD crit damage is significantly higher than LIGHTSHIELD alone — making IE pairing on crit-fighter builds (Jax with crit, Darius with crit-fighter hybrid) a meaningful damage amplification for each LIGHTSHIELD proc.

Q: Does the bonus health from LIGHTSHIELD decay over time or is it only available for 8 seconds?

A: Bonus health from LIGHTSHIELD is a temporary buffer that lasts 8 seconds per stack and is refreshed when a subsequent LIGHTSHIELD heal exceeds 100% maximum health. The bonus HP is not permanent — it expires 8 seconds after the last qualifying overheal. In a between-fight window where LIGHTSHIELD procs have stacked up bonus HP but no more attacks land for 8+ seconds, the bonus HP expires. Against heavy burst compositions who wait for the bonus HP to expire before engaging, the 8-second window is a meaningful timing consideration — engaging before the bonus HP expires preserves the buffer.

Q: Does LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE interact with on-hit effects?A: LIGHTSHIELD STRIKE fires on basic attacks — the basic attack that triggers LIGHTSHIELD also applies on-hit effects normally alongside the LIGHTSHIELD crit and heal. Blade of the Ruined King’s percent-HP on-hit, Wit’s End magic on-hit, and similar effects all fire simultaneously with LIGHTSHIELD on the same basic attack. The restriction is directional: LIGHTSHIELD does not trigger from ability-sourced on-hit applications — but standard on-hit effects do fire alongside LIGHTSHIELD when a basic attack triggers the LIGHTSHIELD proc.